Woman reveals incredible weight loss journey after shedding 5st in over a year

At her heaviest, Rachel Hoare tipped the scales at more than 16st when her dad Mark suddenly passed away at 59.

The 28-year-old feared for her own life but has now almost doubled her life expectancy by losing a third of her body weight.

Slimming down to a slender 10st 12lbs, Rachel also shrunk five dress sizes and fits into a UK size 12.

Now she has revealed how she kick-started her weight loss journey and why Slimming World came to her rescue.

“I was getting heart palpitations and worrying symptoms”

Rachel Hoare

Rachel said: “I had always taken after my dad and because his father also died early, I knew that in 20 or so years time, it was going to be me leaving my family behind if I didn’t do something about my weight.

“I was getting heart palpitations and worrying symptoms so every time I felt something twinge inside, I’d think ‘this is it’.

“I felt like I was fighting my body, like it was suffocating. Now I don’t have any of those worries.

“I’m happier, I’m healthier and I’ve hugely increased my life expectancy.”

Rachel, a deputy playleader at an after-school club, piled on the pounds after leaving university and getting a job in a call centre.

She said: “I was always chubbier than my friends growing up but after I left university, I was living on quick and easy convenience foods and sitting down all day.

“My idea of cooking was throwing a load of pasta in a pan, covering it in pesto and mixing it with big piles of cheese.

“I lived on takeaways and lazy snacks I could buy from the shop.

“I couldn’t go up and down stairs without being hugely out of breath, getting in and out of the car was painful – even getting out of bed was hard.

Rachel, from Saffron Walden, Essex, realised she needed to take action when her dad Mark – better known as Horris – suddenly collapsed and died on a family day out in 2015.

She joined her local Slimming World group in January 2018 after she struggled to find clothes to fit her in high street stores.

“The group was literally at the end of my road and I knew someone in the town who had lost an amazing amount of weight by following the plan,” she explained.

“The free food element is my favourite part by far, I love being able to eat pasta, rice and potatoes in unlimited quantities. I never imagined I’d reach my target weight, it was a complete pie in the sky. But now I just have so much energy and confidence.

“I can do so much that I couldn’t do then, I can stand in heels without them hurting, I’m not constantly out of breath and clothes fit me like they do on the mannequin. Now when people look at me in the street it’s because I’m having too much fun, not because they’re staring at the fat person walking past.”

Rachel is now opening her own Slimming World group in Saffron Walden, Essex.

She added: “I just can’t believe I’m going to be the person standing up at the front helping others.

“I can’t wait to help change people’s lives in the way I’ve changed mine.”

• Slimming World
• Weight loss

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