At the age of 35, Leanne was badly overweight – and thoroughly miserable.
Tipping the scales at 14st 4lbs, her clothes no longer fitted and she was drained of energy.
Although she’d previously been a keen runner, her extra weight meant jogging hurt her knees.
She knew what the problem was – eating two or three takeaways a week and drinking too many pints – but felt powerless to change.
Despite trying countless diet plans including Slimming World and WeightWatchers, as well as dabbling with the gym, she struggled to lose the pounds.
She said: ‘The weight crept up through my 30s. I got into bad habits, eating rubbish and not looking after myself.
‘Even when I did lose a bit of weight, I couldn’t maintain it. I didn’t like how I looked or felt.’
Over the past seven months, however, Leanne has undergone a complete turnaround.
Despite trying countless diet-plans Slimming World and WeightWatchers as well as dabbling with the gym, Leanne struggled to lose weight
As well as losing a remarkable 3st 4lbs, she’s radically altered her eating habits, cut out the booze and is feeling in the best shape of her life.
Her weight loss has nothing to do with fad diets, fasting or even weight-loss injections such as Wegovy and Mounjaro.
Instead, she owes her transformation to an exercise programme called strength resistance training.
After signing up to a programme called StrongerYouForLife, which offers online classes, she shed the weight by doing three sessions a week in the comfort of her own sitting room.
Based on repetitions of simple exercises with the gradual addition of weights – such as dumbbells and kettle-bells – resistance burns off fat and builds up muscle.
Experts say that that strength resistance training is crucial for patients looking to lose weight, but particularly middle-aged women.
‘Dieting is the most well-known way to lose weight, but strength training is crucial too,’ says Prof Adam Taylor, an anatomy expert at Lancaster University.
‘When you eat less, the body burns more fat, but it also burns muscle.
Leanne shed more than three stone by doing three sessions a week in the comfort of her own sitting room.
‘When you switch to strength training, this tells the body to preserve the muscles and only burn fat. You’re essentially doubling down on burning fat stores in the body.
‘For middle-aged women this can be particularly important. This is because, as we age, our metabolism [the body’s burning of energy] slows down, leading to weight gain.
‘Strength training essentially speeds up the metabolism which, in turn, boosts weight loss.’
The need for more ways to help patients lose weight is clear.
Nearly two-thirds of British adults are overweight or obese, putting them at an increased risk of deadly conditions such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.
More than 2.5million people in the UK are now on weight-loss jabs, which suppress appetite. However, studies show these do not work for everyone.
Moreover, research suggests that around two-thirds of people who stop taking the jabs will regain the majority of the weight that they lost.
For this reason, experts say that strength resistance training is crucial for patients looking for long-lasting weight-loss.
Having dropped to 11 stone Leanne has also returned to running – and recently completed a 5km race for charity.
Exercises force the muscles to work against the external resistance provided either by the body’s own mass or by additional weights.
Moves typically include squats, where you lower the hips from a standing to a sitting position before standing back up – targeting the glutes (muscles in the buttocks), quadriceps (in the thighs) and the core (the abdomen and torso muscles).
Other moves might include chest presses, shoulder presses, abdominal crunches and planks.
During exercise, resistance causes microscopic damage to the muscle fibres. As the body repairs tiny tears in these fibres during rest, the muscles become thicker and stronger.
Experts say that anyone, no matter their strength or experience, can safely begin strength training.
Emma Kennedy, a fitness instructor at StrongerYouForLife, said: ‘Beginners can just use body weight for resistance, but later start using weights to introduce progressive overload, to maintain and increase lean muscle mass.’
The growing popularity of strength resistance training, she explains, reflects changing attitudes.
She said: ‘People used to think “Skinny is best” and battled towards an idea of what their body should look like visually – as opposed to focusing on being strong and healthy. Strength resistance training can help you lose weight if you’re also eating a calorie deficit diet. But it’s not specifically about weight loss.
‘The emphasis is that strong is beautiful. The aim is to be lean and toned rather than just being thin.’
And there are other benefits.
She said: ‘People doing the classes say they sleep better, feel less fatigued, and their cognitive abilities improve as the brain fog fades. They drink more water to keep themselves hydrated and the training naturally motivates them to eat more healthily.’
Exercise also combats osteopenia and osteoporosis, the thinning of the bones that comes with age. Ms Kennedy said: ‘People start to lose bone density from the age of 30. Resistance training stimulates bone-forming cells which can improve bone strength.’
And despite focusing on building muscle, experts say people don’t turn into hulking body-builders.
Ms Kennedy said: ‘Some women are concerned too much muscle might make them look masculine.
‘But no one’s going to end up with bulky arms and legs – unless they deliberately train for it.’
StrongerYouForLife was set up in 2024, with members paying £29 a month for live or pre-recorded classes, plus support from a team of instructors.
Leanne, from Dublin, who works for a bank, signed up last September.
She hadn’t run for six months because of a sore knee aggravated by her weight, but still played camogie – the female version of the Irish sport hurling.
She said: ‘Even at my heaviest, I tried to stay active. I played camogie but my shorts and jersey were getting tighter and tighter. There was a lot of socialising too. If we won a game we’d have a few drinks to celebrate. And if we lost, we’d commiserate in the pub.’
Initially, the classes were difficult.
‘It was daunting because I was so overweight,’ she said. ‘The first sessions were hard. I struggled to do even the basic exercises.’
However, Leanne enjoyed the challenge and persevered. Online classes meant she could exercise before or after work or during her lunch break. She even did classes while cooking her dinner.
She said: ‘I would pause every few minutes to go and check the oven or stir a pot.’
Typically she does 30 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays plus 45 minutes on Fridays.
By Christmas she’d lost two stone.
The classes also helped her change her lifestyle. She said: ‘I’ve only eaten one Chinese takeaway in six months and I’ve cut back big time on booze. I don’t want to do all the hard work then throw it out the window every weekend.’
Having dropped to 11 stone Leanne has also returned to running – and recently completed a 5km race for charity.
She said: ‘I’ve lost weight and gained a whole new lease on life. It’s amazing. I’ve never been happier or more confident than I am now.’
