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Liz flushed with shame as she tugged at the plane’s seat belt. Readjusting her bulky frame, she tried to stretch the belt as far as it would go – but a horrible realisation was dawning on her: she was too fat to fasten the belt.

"They had always been a bit tight on me, but this time it just wouldn’t do up at all," says Liz. ‘I never weighed myself and don’t own a full-length mirror, so I had no idea how big I’d become."

The truth was 40-year-old Liz, from Gravesend in Kent, had munched her way to over 18 stone. Her petite 5ft frame could barely stand the extra weight, and she had a staggering BMI of almost 50 – double the healthy figure of 25.

Liz and her fiancé Richard, 48, had been looking forward to a spot of Portuguese sunshine for months, but this was hardly the way she’d imagined starting their holiday. "I was mortified as the cabin crew fitted a seat belt extender and was embarrassed for the rest of the three-hour flight," she confesses.

Holiday horror

Sadly for Liz, the humiliation didn’t end there. "My holiday horror only got worse

at a beach café at our resort – the owner quickly rushed out to give me a special metal chair. I was sure he was worried I’d break his standard plastic furniture."

Horribly self-conscious, Liz couldn’t bear to wear a swimsuit all week, so she couldn’t even enjoy going swimming to cool off. She returned home feeling fat and miserable.

(Image: Medavia)

Liz had struggled with her weight since childhood, but it was only when she left home at 25 that it really became a problem. "I was going out partying and having beers and curries and lots of chips. I’d eat chocolate and crisps all day, and McDonald’s for breakfast – it all got a bit out of control," she says.

Bit by bit, her weight crept up, until Liz was only just squeezing into a size 24. She tried diet after diet, but just couldn’t muster up the willpower to stick to any of them.

After a decade together, Liz and Richard had settled into a comfortable routine of eating junk food and watching TV. "I knew he loved me whatever my size, so I just didn’t have the motivation to shape up," she says.

But the experience on the plane was the final straw. Once back in the UK, Liz signed up to a local slimming club and vowed to stick to it. The club proved to be the boost she needed, and the weight finally began to drop off.

"Because I’d always been overweight, and I was quite resigned to it, I thought I’d just lose a couple of stone and be a little bit healthier," Liz says. "But the weight just kept coming off, so I carried on."

Previously, Liz had started the day with greasy sausage muffins and hash browns, then snacked on junk food throughout the day. In the evenings, Liz and Richard would sit on the sofa, tucking into enormous takeaway curries with piles of chips, naan, rice and poppadums.

At her slimming club, however, Liz soon learned to swap the processed food for plenty of salads, yoghurt, fruit and jacket potatoes.

"I don’t eat like a sparrow – now I literally eat every hour, but it’ll be something healthy. I still have massive portions of food, but it’s all good for me," she says.

At first, Liz was amazed how easily the weight came off, but after losing 6st the

loss began to slow. The couch potato, who "wouldn’t have run for a bus if my life depended on it", decided to take up jogging. "I love running because it’s free, I can do it for 10 minutes or I can do it for an hour, and I don’t need anything else but a pair of trainers," she says.

Target weight

Liz downloaded an app on her phone that promised to take her "from couch to 5k". The running programme encouraged her to gradually build up from stints of 30 seconds of jogging, interspersed with a couple of minutes of brisk walking.

However, Liz was so unfit that it didn’t come naturally. "I actually thought there was something wrong with the app – it felt like it was taking way longer than 30 seconds!" she says.

But running proved to be the boost Liz needed, and her weight loss picked up again. She realised that, because she’d never been slim, she wasn’t sure what size she should be.

(Image: Medavia)

"People kept asking me what my target weight was and I had no idea. When I’d lost

8½ stone I thought, 'I kind of like the idea of losing 9 stone, because it’s exactly half my body weight!'"

After 18 months, Liz reached her target weight of 9st and has maintained it for over a year, now weighing 8st 13lb and feeling better than ever. Although she’s careful about eating healthily, Liz admits to still piling her plate with carbs.



"I eat a lot of potatoes, pasta and rice, and I don’t believe in small portions. Everyone says you can’t eat carbs if you want to lose weight, but I did and it still came off," she says.

Liz now eats the types of foods she once shunned. "Fruit is a new experience for me. This year I’ve conquered eating bananas – I know it sounds mad, but I’ve conditioned myself to like them. I even ate my first orange about four weeks ago," she admits.

Now Liz is looking forward to her wedding to Richard. They haven’t picked a date yet, but Liz is certain of one detail: "It will be nice to wear a size 8 dress instead of a size 24 – and be able to do up the plane seat belt when we fly off on our honeymoon!"

Liz lost weight by attending Slimming World and using the Couch to 5k app.

Top diet tips

Liz's Slimming World consultant Lynsey Seex, who lost 5 stone herself, shares her top five tips for sticking to the plan.