A woman who once ate 10 packets of crisps a day says she can finally fit on theme park rides after losing 17 stone.
Clare Dowell tipped the scales at 30 stone and wore a size 32 at her heaviest after years of comfort eating.
The 43-year-old now weighs 13st 2lbs and wears a size 14 after undergoing life-changing gastric bypass surgery.
READ MORE: ‘I keep cheating death after surviving SIX cancer diagnoses – I don’t take a single day for granted’
The results are so dramatic that friends and family do a double take when they see her in the street.
Clare says she’d struggled with her weight since she started comforting eating after the loss of her dad when she was just four.
“I loved to run around and play football but I was always the biggest kid,” Clare, from Newcastle, told Need To Know.
“My dad died when I was four, my grandparents had dementia and my mum had cancer – so there was a lot of trauma and I’d comfort eat.
“My mum did everything she could to help me but I was a fiend for crisps.”
By the time she reached adulthood, Clare noticed everyday tasks becoming harder.
Then in 2010, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as well as eczema and psoriasis.
She said: “My weight was out of control.
“When I was 19 and working in retail, I was sluggish, slow and sweating, so my mum signed me up to a personal trainer.
“I lost some weight but then it came back.
“As I got older, my health got worse.
“My weight was getting out of control and I had problems with my breathing.
“Clothes shopping was a nightmare.
“I could only shop in certain shops.
“I was outgoing and bubbly but most overweight people are to try and cover how they’re feeling.
“I struggled getting on rides at theme parks.
“It felt like Donkey Kong trying to sit in a Mario Kart chair.
“I used to be scared I wouldn’t be able to get out of a swimming pool because when you get out, your weight pulls down on you.
“Buses were an issue too – I would take up two seats and people would snigger.
“It felt awful.”
Clare would skip breakfast before eating a Greggs steak bake, a sandwich, two doughnuts, a packet of crisps and a fizzy drink for lunch.
Dinner could be a huge roast or a fry-up, while snacks included 10 bags of crisps every day.
In 2016, Clare was offered an NHS gastric bypass and spent three years on the waiting list, following a dietitian’s eating plan and doing CrossFit.
She managed to lose two stone before the day of her surgery in 2019.
Now, breakfast is a slice of toast and coffee, lunch is fruit and cocktail sausages, while dinner is grilled chicken, salmon or eggs with a spoonful of mashed potato.
And she no longer snacks between meals, only eating her beloved crisps once a week.
Since 2019, Clare has lost a whopping 17 stone.
Clare, who has been married to husband Lee, 49, for 15 years, said: “I haven’t been hungry since the surgery and have to remind myself to eat.
“My mental health took a downfall [at first] because I couldn’t get used to smaller portions and everything was miniscule.
“I was eating too much and throwing up so I was under the mental health team.
“The adjustment is hard.
“But life is amazing now.
“The first time I went clothes shopping [after losing weight] was so strange.
“We went to Florida and I was able to to go on the rides, I was mesmerised.
“When trying on clothes, I kept picking bigger tops and trousers and my husband told me to try something smaller and I was blown away that it would fit.
“It’s freedom.
“I can run for the bus – that would have been impossible before, I would have looked like a wobbly penguin.”
Clare says she’s so unrecognisable that old friends have walked past her in the street.
She said: “A few times, people haven’t recognised me and said they aren’t sure I am who they think I am.
“I’ve literally dropped a person.
“It feels amazing.”
Clare hopes her story will encourage people to think twice before judging people who are struggling with their weight.
She added: “People say just exercise more and eat les but they don’t know if it’s a psychological thing.
“You shouldn’t judge.
“If someone was on drugs, an alcoholic or anorexic, you’d get them help but if someone is overeating they just say ‘don’t eat and exercise more’.
“If I could speak to that teacher who bullied me over my weight, I’d love to see her and tell her I’d succeeded.”
BEFORE
Breakfast: Skip
Lunch: Greggs steak bake, sandwich, two donuts, a packet of crisps and a fizzy drink
Dinner: Large roast dinner, fry up
Snacks: 10 packs of crisps a day
AFTER
Breakfast: One slice of toast and a coffee
Lunch: Fruit, cocktail sausages
Dinner: Grilled chicken, salmon, poached or boiled eggs, a spoonful of mash
Snacks: No snacks
READ MORE: ‘Doctors said I looked like a burns victim – I blamed a food allergy, but it was just stress’
