Fiona lost 40kg

This time last year, with Christmas fast approaching, all Fiona Fisher could think about was the coming Easter, when she had planned a trip to London. At 105kg and 172cm tall, Fiona was extremely anxious about how on earth she was going to squish into an airline seat and sit there for 24 hours.

She realised she had to do something about her size, and make diet and fitness a major priority in her life. That’s when Fiona joined The Biggest Loser Club.

Second time around

It was her second stint with The Club. Fiona had tried it a few months earlier, but admits that she wasn’t 100 percent committed to losing weight. It was the thought of that tortuous long flight that brought her back to The Club. “I rejoined The Club because I knew it worked; it didn’t work for me the last time because I was half-hearted about it. This time I was completely committed.”

The second-time round she made the most of everything The Club has to offer, “I began to use all the features on the site and put all the theories I was learning into practice. It was a light-bulb moment for me to discover what a portion size should really look like and the first thing I did was to sort this out. My habit of meal skipping and snacking on the wrong foods had to go and I began to eat regular meals with healthier snacks.”

Forum fan

Like many Club members, Fiona had been inspired by the successes and the personal stories behind the individuals on the TV show and the on The Club forums. She enjoyed conversing with Clubbies who were experiencing similar challenges to her own and loved reading advice from successful losers. Later, as she began to lose kilos and become more confident, she started to offer the odd word of wisdom and encouragement to other Clubbies.

Fiona says, “Having read the forums the first time around, I got to know the characters and the challenges that affected them. It is a very caring community and new people as well as long-established forum fans benefit from all the support.”

Newfound confidence

With her new commitment to get healthy, Fiona made steady progress. As she did so, she began to reflect upon how being heavy for her entire young adult life had affected her. “I have a great group of friends and we always enjoyed going out together. But it wasn’t until I started to lose the weight that I began to realise just how much it had affected me. It struck me how uneasy I used to feel about the prospect of going out and being out in public. Just imagining what other people were thinking of me played on my mind and made me panic far more than I let on,” she says.

Soon, Fiona found that her love of running began to return. “I watched some of the contestants on Loser sprinting on the treadmill and some got to 15km/h. I aimed to get to that speed too and now, I can sprint at 14km/h and I am delighted about that. Running is an important part of my life now and I usually do a 10km run three times a week plus two weights sessions and an hour with my personal trainer.”

Where has that nice, heavier girl gone?

With such a dramatic weight loss, Fiona has seen many changes in her life. Friends are delighted with her new look and new-found confidence and people are a lot friendlier in general (and that includes men of all ages). Fiona works as an office manager in a medical practice and finds that patients are often a bit puzzled when they speak with her. Many ask her where that nice, heavier girl has gone. She is always delighted to say that she is still there – she just looks and feels very different now.

By the time Fiona made that trip to London at Easter 2009, she had dropped 15kg and found the journey quite comfortable. Now, nearly a year after she first started working on her total transformation, she has shed an incredible 40kg and weighs a trim 65kg.

It’s a fantastic achievement and this year, she is looking forward to a healthy, home-based Christmas celebration. In her Christmas stocking, Fiona is hoping for a new bikini. Her last one (size 10) is too big now. Fiona says “If Santa doesn’t deliver, I will buy one for myself and I would love a really nice one because I will use it a lot. I intend to stay this size for a very, very long time!”