After a lifetime of failed dieting, at 65 I lost a stone in 3 weeks

I have always been a yo-yo dieter. I’m now 68, but can still remember going to college at 18, taking Ryvita and cheese with me for lunch. It was all to no effect – I’d eat the Ryvitas, then go to the canteen and have a sandwich for lunch anyway.

I’d count calories and sometimes lose weight, but return to my bad eating-habits and put it all back on again. 

I worked full-time in education as a special needs manager and with my husband, brought up our three children – now 44, 42, and 39 – so it’s always been a busy life. At work, I’d snack on cakes and biscuits in the staff room, then have a sandwich or jacket potato at lunch, followed by a microwave dinner at home and a family roast at the weekends. I’d buy a lot of time-saving ready-meals, naively thinking we were eating healthily, as I’d add a few cooked vegetables.

My weight just crept up. Each year I’d buy a new work suit in a bigger size, until by 2022, I was a size 18-20 and 15st 3lbs – and I’m only 5ft 5. 

I was in denial – it wasn’t until I saw a photograph of myself in profile, on a day trip, I thought: ‘My God, you’re huge!’ I asked my two daughters why they never mentioned how big I was and they said: ‘Because we never really noticed, to us, you’re just mum.’

I mostly led a sedentary lifestyle – it wasn’t until the pandemic, when I began to go on walks around my local area in Kent and realised my hips hurt, knees hurt, back hurt, everything hurt. 

Jill O’Connell says she mostly led a sedentary lifestyle, so her weight crept up yearly. By 2022, she was wearing size 18-20 and weighed 15 stone 3 pounds, despite only being 5ft 5

After a friend told Jill about The Fast 800 by Michael Mosley, she decided to commit and sign up. It begins with a 12-week 800-calorie-a-day high-protein diet

Then, in April 2022, I met a friend who I hadn’t seen for about three months who had lost weight and she looked great. Intrigued, I asked her how she’d done it and she said she was on week eight of The Fast 800 by Michael Mosley. She told me to get the book first, to see if it made sense to me, which I did, then I decided to commit and sign up.

The programme starts with a 12-week 800-calorie-a-day high-protein diet. Initially, I found it hard, I got headaches as my body was craving the sugar found in processed food. But I was prepared for that and understood I needed to drink more water. 

After a week, the headaches stopped and after three weeks, I’d lost a stone. I was amazed. During this phase, an average day’s food would be boiled eggs with asparagus soldiers for breakfast, salad with mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and olive oil for lunch and dinner of broccoli and cheddar soup, or paprika prawns. Down and down my weight went, until I reached my target of 10 stone 6 pounds eight months later, and a size 12.

After the first 12 weeks, I worked through the different stages of The Fast 800, doing the 4:3, which is four days of 1,500 calories and three of 800 calories, then 5:2 of the same. Once at my target weight, I adopted The Way of Life, which is a low-carb Mediterranean-style diet with no calorie restriction.

Three years later, I’ve kept it off. This is definitely my way of life, now. Everything changed. I went from hardly being able to walk, to recently marching up a hill with my daughters, who said: ‘We keep forgetting how old you are.’ I have so much more energy – I go to the gym and do cardio and weights, plus follow The Fast 800’s at-home exercises. I can get down onto the floor easily, to play with my grandchildren and my eldest daughter recently put her arms around me and said: ‘I’ve got my mum back.’

Here’s how I did it and how you can too…

Set yourself life targets

I didn’t actually set myself a weight-loss target, but instead, said: ‘I don’t want my joints to hurt anymore’ and: ‘I don’t want my bra straps to cut into me anymore.’ 

Once I reached those targets, I weighed 66.5 kilos, so that helped me think: ‘Let’s see if you can maintain that weight.’ And I have.

Follow time-restricted eating

From the moment I began The Fast 800, I adopted time-restricted eating. 

Thanks to Jill’s high-protein diet, she no longer craves snacks between meals. She eats within and eight-hour window and has 16 hours of fasting

I have three meals within eight hours – breakfast at 10am and my last meal at 6pm, meaning eight hours of eating and 16 hours of fasting. I don’t snack between meals and because of my high-protein diet, I never feel hungry.

Eat full-fat, not low-fat

I used to buy semi-skimmed milk, low-fat yoghurts and even low-fat cheese, but The Fast 800 taught me full-fat milk, cheese and butter is much better for you, as it’s less processed. 

Now, an average day’s food is Bircher muesli for breakfast, spinach and mushroom omelette for lunch and prawn curry or traybake lamb kebab for dinner, with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit.

Exercise regularly

Although I was a member of a gym for years, I’d never used the membership. Now, I use it regularly – doing cardio and weights at the weekend and a class in the week, if I can fit it in. I also use the plan’s at-home exercise programme, doing two sessions of resistance and two of HIIT training, a week. 

Exercise makes me feel better: I have more energy and feel sluggish if I miss a session.

If you slip up, move on

I don’t deprive myself – I believe if you deny yourself everything, you’ll be miserable. So, if we go out for dinner and indulge, or away for a few days and I don’t cook, then I’ll do a couple of days low-calorie fasting over a week or so, to get back on track. If you slip up, it’s important to be kind to yourself and move on.

I’m making the most of my time

I often wonder what changed my mindset after so many years. I’m convinced I would have fallen into Type 2 diabetes, if I had carried on the way I was. But I think a switch came on in my mind, which said: ‘Let’s make the most of what I’ve got and prolong what I can, by making myself fitter and healthier.’ Now, I feel better than ever.

thefast800.com

As told to Kerry Parnell