FOR Kerry Edwards, 12,000 calories a day was the norm as she gorged on Greggs, family-size treats and double helpings of everything.
She’d take on eating challenges at pubs, gorging on burgers, steaks and sides. But it wasn’t enough and she’d follow it with another meal.
The 38-year-old tells Sun Health: “Being big became my identity.
“I would wear it like a mask and pretend it was all a case of, ‘I’m a big, beautiful woman and I don’t care what people think’.”
But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Kerry, from Ilkeston, Derbyshire, weighed 29st 7lbs (187kg) and was utterly miserable.
At just 28, she wore a size 30 and felt intense emotional and physical pain due to her huge size.
The mum-of-one says: “I was emotional eating – because I was lonely and not getting anywhere in life.
“I was suicidal and using food to self-harm.
“I would always eat the biggest thing on the menu. If the restaurant had a challenge, I would go there for the challenge.
“It was mainly burger challenges and takeaways – I would eat a quad burger, two chicken burgers, fries and onion rings.”
In a typical day, Kerry says she could easily eat half a loaf of bread, four Greggs sausage rolls and two Greggs baguettes, multiple packets of crisps, two flapjacks, two share-size chocolate bars, a double chicken burger, half a family-size bag of chips with cheese, 12 onion rings, a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and a whole Victoria sponge.
She was constantly unwell – her knees hurt, her periods almost stopped, and she suffered with depression, anxiety and migraines.
And devastatingly, she had seven miscarriages over 10 years, with doctors warning her she would probably never have children.
She says a doctor told her in 2015: “You will never be a mum, and there’s a possibility that you will be dead in 10 years.”
Six months after hearing those words, Kerry made the life-changing decision to have a gastric band at Transform Cosmetic Clinic in Birmingham.
She lost weight almost instantly and ended up shedding a staggering 19st.
But the procedure wasn’t the quick-fix solution Kerry thought it might be.
In the first month she lost 2st, then a couple of stone a month for a year – totalling almost 12st in 12 months. But the remaining 7st took another two years to shift.
Kerry recalls: “It was coming off so quickly at first, and I could feel the benefits almost instantly.
“It felt like I was going to be skinny – it was exciting.”
A typical day of calories for the old Kerry
Half a loaf of bread: Roughly 600-700 calories.
Four Greggs sausage rolls: 1,440 calories (approximately 360 calories per sausage roll).
Two Greggs baguettes: 1,000 calories (a medium-sized filled baguette at 500 calories each).
Three bags of crisps: 450 calories (average of 150 calories per bag).
A double chicken burger: 700 calories.
Cheesy chips: 650 calories.
12 onion rings: 500 calories.
Two Greggs flapjacks: 500 calories.
Two family-sized chocolate bars: 2,200 calories (1,100 for each 200g bar).
A tub of Ben and Jerry’s: 1,100 calories.
An entire Victoria sponge cake: 2,200 calories.
‘All I could see was loose skin’
But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Once Kerry was down to a size 8, in 2017, two years after having the band, she says she wasn’t happy like she thought she would be.
She says: “I thought once I was thin, I was going to be happy – that I would be loved, respected, and people would take me seriously.
“Sadly, it wasn’t anything like that.
“My mind didn’t catch up with how I looked, and all I could see was loose skin – it was everywhere.”
Her dangling skin covered every inch of her body – her stomach, thighs, behind her knees, under her chin – and she even had to tuck her huge folds into her clothes and underwear.
My skin was old and crinkly. I didn’t feel like a woman. I didn’t even feel human
Kerry Edwards
Kerry says: “Honestly, I felt no better off. I still had to cover up and couldn’t wear what I wanted.
“I also felt like I was still stuck in my old body. I was a size 10 to 12, but still buying size 30 clothes and was afraid to sit on certain chairs.
“I felt like a stranger in my own body.
“The surgery helped me lose the weight, but I didn’t receive any nutritional guidance afterwards.
“I was deficient in essential nutrients and began to regain some of the weight. I felt completely lost.”
How to get help
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
- CALM, www.thecalmzone.net, 0800 585 858
- Heads Together,www.headstogether.org.uk
- HUMEN www.wearehumen.org
- Mind, www.mind.org.uk, 0300 123 3393
- Papyrus, www.papyrus-uk.org, 0800 068 41 41
- Samaritans,www.samaritans.org, 116 123
In 2019, Kerry finally became pregnant and had to have her band reduced so she could progress with the pregnancy.
She also needed to make sure she was absorbing the necessary nutrients for her unborn baby.
Thankfully, Kerry gave birth to a beautiful baby boy called Reggie – but her sagging skin looked worse than ever.
“This time I looked old,” she says. “My skin was old and crinkly.
“I didn’t feel like a woman. I didn’t even feel human.
“Life became mechanical. I wouldn’t look at myself in the mirror – it was my job to be a mum and nothing else.”
‘I was terrified at first’
Reggie suffers from ADHD and autism, hearing and visual impairments, hypermobility and chronic pain.
Kerry couldn’t pick her son up at first, as she had no upper body strength and was surviving on 700 calories a day.
She couldn’t even open a medicine bottle; she was that weak.
This continued for six years, until October last year when Reggie started school full-time.
Knowing she needed to be there for him as much as she could due to his disabilities, Kerry wanted to get strong.
Struggling with social anxiety and unsure how to proceed, she sought guidance at her local Snap Fitness gym.
This was the start of a transformation – not just of her body, but of her entire outlook on life.
Kerry admits: “I was terrified at first, but I knew I had to do something.
“From the moment I walked into Snap Fitness, I felt welcomed by the staff and other members.
“The support I received was incredible. My personal trainer helped me rebuild my strength from the ground up and gave me the knowledge I was missing for so long.
“For the first time, I was building my strength and eating well to thrive.”
Now training four times a week, Kerry says her physical and mental transformation has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Her body fat percentage has dropped dramatically, she is more toned, her energy has skyrocketed, and her confidence has soared.
Kerry says: “I feel like I have a future now, I can give my son the mum he deserves.
“I’m finally happy with this version of myself.”
‘Think twice about quick fixes’
Having gone through a lengthy journey, the mum says she would encourage anyone considering a gastric band to think twice.
Kerry would also say a “massive no” to weight loss jabs like Ozempic and Mounjaro.
She says: “I don’t think there is enough research on weight loss jabs.
“It’s seen as a quick fix like gastric surgery and it’s not. Losing weight too quickly is not healthy for the mind or body.
“I wish I had gone to the gym to get a PT and nutritionist. I regret having the band because now I have to get healthy. I have to get strong and have to learn how to eat.
“A gastric band helped me lose 19st but I also lost my mental health and identity.
“Now I can accept myself and work on myself in a healthy way. There is more to life than being skinny. And this is the life I want.”
What is the difference between a gastric band, bypass and sleeve?
The three most widely used types of weight loss surgery are:
- Gastric band: where a band is used to reduce the stomach’s size, meaning you will feel full after eating a reduced amount of food
- Gastric bypass: where your digestive system is re-routed past stomach, so you digest less food and it takes less to make you feel full
- Sleeve gastrectomy: where some of the stomach is removed, to reduce the amount of food required to make you feel full
When coupled with exercise and a healthy diet, weight loss surgery has been found to be effective in dramatically reducing a patient’s excess body fat.
Recent research in the United States found that people with gastric bands lose around half of their excess body weight.
Meanwhile gastric bypasses reduce this excess body weight by two thirds post-op.
However, it’s not always successful – and patients still need to take responsibility for eating well and working out.
