Man loses half his weight after 'ultimate humilation' on rollercoaster

Craig Stokes lost half his weight after a humiliating rollercoaster experience.

Craig was on his nephew’s stag do to Thorpe Park in 2022 when he was forced to get off the Stealth ride because he was too big for the seat. Several people tried to help strap him in but they could not do up the harness around his 23st frame.

He was forced to get off in front of all his friends and family, as well as the strangers queuing and said it was the “ultimate most embarrassing moment”. Craig, 43, said that moment, and seeing how overweight he looked in the following wedding pictures, made him change his lifestyle.

He signed up to Slimming World and started running and has since dropped from 23st 3lb to 11st 8lb and shrunk his waist by a whopping 26 inches.

Before the weightloss he struggled to walk his dog round the block without getting out of breath. Now he has run a half marathon in an impressive time of 1hr 45m and has signed up to do the London Marathon next year.

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Craig, a managing director of a financial advisor company, saw his weight balloon during the Covid lockdown when he began comfort eating. The weight crept on over the following two years until his waist was 58ins.

Craig, from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: “The trigger was my nephew’s stag do in summer 2022. At that time I was my heaviest and really unfit.

“I went to Thorpe Park and they tried to get me on the rollercoaster, several of them tried to close the restraints but they physically couldn’t do it up and I had to get off the ride in front of all my friends and family and all these strangers.

“It was the ultimate most embarrassing moment of my life. The wedding pictures were the most horrific photos of me, I was embarrassed about the way I looked. But it’s sort of come full circle now, I went back to Thorpe Park with my other nephew two weeks ago and I went on everything, including Stealth. And I’m going to be best man for his wedding next year and I cannot wait to be in those wedding photos because it’s going to be such a different feeling.”

Craig said he had always suffered with his weight and was even bullied at school but he had never done anything about it. He said: “I moved to for work right at the beginning of the Covid lockdown, that didn’t help at all. I became inactive and started comfort eating and I was in a dark place.

“I couldn’t walk round the block with my dog and going on parties with work I couldn’t walk between venues. I had previously loved football and tennis, I had been active before but my life had just completely changed. My health was really poor, I had sleep apnoea, which was scary for me and my partner, and I was then falling asleep at work.

“I was eating takeaways three or four times a week. I could eat a large pizza with sides to myself. Everything that was bad for you, I was eating it so I had to change my mindset. My goal was to lose half my body weight. At first I didn’t have the ability to exercise because I was just too big so the first six months or so was just about eating more healthily.

“I didn’t even start walking properly until I had lost 5st. Then I joined the gym. I’ve never been a runner but about eight months ago I decided to take up running. I had never even run 5k before and now I’ve completed a half marathon. I started by walking 5k and then running in short bursts and walking the rest. Then I did my first park run four months ago.

“Before I couldn’t buy clothes in shops, because they didn’t make things big enough, I had to get everything online. It was a horrible experience. Now I fit into a small. I’ve got a bit of imposter syndrome about that because I’ve never seen myself as small. My life couldn’t be any more different now. I feel so positive, happy and active. I secured my dream job, which I never would have had the confidence to even interview for before. I’m the healthiest I’ve been in my whole life.”

Craig also finished in the top 10 for Slimming World’s Man of the Year in May, competing against 33,000 other men.

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