A mother-of-two who turned to comfort eating to help her cope with alopecia, leaving her self conscious, now feels “so much more confident” after losing a third of her body weight thanks to a diet programme paid for by her parents.
Kelly Birch, 32, a carer and nail technician from Parbold, Lancashire, had been overweight after having her second child but it escalated as she struggled to come to terms with her hair loss – with the 5ft 2in mum’s weight peaking at 13st 13lbs.
After trying crash diets, Kelly finally turned to the 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan in May 2022, when her mum and dad offered to pay for the food products in the weight loss programme.
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Given “the push” she needed to give it a go, Kelly stuck to the programme in which she ate three weight loss products and a small meal a day for five months before slowly introducing more food back into her diet.
Not wanting to let her parents down, Kelly said it was the motivation she needed to keep going and, after eight months, she lost 4st 8lb, dropping from a size 20 to a size 10 and now weighing in at 9st 5lb.
Since then, Kelly has won the 1:1 Diet Life Changer Award at the 2023 Slimmer Awards.
Kelly, who lives with her partner Ste, 29, a civil engineer, and their two children, Macey, 11, and Otie, six, told PA Real Life: “I didn’t feel pretty or that I looked nice when I lost my hair and I piled on the weight.
“My parents knew that my weight was something I wanted to focus on and that I was finding it hard to stick to a diet, so when they offered to pay for me it really gave me that push and support I needed to go for it.
“Actually, after losing the weight, I realised that the negative feelings I’d been feeling about myself weren’t because of my hair, it was because of my weight.
“I feel so much more confident now and my friends and family have all been really supportive.”
Kelly first started losing her hair in 2011 but said it grew back after shaving her head – but in 2019, bald patches in her hair returned and she has since lost her eyebrows and eyelashes.
Kelly first took the plunge to try the 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan in May 2022 after her parents offered to pay for the programme.
She said: “I’d been unhappy with my weight since 2017 and I was miserable but would pretend to friends that I was fine and didn’t care.
“It was a long time coming.
“My mum and dad said they’d support me and pay for it because what had stopped me from doing a diet was the worry of the costs.”
Despite initially worrying that she would not be able to stick to the plan, Kelly said she found it “a lot easier” than expected and, starting out weighing 13st 13lb, Kelly soon started to see the number on the scales go down.
“With having kids, I don’t really go out drinking or anything, so that probably made it a lot easier for me to stick to,” she said.
“I would eat three products a day and one small meal that I would make for myself at home.”
For her one meal of the day, Kelly cooked chicken and vegetables or an omelette and said she was never “tempted” to go off the plan.
After five months of sticking to her routine, Kelly slowly started to reintroduce more food into her diet until she was no longer eating any of the weight loss products.
“I don’t know why but something just clicked, and I was determined to make it work,” she said.
“I had been self-conscious since dealing with alopecia, but I had a goal and wanted to feel good about myself.”
By January 2023, after eight months, Kelly had lost an incredible 4st 8lb, dropping to a size 10.
Now weighing 9st 5lb, Kelly said family and friends have been a “support network” for her.
She added: “Everyone’s just been really supportive and my friends are excited for me.
“I’d get in from a weigh in on a Monday and I’d have to ring my mum, my dad, my partner and my friends to let them all know how I got on.
“I didn’t want to let anyone down, especially my mum and dad because they were paying for the products, it was good motivation to keep going and to stick to it.
“My little girl knew about my weight loss and I think she was excited.
“She’d come home from school and say, ‘did you lose today, mum?’ My little boy couldn’t care less but my little girl was really excited to see how I was doing so that was nice.”
Now, Kelly is no longer using the weight loss products and is maintaining her weight through portion control.
She said: “I’m eating a bit more than I was doing while I was losing the weight but I have small portions of food now.
“I’ll control how much I’m eating by using a smaller plate and I’m finding it fine so far to maintain.
“My initial goal was to lose 5st but I feel really good about where my weight is at now.”
Kelly said she was “over the moon” to have won the 1:1 Diet Life Changer Award at the 2023 Slimmer Awards.
She said: “It’s been a fantastic experience and it’s a nice reminder of how far I’ve come.
“I feel so much more confident and better in myself. The weight loss has also helped my image in terms of my alopecia, I feel great.”
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