Martinette Tindall wasn’t happy being obese and having to avoid sitting next to people on the Underground because she was too fat to fit into a seat comfortably.
But now the 44-year-old business support manager from Wapping has lost 6st 6lbs in just 12 months, and now weighs 13st 3lbs after starting an Exante special meal replacement diet.
“I’ve been on-and-off diets for as long as I can remember,” she said. “I tried fasting, exercise and low-carb and high-fat diets, tending to lose a bit of weight — then falling ‘off the wagon’ and putting it all back on again.”
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Once weighing almost 20st, her problem was never realising how big she was, but she has now been named “top loser” by the diet practitioners, who created a nutritional meal-replacement programme to help obese people steer away from unhealthy eating and snacking.
Martinette has also joined Wapping Running Club to help stay motivated and be consistent with exercising. She has knocked 15 minutes off her 10K personal best.
“I’ve been running since 2017 but just kept on getting bigger and bigger,” she recalls. “I exercised, but would ache afterwards from carrying the extra weight.”
Martinette Tindall when she weighed 20st
She now feels fit enough to run four miles twice a week and play tennis — but keeping a water bottle and a cucumber in her fridge “to curb cravings” when she opens the door out of habit between meals.
Best of all is that she has dropped from dress size 26 to 14 by having replacement meals, soups and diet snack-bars alongside healthy foods.
The diet is a mix of low-calorie, nutritionally-complete meal replacements at 1,200 calories a day.
Changing face... looking better slimmed down
“I mostly eat meals high in protein and low in carbs,” she tells you. “But I don’t beat myself up if I have a juicy burger or treats every now and then.”
People with type 2 diabetes are often recommended to the Exante programme, which the company claims can help remission by triggering fat loss and reducing the need for medication.
But anyone with a medical condition who wants to diet is being urged to get advice first from their GP or a healthcare professional.
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