I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here star Lisa Riley lost 12st in 18 months but was left suffering from a painful complication that made exercise impossible and was forced to take drastic action
Lisa Riley was left in agony after dropping from a size 28 to a size 12(Image: ITV)
I’m A Celebrity star Lisa Riley lost 12st in a life-changing journey to transform her body from a size 28 to a size 12, but it came at a cost.
During an 18-month period, the soap star ditched takeaways and unhealthy snacks, swapping them for regular gym sessions and nutritious meals. The results were dramatic, but 49 year old Lisa’s joy was tempered by an agonising side effect – agonising folds of excess skin weighing more than 1.5 stone.
In her 2017 documentary, Lisa Riley’s Baggy Body Club, the television personality told how she felt like a ‘saggy mess’, heartbreakingly admitting she felt ‘revolted’ by what she saw in the mirror.
She said: “When I made the decision to lose weight, I never for one second imagined that I would end up looking like that. It never occurred to me that the loose skin would be so bad.
“I thought why on earth have I lost all this weight? I looked worse than I did when I was obese. And it was the pain as well. The skin was flapping about and dragging.”
READ MORE: I’m A Celeb viewers fume ‘get a grip’ as camp breaks down in tearsREAD MORE: Alex Scott’s relationship criteria Jess Glynne had to meet amid marriage admissionLisa Riley overhauled her lifestyle in a bid to improve her health(Image: ITV)
For Lisa, the issue wasn’t just about appearance, it was a physical problem as well. She needed to exercise to maintain her weight loss, but the discomfort caused by her excess skin made this impossible.
“When you are on this weight loss journey, food becomes the enemy and you have to go to the gym, you have to move,” she explained. “But the movement was becoming a severe problem. It really hurt, it rubbed and it would get red, and it was hard to clean between the folds.”
Deciding that surgery was her only option, she courageously allowed cameras to document her experience, shining a light on the challenges encountered by countless individuals who undergo significant weight loss.
Lisa shared this picture in the documentary, taken before her weight loss(Image: ITV)
The Emmerdale star said: “I wanted to show the brutality of it. In life you can’t sympathise or have empathy with anybody unless you can see it. If I can help one person, and I know I have helped thousands, then for me it has been worthwhile.”
Despite having a close-knit family and a group of long-time girlfriends, Lisa felt that none of them could truly understand what she was experiencing. So, she turned to the internet to find others who might be going through the same ordeal, and was taken aback by what she discovered.
Lisa then established her Baggy Body Club and arranged to meet some of her new online friends in person, to hear their stories. Even though she was petrified of surgery, these conversations gave her the courage to undergo the procedure.
She confessed: “The night before the surgery, I was so petrified everybody thought I wasn’t going to go through with it. I was thinking that in 11 hours I could be dead. I might not wake up.
“Could I have lived with the loose skin for the rest of my life? Yes, but I wouldn’t have been happy. I don’t feel like I have had cosmetic surgery, I have corrected what I had done to myself.
Lisa was thrilled with the results of the surgery, despite her fears leading up to it(Image: No credit)
“Nobody made me eat 50 Twix bars, or a whole packet of sausages at one sitting. I did that to myself. No one made me not go to the gym. Some weeks I was probably having seven takeaways a week. I did that to myself. I have to take responsibility for that.”
Lisa underwent four operations – a fleur de lis tummy tuck which left her with vertical and horizontal scars, surgery to remove the loose skin from her thighs, a breast lift and the removal of her “bingo wings”.
It took Lisa several long, painful months to recover from the surgery, which she maintained is no easy route to a slim physique. But she couldn’t have been more delighted with her transformed body.
She added: “I had never been able to wear sexy underwear, before it was all just functional, mumsy bras and big knickers. Now I can wear little sexy sets. On the train from Manchester to London, the old me would have had a coffee, baguette, red wine, crisps and a cake.
“Now I plan my meals and order a sparkling water, people can’t believe it.”
