160lbs Weight Loss Journey with Leah Punch

For the last episode of Real Health for 2021, I’m bringing you an inspirational weight loss story. I’m joined by Leah Punch, who’s here to tell us about her incredible journey after getting a gastric by-pass. From being her heaviest at almost 22 stone, Leah has managed to lose a whopping 160 pounds. Leah says she has struggled with her weight since the age of six. After years of dieting, it was in 2017 she decided to put her name down for a gastric bypass in Ireland. However, she was told it could be up to eight years before she would be offered the surgery, which Leah says was too long to wait. “I was thinking to myself first of all, I probably won’t be alive in six to eight years and second of all, I want to change now.” That was when she decided to look abroad for the surgery, finally settling on a clinic in Lithuania. Despite losing 9 stone in the first year alone after the bypass, Leah says it wasn’t easy those few months after the operation: “It was intense going from being able to eat all this food to barely eating anything.” Now two years post op, Leah says it's all about having a balanced diet: “It's like something is after rearranging in my body. I now eat and I feel full. I never felt full before. I could always eat and eat and eat. It's just life changing.” For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/ And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from. The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.