Julie Jones is an inspiration to anyone trying to lose weight - after she shed a whopping 19 stone.

Julie, 41, of Rawcliffe, York, could not even walk properly when her weight reached its peak at 35 stone, four-and-a-half pounds.

She knew she had to change, so she joined her local Slimming World club in March, last year.

Since then, the mum-of-two has steadily shed the pounds.

Today, she weighs just over 16 stone, and is still determinedly trying to get down to her target weight of 12.

"It's a bit like a marathon. It's 26 miles and I've done 22, and I've just got four to go," she said.

Julie said she had been battling with her weight since her early twenties, when it had ballooned to more than 20 stone.

She piled on further pounds after that and although she did once manage to lose six stone, it went back on again.

Her clothes size swelled to a 36, leaving it hard to find anything to fit.

"I was probably eating a whole loaf of bread in one day, but now I eat two slices a day - it did get to a point where it got really difficult to walk," she said.

"I think you just don't register how much you're actually eating. I was struggling to get round the wheel of the car. It would take me ages to get up the stairs.

"You're trapped in a body that doesn't work. You can't bend down to put shoes on. You'd struggle to get out of chairs. You'd have to walk in a certain way. It's hard even to clap.

"I wouldn't have even contemplated going on an aeroplane."

In her first week at Slimming World, which helps dieters lose the pounds with its "food optimising" regime, Julie lost nearly a stone-and-a-half.

Since then, she has hardly missed a class and today loses a few more pounds every week.

Her incredible weight loss of 19 stone is already the highest amount lost in any Slimming World club in the Yorkshire and Humberside region.

"It's bizarre now," she said. "I go on a train and I can just sit down. I'll go into BHS and try on coats, just because I can. When I got married, I was about 12-and-a-half stone I just see that as getting back to what I should be."

Julie's Slimming World consultant Polly Thrower-Rogers said: "She's just an inspiration to everybody who meets her. It's completely changed her life.

"She's amazing. I just look at her and feel proud to know her."

Julie's diet

BEFORE - A typical day

Julie would eat about one loaf of bread a day, in various slices of toast and sandwiches.

  • Breakfast: About three slices of toast, with margarine, just while waiting for the breakfast to cook - which was more toast, with bacon or poached eggs
  • Lunch: A large baguette
  • Tea-time snack: Bread and jam
  • Evening meal: A big cooked dinner, like mashed potato with fish in a bag
  • Evening snack: Another sandwich
  • Throughout the day: several bags of crisps, and no fruit

AFTER - healthier Julie

Limited to two slices of toast a day.

No cakes, chocolate or biscuits or crisps.

Julie favours the "red days" on Slimming World's food optimising programme, which allow her to eat plenty of the meat she likes.

A typical meal now would be roasted chicken breast with a mound of vegetables, with few carbohydrates like potatoes, and limited milk and cheese.