A dad's weight became so high that he once broke his bed, but now he is unrecognisable after turning his life around and losing over 14 stone.
Barrie Stewart claimed he is surprised to still be alive despite spending 30 years consuming approximately 5,000 calories a day with a diet of junk food and takeaways accompanied by six to eight cans of beer or cider. He decided to start his weight loss journey after a life-changing trip to the doctors which resulted in losing an impressive 14st 7lbs.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Barrie said: "I'm shocked now that I've changed my life that I got myself in that position. I'm surprised I'm still here or my bones never crumbled. The start of the journey was the doctor telling me all my stats were in the red. I said to him 'don't sugarcoat it just tell me.'
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I think he was going around the houses trying to get the point to me but not shock me, but I just wanted to know. I said 'what are you telling me?' He said to me 'all your vitals are in the red' - and that was enough to kick me into shape.
"It feels like your life is going down a plug hole and if you don't sort it out you're not going to see your kids grow up and my granddaughter." At his heaviest weight, Barrie weighed a whopping 26 stone and worse size 5XL clothing.
Initially, he lost three and a half stone by simply cutting out alcohol while sticking to his regular unhealthy diet. It wasn't until he joined his local SLimming World group in Birkenhead on October 19 that the dad-of-two began to lose serious amounts of weight.
After losing over 14 stone, Barrie went from a 58 inch waist to 32 while also managing to reverse his type two diabetes and has changed his life for the better. "The last time I was this weight it was 1979 when I was 15 years old. I broke my bed - it was just the weight of me over time, it just collapsed in the middle of the night," he added.
"I thought it was happening in my dream until it was happening really. "I had a blood sugar of 91, my blood sugar was scarily high, I can't remember the number - it was terrible. I was on three types of medication and I'm on nothing now."
Barrie explained some of the basic ways he changed his diet by swapping out unhealthy meals throughout the day:
Barrie's diet on a typical day before he lost weight:
Breakfast: sausage 'bin lid'
Snacks: Crisps
Lunch: Chinese takeaway
Dinner: Mixed grill washed down with 6-8 cans of cider or beer
Barrie's diet on a typical day now he's lost weight:
Breakfast: Boiled eggs
Snacks: fruit
Lunch: Fat free yoghurt with shreddies, nuts and fruit
Dinner: Slimming World ready meal such as a chicken curry or a homemade meal
Barrie noted that people regularly do not recognise him due to his extreme weight loss and is now looking to inspire and help other people who are finding themselves in the same situation he was in a few years ago. "I didn't think I would ever achieve anything like this," he said.
"When you see the scales and the results, and when I started my walking and saw I was able to achieve it, I could do it, it just spurred me on and I just became maybe a bit obsessed about it and I just loved the results."
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