Woman ‘hated’ how she looked but lost 12st by changing daily ‘habit’

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Fran, a woman from Dorset who works as a firefighter, shared with Express.co.uk the reason why she decided to transform her life and lose weight: “I got so tired of everything being so hard. I hated how I looked and I knew that I would soon be diabetic. Once the weight started coming off I was introduced to the idea of becoming a firefighter and that gave me all the motivation to keep going,” she said.

Fran started by changing her “relationship with food, controlling calories and exercising” on a daily basis and she soon saw the pounds drop.

“I changed my lifestyle for healthy habits and fell in love with fitness,” which helped her stay in shape and maintain her weight.

After a few months, she lost a huge 12 stone and she now feels “fabulous” every day, the slimmer revealed.

Fran explained: “Because my body can do all the things that I wished it could and more, for the first time in my life I am strong, fast and healthy.”

Fran advised that the most important thing is “make one small change, then make another” while trying to lose weight.

“One small change can literally change your life: swap your sugar for sweetener, switch full-fat drinks to diet, walk a bit further every day, make fitness fun,” she recommended.

“You will be surprised at how quickly all the small changes add up to big results,” she said. For instance, Fran used to skip breakfast.

“If on the rare occasion, I did [have breakfast] then it was something like pop tarts,” she explained.

Her lunch used to be a sandwich, crisps, a chocolate bar and a bottle of Coke, and for dinner, her meals consisted of pizza, pasta bake “loaded with cheese”, cake or pudding.

For snacks, she would have bars of chocolate, cheese on toast, crisps and sweets, which are very unhealthy options and should be swapped for healthier alternatives when losing weight.

As part of her new regime, Fran now has fruit and fibre cereal with fresh fruit and low-fat yoghurt for breakfast, as well as a coffee.

For lunch, she enjoys having fresh fruit but then has bio-synergy protein shakes or more fruit for snacks.

Her new choice of dinner is homemade, low-fat, low-calorie meals “packed full of veggies,” she explained.

While she reduced her calorie intake, which is essential to losing weight week by week, adding some exercise is key for faster results.

Dietitian Dina Khader said that a calorie deficit is the most important part of the weight loss process and it is what dieters want to focus on.

“Typically you want to eat 500 calories less than what you typically burn in a day to lose around one to two pounds a week,” she explained.

On average, a woman consumes 2,000 calories a day so by reducing the intake by 500 calories and consuming just 1,000 calories, they will be losing weight every day.

A man needs around 2,500 calories a day to maintain a healthy body weight, according to the NHS.

Fran did 30 minutes of high-intensity cardio in the morning, went for a 10km run in the afternoon and after work, she went to the gym to do a mixture of weights and cardio workouts.

It is recommended that people lose between one to two pounds a week, and dietitian Lauren Slayton explained that by losing that amount a week, it will be easier to “keep it off” after.

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