Many of us want to lose a few pounds in January after overindulging at Christmas.
But it can be hard to know where to start in adopting a healthier lifestyle that works in the long term. In 2022, a number of people have shared their weight loss stories with us, including tips for how to stay on track when the going gets tough.
Everyone has their own reasons for wanting to lose weight, whether it be a health scare or wanting to change your life. Here the ECHO takes a look back at some of the weight loss stories we've shared over the last year to give us all some motivation as we head into 2023.
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Mum's own family didn't recognise her after seven stone weight loss
Jean Price, from Leasowe, Wirral, dropped seven dress sizes in just over a year - from a size 26 to a size 12, leaving her auntie unable to recognise her when she walked past. The 53-year-old, who suffers from a lung condition called Bronchiectasis, turned to food for comfort while caring for her dad and struggling with her own health.
Things came to a head for Jean when she was diagnosed with type two diabetes shortly after her brother died from complications relating to the same condition. After being put on a waiting list for weight loss surgery, Jean had a fall outside her own front door and couldn't get back up again.
She said: "It was just the fact I was so overweight, I couldn't get back up and I said to my friend 'I can't do this anymore. I've got to do something.'"
Jean joined Slimming World with her friend and less than six months later, she'd lost nearly five stone and was able to turn down the weight loss surgery she'd originally been referred for. The mum-of-four went on to lose 7st 7lbs in the space of 13 months and now runs her own Slimming World group on Saturday mornings at Moreton Community Centre.
Jean told the ECHO earlier this year: "All the diets out there I've tried... and when you're cutting food out that's when you can't sustain it. With Slimming World you don't cut food out - it's a sustainable lifestyle change.
"The support everyone can have through Slimming World, I believe, is absolutely essential. It’s not just eating the right foods. During IMAGE therapy each week, you also get help with the psychology of losing weight, which has been pivotal to my success."
Mum told she wasn't eating enough to lose weight sheds six stone
Valerie Lunt was told she needed to lose weight by her GP after she began suffering from stomach pains. The results of a scan showed Valerie had gall stones and she was later told she would need to reduce her BMI in order to be eligible for gall bladder surgery.
After joining her local Slimming World group in Ellesmere Port in October last year, Valerie, 65, was asked to fill in a food diary, which showed she wasn't eating enough food to lose weight. Valerie said her Slimming World consultant Chris explained that because she was only eating one main meal a day, her body was storing the fat, making it difficult for her to lose weight.
But after she began following Slimming World’s Food optimising plan, Valerie was able to find low fat foods that she was able to eat while suffering with her gall bladder. She has gone on to lose six stone in total and was able to undergo the life-changing surgery to have her gall bladder removed in September.
Valerie said: "When the weight just started coming off it gave me more insensitive to carry on and to get it done. The group - they're so lovely and no one judges you at all."
Dad who broke his bed loses weight of a '6ft man'
Barrie Stewart, from Birkenhead, said he's surprised he's still alive after spending 30 years eating around 5,000 calories a day through a diet of crisps and takeaways, washed down with 6-8 cans of beer or cider. But after going to see his doctor Barrie was given the wake up call he needed to lose weight and he has now lost a whopping 14st 7lbs in total.
Barrie told the ECHO: "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 sugar coat it just tell me.' 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, Barrie tipped the scales at over 26 stone and was a size 5XL in clothes. He initially lost three and a half stone after he decided to stop drinking alcohol but his diet stayed the same.
However, since joining his local Slimming World group in Birkenhead in October 2019, the dad-of-two has now lost 14st 7lbs and gone from a 58 inch waist to 32. Barrie said he has also managed to reverse his type two diabetes and has completely changed his life.
Man loses four stone after making meals with yellow sticker foods
Dean Simpson Humphreys lost four stone after only eating reduced yellow sticker food items.
Dean feared he’d never get the scales to balance but has gone from 18st to just under 14st, and swapped his 2XL joggers for a mere medium. The former NHS manager hatched a plan to make meals using 'yellow sticker' food and lost more than four stone by saving pounds.
He said: “Money was tight because I’d had to give up work to look after my husband, Gary, who has a number of serious health issues. I piled on the weight eating a diet of fast food because it gave me a good feeling when I was finding things tough.
“But I wanted to live a healthier lifestyle and get the same feeling from the food I was eating, but it had to be on a budget. So I went around the supermarkets looking for priced-down food, especially fruit and veg - the stuff with all the sticky yellow labels on - and started coming up with lots of different meals and recipes using it."
Dean admits he felt awkward at first: “I was embarrassed buying all the marked-down food, but at the end of the day I was doing it for me and food is food, regardless of what price it is.” The 45-year-old from Belle Vale, Liverpool, even set up his own Instagram page - 1dsh1 - to share his meal ideas and was spotted by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s team who asked Dean to create meals for a new TV show they were trialling.
Mum loses nine stone after fearing she was 'slowly killing' herself
Rita Santo lost a staggering nine stone after fearing she was "slowly killing" herself.
Rita, 44, had struggled with her weight all her life and despite trying a range of different diets over the years, she couldn't find one that worked. It was upon returning home from holiday that Rita, who weighed 20st 2lbs at the time, realised she needed to make a change and she asked her GP for advice.
Rita, originally from Portugal and now living in Skelmersdale, said her doctor recommended she tried Slimming World, which she'd never heard of at the time. She went on to drop six dress sizes, slimming down from a size 24 to a size 12 - and recently reached the semi-final of Slimming World’s Woman of the Year 2022 competition.
Rita said: "The diets I tried before were all restrictive, you couldn't have rice or you couldn't have bread. Slimming World isn't like that - it's not restrictive, you can still enjoy all the foods that you like.
"I even prepare Portuguese dishes Slimming World style. I just change the kind of meat I use - instead of high fat meat I use lean meat and I don't use oil, margarine or butter. It's small changes like that that make the difference."
Woman who's tried 'every diet' shares how she lost seven stone
Gemma Naughton tipped the scales at almost 19 stone and was a size 26 in clothes when she decided to join Absolute Body Solutions personal training gym in Speke. Gemma said she'd tried all kinds of diets over the years and "lost a little bit of weight, but nothing had ever stuck."
The 37-year-old was nervous at the thought of going to a gym, but after seeing the results her mum Suzanne, 55, had achieved, she decided to join and hasn't looked back since. Gemma said one of the highlights of her weight loss has been no longer needing to wear a seatbelt extender on planes.
When she first joined the gym, Gemma and her personal trainer Connor began a programme that initially focused on increasing her calories to fuel her new training plan. She started with a goal of walking 7,500 steps a day, and trained two times a week at the gym in Speke.
Gemma began to lose weight quickly but when her weight loss began to plateau, Connor changed up the plan by increasing steps and activity rather than reducing food and calorie intake. Over the rest of the programme, Gemma’s plan was consistently reviewed and adapted to ensure her weight loss progressed at a steady pace.
At the start of September, she hit her 100lb weight loss target and celebrated with her mum Suzanne, who has also lost two stone and drastically reduced her diabetes medication. Gemma said: "I started seeing things change and I think that was what motivated me to keep going.
"I think that's where I went wrong before - I wanted to do everything in one go. You've got so many bad habits you can't change them all."
Mum loses 11 stone after being told to get off ride at Gulliver's World
Amy Camp's heart sank when she was asked to leave the ride at Gulliver's World due to her weight. The 33-year-old, from St Helens, tipped the scales at 21st 8lbs and was a size 32 in clothes after eating a diet of convenience foods from pizzas to ready meals and sausage rolls.
Amy told the ECHO : "I've always been big as a kid, I've always struggled with my weight. But it accelerated when I lost my dad in 2018, that's when I seemed to put it on from comfort eating."
Amy said her "wake up call" came when she was asked to get off a ride at Gulliver's World because the barrier wouldn't close. Amy said: "It was my mum who said to me - not being nasty to me but looking out for me - 'look you need to try to do something about it.'
"She could see me going on a downward spiral going bigger and bigger. I think it was my mum that was the final push."
Amy decided to join her local Slimming World group at Sutton Cricket Club in St Helens with a friend in January 2019 and hasn't looked back since. She has slimmed down from 21st 8lbs to 9st 12.5lbs and has dropped 12 dress sizes to a size 8, with the help of her Slimming World consultant Lindsey Leyland.
Amy said looking back at old photos helps to motivate her when she's having a bad day. She added: "I have got my life back because I can do things now I couldn't do before. I took my daughter back to the theme park last year.
Mum sheds over 10 stone on weight loss plan that 'saved her life'
Chris Hayward lost half her body weight by following a weight loss programme which she says saved her life.
At her heaviest, Chris, from Greasby, Wirral, tipped the scales at 21 stones 3.5lbs and was a size 28-30 in clothes. But it wasn't until some routine blood tests revealed the real impact the weight was having on her health that Chris decided to to sign up for Slimming World.
Chris, 65, told the ECHO: "I went to my GP just for some routine blood tests and one came back as being really borderline for diabetes. I've got diabetes type two in my family and I'm thinking 'I don't want to go down that track if I can avoid it.'
"I just thought it was getting ridiculous. I spent 20 odd years as a size 24 and then in a few weeks leading up to this I'd put on quite a lot of weight in a really short space of time and gone up several sizes. I was thinking 'this is silly I've got to do something about this, otherwise I'm not going to be around for my kids.'"
After four months of losing weight, new blood tests revealed Chris's bloods were back within normal range and she was no longer at risk of type two diabetes. Chris has now lost an incredible 10st 12.5lbs in total after reaching her target weight in June last year, and she has dropped over seven dress sizes, going from a size 28-30 to a size 12-14.
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