Rotherham dieter: Fizzy drinks 'were my food' Published duration 17 January 2018

image copyright Nicky Codrai image caption Nicky Codrai said she weighed 25 stone before she stopped drinking fizzy drinks

A woman says she lost almost half her body weight by ditching fizzy drinks.

Nicky Codrai from Rotherham went from 25 stone (159kg) to 13 stone (82kg) after giving up the habit in 2014.

She said she drank about 20 cans of Dr Pepper a day and would take a two-litre bottle to bed with her at night.

She said she was inspired after watching the film What's Eating Gilbert Grape? in which a woman is cremated in her own home because she is too large to move.

Coca-Cola Great Britain, which markets Dr Pepper, has not responded to the BBC's request for a comment.

image copyright Nicky Codrai image caption Nicky Codrai said she would drink up to 20 cans of Dr Pepper a day

Mrs Codrai said: "I hardly ate. I might have one meal a day. The Dr Pepper I used as a food.

"I would get up in the morning and that was my breakfast.

"Before lunch I might have drunk three or four tins and it just got worse and worse and worse.

"I got to the stage where I was drinking 20 a day, sometimes more.

"When I came to the decision to lose the weight I just put the Dr Pepper in the bin and in the first week I lost five pounds."

She said as a result of losing the weight she had been left with a large amount of excessive skin and is now fundraising for the surgery to have it removed.

Her daughter Natasha said: "She is ashamed of what her body looks like now and it shouldn't be like that."

Related Topics Rotherham

Weight loss