I gorged on 6,500 bags of crisps a year & hit 17st but I’ve now lost 8st
She swapped spuds for sweet-potato snacks
Yorkshire, admits she was always prone to over-eating, despite her parents’ healthy home-cooking.
As a child she was one of the biggest girls in her class, making her the target for bullies.
She recalls: “My weight blighted my childhood. I was a secret binge eater. I would sneak chocolate bars out of the treat cupboard and eat them in secret in my bedroom.”
Kayleigh was already a size 14 when she started senior school. By the time she left, she was in size 18 clothes.
A year later she met her future husband, Nathan, at college. The pair found themselves indulging in increasing numbers of cosy takeaways. Kayleigh says: “I would gorge though a Big Mac meal with extra fries and a McFlurry as well as family-sized bars of Cadbury’s Whole Nut. Nathan, who was only 12st when I met him, soon soared up to a beefy 17st.” And then came the spuds. Aged 18, the couple moved in together. Responsible for the food shopping for the first time, Kayleigh found herself drawn to the crisp aisle.
She says: “I would buy a huge variety pack of 18 bags of crisps every single day, and there was never one bag left by bedtime.”
On top of that, an addiction to takeaways, ready meals and “litres of full fat Coke” didn’t help.
Kayleigh’s weight reached its 17½st peak after she and electrician Nathan, 32, had their first child, Cobyn, now six.
She explains: “It should have been one of the happiest times of my life but despite being elated at becoming a mum I absolutely hated myself.
“I ended up struggling with postnatal depression, which made my eating worse. It was a terrible vicious cycle – I hated how I looked and felt, so would comfort eat on all my old favourites which then made me feel even worse.”
It was when Cobyn was four months old that Nathan persuaded Kayleigh to visit her GP and her recovery began.
Even after Kayleigh became pregnant again when Cobyn was three, she stuck to her healthy-eating plan. She gained just 13lbs, which she lost immediately after their daughter, Bella, was born.
“I was determined to be a healthy mum to my kids,” says Kayleigh. “It would have been so easy to slip back into my old ways with a toddler and a newborn, but I knew ultimately I would regret it.” By the time Kayleigh and Nathan got married in August 2014, she had lost 4½st and was a size 16. In July 2015, Kayleigh – by then a slender 11st 8lbs – posted a picture of herself inside a pair of her old size 26-28 work trousers on Facebook. “Within three days, the image had gone viral, with over 5,000 views,” she recalls. “I had people all over the world messaging me, asking what my secret was. Not in my wildest dreams had I expected such a response.”
Kayleigh, who was then working as a hospital cleaner, resolved not only to stick to her plan but to try and help others, too.
She says: “I incorporated the rules I’d followed to lose weight into a booklet: Eat Good, Feel Good, Kayleigh’s Way. I charged a one-off fee of £15 for that along with access to a member support page, or £22 to include a recipe book. I also established a Facebook page.”
Within a year she had 1,000 members and 6,500 followers on Facebook, some from as far away as Cyprus, Spain and Australia.
“I was stunned,” says Kayleigh. “But people seemed to really like my no-fad diet that a whole family could enjoy. I managed to get to my target of 9st7lbs last October and Nathan has also lost over 3st.
“Swapping crisps for Facebook followers is one of the best things I have ever done.”
Visit facebook.com/EatFood FeelGoodKayleighsWay/
I hated how I looked and felt so I would comfort eat – it was a vicious cycle KAYLEIGH ON THE EFFECTS OF HER POSTNATAL DEPRESSION
Every day, Kayleigh Old would burst open an 18-bag multipack of ready salted crisps. And munch her way through the lot. It added up to more than 6,500 bags a year at the peak of an extraordinary, destructive addiction that sent her life into freefall.
Kayleigh ballooned to a size 28, her weight hit 17½st and she became depressed as she struggled to cope with how she looked and felt.
But it was in that illness that the seeds of her recovery were sown.
At her lowest ebb, Kayleigh was persuaded to see her GP, who prescribed anti-depressants.
And, as the fog of her depression lifted, she realised she needed to take control of her life. Suddenly, she found the willpower she had always lacked. And ditched the crisps.
Now – 8st lighter at a trim 9½st – Kayleigh, 26, says: “I opted for lean meats, complex carbohydrates, stacks of fruit and vegetables.” But her true salvation was when she found a replacement for her crisps addiction – the sweet potato. “They were my absolute favourite,” she says. “I literally had them every day. I would bake them for lunch, would have wedges with my dinner or make mash with them. “They soon took over from my crisp addiction,” she says. Facebook followers who saw the weight-loss snaps she posted were desperate to know her secret. Now, with thousands of fans online and a book out, Kayleigh has carved a career out of the sweet potato. Beaming as she shows off her slimline figure, she says: “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could be an advocate for healthy eating. I was disgusted by my giant frame. “But now I have no qualms in showing off my new figure and have people asking me every single day to help them. There really is no greater reward.” Kayleigh, from Doncaster, South