Never Diet Again with Max Lowery

#86 How Helen Lost 92lbs without Dieting

• Max Lowery

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I Was Desperate. Nothing Worked. Then Everything Changed!

Have you ever felt like you’re dragging yourself through life…
Uncomfortable in your body, avoiding mirrors, and wondering how it got this bad?

That was Helen. Stuck in a cycle of shame, frustration, and failed attempts at weight loss. She tried everything:
❌ Fad diets
❌ Meal replacements
❌ NHS programs that took forever
❌ Even hypnotherapy and gastric band hypnosis

Nothing worked.
 And worse, she felt alone, judged, and desperate for real change.

But today, Helen is 90 pounds lighter, more confident than ever, and finally enjoying her life again without restriction, food guilt, or missing out on the things she loves.

In this raw and powerful episode, Helen shares:

  • The emotional cost of carrying excess weight
  • Why traditional weight loss methods made her feel worse, not better
  • The internal shame no one talks about and how she overcame it
  • How she found success without giving up real food or her social life
  • The one thing she realized was missing from everything she’d tried before
“It wasn’t just about losing weight. It was about getting my life back.”

Whether you’re looking into NHS help, stuck in another fad diet, or just tired of obsessing over food…
 This episode will speak to your soul.

Watch my The Cravings & Fat-Burning Masterclass:  https://www.neverdietagainmethod.uk/register-podcast

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/max.lowery/

Book a Food Freedom Breakthrough Call: https://www.neverdietagainmethod.uk/call-ig



Max:

Oh Helen, thank you very much for agreeing to do this. I think a good place to start, you just set the scene. What was life like for you before you started Live360?

Helen:

Yeah, absolutely. So um in some ways it's hard to remember because I feel I feel so different now. So I'd been struggling with my weight for many, many years. Um and I'd tried various kind of like fad diets. Um I think I'd got to the stage where I really felt pretty desperate, starting to look into things like weight loss surgery. Um, this was kind of probably just before injections came into the forefront. And I was just looking at the early stages of that, really inquiring, and there was no way I could afford anything privately, and then I was kind of investigating NHS stuff, and that was going to take ages as well. And I I felt pretty desperate. I felt very um like I was kind of physically and mentally dragging myself around. Felt really uncomfortable with my body and had no energy at all. Was finding and it was stopping me doing things that I wanted to do. I was sort of getting to the stage where like there were certain weight limits on things, whether it was activities or kind of practical things like concerns about flying and being able to fit in seats and what I'd do then. And it was kind of it was getting to yeah, it was stopping me doing things, and I was very unhappy, very unhappy about it.

Max:

How do you create a life that allows you to lose weight, eat the foods that you love, and sustain the results? Over the last ten years, I've helped thousands of people do exactly that. I'm Max Lowery, I'm an author, personal trainer, and weight loss coach. In this podcast, I'm gonna share my top tips and tricks from within my one-on-one coaching program. It's my goal to give you the tools and the understanding so that you never diet again. Thanks for sharing. And yeah, it's interesting how we talk about this in the programme, uh, something called the fading effect bias. How obviously at that moment in time it was really, you know, not in a good place at all, starting to go down the route of some quite extreme solutions. But obviously, you've been th with us for I think a year and a half or so, and don't even remember what that was like anymore.

Helen:

No, no, but I think just my day-to-day life is so different. It's so different now. Um what I do, the things I can get up to, the the sort of new things I've tried, adventures I've I've been on, and things that I kind of sort of like or the physical side of it is fantastic and feeling so much happier. But yeah, I felt pretty ashamed like the size I was and my with my whole sort of health and fitness before, and I'm I don't have that now, um, which is fantastic. Yeah.

Max:

Excellent. What else had you tried to lose weight?

Helen:

Oh god, starting back to when I was like in my probably late teens, obviously kind of growing up with influence from family, and there was always a kind of quite an obsession with weight on both both sides, making m the women in sort of both sides of my family, and I remember doing I really didn't need to, but I ended up doing like a sort of cabbage soup diet as a teenager and just so I think that was my that was a kind of introduct introduction to it. And I think when I finished uni, I think I was quite down mentally and I um put on a a good bit of weight then and I tried the um lighter life. So quite extreme soups and shakes and absolutely disgusting things that like s bars that taste of cardboard and absolutely revolting stuff. So I was probably like in my sort of mid-twenties then, um, lost a good bit of weight, got to the end, absolutely nothing put in place as to what I could do then. And I'd also massively like withdrawn from anything social when I was doing that, because it just became everything revolved around it. I couldn't eat out, I couldn't go to the pub. I um I just completely withdrew um because I didn't know how else to how else to manage it. I didn't seem possible. And then since then I've I have done um yeah, another another kind of like soups and shake things that you get through the post. I've tried the fast diet, which I personally I found I was just obsessing about food on the f on the reduced sort of like calorie days, absolutely obsessive with it. I couldn't think about anything else and um really struggled with that. I think I've tried, I think I've had like oh I've had um a uh hypnotherapy gastric band, apparently. But never heard of that. Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, I I that did absolutely nothing. Uh it's quite relaxing, but that's about it. Um so a lot, yeah, a lot of things. Um it was always quite drastic things, um, things that kind of meant that I withdrew from friendships and things socially, which was terrible for me, absolutely terrible. Um, or things that were so restrictive that I would just be constantly thinking about food, which did not help. So yeah, quite quite a few things. Um and I think when I originally saw one of your posts, I what I felt I needed was that that one-to-one coaching or that personalised thing, and I couldn't I hadn't seen it in any other avenues, and there's certainly the unfortunately the NHs weren't able to offer me that.

Max:

So is that the main thing that uh you were looking for? You realise you'd done all these things, you needed something different.

Helen:

I yeah, absolutely. I I needed that um I did need that kind of closer direction, that sort of accountability, and for me it felt like a ver a good time for like to commit to a yeah, commit to a big a big change. But yeah, I needed that I didn't want to go to a thing where you get weighed in front of 30 people once a week and know that everyone's talking about what cheap meal they're gonna have on the way home. They're going past the chicken on the way home after in and just I I knew that wouldn't work for me, it's not why not what I needed. And I kind of wanted to go back to look at my nutrition. Although I fortunately in some ways I won't eat anything and I love fruit and veg and whole food, and that I did want to look again at have some guidance on nutrition as well. Um and and look at how what I was cooking. It has to be, yeah, it had to be something that would fit into my life and that could I could maintain long term. I didn't want it to be a flash in the pan thing that that's yeah, that's why I thought this this program would be great for that.

Max:

Do you remember what you thought when you first kind of heard about how it worked? Whether was there hesitation or was there any skepticism?

Helen:

Um I don't know. The things that I'd obviously seen you say in one your advert clicked and it sounded I don't know, yeah, it's hard. It can it can sound a bit too good to be true. Because it sounded it sounded yeah, it did yeah, it sounded very it sounded sensible. It sounded what I want wanted to do, and I was like, oh this this does sound perfect. But yeah, it's a it's a gamble, and I guess I've tried other things in the past and I've kind of been like, oh, this is gonna be the miracle fix. Um so yeah, it did sound great, but it great, but it was like there was an element of is this too good to be true? And also I think judging myself on my past record of of things that I've tried, um, I think it was more a case of can I do this and can I yeah, can I commit and make this work?

Max:

Yeah, and to be honest, it does sound too good to be true.

Helen:

Yeah.

Max:

Because really what we have taught you and we teach everyone is how to lose weight and enjoy life. Yeah. How to lose weight and go out for dinner, how to lose weight and go on a holiday. And that sounds too good to be true, especially if you've come from a place of uh extreme restriction, um slimming clubs, uh meal replacement shakes and soups, etc. Um, so it does sound so good to be true, but think of it this way. If you're if the the objective is long-term success, yeah, the only way you're going to achieve long-term success is if you do it in a way that is enjoyable.

Helen:

Yeah, absolutely. It's got to, it's got to be um enjoyable and I s yeah, I can see the long-term, you know, yeah, possibilities of it. And uh also sort of I think every now and again I'm kind of something clicks and I was like, oh, this is this is how this is how people do it. This is real life, isn't it? This is not um, you know, this is still going out and enjoying things and enjoying food. Um yeah. So every now and again that kind of it's like well, yeah, that's great.

Max:

Really quick one for me guys. I don't run ads on this podcast, and I do aim to give you as many high-value tips and tricks as I can for free. All I ask in return is that you help me spread the word. That way I can help as many people as I can to never diet again. The way to do that is to rate, review, and share this podcast. A review will only take 30 seconds, but it would mean the world to me, but more importantly, it could help change the life of someone else. Yeah, and then it sounds like even though you were faced with something that sounded perfect and it clicked, there was this fear that, oh, I've tried all these other things, I felt like this before. What if this doesn't work? Is that is that right?

Helen:

Oh, absolutely, yeah. Um, I was thinking, I don't know who is this random man on the internet. Um, you know, could be anyone. And I think also, yeah, I I haven't done anything um that wasn't either on my own or kind of like in the group setting. So there was definitely that element of like, this is this is weird. And you know, you the fact that you live in a different country to me as well. I was like, oh, it's all yeah, so there's that is a lot of unknown. Um and and I think I can imagine for people perhaps like people's partners or family members that you tell them that you're gonna start to do this, they can think, oh the this is this is a bit dodgy, isn't it? You were great at um kind of offering to chat to people close to me that might have been worried, and I really appreciated that. I didn't didn't end up doing it, but I really appreciated the offer. Um yeah, it's it's yeah, that is quite scary. Um completely unknown.

Max:

So yeah, it's different, you know. As as you say, essentially I'm just a stranger on the internet.

Helen:

Yeah.

Max:

Like let's just be honest. Um there are there are lots of scams around, there are there are all sorts of people who don't have your best interests at heart, and it is it's sometimes really hard to explain to loved ones what you're doing, and there can be a very high level level of scepticism.

Helen:

Yeah.

Max:

Um but ultimately this is how how life is now. You know, there are people that it's the benefit of the internet, isn't it? You know?

Helen:

I think there was a kind of probably some internalized like shame or embarrassment for me about it as well, because having kind of lost weight and then put it back on again multiple times over the years, it was um yeah, that that was kind of like in the back of my mind because I was thinking, are people thinking oh she's this is not gonna work, this is another thing.

Max:

And another thing, yeah. Not again.

Helen:

I don't think they were thinking that, but then also I just had to yeah, put that behind me. Um I I really don't think they were, and I think I I think I was kind of like a bit I didn't tell everyone the whole thing straight away. But then also the whole nature of it is that it's not something wild that you're doing. I'm not going out taking a milkshake or a packet of soup to a you know, to someone's house for dinner. I can um that's kind of weird because um I think when you sort of like start, you know, you're kind of potentially eating out or going to someone's house and you're sort of it's that's that's a bit of a weird feeling.

Max:

Um Was there anything specific that you thought maybe wouldn't work for you?

Helen:

Um obviously there's an element of kind of working out kind of how much you need to eat and logging food at first. So I think I was concerned that I would be into this go into this kind of mindset of constantly thinking about food and being hungry and obsessing about when am I gonna eat next because I'm on this you know, I can only have however tiny amount of calories a day. So I think that was Yeah, I was afraid I was afraid of being hungry, actually. I was. Um so that was that yeah, I was afraid of obsessing about food and Yeah, and being hungry and how that would affect me, whether that makes me an absolutely miserable person to be around. Um, yeah, how I would manage it in social situations because I was I was so conscious that I didn't want to withdraw from anything socially again. Yeah, that was that was a concern for me, definitely. I think also it wasn't a concern, but it was something different. Although it's a big change, it's also quite quite gentle. It's not like uh I didn't start doing it and also I wasn't also told that you've got to go to the gym five times a week to do this and that. So it was a it was a lot of kind of re-education of um it was it was manageable, which sounds really sounds a bit of a lame description. That that's hugely important actually.

Max:

Well, yeah, that's exactly what it is.

Helen:

Yeah, it's got to, yeah.

Max:

It's gradual. Um, you know, essentially we're layering habits gradually one week at a time.

Helen:

Yeah.

Max:

Which is rather than changing everything at once.

Helen:

I think, yeah, and I think I would have been totally overwhelmed if it had yeah, if it was all at once. I think that would have been the worst approach for me.

Max:

Yeah. So you felt those fears of maybe oh, I'm gonna feel hungry, I'm gonna have to be antisocial, what am I gonna have to do? Yeah. Were any of those fears valid?

Helen:

There was a slight element of hunger early on, but that was also something we approached um and sort of looking at sort of nutrition and that um that really helped and what I was eating. And that was such a brief period of time. It was really short. It was much shorter than I expected. But I was never I was never starving. It was more of a oh, I'm quite looking forward to my next to my meal, to my evening meal, um, sort of thing. Um and yeah, it was a very, very brief tick period of time, which was great. Um I'd say between like maybe the first week or two, and then it really didn't that was it. Um and I think it was kind of there was an element of getting familiar with yeah, with my body and how I felt and approaching a in you know a next meal, and it was really minimal actually, which which is yeah, it's quite surprising.

Max:

That's likely when you were transitioning from a sugar burner to a fat burner.

Helen:

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Max:

Yeah, yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

Max:

That is probably in terms of the physiological side and reforming how you eat, that is often the most difficult part. Um the physiological side, obviously the emotional psychological side that's harder and takes longer, but the in terms of that, yeah, that that's because you can feel groggy, lethargic, you can be obsessing about food, low mood, all this kind of stuff. But it doesn't last long. Um so yeah, what you describe sounds exactly like that. What would you say surprised you most about the programme?

Helen:

I didn't think that I would make such connections with people from something that is done online. And yeah, again, yeah, not being in person, didn't expect that to happen. Um to kind of like to care about other people that are doing it so much. And um yeah, so that was a that was a complete surprise. I think again, going back into that what you said about it it being quite gradual and slowly bringing things in, I just assumed that you had to do everything at once. And if you didn't do that, you're a failure. And so yeah, so that was a that was a kind of surprise, and it that was different to anything I'd done before.

Max:

Yeah, so everything within Live360 is intentional. So the community isn't there because it's just random, it's because science says if you're part of a supportive community, you're more likely to succeed. Uh, and plus it's fun.

Helen:

So it is fun, yeah.

Max:

Yeah. And it's it's I'm really proud of what we've achieved with the community. And it's great that you guys are all friends and you know meet up in real life and speak to each other outside of the programme as well. That that's like it's it's exceeded my expectations for sure. What would you say is the biggest difference between Live360 and the other things that you've tried in the past?

Helen:

I feel I think so. I think it's having someone who is uh really knowledgeable about all elements of uh kind of like you know, nutrition, exercise, mindset, covering the whole gamut. And I always like the fact that you're obviously regularly reading things and discovering new things to do with to do with mindset or to do with the physiological side of it. Um I feel like lots of things that I've done in the past, it's so I feel like that you've got a real genuine interest in it. Uh the whole kind of you know, the science behind it and the theory and all that. So I think there's there's a lot more that goes into the the mindset side and the psychological side, which is hugely important. And we delve really deep and you're really open with us, which is wonderful because it encourages us, and it's nice to know, yeah, to know you as a human being as well, if that makes sense.

Max:

You know, yeah, that makes perfect sense. And without obviously blowing our own trumpet, but I think there's not many people who do what we do, uh, which is combine the mindset, the psychology, the emotional stuff with nutrition and exercise. People are usually doing things separately, they go to therapy, yes, but the therapist has no idea about nutrition or exercise. Absolutely. They go to nutritionist, the nutrition nutritionist knows nothing about mindset or exercise. Yeah. They go to a PT, the PT has if they do have some understanding of nutrition, it's literally calories and macros. Yeah. Uh but no understanding of mindset and behavioural change, and often no experience of women over the age of 40 as well. Yeah. And so really live through 60 is is all of that in one package, um, which is why it works. How would you say your mindset and relationship with food has shifted?

Helen:

Well, I don't obsess about food, which is fantastic. Um it's shifted hugely. There is I still I know that this is gonna be a long-term thing for me, um, sort of changing the way I think about things. I have a lot less thinking of food in t in very black and white terms of good, bad, or um or that's you know, things are naughty, you can't have that sort of thing. So I uh I think I I grew up with a lot of that and that's been really hard to shift that certain foods are yeah, are kind of bad and good. So I think that has been a huge thing for me to to overcome. What I've realised is that I changing the way I think and losing that way of thinking, I am a lot more relaxed around food and less anxious about whether it's thinking it's good, bad, whatever. Um and that in turn affects my decision making is quite a big thing for me. Um whereas I think in the past I was very like, oh, I that's really that's bad food, that's really naughty, I shouldn't have it, and therefore maybe want it so much more. Um, because there was definitely that sort of I guess it was a bit of a rebellious child thing, thinking, I won I want to do that. Looking at things kind of that um that element of zooming out about what I eat and how I eat through you know, throughout the week, throughout a month, throughout a year, remembering that things like birthdays, you know, don't happen very often. I only have one a year. Um and when you zoom out, it's just such a sort of small part of um what I eat eat in a year and it becomes less of a less of a kind of like a there's less anxiety around it and hopefully more bit more enjoyment. I enjoy those occasions more now. I I really do. I think like I it was my mum's birthday the weekend and I feel like almost enjoy food more because I'm I don't have that association with it or it's it's incredibly faint, still still working on it, but yeah.

Max:

Less guilt.

Helen:

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Max:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it makes perfect sense. Uh if you're you've removed the guilt around food, there's no such thing as good or bad foods. You've learned how to zoom out and understand that actually I can go out for a birthday, enjoy time with my family, eat what I want, and still get results. And yeah, I think it's really important because lots of people listening to this now, it's they're probably at this stage how you were before, where it's normal to go to a birthday with your family, your mum's birthday, and to basically be secretly feeling anxious and not enjoying it and being really stressed about the the food. And that's just normal. I mean that you're not enjoying life. That's a fundamental part of life if you're not able to enjoy those kinds of moments. So to hear the fact that you're now enjoying them all means a lot to me as your coach. On the topic of weight loss, everyone always wants to hear how much weight have you lost?

Helen:

I um I haven't checked today, I'm about 45 kilos. Yeah.

Max:

That's 90 pounds or so.

Helen:

Yes. Um bit more actually. When I started this, I decided to measure it in kilos rather than what I'd always done stone. I don't know why, but it was part of a thing that it felt like no, this is a whole new approach and a new tractor. So that's that's kind of what I'm saying. So I don't but I think it's about it's about seven or something stone, which is incredible. Yeah, the ultimatum, really. Yeah.

Max:

What have you gained beyond weight loss?

Helen:

My activity levels have just gone through the roof and I I knew I liked certain kind of elements of you know, I liked getting outside and I liked I quite liked kind of going to the gym, but I didn't think that I would ever become be classed as an active person, but perhaps I am. I think maybe I am might be up. Yeah, which is safe, which is um uh which is wild, yeah. Just wasn't wasn't expecting that. That I am continuing to find ways to sort of like push myself and challenge myself physically and you know, things that do kind of like scare me a bit, like going I've recently started some CrossFit classes and they are full on and chall really challenging. The fact that I've been able to go is huge. The fact that I feel like I've reached a certain level of fitness for me personally where I could go and attempt these things is great, and also the way I'm looking at these sessions is I think is really positive for me because they are hard they are hard and there are a lot of things I can't do at these sessions. But I um fortunately there's lots of sort of like ways of scaling it, and I'm saying to myself, I'm not letting that put me off. I'm looking at my own ways, you know, my own personal uh kind of like goals that I'm whether it's a bit more coordination or whether I can, you know, I'm building up to certain things. So I think that my attitude towards how I'm approaching that is quite different to how it would have been in the past because it would have been a very much all or nothing, oh I've failed at this the first time, so I can I can't do it. I'm rubbish. I think I was quite, yeah, pretty hard on my so yeah. One thing to be active, I think, for my physical health, for my mental health, because I find it hugely, hugely beneficial for that. And also I think thinking about like long term and my future health as I get older, which is it's I think when at the start of this programme I felt very negative about that and it was I was thinking how what is gonna I was kind of I'd had like an over 40s medical check, things were kind of just about okay in terms of cholesterol and stuff like that, but I was really pushing it and I yeah, I was really in the you know that in the back of my mind there was quite a bit of concern about what how am I gonna manage as I get older. Um and I am single and don't have any don't necessarily have anyone to kind of um you know that's necessarily gonna look like look after me. So I was like thinking, right, I really need to think about that. I need to look after myself. I'm aware of how I'm probably in perimenopause or just like on the verge of it. I I think um I'm aware of how my body will change and how important it is to look after myself and I yeah, that's that is a big focus. I don't want to go back to where I was. I want to do the best I can um to keep myself as well as possible as I get older.

Max:

Yeah, I think it's really funny that you that you uh talked about how you oh you're now an active person.

Helen:

Yeah.

Max:

Because that's really the identity shift which we try to achieve with everyone is seeing yourself and think of yourself in a very different way. And I want to be clear to anyone listening as well. In the 90-day programme, we don't really talk about exercise at all. Um we actually wait for our clients, like uh you can explain this happened with you, but yeah, we usually wait for our clients to start asking us about exercise.

Helen:

Yeah, absolutely.

Max:

Then we, you know, then we'll advise on it because it has to be you have to be ready for it, you have to be done for the right reasons, and we have to hopefully remove the association with exercise and weight loss, because it never becomes a way of life if you're only exercising because you hate how you look or you hate your body.

Helen:

And I'd I'd always done that in the past and it was quite a relief because like I said, I think I would have been totally overwhelmed if I'd gone full on for that as well. And yeah, and it just enables you to focus on on sort of like the basics um and just the simple things like upping your step count. It was a long time before I went back and started in the gym again, but I had achieved so much by just walking uh and just the kind of you know, just changing the way I I ate.

Max:

Yeah, then it kind of becomes a virtuous cycle where you've lost a load of weight, you feel more confident, you have more energy, you want to move more, you move more, more weight comes off, weight stays off.

Helen:

Yeah.

Max:

Rather than the vicious cycle which you were in at the start, where getting heavier, more difficult to move, less movement, more weight.

Helen:

Absolutely. I was driving everywhere, um, I had no energy, and then I was definitely eating a lot of kind of yeah, high sugar, high fat things to because I thought they would give me a boost, which they did for a minute, and then that was it. So um yeah, it's it's a it's a huge change.

Max:

Final question. What would you say to someone who is sitting on the fence about joining really wants to, but is sceptical because they've tried everything and they think it's not gonna work?

Helen:

I well, I really do think I've tried everything before. Um and and it is work uh it it has it is working. It it's um yeah, it's been a fantastic change. I think you do have to be ready to commit to it and to commit to yourself. Um but it is yeah, it is just yourself, you know, you're you're doing it for. I really enjoyed the kind of uh, you know, starting with a bit of a blank slate, really, that side of it. You're gonna have the the the two weeks, absolutely tie that, make the make the most of that, see what it's all about, engage with the with the group, chat to people, look at their posts. There's some amazing sort of like stories and tips and things from people on there. But Yeah, 100% go for it. Just just do it for yourself and um yeah. Just just go for it.

Max:

Cool. Thank you very much, Helen, for opening up and sharing. Really appreciate it. And yeah, looking forward to seeing what we can achieve over the next few months.

Helen:

Absolutely.