I lost 7lbs in my first week and went on to lose over 17st

MUM-OF-TWO Emma Boyce, 36, from Surrey, weighed nearly 30st when she joined Slimming World, but has turned her life around after seeing results in just seven days.

I joined Slimming World in March 2018 weighing 29st 13lbs. My mum had recently joined and I’d seen incredible success stories on Instagram. Going along to the group, I was frightened and embarrassed. I felt so vulnerable walking through the doors. I sat at the back and listened and thought I’ll give it a go, but it won’t work. How wrong I was

– I lost 7lbs in my first week.

I felt so pleased, and yet couldn’t believe it. I was still eating potatoes and pasta – just by making simple healthy changes I’d seen results.

That first week made me think differently. I had a big change in my mindset from that day forward. Just two years after joining Slimming World, I’d completely turned my life around, lost 17st 3lbs and dropped 11 dress sizes.

My whole life I’ve struggled with my weight. Even as a child I was always the big kid and the last to be picked for sports. It got worse when I got divorced and developed unhealthy habits, using food as an emotional crutch.

After my divorce, I met Ryan through online dating and we had our children who were born a year apart. At my check-ups, every doctor I saw said I should lose weight. I’d tried every single diet you can think of, but with no support nothing worked, and I thought I was destined to be overweight all my life. I was in constant pain, even getting out of bed hurt. My joints and feet would swell up and my asthma was awful.

As a learner support assistant for children with special educational needs, I was also finding it hard to keep up physically, leaving me with no other option when I had children of my own than to quit my job.

In 2016, I was diagnosed with sleep apnoea, a serious sleep disorder