When Wendy McGee scrolls through her old family photographs, her heart still lurches. For years, the pictures of holidays, Christmases and Thanksgiving dinners were a painful reminder of the woman she used to be – smiling for the camera but hiding how she really felt.
‘It was like a wall of shame,’ she says. ‘I’d look at those photos and think, “Is that really me?” Huge, uncomfortable, and so unhappy. I felt like I was fading away inside my own body.’
Today, though, the photos tell a different story. Wendy, 65, is positively glowing: slim, confident, stylish, brimming with energy.
Having lost over 5st, she wears size ten jeans and long boots she can now zip right up to her knees. She hikes for miles through the glorious Peak District countryside from her home near Bolsover, Derbyshire, plays tag with her grandchildren and laughs at the memory of once needing her husband to cut and paint her toenails because she simply couldn’t reach.
‘Now I can do them myself,’ she beams, ‘although I’ve started getting pedicures at my local salon again for the first time in decades as I want to look my best.
‘My husband Jeffrey has noticed the difference too - our love life has never been better. I feel like I’ve got me back.’
It’s an astonishing transformation. In January 2025, Wendy weighed 15st 11lb and was a size 20, sometimes even a 22. ‘I was breathless, exhausted, and miserable. I told Jeffrey we’d have to move to a bungalow because I couldn’t climb the stairs anymore.’ She pauses, then adds with a laugh, ‘He wasn’t very happy about that idea!’
Suffering a relentless cough, chronic acid reflux and terrifying breathlessness, Wendy’s body was clearly crying out for help. Concerned, her GP ordered test after test: blood work, lung scans, heart scans, even an angiogram.
In January 2025, Wendy weighed 15st 11lb and was a size 20, sometimes even a 22. ‘I was breathless, exhausted, and miserable’
But all the results came back clear. ‘And that’s when I had to face it. The problem was me. My weight. I was making myself ill.’
For Wendy, this was the end of a very long road, although she had never struggled with her size as a child or teenager growing up in Nottingham.
Her mum, a single parent with little money, always made sure her children were fed well, but there were never cupboards of crisps, biscuits or fizzy drinks to dip into, unlike at her friends’ houses.
‘We had good food, but no extras,’ she says. ‘It was only when I married at 20 that I suddenly had control over the shopping. I could buy whatever I wanted – and I did.’
Two months before her first wedding in 1981, Wendy’s mother suggested she lose a little weight. ‘I was about ten stone – not fat at all – but Mum thought I’d look better slimmer for the photos. She filled the fridge with cottage cheese, crackers, yoghurt and salad. I lost a stone, but that was the first time I had ever thought about my weight as a problem that needed to be fixed.’
Marriage and babies changed everything. Wendy had three daughters in quick succession with her first husband, and each pregnancy altered her body. By the time their marriage ended in 1995, her weight was fluctuating between 8.5st and over 11st.
‘The stress of the divorce made me lose loads, but then the weight crept back on over the next five or six years,’ she says.
Life took a happier turn when she met Jeffrey in 2000 on Match.com. She gained not only a loving partner but a stepson, Chase. Together, they built a blended family of four children, and eventually welcomed five grandchildren.
But with family life, moving house for work and busy jobs – Wendy was a project manager for SureStart children’s centres – came eating habits that spiralled out of control.
‘Strangely, my attitude to food simply flipped at around this time. Where the stress of my separation made me lose my appetite, now the pressure of working with a long commute and raising three children drove me to comfort eat instead.
‘My diet was appalling. I’d leave the house at 6am without breakfast, then grab a bacon-and-sausage baguette at 10am. Lunch was pie and chips with gravy from the work canteen, with chocolate bars stashed in my desk drawer for snacks.
‘Dinner might be a ready meal if I was alone, or a huge portion of lasagne or Mexican food if Jeffrey was home.
‘And then I’d snack again in front of the TV – bags of Minstrels, never just a few. I’d eat the whole thing. It was mindless eating, all day long.
‘My love life was one of the first casualties. I hated my body so much that intimacy with Jeffrey felt like a thing of the past - and even when we did make love I’d insist on having the lights off.
‘Naturally tall and slim, he never dared comment on my size - though he’s since admitted that he’d been thinking I needed to lose weight for years!’
Wendy tried every slimming club but nothing seemed to work long-term. ‘Slimming World, WeightWatchers, Rosemary Conley. One plan let me eat unlimited carbs – so I did, by the bucketload! Another had me weighing everything I ate and counting calories until I wanted to scream. I once lost over three stone, only to pile it all back on within a year. It was soul-destroying.’
Today, though, the photos tell a different story. Wendy, 65, is positively glowing: slim, confident, stylish, brimming with energy
Everything changed in 2010, when Wendy discovered LighterLife. She was 49, the children had flown the nest, Jeffrey was working away at an RAF base, and loneliness crept in. ‘I filled the gaps with food. Then one day I saw a story on Facebook about a woman who’d done a weight-loss plan called LighterLife.
‘She had eaten four special LighterLife products a day, such as shakes, soups and FastPots, and drunk lots of water - and that was it.
‘The simplicity of such a regime - with no wiggle room and therefore no opportunity to make bad food choices - really appealed to me. It seemed like such a clear roadmap to success. I found a local group and joined.’
In just four months, Wendy shed 4st 7lb.
‘I was sceptical at first - I feared I’d miss real food too much to commit to the routine - but once I started losing weight, the results were extraordinary. And I was doing it with no calorie-counting, no recipe books and no staring at traffic-light labels in the supermarket.
‘Of course, this sort of diet might not be for everyone. I had dreadful headaches in the first week. Plus, I’m on medication that’s meant to be taken with food, and just living on the products initially left me so nauseous, I’d actually vomit sometimes.
‘But I was so desperate to lose weight, I stuck with it. Luckily, after about four weeks, my nausea settled.
‘Still, the products felt like a slog, too - I thought some of the FastPots (a bit like a Pot Noodle) tasted foul. Some women swear by their pasta carbonara, but I hated it.
‘But then I discovered their milkshakes, which I practically lived on. There’s a vanilla shake that I added coffee to. I also turned their pancake mix into lovely little cakes, which I’d have with black tea.’
Convinced she’d cracked her weight loss battle for good, Wendy hit her goal weight after that first four months on products only – but then made a critical mistake.
‘I left the group before doing the critical management stage, where you slowly reintroduce real food. First, it’s plain proteins like white fish and no starchy foods like fruit.
‘The process of reintroducing each food group takes about six weeks in total, but that sounded like such a drag.
'There was one photo of me lying on a beach chair in Dorset where I literally looked like a beached whale. But I’d choose to ignore it'
‘I reasoned that my stomach was so small by then that I could simply focus on portion size - rather than what I ate - when I went back to normal food. And of course, the weight slowly came back.’
Wendy joined another LighterLife group when she moved to Guildford, and again lost a whopping four stone, thanks to the support of her mentor, Hazel.
But again… she didn’t do the management stage. Each time, she told herself she’d keep the weight off. Each time, old habits returned. ‘I was always losing weight for a special event – a family wedding, a holiday. Never just for myself. That was my mistake.’
By the time the pandemic arrived, Wendy’s weight was back, Jeffrey had been made redundant, and they had to sell their home. ‘Money was tight, life was stressful, and I told myself I couldn’t afford the £85 a week for LighterLife products on top of buying food for my family.
‘You might ask why I didn’t simply just try to diet the old-fashioned way. But I loved that I lost weight so quickly - a stone a month, often. I suppose that really, I just didn’t want to face yet another slimming mission.
‘My head had firmly been in the sand about how I’d turned into a fat old lady! There was one photo of me lying on a beach chair in Dorset where I literally looked like a beached whale. But I’d choose to ignore it, reassuring myself that this was just what happens to people as they get older.’
But Wendy was forced to change her attitude drastically in the second half of 2024, when her health took a frightening dip.
‘The cough, the reflux, the breathlessness – it was unbearable. I honestly thought I’d never keep up with my grandchildren again. And that broke my heart. I want to be the fun nanny, the one who plays chase and goes down the slides. Not the one who sits watching from the sidelines.’
In December 2024, she picked up the phone.
‘I rang Hazel and said, “Help me. I can’t do this alone.” She put me into a 12-week group of ten people starting in January 2025, and I was ready.
‘The TotalFast plan was strict: four products a day, which I did for five months, with daily at-home ketone testing to ensure I was in ketosis.’
Ketosis is a metabolic state where your body, deprived of carbohydrates by meal replacements, burns stored fat for fuel.
Dietitians sometimes advise against this approach because rapid weight loss can trigger muscle loss, unpleasant side effects like ‘keto flu’ – headaches, fatigue and nausea caused by dehydration and electrolyte loss as your body transitions from burning carbs to burning fat – and a high rate of weight regain once you return to normal eating.
‘The first four days were awful,’ Wendy admits. ‘I was tired, cold, headachy. But then suddenly – it clicked. My hunger vanished, my energy soared. Within a week, I felt better than I had in years. By the end of April last year, I’d lost 5½ stone and reached 10st 4lb.’
‘For the first time in decades, I enjoy shopping. I feel sexy again – things in the bedroom have never been better and poor Jeffrey doesn’t know what’s hit him!’
This time, Wendy embraced management. Weekly Zoom calls with Hazel and her group – where they would discuss the emotions around food that date all the way back to childhood – became her anchor.
‘We talked about mindless eating, about using food as comfort, about finding other ways to cope. I realised I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t greedy. I was addicted to food. And that’s something I can manage – with help and with mindfulness, so that I stop and think before I automatically put unhealthy food in my mouth.
‘Now I eat anything and everything I want - although my tastes have really changed. I’d never order fish and chips in a restaurant now. I know I’ll feel better - more nourished, more energised - if I have a salad.
‘Instead of bread, I crave fruit, like apples and peaches. I won’t ever go back on the products now though. I felt there’s a risk the food replacement packs might simply create another addiction - to fast weight loss.
‘Instead, I’ve created a new mindset which feels permanent. I’ve put on about 10lbs since stopping products, so I’m now at 11st - but that’s fine! I can still fit in my size 10 jeans.’
The transformation has been extraordinary. Wendy sleeps through the night, her brain fog has lifted, her menopause symptoms have eased, and she feels calmer and more relaxed. ‘I used to blame menopause for everything – hot flushes, insomnia, tiredness. But honestly, a lot of it was my weight. Now I feel 20 years younger.
‘For the first time in decades, I enjoy shopping. I feel sexy again – things in the bedroom have never been better and poor Jeffrey doesn’t know what’s hit him!’
But the greatest joy has been her grandchildren. ‘My grandson used to tell me, “Nanny, you’re fat.” Kids are brutally honest. He doesn’t say that anymore. Now he laughs when I chase him. I can climb through tunnels, slide down slides, run around in the park. I can be the fun nanny I always wanted to be. That’s worth more than anything.’
Wendy pauses, reflecting on all the years she wasted hiding, ashamed. ‘I feel sad that I let food steal so much of my life. But I’ve got a second chance now – a second honeymoon with Jeffrey, a second youth with my grandchildren, a second life just for me.’
WENDY’S DIET BEFORE
6AM: Leave home for work so I skip breakfast
10am: French baguette with bacon and sausage
Lunch: Pie and chips with gravy
Afternoon: Snack on chocolate bars in my drawer
Dinner: Either a ready meal on my own, or a huge portion of lasagne, Mexican food or fish and chips
Later: Whole family bag of Minstrels, Pringles, or any other sweets. ‘I could never watch TV without snacks, every evening on the sofa was like going to the cinema.’
WENDY’S DIET NOW
Breakfast: Yogurt and fruit
Lunch: Chicken salad
Dinner: Fish pie with broccoli – I mostly eat the fish and not the potatoes
Snacks: Fruit – apple, peach, banana