Why weight loss didn't bring happiness

The EastEnders star Lorraine Stanley says she “regrets” how she lost half her body weight— whopping seven stone—and I can really understand her dilemma.

- Charlotte Cripps, The Independent

While my weight loss wasn’t quite as dramatic as Stanley's, it was significant enough for me to struggle with it psychologically. | had piled on the pounds after two pregnancies and then started stress eating as a single, working mum, who was also caring for my elderly dad.

When my GP told me my cholesterol levels were dangerously high, | got a private prescription of Wegovy in 2024 and then, in a matter of a few months, | was nearly three stone lighter. The actor took a more drastic route to tackle her weight and resorted to a gastric sleeve operation to remove 75 to 80 per cent of her stomach—after claiming she became “immune” to weight loss drugs. She said she got “really big” while starring in the BBC soap because she had “too much money”, and that although she loves her new thinner body, she laments she didn’t lose weight with diet and exercise.

“| think, in hindsight, | wish | had just done it with diet and exercise, because ultimately, any time I'm not in a happy place, | could just start eating and | could put it back on,” she told The Sun. “So I've had to change my whole mindset.”