A 25-year-old woman has undergone a stunning transformation, losing nearly half her body weight and more than half her clothing size.

When Olivia Malone shares old photos of herself on her Facebook page, even family and friends find it hard to believe they’re the same woman. Olivia, has now lost over eight stone and gone from a size 24 to a size 10.

Her success has been so impressive that she now inspires others who are also seeking training. She ditched fad diets to learn about nutrition and was inspired by fitness workouts she saw on Instagram.

Olivia, from Irlam, Salford, attributes her weight gain to poor eating habits during her college years, studying first for her undergraduate degree at Huddersfield and then postgraduate at Salford. She snacked on meal deals for her lunch, then ordered takeout in the evening before boozy nights out with friends.

Shocked to find her weight had soared to 17 stone 7lbs, Olivia decided during the first covid lockdown in 2020 that the time had come to finally tackle her unhealthy habits. She says: “During the first lockdown, I had a job that required me to be active, so I thought I might as well start trying to be healthier.

“My friend had lost a stone, and she bought me some scales and sent them home. I had no idea what my weight was, until then I had no idea, I just knew that I was very overweight – but I was amazed to see that I weighed 17 stones and 7 pounds, MEN reported.

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“Since high school I’ve followed all the fad diets but never stuck to them. I was always fat as a young girl but when I went to college it got even worse.

“I wasn’t cooking properly, it was a case of noodles, turkey dinosaurs, and smiley faces. It was pure laziness, and it took its toll.”

Olivia admits she would have meals for her lunch – with sandwiches, a bag of crisps and soft drinks – and then indulge in takeout with her pals in the evening. She says: “We would order take-out from the local pizzeria or Chinese – that’s exactly what we would do at university, we would cry that we had no money but then we would buy take-out.

“But it was like I was gaining weight. We also went out three or four nights a week and I drank anything and everything, like you do in college.”

So Olivia decided to go back to basics and learn more about nutrition. Knowing exactly what her body needed each day in terms of calories and nutrients, she was then able to replicate things she loved to eat but with home cooking and calorie swapping.

“I decided to educate myself well, I taught myself nutrition,” she says. “I followed an exercise influencer on Instagram called Courtney Black, I followed her religiously for her workouts, and then it was about teaching me a healthy relationship with food.

“I would switch things up for less calories. By counting the calories I would find out what my calories needed to be and stick to it religiously, I was so strict in the beginning and in the beginning I was losing a stone a month for the first three to four months.”

She also learned how to create “fakeaways” — healthy versions of those high-calorie takeout meals she loved in college. Now she creates her own style of chicken burger with mixed chicken breast or salt and pepper crisps in the airfryer.

She says: “I make fakeaways and honestly they taste a lot nicer because it’s fresher and I made it all myself.

“I really don’t miss take-out food at all because I know I can make it taste just as good.”

As she watched the weight drop, Olivia also noticed her increased energy levels and decided to try the 5k couch app that helps you learn to run in realistic chunks. She says: “I started out, I couldn’t run at all, I couldn’t do ten minutes, so I started with a couch 5k and slowly built up.

“Now I have just completed my first half marathon this year – in Manchester – which I did in 2.5 hours. I have now applied to do my first marathon in Barcelona next year.

“I also go to the gym, I make it a point to go to the gym five nights a week, sometimes it’s for running or weight training or other types of cardio.”

She now works in an office, but has also incorporated more movement into her daily life. “Every lunchtime during my break from work, I take a 30-minute walk. In the past, I would have just sat there scrolling through social media, don’t get me wrong, some days I still do, but most days now I go out for a walk instead.”

Her original goal was to reach 10th 1 pound, which put her in the healthy body mass index category for her height of 5’2″ – a goal she reached for the first time in years. But, when she hit that target a year and a half ago, the weight continued to drop and she’s now down to 9 stone 2lbs – meaning a total weight loss of 8 stone 5lbs.

Having wrapped her figure in bigger clothes when she was a 24, Olivia now loves exploring fashion now that she’s a 10. “It’s one of the best things about losing weight, I feel like it gives you so much more confidence,” she said.

“It gave me more energy, I’m more of a morning person now, I want to be active and make the most of the day.”

But she says the only downside to the huge weight loss is loose skin – but she doesn’t want to go the surgery route. She says: “The biggest shock for me is loose skin – my biggest problem is my arms, I have bingo wings. When I’m waving all the waves of Manchester with me! But I’ve been doing weight training and hopefully it will get better.”

Family and friends are so proud of her transformation. And when she shares before-and-after photos on her Facebook, many say they don’t even remember her before her health and fitness transformation and hail her as an “inspiration.”

“My mom is my biggest fan, she says how proud she is of me,” Olivia said. “But it’s good that friends now also ask me for advice on what to eat and how to run, I would like to inspire others.

“I’m really proud of myself, I know it sounds big but I am. I did it all on my own – never had a personal trainer, taught myself everything about nutrition and fitness to get to this stage.

“But when it comes to advice, I say there’s no magic, there’s no secret – it’s to get your butt up and move around a bit, and eat fewer calories.

“I would also say focus on your diet first, because you can’t train on a bad diet. If you can get on the diet first, you have a good place to start.”

Olivia’s diet before

Breakfast

Toasts and sugary energy drinks

Lunch

Meal deals – and then get things from the canteen like crisps

Dinner

Takeout – Chinese, local pizzas – and then drink “anything and everything” four nights a week

Olivia’s diet after

Breakfast

2 crushed weetabix, almond milk, protein pudding

Lunch

Ground meat with salad – with my own “Big Mac sauce” (all homemade) or salmon and couscous

Snacks

protein bar

Dinner

“Fakeaways” – like a chicken burger with lettuce and low-fat mayonnaise, or salt and pepper chips with peppers, onions and spices.

Occasional vodka or prosecco if you go out with friends

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