Morbidly obese Blackpool dad sheds over 22st after ditching takeaways

Blackpool Gazette

A morbidly obese dad lost more than 22st (139.7kg) after ditching a £140 a week takeaway food habit and has gone on to scoop a major slimming award.  Kenny Higgins, 48, could "barely walk" at his heaviest which saw him weigh 34st 7lbs (206.3kg).  The dad decided to turn his life around after collapsing in a supermarket while shopping with his then six-year-old daughter Hope.  The weight loss champ now weighs 12st 7lb having lost almost two thirds of his body weight which won him Slimming World's Greatest Loser 2025.

Transcript

00:00I was big as a child, big as an adult, and I progressively got bigger.

00:06I wasn't able to walk properly.

00:10My health was just terrible.

00:12I was prone to all sorts of ailments, asthma, chest infections, not being able to breathe,

00:20constant hospital visits, oedema in the legs.

00:25I've never been able to do much for the people around me that I care about.

00:31My name's Kenny Higgins.

00:33I've lost 22 stone with Slimming World.

00:37Going back to Slimming World was an emotional experience.

00:42In a previous time I'd gone to Slimming World, I'd lost 17 stone, and I always thought, because

00:49I put the weight back on, that I'd let myself down and everything.

00:53But I couldn't have been further from the truth, you know.

00:55I'll never forget the first time I did walk back in there, and that greeting I got.

01:00That made me feel wonderful.

01:02The magic of group, I think for me, is accountability.

01:06When we're all backing each other up, right, and we all know what we've got to do.

01:09We say what we're going to try to achieve.

01:10If we manage to achieve it, then great.

01:12If we don't, so be it.

01:13We go away, we come back again, but we keep losing.

01:16I'm there for them, they're there for me.

01:19Something you wouldn't get if you didn't stay in a group.

01:21We don't pay our fees for, like, you know, just to come in and get weighed.

01:25We could do that at home.

01:26It's the wisdom of the consultants and, like, you know, the extra information that, you know,

01:32we get.

01:33It's a family that you choose.

01:35Not everything goes our way, but, you know, we're always there for each other.

01:39Yeah, I love it.

01:41I was spending £140 a week on takeaways minimum.

01:46I stopped getting takeaways altogether, which, no word of a lie, caused the takeaway owner

01:54to contact me to see if I was okay.

01:58Changing those habits to healthier foods, a lot of chicken, fruit, vegetables now.

02:05I never gave decent food a chance.

02:08Slimming World changed that.

02:11My activity plan was basically akin to Forrest Gump.

02:14I just left the house and started walking.

02:16I made myself go out every day, rain, shine, sun, sleet, whatever, and I got a little further

02:24every day.

02:26I enjoyed my walks after being cooped up for 20 years and not being able to do much.

02:34I was working initially to, like, just be able to go around the zoo with my daughters,

02:39and now I'm thinking about doing a 5K, and I've only started running recently.

02:44You know, you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

02:47I feel like I have a chance to succeed.

02:51I've only succeeded in a couple of things I wanted to do.

02:54I kept my promise to my daughters.

02:56I kept my promise to myself.

02:59I made my friends proud of me that helped me get back to Slimming World.

03:04I've helped inspire a few people and, in turn, they've inspired me.

03:11I think I've actually finally found that silver lining people talked about.

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