A woman who once cried in pain after walking down the street because of her weight is now able to take part in a series of fitness challenges - after losing 12 stone.
Lucy Horseman, 38, suffered from so much joint and back pain when she weighed 25st 5lb that she felt like she was 'in a living prison'. She decided to fly to Turkey for weight loss surgery and just a year later, weighs just 13st 5lb and has dropped from a size 30 to a size 16. Lucy has now been able to complete a series of challenges including dancing 1,000 minutes in a month on video game Just Dance and the Yorkshire Three Peaks.
The hospital social worker said: "I never thought I would be able to do this but I always hoped I would because I've always been active since I was younger. It was like my body was a prison and I just couldn't do it anymore. It's very bizarre that I can do this - the Yorkshire Three Peaks was very emotional because I completed all three in 12 and a half hours. I was just crying when we got to the last one because I couldn't walk to the end of the street this time last year."
Lucy after her impressive 12 stone weight loss (Lucy Horseman/SWNS)Lucy has suffered from binge eating disorder (BED) from when she was around 12-years-old but was officially diagnosed in her mid-twenties. She decided to book the gastric sleeve surgery - where they remove 70% of your stomach - in December 2022 but she had the surgery in April last year.
Lucy, of Hull, East Yorkshire, said: "They literally cut your stomach into a sleeve shape, so it's like a tube and take 70 per cent of it. It restricts how much you can eat because my main issue was binging so it was more about quantity as I didn't snack or anything. I would just get home from work and binge 6,000 calories so I needed something to physically stop me being able to eat so much food in one go. But weirdly you are more hungry after having the surgery, so I eat every two to three hours but it's more smaller portions.
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"I binged so much before so I never felt hungry - I always felt sick or full. It's quite nice to feel hungry now because I'm not stuffed all the time basically." Lucy says that when she was at her heaviest, she would 'really struggle' as she suffered from joint and back pain. But she started exercising 'pretty much straight away' after the operation and was even able to start hiking just three weeks later.
She is now able to take part in a series of fitness challenges (Lucy Horseman/SWNS)Lucy said: "Life just wasn't worth living - I would go to work and I would really struggle all day because I was in so much pain with my joints and my back. Physically keeping my body alive was just painful. I would fall asleep for a couple of hours on the couch, wake up for a few hours and binge and then I would fall asleep again. I would just exist and life wasn't worth living.
"After the surgery, I started exercising pretty much straight away and I think I started hiking around three weeks later. I was still big at that point but every pound I lost made a difference. I've always loved being outdoors and doing things but my weight used to limit that - it was like being in a living prison."
Lucy is now looking forward to climbing Mount Snowdon in Wales, taking part in a half marathon and doing a skydive for charity. Lucy said: "It's changed everything even though it's the hardest thing I've ever done. It's been hard mentally but easier physically because I like being quite active so it gave me that back. It's changed my relationship with food, my eating disorder, my outlook on life and my attitude."
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