A MUM halved her weight without the help of fat jabs and now men are racing to take her out.
Laura Taylor was a heavy size 24 before she embarked on her weight loss journey in March 2024, after struggling with her weight since she was a teenager.
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The mum claims fellas would flee dates because ‘they didn’t realise’ her size, but now blokes try to woo her with drinks.
The 35-year-old says the battle with her weight began when she was bullied for being ‘fat’ and branded ‘tree trunk legs’ by cruel bullies at high school.
As a result, the mum-of-five didn’t wear a skirt for decades and was reluctant to leave the house due to her size 24 figure.
The self-conscious cleaning business owner would only share pictures of her face, not of her body, on her dating profiles.
Laura says when she did meet up for dates, men would sheepishly admit they ‘didn’t realise how big she was’ before slinking off just an hour after meeting her.
After trying and failing to lose the weight naturally, Laura underwent a ‘life-changing’ gastric sleeve operation in Turkey in March 2024.
Since then, she has switched her old diet of McDonald’s breakfasts, pub lunches, takeaway dinners, and five cans of Coca-Cola per day for protein coffees, fruit and chicken salads.
As a result, Laura has shed a whopping 10 stone in 16 months, initially tipping the scales at 20st 1lb and dropping down to 9st 13lbs and a slinky size eight.
Following her incredible weight loss, Laura says men now race to the bar to buy her drinks – and she’s finally confident enough to share full body images on her dating profile.
Laura, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, said: “When men tell me that I look beautiful and sexy because I’ve lost all of my weight I do feel it.
“When I was really big I used to go on dates and then an hour later they would say that they had to go and then I’d get blocked.
“They used to say that they didn’t realise how big I was or that my pictures looked different because they couldn’t see my body.
“I never used to show my body [on my dating profile], I just used to show my face.
“I include pictures of my body now. All of my profile pictures are of my full body because I feel more confident in myself now I’ve lost weight.
“I think I look a lot better, but I think I still have the mindset of when I was fat.
“I go out and I’ve got men coming up to me asking to buy me a drink and I’m like ‘what do you see in me really?’ Sometimes it’s quite hard to take in.”
Problems with Laura’s weight first began when she received cruel comments from bullies at high school.
Laura said: “I’ve had an issue with my weight all my life, really since I was a teenager.
“I got a lot of bullying at school because when I used to wear skirts I’d get called ‘tree trunk legs’ and fat.
“After a couple times of wearing skirts I never wore them again.
“I never wanted to go to school with a skirt on because I used to get called that all the time.
“Food was a comfort for me. I used to sit at home and eat food because I got bullied and I felt like nobody fancied me.”
After struggling with her weight since she was a teen, Laura decided to commit to having gastric sleeve surgery.
What is the difference between a gastric band, bypass and sleeve?
The three most widely used types of weight loss surgery are:
- Gastric band: where a band is used to reduce the stomach’s size, meaning you will feel full after eating a reduced amount of food
- Gastric bypass: where your digestive system is re-routed past stomach, so you digest less food and it takes less to make you feel full
- Sleeve gastrectomy: where some of the stomach is removed, to reduce the amount of food required to make you feel full
When coupled with exercise and a healthy diet, weight loss surgery has been found to be effective in dramatically reducing a patient’s excess body fat.
Recent research in the United States found that people with gastric bands lose around half of their excess body weight.
Meanwhile gastric bypasses reduce this excess body weight by two thirds post-op.
However, it’s not always successful – and patients still need to take responsibility for eating well and working out.
Laura said: “I went to the doctors and asked to be put on the waiting list for a gastric sleeve in the UK but they told me I wasn’t big enough.
“I looked at the prices in the UK but it was £10,500 and I didn’t have the money.
“When I was pricing it up it was so much cheaper in Turkey than it was over here.
“It was £2,400 and then the flights were £600, so about £3,000 in total.
“The NHS was a six-year waiting list and I couldn’t wait that long because I didn’t leave the house.
“I didn’t see my friends or anything like that because they were all quite skinny and I was the fat one of the bunch.”
Since having the £3,000 op, Laura says she gets told she looks younger and some of her friends don’t even recognise her when they see her in the street.
Laura said: “I get told I look younger because I have lost a lot of weight in my face.
“I feel good in myself and people say that I look amazing.
“I do need to start taking those compliments in because I’ve been fat all of my life it’s hard for me to say I do actually look good.
“A lot of friends haven’t seen me in the past 18 months and when I’ve been out they’ve walked past me.
“I’ve had to tap them on the shoulder and say ‘do you not recognise me?’.”
Laura says she now finally has the confidence to wear skirts and dresses again and will even be wearing a bikini when she goes on holiday in August.
Laura said: “I never used to wear the stuff I wear now, there’s no way I would be putting on a dress on above my knees.
“I don’t go out in jeans now, I only wear skirts or dresses.”
Laura says the operation ‘saved her life’ and has had a positive impact on her socially.
Laura said: “I’ve always been the one [in my friend group] that’s sat in the corner and not really danced because I didn’t want to.
“I’m on the dance floor before anyone else now because I’ve got so much energy I want to dance.
“The operation saved my life. I’d still be sat in the house now not going out, so it has changed my life completely.”
Here’s what Laura would eat in a day.
TYPICAL FOOD DIARY BEFORE WEIGHTLOSS
Breakfast – McDonalds breakfast
Lunch – Pub lunch mixed grill or English breakfast
Dinner – Takeaway or chips and sausages
Snacks – Chocolate, sweets, crisps and five cans of Coca-Cola per day
TYPICAL FOOD DIARY AFTER WEIGHTLOSS
Breakfast – Protein coffee
Lunch – None
Dinner – Chicken salad, chilli or chicken and rice
Snacks – Apples, cheese strings, decaf coffee
The 5 best exercises to lose weight
By Lucy Gornall, personal trainer and health journalist
EXERCISE can be intimidating and hard to devote yourself to. So how do you find the right workout for you?
As a PT and fitness journalist, I’ve tried everything.
I’ve taken part in endless fitness competitions, marathons and I maintain a regime of runs, strength training and Pilates.
Fitness is so entrenched in my life, I stick to it even at Christmas!
The key is finding an activity you love that can become a habit.
My top five forms of exercise, especially if you’re trying to lose weight, are:
- Walking
- Running
- Pilates
- High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
- Strength training
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