Woman sheds 23 stone in bid to qualify for IVF

Sarah Priddice started losing weight in 2015 after she was told she only had a year to live if she stayed at 36 stone

A childminder has managed to shed more than 23 stone (147kg) in a bid to qualify for fertility treatment.

Sarah Priddice, 35, from Street in Somerset, started losing weight in 2015 after she was told she only had a year to live if she stayed at 36 stone.

Now after six years of fad diets and a gastric bypass, she weighs 13 stone and has just "a stone to go" to qualify for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.

She said: "I'm still classed as obese but slowly I'm getting there."

Ms Priddice lost a stone a month in the first six months on fad diets including the baked bean diet, the soup diet, the lettuce diet and the shake diet

Ms Priddice, who has been with her husband Craig for four years, said they had been struggling to conceive since getting married.

She said finding out she only had one year to live after tipping the scales at 36 stone had kick-started her weight loss.

Being told she had to shrink her Body Mass Index (BMI) down from 78 to under 29 to qualify for IVF fuelled her determination.

"It was a huge wake-up call. I lost six stone in six months, a stone a month doing a different fad diet each week to keep myself interested," she said.

"I did the baked bean diet, the soup diet, the lettuce diet, the shake diet, which was the worst because I don't like milk.

"Then I had a gastric bypass. I couldn't have one to begin with because I was too big and had to lose six stone."

Following a gastric bypass operation in 2016, she managed to shed up to 12 stone

Over the next two years, she managed to shed up to 12 stone but her weight loss "started plateauing" at the start of 2020.

"I'm at 13 stone but need to be 12 stone," she said.

"People think it's unbelievable that I've still got a stone to go but I'm still obese on the BMI scale. I'm 31 at the moment so I'm still not quite there."

Ms Priddice and her husband Craig have been struggling to conceive since getting married four years ago

She said she was trying really hard to lose the last stone but "can't hammer the exercise" after her recent surgery.

"Eight weeks ago, I had skin removed from my tummy - lots of skin - they removed 9lbs of skin," she said.

"But I'm so excited. It is amazing to think six years ago, I couldn't breathe, couldn't move very well and it was a real struggle and now I'm a different person.

"And to have a baby would be fantastic."

Fad diets that promote eating only one type of food or avoiding whole food groups are not recommended by the British Dietetic Association (BDA).

It said there was no "wonder-diet you can follow without some associated nutritional or health risk".

The BDA advises the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to make healthier choices, eat a nutritionally-balanced and varied diet with appropriately-sized portions, and be physically active.