Danny’s story
Like many people, Danny gained weight during lockdown.
But he admits that the changes the Covid pandemic brought led his eating to get out of control.
“I knew that I had put on a lot of weight. I had a binge eating problem, especially with chocolate, and I already had health issues – I had diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Walking upstairs made me out of breath and my knees and hips were sore, which wasn’t normal for someone aged 39.”
When Danny made an appointment with his GP for another reason, they took routine blood tests - but within 12 hours they called him and asked him to return urgently for a serious chat.
“Lose weight, or live a shorter life”
During his visit, Danny learned how bad things were with his health. His blood sugar levels were dangerously high, his cholesterol was 8.2 – far above the safe level - and his blood pressure was, in his words, “off the scale.” Danny’s GP warned him that things were serious and that he needed to take action as he was at risk of losing a limb or even early death.
It was the wake-up call that Danny needed. He remembers, “I talked to my wife, and then a friend who had had a gastric sleeve procedure and achieved great results. I picked her brains about what surgery could involve, and she was honest with me – she warned me that it wasn’t a quick and easy fix, and I’d need to accept that my lifestyle would completely change if I had surgery.”
Danny conducted a lot of research while he was making his decision about what to do about his weight. “I looked at surgery as being the last resort for me. People view it as an easy way to lose weight, but it definitely isn’t. I had a realistic view of what having bariatric surgery would entail. I maybe didn’t understand how drastically life would change, but when I decided on surgery, I went into it with my eyes open.”
And Danny says that seeing TOWIE star James Argent’s weight loss journey spurred him on, too. “I could see that he had the same body shape as me, and everything he said about his relationship with food I could relate to. It’s so easy to put off doing anything about being overweight and keep going round in that bad habit cycle. He’s done so well, and his results have been amazing.”
