A Scottish mum who feared taking her daughter to Disneyland in case she wouldn't fit in plane seats or on rides has dropped five dress sizes in 10 months using weight loss medication.
Dianne Reddington, 43, said she had always been slim and fit, regularly running 10K races, eating well, and keeping active. When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, her lifestyle shifted to working from home, not eating as healthily, and not exercising – at which point she said “the weight just started to pile on”.
Prior to the pandemic, Dianne weighed nine stone and wore size 10 clothes. By the end of the pandemic she weighed 12 stone and wore size 18 clothes, describing her physique as “unrecognisable”.
Turning point at Disneyland
Following years of fad diets and no sustained progress, Dianne, who lives near Glasgow with her husband and children, considered drastic surgery in Turkey when she came across a weight loss medication programme. Since starting the medication in September 2025, she has lost three stone and now wears a size 8.
She said: “When we came out of Covid, I looked at myself in the mirror and I thought: ‘Gosh, I’m unrecognisable’. I would always fit into size 10 clothes, and I was comfortable with that. And even if I went into 12, I’m still comfortable. But then I was buying clothes that were size 16 or 18, and not even clothes that I would want to wear – it was stuff that would just hide the fat.”
“I guess a turning point for me was when my daughter said she wanted to go to Disneyland, and I’d surprised her with that for her birthday. I kept putting off booking it because I couldn’t envision being the size I am going on such a magical experience. I was just getting bigger and bigger, it just felt like I was ballooning.”
Weight loss journey
Dianne said she felt “the weight was just piling on, and I couldn’t see any way of shifting it”. She was not eating as healthily as she should be, nor exercising enough, and admitted that “at one point, I was drinking at least a bottle of wine a night”.
Throughout her diets, she struggled to stick to them and build a healthy routine. She felt constantly hungry, noticed changes in her mood, and stopped enjoying things such as going out for dinner with her family.
Booking a trip to Disneyland Paris for her daughter’s birthday in May 2025 was “a turning point”. “All I wanted to do was not embarrass my child and actually feel comfortable in photographs, feel comfortable on the flight, feel comfortable in the rides I was sitting in,” she said. “I was just mortified. I kept thinking in the back of my mind, at some point, someone’s going to say to me: ‘Oh, you can’t ride on this one’. That feeling of dread was just too much. It was horrible.”
Medication programme
Dianne became so desperate that she considered travelling to Turkey for gastric band surgery. However, one night she was scrolling through social media when she saw an advert for Numan’s weight loss programme, which prescribes GLP-1s including Mounjaro and Wegovy.
After doing her own research, she decided to take the plunge, paying £250 per month for the programme which included medication, meal and exercise plans, and app-based support. “I knew it wasn’t going to be a short-term fix for me,” Dianne said. “I needed something that provides that level of support, that motivation.”
Going through the consultation process, she said she “had to take some shameful pictures of my body, front on, side on”. “When I look back at them now, I’m so proud. But equally, at the time, I was repulsed,” she added.
Results and future
Since starting the medication in September 2025, Dianne has lost 42lbs and dropped five dress sizes, which has “changed everything”. She feels more confident, has more energy, and regained her fitness. “I’m on holiday, and I’m in a bikini for the first time in about six years, feeling comfortable,” she said. “I just feel like everything’s changed. I feel so much confidence. I’ve got so much energy.”
She now feels ready to start decreasing her medication under clinical guidance and coming off it altogether. She is also interested in switching to medication in pill form. “The last thing I want to do is just pile it all back on,” she said. “I’ve made a huge investment in this, and I’ve tried so hard to get to where I am. It feels like I’ve changed those habits over that period of time, which means that I can continue those habits as I start to wean myself away from the weight loss medication – it’s very much a mindset, and I feel like I’ve accomplished that.”
