A New Milton woman once known as ‘Fat Penny’ is now known as ‘Fit Penny’ after shedding an enormous 13 stones.

A woman once known as “big Penny” has become “fit Penny” after shedding an incredible 13 stone.

Penny Smith, from New Milton, told the A&T her weight problems began when she was just a teenager.

“As children we were made to eat everything on our plate,” she said. “I was fine until I was 10, and then I twisted my ankle and could not run about.

“I started to put on weight and become known as ‘Big Penny’ at school. It was really hurtful and gave me a real complex about my weight, so I started to comfort eat which didn’t help.”

Penny (47) said she ‘yo-yo’ dieted for years, losing weight only to pile it back on again.

“I was a nurse and I found it impossible to talk to patients about the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

“By 30 I was 24 stone, so I felt they must be thinking, ‘How can that big fat nurse lecture me?’

“I was always in pain, my knees especially as I was so heavy.”

Penny said her weight caused her to suffer low self-esteem, which then led to more comfort eating and it “became a vicious cycle”.

At one stage she was warned that if she did not lose weight, she would be in a wheelchair by the age of 30.

“I had three children and found it difficult when they wanted to run and play,” she said. “I just couldn't keep up with them.

“In 2016 I joined Weightwatchers which helped me lose four stone, but I found it hard to maintain my weight on my own.”

Her weight loss to that date also led to her joining the ambulance service as a nurse practitioner, which she loves and could never have done before she slimmed down.

“I wouldn’t have been able to fit in the ambulance,” she said.

Penny decided to take up running to see if that would help keep her weight down, saying: “I only did it after dark so no one could judge me.

“I was like an asthmatic elephant at first! But I kept going and actually did a half marathon in 2018.”

She had by then lost ten and a half stone, but during Covid started to pile the pounds back on.

Penny continued: “In January last year I was 16-and-a-half stone.

“I had been following Craig Swinton, who runs Apex Fitness Coaching, on social media for ages and I finally got the courage to contact him.

“He made me take responsibility for myself and most importantly start to like myself.

“I started a new healthy eating plan with a lot of fruit and veg, high protein and no alcohol.

“Before that, I would eat anything - I’d buy multi-packs of crisps to last the week and eat them in a night.”

Penny also joined a gym and found a new love of weight training.

She finally shed the last of her excess weight and is now a size 10 – at her heaviest she was a size 30.

Penny says: “This year was the first time I have worn a bikini. I am so much more adventurous now; I go cold water swimming and am going trekking in Egypt.

“But it’s the simple things that I enjoy – the kids have to catch up with me now when we are out.

“I can shop in a normal store, I can walk the dog, walk up the stairs.

“Now when I look at photos of ‘fat Penny’ I don’t recognise her at all.

Penny said when she bumps into people she knows, they have “no idea who I am until I open my mouth and speak. Then they say, ‘Oh my God Penny you look amazing!’”