How a high-carb, plant-based diet helped obese mother-of-two shed 32kg in 14 months. She’s known as Plantiful Kiki now

Kiki Nelson learned at first hand that eating a carb-rich, low-fat, vegan diet is a healthy way to lose weight and keep it off; she dropped from 88kg to 53kg

As Plantiful Kiki, she’s gained a large following on YouTube, where she shares her knowledge – and the nutritious and tasty recipes that appear in her cookbooks

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Aged 33, Kiki Nelson weighed 88kg, with 43 per cent body fat (left); within 14 months of adopting a plant-based lifestyle, she lost 32kg. Seven years on, she has kept it off and weighs about 53kg (right).
Photo: Kiki Nelson

Published: 11:15am, 19 May 2024

Seeing the trim, energetic YouTube influencer Kiki Nelson online today, it is difficult to imagine her as the obese young woman she was seven years ago when she struggled with health issues.

From the age of 15, Nelson fought to keep the weight from piling on. Despite having tried multiple fad diets and exercising “to the point of exhaustion”, by the age of 33 the 1.61-metre-tall (5ft 3 inch tall) mother-of-two weighed 88kg (194lb).

Nelson, who grew up on the standard American diet of mostly processed and convenience foods, had been diagnosed as prediabetic at 23. She also had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and hypothyroidism.

“At 15, I was 9kg heavier than I should have been and didn’t know why, because my weight had been normal up that point,” says Nelson, who is in her early forties and lives in the state of Colorado.

YouTube influencer Kiki Nelson went from 88kg to 56kg in 14 months on a high-carb, low-fat diet, and has kept the weight off since. Photo: YouTube/@Plantiful Kiki

She started dieting in her early twenties.

Thinking “a low-carb, high-fat, high-protein diet was the way to go”, she first followed the Atkins plan, which allowed her to keep eating a favourite food, bacon.