From size 30 to size 12! How did Lisa Riley lose so much weight over 14 months? The actress, known for her role as Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale, has revealed the secret of her stunning weight loss.
Let me give you a heads up – Lisa Riley’s body transformation isn’t the result of a magic spell of a weight loss fairy. Her hard work and determination helped her shed the fat. And that’s why she’s able to sustain the weight loss.
If you want to lose weight and maintain the weight loss, this article is for you. It will help you strategize your weight loss game plan and prevent regaining the weight. Read on.
Why Did Lisa Riley Decide To Lose Weight?
Lisa Riley decided to lose weight because she lost her mother (57 years old), grandfather, and two of her grandmothers to cancer. She was scared that she might be carrying the cancer gene as well.
She has always struggled with her weight, but it was not until her father got a cancer scare that Lisa Riley wanted to her to change her lifestyle and eating habits. She said, “Losing my mum then seeing my dad wired up and nearly losing him and becoming an orphan was a shock to my system. I just want my health to carry on, to live my life to the fullest.”
So, how did she do it? Here are her weight loss strategies that will work for you too! Take a look.
How Did Lisa Riley Lose Weight?
Lisa Riley had to make some basic yet tough changes to her lifestyle to lose the weight. Here’s how she went about it.
1. Motivation
Lisa Riley’s weight loss journey started in 2012. She starred in the dance show, Strictly Come Dancing, and soon lost about 4 stones. But in 2015, after her father was diagnosed with diabetes type 2, she started taking her life and health more seriously. She was determined to change her relationship with food. Lisa Riley wanted to lose weight not to fit a particular size but to improve the quality of her life and live her life to the fullest.
2. Set A Goal
Setting up a goal by writing down how much weight you are going to lose in how many weeks will keep you on track. Lisa Riley’s goal was to eat healthy every day, and that made a lot of difference 14 months later.
So, you can either make each day count or count each day of the week, and celebrate your success once or twice every month by adding 500 calories more to your diet plan. Meaning, if you are on the 1500 calorie diet, you can consume up to 2000 calories on the day you celebrate your weight loss milestone.
3. Toss Out All The Alcohol
The best thing that Lisa Riley did was to bin the alcohol. As you know, alcohol causes dehydration, which hinders metabolic reactions and causes fat accumulation. The sugar in the alcohol also gets converted to fat and gets stored in the body. You may drink a little wine once in a while and sip on fizzy water as Lisa Riley does.
4. Ditch The Chips
Lisa Riley was the queen of chips. And she ditched them for good. Chips are loaded with trans fats that are unhealthy for your body and cause heart attacks and strokes. They have no nutrition and are high in salt, making you feel hungry and thirsty even after consuming a whole bag of chips.
And what do you sip on when you are thirsty after consuming a lot of chips? Soda, of course! Soda is also loaded with sugar and calories. Unless you break this cycle, you will not be able to lose the extra pounds.
5. Curb The Carbs
Lisa Riley stopped consuming too many carbs, especially bread and pasta. Also, she doesn’t consume carbs after 6:30 p.m. She revealed in an interview, “I only eat a carb if I need one and absolutely no bread.”
You can consume good carbs like veggies and fruits but ditch the refined flour, cake, pastry, white rice without veggies, and mashed potato without the skin to see a visible difference in your body in two weeks’ time.
6. Move Your Body
Zumba and yoga helped Lisa Riley shed the pounds quickly. Gymming is not her thing as she finds it boring.
If gymming or parkour is your thing, go for it. The main target is to get your body moving to burn calories. So, do what drives you to get up and get your body moving.
7. Kick Start Your Weight Loss
Lisa Riley kick-started her weight loss by taking up a seven-day retreat at the Slimmeria boot camp.
Galia Granger, the diet guru at the Slimmeria boot camp, told the Daily Mirror, “I’m so proud of her. Slimeria isn’t about adopting a sustainable diet, it’s a kickstart approach to get people back on track while educating them on food so they can make lifestyle changes – exactly what Lisa has done. It annoys me when people say she’s cheated. I watched her transform before my very eyes and can tell you she did it through sheer determination and hard work. It’s not easy at the retreat and detoxing can be tough as your body cleans rubbish from your system. But, grueling as it is, it gets results, and Lisa is the proof.”
8. Toss Fad Diets Out
Fad diets don’t work most of the times, especially if you want to sustain the weight loss. Lisa Riley wanted long-term weight loss and knew that cutting down food to negligible amounts would only push her to get back to her unhealthy lifestyle. So, she followed the following diet.
Lisa Riley Weight Loss Diet
| Meals | What To Eat |
|---|---|
| Breakfast (8:00 a.m.) | 1 cup hot water with juice of 1 lemon + 1 cup porridge with honey |
| Snack (10:00 a.m.) | 1 cup black coffee + 4 almonds |
| Lunch (12:30 p.m.) | 1 cup butternut squash soup + 1 oatcake |
| Snack (3:30 p.m.) | A bowl of fruits |
| Dinner (6:00 p.m.) | Grilled cod with roasted veggies |
The foods mentioned in this diet chart are loaded with vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, protein, and healthy fats. And these food groups work together to get your metabolism firing, help you lose weight, and keep the pounds from returning.
Rumor has it that Lisa Riley had undergone weight loss surgery to lose weight. But here’s the truth…
Did Lisa Riley Undergo Weight Loss Surgery?
No, Lisa Riley did not undergo bariatric surgery to lose weight. However, after losing 12 stones, her skin had become loose, and she had to take the help of surgeons to get rid of the excess skin.
In an Instagram post, she wrote, “Just got back from the gym and had a MASSIVE tear in my eye for the ABSOLUTE good!!! It’s a year ago today, that I had my 2nd operation to complete my body and remove all the excess skin…never for one single second did I think I would achieve the weight loss, body and mind changes I went through!”
Kudos to you, Lisa Riley!
The point here is, if she could do it, you can too. Weight loss is more of a mental challenge. But if you can take it up and shed the extra weight to live a healthier life, you will see immense benefits – from fighting obesity-related diseases to reducing anxiety and depression.
And, as Lisa Riley says, “It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle…I’ve changed my life for good…living in my new body which gives me an overwhelming amount of confidence day by day. And for this, I am so blessed.” “To everyone out there…I want you to know IT’S ACHIEVABLE ONLY IF YOU WANT IT”.
Don’t stop yourself from being your best self. Cheers!
