I’m 5ft 2 and had been around seven-and-a-half stone for years, but I have always been an emotional eater. In my late twenties my stepmum and my biological mother both passed away, and that’s when I began putting on weight.I got into the habit of comforting myself with food – I’d eat a Danish pastry, steak pie and crisps for lunch, snack on chocolate and biscuits and pizza or spaghetti bolognese for dinner. My weakness was Greggs’ Bavarian slices and my local bakery’s Ukrainian cake for an instant hit of sugar, way too often.At one point, I tried The Atkins Diet, which was successful temporarily, but gradually my weight increased until I was 14st 7lbs and a size 18.In June 2024, aged 53, my husband Nick and I went on holiday to the Greek island of Symi, where I realised I couldn’t even enjoy going for a walk. I felt very low – going through the menopause, the combination of hot flushes, swinging moods and depression meant I was pretty miserable.The day after we arrived home, I heard about the death of Dr Michael Mosley on Symi and was really upset. I was a regular listener to his podcast and felt I knew him, in a way. He worked really hard to try to improve people’s health and so I thought: ‘I’m going to make sure his legacy has an impact on me,’ and signed up to The Fast 800 programme.I just went for it – I committed to The Very Fast 800, which involves eating two to three Mediterranean-style meals, totalling 800 to 900 calories a day, for 12 weeks. I stuck to it and did all the recommended exercises. It was hard, but it got results – after 12 weeks I lost a stone. I then went on to The New 5:2, where you eat 800 calories for two days and sensible eating the rest of the week and one year later, by the summer of 2025, I reached my goal weight of eight stone and a size eight. I have always been an emotional eater, writes Lorraine Kerr, and gradually my weight increased until I was 14st 7lbs and a size 18 After committing to The Very Fast 800 diet I reached my goal weight of eight stone and a size eightEarlier this year, we returned to Greece and visited Paros. I thought about Dr Mosley a lot – it was quite emotional – and said thank you to him while I was there. I walked up a hill without stopping and stood at the top looking out at the beautiful Greek islands, thinking: ‘Goodness me, I could not have done this before. This is amazing.’Here’s how I did it and you can too…Learn to love eating veggiesMe and vegetables have never been friends, but The Fast 800 app makes it easy to incorporate them, as it generates recipes and a shopping list, so I now eat things like broccoli, kale and chickpeas. My average day’s food is Greek yoghurt with fruit and nuts for breakfast, lunch of chickpea curry or broccoli soup and herb-crusted fish or beef hotpot for dinner. I’m on The Way of Life healthy-eating plan now, which is a low-carb Mediterranean-style diet, with no calorie restriction. I’ll have a little bit of cake occasionally – I make an orange and almond loaf from The Fast 800’s recipes, which is lovely.Work out at homeI did resistance training (weights and body-weight exercises) and HIIT training at home, five days a week, following the app. I started on the beginner’s level and was exhausted but persisted and, by the end of the 12 weeks, could do it. I’ve now graduated to advanced, and am doing yoga and swimming in the sea five mornings a week near my home, where I now find the 15-minute walk to and from the beach – including a steep hill – easy. I swim in the sea five mornings a week near my home and am doing yoga The late Daily Mail diet expert Michael Mosley died on the Greek island of Symi two years ago todayIt will help with health issuesIt was hard to stick with it in the first 12 weeks, but I was determined to feel better physically. I did, very quickly – I’d had IBS for a couple of years, but within three days of starting the diet, the cramps and bloating went and I’ve never had them since. I think it wasn’t helped by eating too many artificial sweeteners. As a test I reintroduced artificial sweeteners and within two or three days, the symptoms came back and were quite severe. When I stopped, they vanished again. Before the diet, I was borderline diabetic – my blood sugars were all over the place – but I reversed this within a year and my menopausal hot flushes, which I’d been having for a few years, also cleared up in a couple of months.Make a goal of what you want your life to beI wanted to return to Greece and feel different. My tip for lasting success is not to focus on weight loss, but how you want your life to change. Once I achieved my weight goal, I had to refocus on a new goal. I work in local government and make a part-time living out of fine-art photography, so I channelled my energy into that. I knew once I reached my goal weight, I’d have to reshape my outlook, so I don’t spiral again.Don’t weigh yourself every dayIt’s easy to get obsessed, but I weighed myself every week while I was losing weight, and now every two weeks. Be kind to yourself and don’t look at the scales every day. If you are going to, then weigh yourself before breakfast, never at night after dinner.Eat a square of chocolateBecause I’m a chocoholic, like Michael Mosley was, I have a square of very dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa or higher) every day. Sometimes when I’m stressed, I’ll notice I’ve had three. It’s important to be mindful of eating because of emotional reasons. If I’ve overdone it, I simply avoid chocolate for a couple of days and reset my system.I use The Fast 800 app every dayI still use The Fast 800 (thefast800.com) for my exercises and to see what’s on the menu. It has health coaches and support groups which I tap into too, not just for advice, but also to support people.As told to Kerry Parnell