"I want to show that you can have a life on this plan no matter what. If I can lose weight, then anyone can."
Jonny
Start weight: 24st 6lb | Weight loss: 6st 13lb
Current weight: 17st 7lb
Age: 28 | Height: 6' 2"
How long it took: 7 years, 8 months
Jonny's story
My weight rocketed when I was about 16 and started working full-time. Instead of eating my mum’s home-cooked meals, I’d be socialising with friends and coming home late and ordering takeaways. By the age of 18, I needed to lose a few stone so I joined WW with some friends and lost about a stone. But I didn’t take it seriously and left and put more weight back on.
Health issues
I moved out when I was 20 and if I wasn’t eating takeaways, I’d be cooking frozen pizza, chips, chicken nuggets and beans . I did no exercise – I would have rather died than run for a bus as it would have been too mortifying – and my asthma was getting worse. I’d take my inhaler around eight times a day.
Yet from the outside, you’d never know that I felt self-conscious. I was the life and soul of the party. But there were a handful of occasions – usually after a few drinks – where I’d get angry with friends and have arguments on a night out. I've since thought that it was a sign that I was unhappy . Yet still, I made light of it. Even when I had to get a seatbelt extension on a flight, I wept with laughter, but I was so embarrassed and swore I would never let that happen again.
My appearance was beginning to affect my life. As a young, gay guy I wanted to dress fashionably but it was out of the question. I hated having to buy XXXL shirts from online or specialist shops. As for relationships, I always told myself that I didn’t want to be in one, but I suspect it was that I didn’t feel comfortable about my size and used this as an excuse to protect myself.
My light bulb moment
It was seeing an unfiltered photo of myself at a friend’s birthday, tagged on Facebook, that became my light bulb moment. Suddenly I saw myself as everyone else saw me – and I didn’t like what I saw!
I went back to losing weight seriously. Only this time I knew it had to be for life, not just for a few weeks or months. So I embraced it and I absolutely love it.
Joining Instagram as @Prince_of_points_ww has really helped me because I love the sense of community. If I’ve been out for food or even cocktails, I take pictures and share them. I want to show that you can have a life on this plan no matter what. If I can lose weight, then anyone can.
Gone are the days of eating only ready meals and takeaways. I’ve learned to cook and I’m astonished by some of the things I make from scratch these days; homemade caramelised onion mustard burgers with sweet potato fries, pork fennel meatballs and piri piri halloumi chicken skewers. I even went to Crete recently and lost over a pound because we were self-catering and in control of what we ate. The best thing about it was my non WW friends loved the food as much as I did!
Fab at 30!
I want to be at my goal for my 30th birthday and wear something stylish and fabulous. This will be my major milestone and achievement. I’m training to be a WW Coach too, because I think it’s important for men to be more involved in the WW team and I want to inspire others. Already I’m getting messages from men asking when my classes are starting!
When I joined me meeting a few years ago, I was concerned that I’d lose weight and lose my outgoing, bubbly personality as I often made fun of myself for a laugh, But that’s completely wrong. I’m still the same person, but a better version of me.