"From 23 Stone to Healthier Living: Overcoming a Costly Daily Habit and Sugary Drinks"

A mum-of-two who grew to 23 stone 10 lbs, spending £420 a week on takeaways, has lost 13 stone after flying to Turkey for surgery. Tammy Jones wore a size 32 at her biggest and needed a walking stick to get around.

The 35-year-old was a self-confessed food addict and says she was constantly thinking about her next meal. A typical day would include two double sausage and egg McMuffins, four hash browns and a hot chocolate for breakfast, followed by four Greggs pasties and two sausage rolls for lunch.

Dinner was a Chinese takeaway with all the trimmings, washed down with litres of Coke. Tammy was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and developed pneumonia in 2021, a health scare that left her close to death due to her weight pressing on her lungs.

She flew to Turkey and paid £3,500 for a gastric sleeve in September 2022, using the money she used to spend on takeaways. “I spent £60 a day on takeaways because I was having them for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” said Tammy, from Wolverhampton.

“I’d order £40 of Chinese food with salt and pepper ribs, chow mein, chicken balls and chips, then I'd eat the leftovers the next morning. I was drinking double the recommended amount of calories just in Coke.

“I was self-employed and worked from home because I had no confidence to go out, and I was walking with a stick at 31. When I got pneumonia, my lungs were being crushed by my weight. I could have died, and it was petrifying.

“My brother and husband helped me to pay for the surgery, on top of the money I used on takeaways, because they thought they were going to lose me. The recovery wasn’t easy. Food is an addiction like alcohol and drugs; it was mentally exhausting.

“I had no choice but to get past that because my stomach was 20% smaller than before.”

Tammy started using Mounjaro in August 2024 to lose an extra four stone, setting her back £150 a month for 12 months. The stay-at-home mum now weighs 11st 4lbs and wears a size eight.

She splashed out a further £7,500 on a breast lift and tummy tuck in September this year, using the money she would have spent on junk food. Tammy says she started struggling with her weight when she had her first child at 17.

She said: “I’ve always been a yo-yo dieter, and I’ve always been a big girl. When I had my first daughter, I couldn’t lose the weight.

“I’ve tried every diet you can think of, Slimming World, Weight Watchers and Cambridge. I’d lose a stone, then decide to treat myself. Now, I’ll buy a treat bag of chocolate buttons, put them in a freezer bag, and if I get a craving for something sweet, I have six.

“I’ve swapped bagels for bagel thins, and I weigh everything, including condiments. And I only eat light mayo because I love mayo.”

Tammy says the weight loss has transformed her life. She’s reversed her diabetes diagnosis and is going on holiday to Tunisia in June, where she’ll wear a bikini for the first time in years.

Tammy said: “Life is so different. I can take my kids to the theme park. When I was bigger, I wouldn’t have even risked going on a ride. Now, I can be confident to queue up for a ride at a theme park and know that I can get on it.

“My confidence is through the roof. I don’t have to lock myself away, and I was pinching myself when I first bought a size eight top. Before the weight loss, I wouldn’t have even booked a holiday to Tunisia.

“But I can wear a bikini and not cover up, and I’m so excited. I used to dread summer, and I used to cancel on my own family parties.

“I can look forward to them now. People don’t recognise me. I was in the supermarket the other day, and I bumped into a woman I grew up with. Her daughter was saying, ‘Mum, it’s Tammy'.

“She said, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t recognise you at all'. It feels so good.”