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| Before: Bryan at 24st and 2lb and Leanne at 12st 12lb |
Bryan watched his wife drop from a size 18 to a 10 and lose three stone while after some initial success his weight kept yo-yoing up and down.
But that was simply the spur he needed to succeed. Determined not to be beaten in their weight-loss battle, the 40-year-old nurse then shed an incredible 12 stone, half his body weight, in just nine months.
And losing a combined total of almost 17 stone has given the couple’s marriage a new lease of life. Leanne, 36, a development manager, says: “We’ve always been competitive. I knew Bryan wouldn’t rest until he was trimmer too.
“I may well have underestimated how competitive he was though because I never expected him to lose so much.
“It just goes to show how healthy a bit of rivalry is because neither of us have ever felt better.”
Bryan adds: “I am very competitive. Apart from the fact that Leanne beat me, which I hated, it was awful being so overweight with such a slim gorgeous wife. I don’t mind admitting it left me feeling insecure about my size.
“I’ve always tried to diet but know I would never have done it if it hadn’t been for trying to match Leanne’s success.”
The couple, from Neilston, Glasgow, admit they were “on the cuddly side” when they met in 2003. Leanne was a curvy size 14 and Bryan was buying clothes in XXXL size.
He already had a daughter, but it was when Leanne got pregnant with their son Jamie a year after they married in 2008 that they both piled on more weight.
Leanne says: “We were competitive about most things. We enjoyed fundraising for local charities but always tried to beat whatever the other had raised. But eating was one thing we were equally good at.”
Comfortable and content, the couple agree their bad habits got out of control as they settled into family life.
At the end of a long day, they would treat themselves to a curry or greasy Chinese followed by family-size bags of chocolates and giant bags of crisps.
Leanne explains: “We’d pretty much spend all night side by side on the sofa watching TV and munching. It wasn’t long before our clothes got tighter.”
They wore stretchy jersey clothing to hide their weight, and when they finally had to buy in bigger sizes, they told themselves not to worry because they loved each other.
Leanne says: “We were getting fatter together so it didn’t matter so much.”
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| Slimmer together: Couple have healthier bodies now |
Nights out revolved around food with romantic meals or cinema trips laden with goodies to munch.
But with a toddler to look after after it was clear that their weight was causing problems.
Bryan, who is 5ft 8in, says: “Running around after Jamie was exhausting. We were always out of breath if we went for a walk to the park.”
Finally, Leanne suggested they take their diets in hand. She recalls: “We were sluggish and lethargic and I knew it was down to food.”
The wake-up call came when Leanne needed to have her gallbladder removed in 2010. By then she weighed 12st 12lb, but at just 5ft tall, she was obese.
“After the operation my consultant told me I needed to change my diet and exercise.”
She knew she couldn’t do it on her own and urged 24st Bryan to diet too, viewing it as a competition to see who could lose the most. They signed up to the Cambridge Weight Plan which provides healthy meal replacements as part of the programme.
Soon they had swapped sweets, crisps and takeaway meals for three calorie-controlled products a day. The first few days were the hardest but Leanne was determined not to let Bryan know how she was feeling.
She recalls with a smile: “He would ask if I was hungry and I would shrug and say no, even though my stomach was growling.”
She even resorted to pouring washing- up liquid over son Jamie’s leftover dinner to stop her picking at it.
At the end of the first week she had lost 9lb. But Bryan had taken an early lead by losing 1st 4lb.
Leanne says: “Trying to beat each other gave us something different to focus on.”
But each week, Bryan inched ahead. Leanne says: “That was good for me because I remained determined.”
But success for Bryan came at a price. After losing two stone, he began to falter by treating himself with food. It was a big mistake and soon he was treating himself to the odd beer and snack too.
Before long he was slipping back into old habits – but Leanne stayed on track. She lost three stone and was a size 10.
When Bryan congratulated her Leanne tried not to gloat. She says: “Normally I would have teased him, but I could see it was hard for him. I hoped his competitive spirit would get him on track again.”
But Bryan was now a stone heavier than when he had first started.
In January 2013, with a wedding in Spain to attend later that year, Leanne gently suggested he give it another go, saying: “I knew he was already worried about finding an outfit big enough to fit him.”
So he went back on the Cambridge Plan and lost three stone in five weeks.
He says: “I joked to Leanne that I was going to blow her out of the water.”
But after the wedding, he lost focus again and gained even more weight.
It wasn’t until he suffered the humiliation of not being able to fit into his nursing uniform he decided to have one more go at beating Leanne.
By now, her success meant she had started working as a slimming consultant. So when she heard Cambridge was running a 100-day challenge on Facebook she knew it would be right up Bryan’s street.
He agreed to sign up and Leanne, who was then 9st 10lb, said she would take part too to help keep him on track.
This time he stuck religiously to plan and as the 100 days counted down, Bryan’s weight fell dramatically. By the end he had lost 106lb. Leanne had reached her goal weight of 8st 7lb too.
But Bryan wasn’t finished. Six months on he had lost a whopping 12 stone. This meant the pair had lost almost 17 stone.
Leanne says: “There’s no way Bryan would have stayed big after I lost weight. But the best thing now is being able to run around together after Jamie without getting out of breath.”
Bryan agrees: “We are so much happier and healthier but still competitive, which helps us keep the weight off.”
After reaching their goals, the couple introduced healthy meals into their regime and exercise. But they still enjoy the meal replacement products too.
Six months on, both now work as weight-loss consultants alongside their day jobs and say they are now just as competitive about their clients’ weight loss as they were their own.
Leanne says: “It’s just the way we do things but that doesn’t mean we are not a great team.”
Credit: Dailymirror
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