Man shed 23 stone after surgery

A man who lost more than 23 stone after weight-loss surgery has hailed the procedure for changing his life.

Wayne Mentessi, 33, tipped the scales at 38 stone four years ago as he gorged on a daily diet of junk food and fizzy drinks.

But after undergoing two obesity operations, the finance manager from Southend in England has seen his weight plummet to just 14 stone 11 pounds.

“It’s changed my life,” he said.

“Years ago I’d go to hospital and drive across the car park from one part of the building to another so I wouldn’t have to walk the short distance.

“My mobility is 100% now. I’m able to socialise

“I wasn’t bound to the house before but I wouldn’t go out if it was not a short distance from a car park.”

Mr Mentessi said he began comfort eating as a child when he struggled with “social anxiety”. His mother died when he was a baby and he was brought up by his grandparents.

At his heaviest, he revealed he would typically have a McDonald’s breakfast before snacking on crisps and drinking fizzy drinks.

At lunch he would have takeaway, often kebab and chips, before stopping for more McDonald’s food on his way home from work ahead of his evening meal.

“My palate has completely changed since then,” he said.

Mr Mentessi said the turning point came when he suffered a blood clot on his lung around five years ago, and he was forced to travel to hospital in a bariatric ambulance because of his heavy weight.

“It made me realise my weight was an infliction on them as well as me,” he said. “It was rather embarrassing.”

Mr Mentessi lost around seven stone before undergoing a sleeve gastrectomy operation in April 2013. He also had duodenal switch procedure earlier this year.

A report by the National Bariatric Surgery Registry (NBSR), which looked at more than 18,200 weight-loss procedures from 2011 to 2013, has claimed obesity operations could offer “significant financial savings to the healthcare economy”.

It found more than 65% of obese patients with type two diabetes showed no sign of the condition two years after weight loss surgery, and on average, patients lost 58% of their excess weight a year after surgery.