A woman has shed a whopping 13.5 stone after a shattering health update was a 'lightbulb' moment for her.
Fiona Neilson was a size 28 and unable to walk around her home without getting out of breath when she found out she was given a shock diagnosis.
In 2018 the retired head of business improvement, from Dumfries, Scotland, was told she had heart failure and while the diagnosis came as a shock it spurred her on to lose weight.
She said: "I was really seriously ill, I wasn’t far off being dead really.
"I had heart failure but I didn’t realise and I was really shocked when I was diagnosed. I couldn’t get my breath and was finding it increasingly difficult to walk around the house.
"It was like a lightbulb moment – if you don’t do something about this you’re going to be dead.
When Fiona hit her milestone birthday she decided she wanted to make a change and began trying to lose weight.
The 64-year-old used to be a size 28 and while her scales measured up to 25st, she says she weighed more.
She initially struggled, but in October 2021 joined Slimming World – and by June this year she had lost an impressive 4st 7lbs.
The weight kept falling off and she has now dropped 13.5st in total.
Fiona, who is now a dress size 14, says she's never been happier.
She said: “I’m 64 and I’ve been overweight for most of my adult life. I never thought I could lose weight and be slim and happy.
“It’s like I’ve lost 40 years and I’m young again, I can walk and join in with things and life is completely different.
"Joining Slimming World meant it just clicked and it changed my life completely. Even if you don’t succeed the first time, keep going back and trying again.”
Fiona began following a calorie deficient diet, where she ate less food than her body needed to function.
However, she struggled to follow the strict regime without any support and after losing some weight she gave up – piling back on 4st.
It wasn’t until a friend invited her to go along to a Slimming World meeting that she realised there was another way to lose the weight.
By following Slimming World recipes and regularly attending meetings, she found the weight began to fall away.
She added: “A friend of mine said she was going to join Slimming World and before thinking I said I would come too.
"I didn’t think it would work but oh my goodness, what a difference.
“The eating plan means you don’t have to deprive yourself of what you really want to eat.
"The friendships and support from the group were amazing and it worked – after the first week, I lost 5lb and every week after that I kept losing 1lb to 2lb.
"Before I knew it I’d lost four stone and my BMI was below 30.”
