A woman shed 8st by swimming for 30 minutes every morning — and has since become a bodybuilder.
Megan Winstanley, 31, tipped the scales at 15st 10lbs at her heaviest, and would secretly indulge in sugary snacks late at night.
She spent years watching friends swap clothes with one another, while she always had to go out and buy something new.
However, she shed two stone ahead of her brother’s wedding by completely overhauling her diet — ditching meals such as chicken tenders and chips in favour of green beans, rice and protein oats.
Determined to keep the momentum going, she signed up for an online 12-week calorie challenge, carefully tracking her macros and calorie intake.
She began swimming every morning for 30 minutes, and has since taken up bodybuilding, shedding an impressive 8st 3lbs in total.
Now a trim 7st 6lbs, she visits the gym most days and recently finished second in her latest bodybuilding competition.
Megan, a local authority worker from Wigan, Greater Manchester, said: “I didn’t have much confidence – I was trying to act as the joker because if people are going to laugh at me because of my weight, I’d rather it was because I was funny.
“It was more if I felt sad, I would emotionally eat.
“I always knew I was a bigger girl.
“Friends always used to borrow each other’s clothes and I’d always have to buy something new.
“When I came back from travelling in 2018, I remember looking in the mirror and I just felt sick with seeing how I saw myself.
“I felt depressed.
“But after I did the 12-week challenge in 2021, that’s when the macros and calorie counting took effect.
“Someone did that plan for me and I followed it.
“There wasn’t in-depth education about it, but I knew I had to be eating fewer calories.”
Megan admits she “didn’t have the education around the nutrition” during her younger years and would rely too heavily on carbohydrates.
She told Sell Us Your Story: “My lifestyle was not going to the gym, I didn’t have a routine, I didn’t have the education around the nutrition.
“It was very carb-heavy meals throughout the day.
“I had on and off part-time jobs studying performance at Salford University, and I did summers away in the US, and it was more or less when going home that I’d look at photos and not be happy with the way I looked.”
Following her success in reaching her goal weight for her brother’s wedding, Megan chose to continue her transformation and discovered the bodybuilding scene in 2022.
She said: “I lost about two stone by the time of the wedding and I wanted to lose more.
“I was swimming in the morning, and then most days I would go into the gym afterwards.
“It was resistance training and using the cross trainer.
“In 2023 I had a bulging disk in my back and prior to that I wanted to do something big.
“I did a photoshoot in 2022 and that instilled the idea if I did some more dieting I could be stage ready and that prompted the idea of bodybuilding.
“I was 53.7kg and that was in four years.
“I thought if I was in the best shape of my life now, how far could I take it?”.
She has since hired a coach and now takes part in competitions nationwide.
Megan said: “In my head I wanted to enter my 30s as them being my best years.
“Once I stood on stage I got the bug and I wanted to be better and better.
“I entered the PCA first timers.
“I didn’t have a coach and when I stepped on stage I felt rubbish but it set a fire within me.
“I have a coach for it now and I’m in the best shape of my life at 47.5kg.”
Megan has attributed her weight loss to the resistance training and dieting regime she has maintained throughout.
She added: “I would say the resistance training and dieting the biggest factors for weight loss.
“Weight training more than anything.
“When I was training three times a week, I would do my weights, my cardio and then in the evening I would go to farmer strong which was tyre flipping, rope climbing.
“In between that I was working full-time.
“If you want change, then you need to go and do it.
“Once you start going and taking it step by step, it becomes natural and part of your identity and part of your routine.
“It’s a rollercoaster, but it’s about the end goal of feeling happier and looking in the mirror.”
Diet before:
Breakfast: Two slices of toast with jam
Lunch: Wrap or a rice box and some chicken tenders
Dinner: A stew or heavy carb meal. Potatoes, chips, chicken breast and chips and beans
Secret eat sweets at night
Diet now:
Breakfast: protein oats
Lunch: chicken, green beans with rice or potatoes
Dinner: same for dinner
Snack: Greek yoghurt
