Three sisters have collectively lost a staggering 18 stone after following a simple diet together. They say their lives have changed forever as their health has drastically improved
When Emma Castle, 48, was told that she had high blood pressure and was pre-diabetic, she knew she had to make some serious lifestyle changes. The worrying health news came in the summer of 2023 when she was at her heaviest, weighing 22st.
Wearing a size 24, she decided to get serious about her weight loss journey, with improving her health as her main goal. In January 2024, she got down to business and began the 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan – and she’s called it absolutely “life-changing”.
The weight loss program includes personalised support with a consultant as users go through a step-by-step approach that sees them navigate through different stages – the first of which includes consuming only 800 calories a day in the form of one small evening meal and meal replacement products.
Within just a few months, Emma – who admits she had been routinely over eating for many years, and indulging in a nightly large bar of chocolate before committing to her weight loss journey – had managed to lose an impressive four stone (25.4 kg). After visiting her GP, she received the good news that her blood pressure had returned to a normal healthy range, as had her blood sugar levels.
“I realised that actually I’m not going to be able to get through life unscathed if I continue as I am,” Emma explained about her decision to try out the 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan, which she began on step two.
Her initial diet included a 200-calorie meal in the evening of chicken and veggies – but no carbs – and three of 1:1’s meal replacement products throughout the day.
Emma – who now works as a consultant for the program – said that finding out her health had improved so rapidly made it “all worth it” and that day-to-day activities are now much “easier” for her, vastly improving her quality of life.
“It made it all worth it, I felt so much better in myself,” she said. “It’s really quite life-changing, losing that amount of weight, and it’s just everyday things that you notice are easier, like walking, housework, sitting on a bus and not taking up nearly two seats.”
Now, Emma, who is 5ft 2, weighs 14 stone, having lost an incredible eight stone. Her clothes size has also dropped down from a 24 to 16.
After seeing her progress, her two sisters were quickly “inspired” to try out the diet plan for themselves – both having struggled similarly with their weight over the years. Tammy Fisher, 46, said that she had begun to feel “hopeless” about her weight before committing to the 1:1 Diet.
Before trying out the diet plan, Tammy was considering going for gastric band surgery – a procedure that would have set her back £10,000. In January 2024, when she started the diet shortly after her elder sister, she she was 16 stone, wearing a size 20, and the “biggest” she had “ever been”.
But now, she has dropped to just under 11 stone and gone down to a size 12 in clothing, she has become a consultant for the program too. “I got to the point where I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror at all. I didn’t like my clothes … friends would invite me out and I wouldn’t go, and I used to cry a lot and think it was all hopeless,” Tammy explains, adding that within days of starting the diet plan, she noticed a difference and had a “spring in her step”.
Tammy said about her experience with the 1:1 diet plan, “It makes you feel in control of what you’re eating. I feel like it just works for us even though some people might think it’s not enough calories to start with.
“I thought surgery was my only option but how wrong I was – I don’t need any injection or surgery – I did it myself and it’s just unreal.”
The NHS recommends trying to maintain a 600-calorie deficit when trying to lose weight, with the average woman needing around 2000 calories per day.
Katie Nutt, 46, started the diet the month after her sisters in February 2024, and in just over a year has seen massive improvements to her health after losing an impressive five stone.
She began the diet at 17 stone and because of health problems associated with her weight was on the waiting list to receive a gastric band. She suffered from back and neck pain, had hypertension on the brain, and was at risk of going blind, due to pressure on her optic nerve.
Now, she has halved the amount of pain medication she has to take, and her eyesight is stable. “I think my family have noticed a huge difference – I used to look so poorly all the time and my kids used to just think, ‘God, mum’s in bed again’. Now they see me up sprightly,” Katie explains.
Together, the three sisters who all live in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, have lost more than 18 stone and say their lives have changed beyond their “wildest imaginations”.
They are still working towards their goal weights and once they get there they will move onto the 1:1 Diet’s final stage, which focuses on maintenance of the weight loss. The sisters will have 1500 calories a day, including a 1:1 meal replacement product, and make sure they are keeping active.
It’s not just their health and confidence that has improved from embarking on this journey together, they say that they also have become closer throughout the process.
“Every celebration used to revolve around food,” Emma explains. “But now we spend that money on experiences, like holidays together and we’ve found new ways to reward ourselves. It’s a whole new mindset.”
If you are living with obesity, your GP can offer you advice about improving your lifestyle and losing and managing your weight safely.
If you were affected by this content or are struggling with an eating disorder, support is available on Beat’s website.