I have lost eight stone and am in the best shape of my life - I didn't need Mounjaro or Wegovy

A woman has explained how she lost eight stone and transformed her appearance. Megan Winstanley, 31, would secretly binge on sugary snacks during the night and was unhappy with how she looked.

For years, she had watched mates swap clothes with each other, while she was forced to purchase new items every time. Yet she has now revealed her extraordinary transformation - and spelt out how she did it.

And what's more, she used no weightloss jabs at all. The most commonly prescribed ones in the UK today are Mounjaro and Wegovy - but Megan's approach was completely different.

She tipped the scales at 15st 10lbs at her heaviest. But the change all began when she dropped two stone ahead of her brother's wedding by completely overhauling her eating habits - ditching meals like chicken tenders and chips for green beans, rice and protein oats. Determined to keep going, she enrolled in an online 12-week calorie challenge - tracking her macros and calories.

She began swimming each morning for 30 minutes and has now embraced bodybuilding, shedding 8st 3lbs in total. Now weighing 7st 6lbs, she trains at the gym most days and secured second place in her latest bodybuilding contest.

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 less calories."

Megan admits she "didn't have the education around the nutrition" during her younger years and would rely too heavily on carbohydrates. She said: "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 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 target weight for her brother's wedding, Megan chose to continue her journey and discovered bodybuilding in 2022. She explained: "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.