She has undergone a huge transformation, after embarking on a dramatic weight loss journey that has seen her go from a size 28 dress size to a slender size 12.
And reflecting on her tumultuous battle with her weight, Lisa Riley has confessed she only had herself to blame for prolonging her dieting efforts, as she had convinced herself she was content with her fuller frame.
While sharing her dieting tricks with The Mirror, the former Emmerdale star, 41, admits she used to justify her over-eating by labelling herself the ‘fat, funny one’, but was forced to overhaul her lifestyle after finally acknowledging just how much food she was consuming on a daily basis.
Candid: Lisa Riley has confessed in new book Honesty Diet she only had herself to blame for prolonging her dieting efforts, as she had convinced herself she was content with her fuller frame
Choosing to overhaul her lifestyle, Lisa shed a huge 12 stone in just 18 months after putting herself on a strict diet and gruelling training regime.
She has since undergone surgery to have her loose skin removed following her weight loss and has shared the expertise she has gained along the way in a new book titled Honesty Diet.
In an extract shared to the paper, Lisa admits: ‘I cried my eyes out when I first put on a size 12 t-shirt. It was the best feeling ever.’
Reflecting on how far she has come since first embarking on her weight loss journey, that saw her initially restrict her food intake to just 400 calories, Lisa explained she didn’t make progress until she accepted that she was to blame for her heavier weight.
Old ways: The actress (pictured back in 2012) admits she used to justify her over-eating by labelling herself the ‘fat, funny one’, but was forced to overhaul her lifestyle after finally acknowledging just how much food she was consuming
Dramatic: Lisa shed a whopping 12 stone in just 18 months after embarking on a strict diet and gruelling training regime
The Loose Women star explained: ‘Over the years, I’d told so many lies to myself about losing weight, I’d completely deafened myself. I’d got used to be different from other people and labelling myself the “fat, funny one”.
‘The only person I was lying to about the mess I’d got myself into was me, I couldn’t move on.’
Lisa explains the key to her success has been keeping a food diary of everything she eats on a daily basis and writing down what she had eaten, what time she had eaten, why she had eaten what she had and how it had made her feel.
The actress then revealed the extent of her new eating habits, as she detailed her diet both before she had embarked on her get-fit mission and after.
Honest: In an extract from her new book, Lisa explained she didn’t make progress with her weight until she accepted that she was to blame for her heavier weight
Battles: The Loose Women star (above in 1996) explained: ‘Over the years, I’d told so many lies to myself about losing weight, I’d completely deafened myself. I’d got used to be different from other people and labelling myself the “fat, funny one”
Prior to her weight loss, Lisa admitted she would consume four slices of white toast along with a bowl of Coco Pops cereal for breakfast, before munching on a chess and onion toastie with fries for lunch.
For dinner, she confessed to eating the likes of mushroom tagliatelle with garlic bread, followed by a Tiramisu pudding and a bottle of Malbec wine.
In between meals, she would snack on a variety of foods including crisps, chocolate bars and non-diet fizzy drinks, before indulging in a supper of crumpets and jam after her dinner.
Now, Lisa has ditched her unhealthy food choices for a much more restricted diet that favours porridge for breakfast, soup at lunch and spinach and cod for dinner.
The star confessed that previously she never ate in moderation and would make excuses for herself to over-indulge, despite knowing her choices wouldn’t be good for her.
Along with her dieting tips, Lisa also shared her dieting myths and ‘downfalls’ that should be avoided in order to maintain her new and improved lifestyle.
She shuns the idea of eating late, skipping meals and stepping onto the scales to monitor her weight loss – insisting that she chooses to judge her progress by how her clothes fit instead.
Lisa also dismisses the idea of being ‘big-boned’, arguing: ‘Have you ever seen a fat skeleton?’ and insists that holidays are no excuse to fall off the wagon, as healthy food choices are still available wherever you may jet off to.
Following her weight loss, Lisa had filmed a documentary titled Lisa’s Baggy Body Club, where she gave an honest account of her post weight-loss woes before going under the knife to remove the excess skin she was left with as a result.
‘I feel like a balloon that’s had all its helium taken out,’ she joked.
Lisa was shocked when she was left with over a stone of unsightly, painful loose skin and 60 stretch marks.
New look: After taking the blame for her fuller figure, Lisa said: ‘The only person I was lying to about the mess I’d got myself into was me’
Tough journey: Following her weight loss, Lisa had filmed a documentary titled Lisa’s Baggy Body Club, where she gave an honest account of her post weight-loss woes before going under the knife to remove the excess skin she was left with as a result
Feeling ‘repulsed by her reflection’, the Emmerdale star undertook the tough decision to have four life changing surgeries.
Speaking about how unhappy she was with her body following the weight loss, Lisa said in lines obtained by the Mirror: ‘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.’
Questioning why she’d lost the weight, she added: ‘I felt like I had done so well losing the weight but I had ended up with the booby prize.
‘I was revolted by my own image, it was rancid. I was used to seeing the obese Lisa reflection, but this saggy mess was new, it was painful and it was quashing the brilliance of what I had done.’
Hard: Feeling ‘repulsed by her reflection’, the Emmerdale star undertook the tough decision to have four life changing surgeries, she said: ‘When I made the decision to lose weight, I never for one second imagined that I would end up looking like that’
Hoping to highlight the problems faced by many, the actress underwent a tummy tuck, surgery to remove the loose skin for her thighs, a boob lift and the removal of her ‘bingo wings’.
Despite the tummy tuck leaving her with vertical and horizontal scars, Lisa admitted it was worth it to get rid of the saggy skin.
People used to say, ‘Oh, it is amazing how much weight you have lost.’ But they had no idea what was going on under my clothes. I used to tuck all the rolls of skin into my tights and underwear, I was very good at hiding it.
‘I had more than 60 stretch marks, so what are a few scars? I do not care about my scars at all. I am proud of them. I am happy to show them. I couldn’t be happier about my body now if I tried.
‘This documentary is the thing I am most proud of in my life. I wanted people to see that surgery isn’t the easy route, it is really hard. But the results I have got are amazing,’ she concluded.
Raising awareness: Despite the tummy tuck leaving her with vertical and horizontal scars, Lisa admitted it was worth it to get rid of the saggy skin, as she insisted: ‘I do not care about my scars… this documentary is the thing I am most proud of in my life’