I went from a size 22 to an 8. The hardest part was getting rid of my loose skin

Elle, 34, works in sales. She lives in Berkshire with her husband Chris, 38, and their four-year-old son

When you’re only 5ft 3in tall and wear size 22 clothes, life really isn’t very comfortable. I never felt good about how I looked, hence hiding behind a thick fringe. Buying clothes was miserable. But more than that, daily life was a struggle.

While I didn’t have high blood pressure or other health issues, I certainly would have done in later life. Studies have shown obesity shortens lifespan. I never disclose my weight, not then, nor now, but my BMI was probably over 45. Let’s just say that mobility was a problem.

I’d get agitated at the supermarket if I couldn’t park nearby as walking was a struggle. If the lift was broken at work, climbing the stairs would leave me panting and sweaty. Chasing after my toddler left me shattered. And I can’t tell you how anxious I felt taking him to fairgrounds – would I get stuck on a ride? Would I break it?

Of course I tried to lose weight; no one resorts to gastric sleeve surgery, like I did in 2023, without a lot of dieting attempts first. I wasn’t a big child, but from my early 20s I just got bigger and bigger. The whole of my 20s was spent either on Weight Watchers or Slimming World, losing a stone or two or even three once, before giving up in despair.

Counting calories is joyless, and getting on those scales in front of the team leader – only to discover I’d only lost 1-2lb – left me hating myself. Then comforting myself with a Chinese takeaway, usually washed down with a bottle of wine.

I’ve always loved to cook, and I’d make a huge lasagne oozing cheese which I’d greedily mop up with bread. That “full” feeling most people get? That just didn’t happen to me – so my portions were vast, much bigger than my husband’s. Chris, who I’d met through work when I was 20, has always been a gym goer and healthy eater. When we married in 2016 I dieted into a size 12/14 wedding dress, but it soon piled back on again.

We were thrilled to welcome our son in 2021. But going for daily cakes with the other new mums, or inviting them over for lunch made me bigger than ever. When the postman smiled at my long post-partum tummy saying, “Ooh not long now,” my eyes welled up and my toes curled in shame. This happened more than once.

By 2022, after a friend told me she was considering gastric sleeve surgery, I started googling it. I’d always assumed that gastric surgery was only something 500lb bedridden Americans did, not regular Berkshire mums and failed dieters like me. But I started following people on social media and was impressed by their results. The use of weight loss drugs is widespread these days, but I wasn’t aware of it three years ago, so that wasn’t an option.

Essentially, gastric sleeve surgery (also known as a sleeve gastrectomy) is a weight loss procedure that removes around 75 per cent of the stomach, leaving a smaller, tube-shaped stomach which can hold less food. After surgery, people feel fuller faster.

It sounded drastic and effective. But not cheap. In the UK surgery costs range from between £8,000 to14,000, which was out of my range. Yet I discovered that in Turkey it would cost £2,800, including the flights, which I could afford.

But it wasn’t a decision I took lightly. As a mum I was scared of dying on the operating table for so-called “vanity”. I even delayed the op until after my son’s second birthday in case I didn’t see him turn two. I also worried I’d never eat normally again afterwards. Enjoying food and socialising were important in my life. I’m also phobic about being sick and feared that might happen.

While Chris was worried, gently asking, “would it be better to lose weight through diet and exercise, Elle?” He knew how badly I wanted to change after a decade of doomed diets. My family, though supportive, worried that doing the procedure abroad was risky. Though not a single person said “you don’t need to get it done.” Everyone realised how unhappy (and unhealthy) I was. Why getting my weight under control mattered.

After mulling it over and months of research, I flew to a Turkish hospital in Izmir in January 2023. I had a panic attack going into the theatre, but the nurse calmed me down. “You’re in safe hands,” she said. “You’re doing this for you, it’s the right thing”. Then the anaesthetic kicked in and just 45 minutes later, the surgeon, via keyhole, had removed 80 per cent of my stomach.

I woke up with plasters on my incisions around my belly button and lower abdomen. I felt a bit weepy from the anaesthetic and had some pain because they blow your tummy up with air during the op. That trapped gas hurt but passed in a couple of days and I didn’t need pain relief. After staying in hospital for three nights, I flew home happy to see my little boy and Chris.

For the first fortnight I had a liquid-only diet, soups and protein shakes. The next fortnight I ate purées then soft food like mashed potatoes, mince, and eggs. There’s no need to count calories because you physically can’t eat much and would feel very unwell if you tried. But out of curiosity I did and was averaging 700 calories a day.

Each week I weighed myself and it was astonishing. I’d shed 16lbs in the first week, 1st 13lb after a month, then 3st 12lb after three months. After six months it was 6st 1lb, and after a year I was 8st 2lbs lighter in total and I’d gone from a size 22 to an 8/10. Being able to move freely was amazing – my body however didn’t look great.

Everything sagged, and the loose skin hanging down from my tummy looked unattractive. I’d tuck handfuls into clothes and feel deflated.

I never imagined I’d be considering plastic surgery when I’d begun this journey, mostly because I was convinced the op wouldn’t work. But here I was slim, and I wanted to enjoy it. I started researching options (and saving up) to remove the skin and spending hours in Facebook groups with women who’d had it done.

So one year and nine months after my original op I returned to Turkey, at a different hospital, with a recommended surgeon who did an extended tummy tuck (which involved creating a new belly button) and breast lift with implants . My boobs had always been small even at my biggest, so I finally decided I’d get the chest I wanted. I asked for a C or D cup but then settled on an E cup and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

This second op was more complex, taking over seven hours and costing £4,634, not including flights. I have absolutely no idea how much skin was removed, I never wanted to know or see. I stayed in hospital for a week and plastic surgery recovery has been the hardest physical and mental challenge of my life.

For the first six weeks post-op, I had no independence. Twice a day I had to clean the tapes covering the stitches and my incisions, which ran from the outside of my hips, all across my lower abdomen. I wore incredibly tight compression garments for 12 weeks, which gave me scars and sores I hadn’t expected.

I paid for manual lymphatic drainage massages to help with the intense swelling, and a seroma (a pocket of fluid) formed in my lower belly. It wasn’t painful but I worried about it growing. I couldn’t drive and I needed to nap every day. Every twinge gave me anxiety because I was frightened of getting an infection and being rejected by the NHS if I needed help.

I felt like a huge burden to everyone, crying at work, at home, and in Marks and Spencer’s. The recovery is just so long with discomfort every hour, every day for at least three months. Even now I am still unable to swim or train my chest at all, and certain moves – such as opening a jam jar or scooping up washing – feel strained. I’m still using scar oil twice a day on my incisions and belly button, 15 months after the op.

Of course I look a lot better today as a size six than I did in 2022, having lost 10st 4lbs. But I can assure you that weight loss surgery isn’t “the easy option”. I don’t know why a stigma persists that it’s “cheating”.

The surgery does not change your habits or mindset, and you have to really work at it for it to be successful. As well as going to the gym, I devote hours to preparing healthy food. I have to make the right choices with every meal and snack just like anyone else, and not over consume low-nutrient “slider foods” such as crisps, chocolate or biscuits. You can still gain weight after a gastric sleeve.

Despite the fact I felt too embarrassed to even tell colleagues about my weight loss surgery, I’m coming clean now so that anybody thinking of doing it knows exactly what like, before they take the plunge.

I don’t regret a thing, but the surgery only works as a tool to help, being slim is a commitment I work hard at every day.

What I ate before

Breakfast

Peanut butter on a toasted bagel or two almond croissants.

Lunch

Supermarket meal deal: usually a triple sandwich or a wrap, grab bag of crisps, fizzy drink.

Dinner

Homemade carbonara with mountains of cheese and garlic bread or a Chinese takeaway.

Coffee

Toffee nut latte.

Alcohol

Bottle of rosé.

Snacks

Cookies, crisps, doughnuts, sausage rolls.

What I eat now

Breakfast

Light cheese triangle on a toasted bagel with ham, cucumber and tomato, or avocado on toast.

Lunch

Tuna salad.

Dinner

Tortilla wrap pizza.

Coffee

Skinny vanilla latte.

Alcohol

One glass of rosé.

Snacks

Fruit, chicken skewers, prawns.