A FORMER fried breakfast-lover has lost a ‘woman’ from his life.

But luckily for Michael Smith, from Carterton, it’s not down to any heartbreak.

Instead Mr Smith has shed 10-and-a half-stone since February – and he didn’t go to the gym once.

The retired 55-year-old said: “I feel so much better. I have just got an average-size lady off of my back.

“I did it with a lot of exercise and a lot of will power. I just started walking and exercising.

“I am proud of what I have achieved. There aren’t many people who can lose 10 stone.

“At the start a lot of people wouldn’t talk to me because they thought I had some disease – because I lost so much weight.”

Mr Smith, of Corbett Road, says he shunned fad diets and fancy gym memberships in favour of walking and eating a healthy diet.

He started losing weight in February after being diagnosed with sleep apnea, when the walls of the throat collapse and breathing stops during sleep.

At the time he weighed 27 stone 10 pounds. But now, almost seven months later, he weighs 17 stone three pounds.

Mr Smith was told by his doctor if he could lose one stone he would have qualified for a gastric band, due to his size and age.

But when he returned at the beginning of June, he had lost almost seven stone.

He said: “I didn’t want a gastric band, I had heard too many horror stories, so I thought I would try dieting instead.

“Basically I have just knuckled down and done it. I just kept my head down and got on with it and I have never gained a pound since.”

Mr Smith started walking at least one mile a day, upping the distance to two to three miles as the weight dropped off.

Before he started on his fitness blitz, Mr Smith use to work on his allotment, but was not making a conscious effort to do a lot of walking.

He also began eating smaller portions and stopped drinking alcohol.

He said his sore spot has always been drinking as he would then “nibble” on whatever food was available.

Now he is almost teetotal and eats three regular-sized meals a day. He also grows all his own vegetables.

Mr Smith said he is now just a stone and half away from his target weight and said he has lost so much he sometimes doesn’t recognise himself in the mirror.

The former builder said: “I remember last Christmas when I was shopping in a big department store, I walked past a mirror and just thought ‘Christ almighty, you are so fat you have to do something about it’. And now I have.”

FAT-STISTICS

THEN:

  • BMI – 51.1
  • Weight – 27 stone 10 pounds
  • Used to work on his allotment
  • Typical diet – cooked breakfast, sandwich and crisps for lunch, large helping for dinner.

NOW:

  • BMI - 31.8
  • Weight – 17 stone
  • Walks at least two to three miles every day
  • Typical diet – mushrooms or tomatoes on toast, meat or fish and salad for lunch and a small dinner.

 

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