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25 stone woman sheds half her body weight

She was so ashamed of her size that she would hide her naked body from her husband. But Jacqui McCoy has gone on to achieve the biggest weight loss in television history, shedding 58 per cent of her body weight – a whopping 14 and a half stone - in one year while taking part in ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition.
 
The 31-year-old Florida native, who weighed 25 stone 5lbs when she signed up to the show, decided to take action after battling infertility issues due to her size.
 
Jacqui shared the tragic story of how being raped at 14 had turned her from being a confident young teen to a woman with low self esteem and a crippling sugar addiction which resulted in obesity and the probability she would not be able to conceive.
 
On starting the weight loss programme Jacqui was put on a strict diet and exercise regime by trainer, Chris Powell, and converted her living room into a workout space. She exercised for up to 5 hours a day and followed the 7-day carb cycle solution, which involves cycling the intake of carbohydrates meaning she would have a high-carb diet one day and a low-carb day the next.
 
Jacqui shed an incredible 90lbs – 6 stone 6lbs - in the first 30 days and was rewarded with a long-overdue honeymoon to Ireland with husband Shawn (pictured below).


 
Within 3 months of starting the programme she had lost a total of 145lbs and, for the first time since her early teens, began to believe in what she could achieve; ‘once I lost so much weight in the first 90 days, I started to recognise my own power and my own worth’.
 
Achieving this early dramatic weight loss meant she qualified for skin removal surgery, and she had over 6 square feet of excess skin removed.
 
At the final weigh in, after 365 days on the programme during which her husband had taken a second job so she could commit to the regime, Jacqui weighed in at a healthy 10stone 8lbs.
 
Though she has since discovered natural conception is not an option due to blocked tubes, she is now an ideal candidate for IVF and will start treatment soon. She told an American talk show; “I’m not sure I would have fought as hard as I did if I wasn’t as motivated by the thought of having a family”.

By Maggie Hitchins

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