Rachael, now 35 years old, struggled with her weight most of her life. Growing up in Buckinghamshire, Rachael felt bigger than her peers, and never felt as though she grew into her shape.

It impacted her throughout her life, from her confidence and mental health to her physical well-being and even her wardrobe.

“I hated going clothes shopping because I never wanted to look in the mirror. You don’t really want to see that, you know. Your body image becomes a real distraction and it’s really difficult to be able to focus on anything else when looking at photographs of yourself. So, I would always be the person who takes photos, I never wanted to be in them. I’d take photos of my friends just so that I don’t have to be in them.

“The impact on my mental health was just massive because it just dominated my everyday thoughts. You walk differently. You know, you feel like you can’t be the best version of yourself because there’s always something in the background that’s making you think you’re not.

“But then, whenever you’re unwell and you go to the doctor, the first thing they do is like put you on the scale and ask you like how much you weigh. No matter what it was, it would just be your weight that becomes a problem.”

In search of a sustainable, life-changing option

Rachael had tried every avenue to change her relationship with her body and lose the weight – almost every fad diet under the sun. When looking into weekly slimming groups, the thought of being weight in front of a group of people put her off, making her avoid them all together.

Fed up with yo-yoing with diets that didn’t work for her, suddenly Rachael realised that the best way to lose weight was to find something that would be sustainable long term.

“What I was looking for in a solution was something that would help me change behavior, help me change not only my mindset and help me build confidence, but do it in a way that meant that I didn’t have that mentality of giving food negative connotations. I wanted to have a healthy relationship with the food I was eating and I wanted to have a healthy relationship with my body.”

This approach is paramount to the approach we take here at Bodyline. Our holistic weight loss programmes are based on facts, individual circumstances, and scientific evidence – we know it’s not just simply the ‘eat less, move more’ rhetoric we’ve seen for many years.

After extensively researching this clinical approach and the options available, Rachael landed on Bodyline.

“Even then, it took me about three months to look into Bodyline, look into the journeys, look into what their case studies were saying and the sort of problems it solved. The team of nurses are amazing. The fact it comes from a nurse as well I think is so important because it’s there is science behind this. It’s not just hypothetical nonsense and false promises.

“But the best thing that I noticed about Bodyline is if you ask the questions, you get the answers. You don’t get fluff, you don’t get non-specific advice, you’ve got people on the other end of the phone who are knowledgeable, and they tell you how it is. That’s what built the trust for me; when I have these challenging, difficult questions that could have made me the world’s worst client, I was never received like that. I could put my trust in fact that they weren’t scared of giving me the answers.”

Trusting the process, feeling the success

Rachael was prescribed Phentermine, a medical appetite suppressant in the form of an oral pill, taken daily. Clinical research shows that when it is used alongside diet and exercise, the average user loses between 5-10% of their starting weight.

For Racheal, the results were incredible.

“I noticed the biggest jump in the first six months. I started at 209 pounds, and six months later, I was 180 pounds in June. By December that year, I was 171 pounds, and the rest of it has come off over the past six months. It does slow down, but that first jump was massive and within the first couple of weeks, my weight had dropped drastically.”

Because she listened to the advice our nurses gave to her, bespoke advice that considered her lifestyle, medical history, and the things that didn’t work for her, she saw that first bit of progress across 6 months. With the help of the medical weight loss treatment, Rachael felt better able to stick to a calorie deficit and go to the gym more. Having not seen that progress before, it drove her to continue pushing through.

This meant that in her first six months, Rachael lost 3 stone, and over the following year lost another stone. In total, Rachael has gone from 209lbs to 163lbs – that’s a loss of 56lbs over a year and a half, which is an incredible 4 stone!

“My fiancé has been incredible, so supportive, but not because he wants a slimmer version of me. It’s genuinely because he knew that it’s something I wanted to do. He wants a happier version of me.”

The weight loss completely changed her life, building her confidence up to levels she had not experienced before.

Saying yes to the wedding dress!

Being engaged, before her weight loss journey Rachael had been dreading the wedding dress shopping experience. But after a complete transformation, body and mind, she was able to enjoy the memorable day.

“When I started feeling difference in my clothes, I could have cried, honestly. It was something that I had battled with for so long. Back then I had always been a size 16, but now I’m a size 10 to 12.

“I’m getting married and before I went to go and try on my dresses, I was thinking they’re not going to fit me, or I’ll have to be in their plus size range so they may not have the dress I wanted. But after the weight loss I was able to fit into a sample size. I mean, come on, that’s completely out of the scope of what I ever thought I’d be able to do.”

With the wedding fast approaching, Rachael feels the confidence she wanted to be able to enjoy one of the most beautiful days of her life.

Most importantly though, Rachael felt she finally had the control she needed, feeling better mentally, physically, and with a totally different relationship with food.

“My mentality has improved; my mental health has improved. And then it’s the small things like walking around in summer in the UK, obviously we don’t ever have air con in this country so feeling less hot and bothered, while feeling that I can walk further. It changed how I feel when I go out, I’m just in a better mood.

“What’s great is with Bodyline’s help, you know what you can eat, and what you don’t have to eat. But this is the best part about it – if I want to eat dessert, I can eat the dessert. I don’t feel bad or like it’s going to set me back a thousand days of work or progress. I could eat that dessert because I know that I’m in control of my calories.

“I think that’s half of the battle with weight loss. It’s gaining back control over things that other people make it sound so easy to have control over when it’s not.”

Consider Bodyline to gain back control

Rachael’s experience with us alongside the initial researching of Bodyline and our services, is exactly the kind of success we are trained to deliver. It’s not just about a change in physical appearance, it’s also about a mindset transformation.

Rachael is right when she says:

“When we think about how we eat and our exercise regime, it sometimes feels completely out of our control or outside of our ability to do anything about. When actually we can, we just need a bit of help that’s supportive and not going to shame us.”

That supportive approach is what we are known for. It’s what we are best at.

When asked what she’d say to someone considering our services, Racheal offered this solid piece of advice:

“Think about why you want to do it. If it’s because you want a quick six, seven, eight pounds off for a particular event, it can do that. But I would say it’s worth far more to you to get a long-term solution and a long-term ability to be able to control your eating and exercising behaviours.

“Do your research, ask the questions, and make sure that this is the right solution for you, but I would 100% recommend it because I think it can change your life”

If you’re doing your research now, and interested in hearing more, why not speak to some of our wonderful customer service team members who will be more than happy to answer your questions!

Call us on 0800 995 6036 or fill in an online contact form for a call back.