Mum-of-one spent £32,500 on excess skin removal after losing 11 stone

A mum-of-one has spent £32,500 on excess skin removal after losing 11 stone. Kate Richmond, 46, who was 26 stone at her heaviest, has undergone a remarkable transformation after embracing a fitness programme and taking up weight lifting.

But the ex-dentist, who now owns a medical aesthetics company, also underwent surgery to remove half a stone of skin - after shedding over a third of her body weight. She has now undergone three operations to gain her new ‘dream’ physique.

She said: “The surgery was expensive, I can’t deny it. But I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, and I don’t want to go out, and I don’t have fast cars or a home that’s massive.

“I’d found it really, really hard to get this weight off, and I still wasn’t happy with how I looked. So as long as my family is not going without, I thought: ‘Why not treat myself a bit’."

The single mum said she’d started piling on the pounds before her pregnancy when her husband left her, and later began binge eating after work. She later developed unhealthy eating habits while she was at work.

She said: “It was comfort eating. It wasn’t eating because I was hungry, and that was one of the hardest things to deal with. On reflection, I was absolutely eating my emotions.

“I quite deliberately wouldn’t have lunch, and I would never have breakfast as I had to get Rocco ready for school, so I would only eat in the evening, and would wait and wait. At which point I felt, ‘Well, I’ve hardly eaten anything all day, so I’ll eat what I want.”

However, after turning to online dating following her marital split, she received ‘cruel comments’ from some men about her weight, so she decided to take on a 12-week exercise programme after being inspired by a friend.

Ms Richmond said she built up her daily step count, first reaching 8,000 a day before hitting 12,000, and then joined a gym where she took up weightlifting. But despite taking control of her diet and lifestyle, she still wasn’t happy with the way she looked because of excess skin - so she opted for surgery.

She said: “It wasn’t coming off any more and I got to the stage where I thought I couldn’t lose any more and thought I would be happy – but I wasn’t.

“I had this overhang on my stomach, and I couldn’t wear skirts or fitted dresses or you would see it. Then a friend said they were having a tummy tuck. I spoke to a surgeon, who said I was an ideal candidate.

"He said I could lose as much weight as I wanted, but it was going to make a difference as it wasn’t fat, it was skin.”

Kate has so far spent £32,500 on three operations to remove excess skin from her body, including one on her stomach and breasts that lasted nine hours. And she now feels content with the way she looks and feels more confident.

She said: “I think I look okay. And for someone who has had cripplingly low self-esteem for 44 years, that’s okay. I can look at myself in the mirror now and not hate what I see. For me, I feel happier. It’s helped me.”

Kate has recently taken part in a boudoir photoshoot to show off her new body because she ‘feels so confident’ adding that several years ago she couldn’t have “dreamed” she would look the way she does today.