Two women have lost an incredible 16 stone between them thanks to swapping calorific foods for a healthier lifestyle.

Emily Grosvenor, of North Lane, Canterbury, at one point felt too self-conscious to leave her home, but now feels "optimistic and so young" after dropping half her body weight in less than two years.

And Jane Lockyer, from Cheney Road, Faversham, has been ticking items off her bucket list - including a skydive - that only a year ago seemed a distant prospect.

Emily decided it was time for a change in August 2016 after comfort eating while working as a primary school teacher.

She said: “I slipped into it when I got together with my husband, Phil.

"I changed the habits that I had as a young woman, and became a bit reliant on convenience food.”

Feeling stressed and overworked, the 42-year-old used to grab breakfast on the go, reach for bags of crisps for snacks and get takeaways as often as three times a week.

“I was in a bit of a low place and I had got into a bit of a rut,” she said.

“I wanted to go back to school with a new outlook and a new attitude.

"So I just thought, I’m going to give it a go.”

After joining Canterbury Slimming World weighing 18 stone six, by May this year, Emily had lost a staggering nine stone.

“I really upped the amount of fruit and vegetables I ate. I started enjoying cooking again, and felt in control of myself,” she continued.

“Because I had quite a lot of weight to lose, I would break it down into little manageable chunks and make it less intimidating.”

Simple changes such as having a bigger breakfast - usually Weetabix, yoghurt and fruit - to help avoid snacking, have earned Emily a place at the Slimming World district final in September.

Her weight loss also gave her the confidence to make bigger changes to her life, and after moving from London to Canterbury with her husband last April, she is now retraining as a beauty therapist.

“People have commented that I look years younger. I feel completely different. It doesn’t feel like the old me,” she said.

Similarly Jane, 50, decided to take control when she boarded a plane to go on holiday to Cyprus last year, weighing 21 stone seven, and had to use a seatbelt extension.

She said: “It was the most embarrassing feeling ever. I thought right, when I get home, everything is going to change.”

After walking into Slimming World “terrified” four days after arriving back in England, she took up home cooking and has now dropped seven stone.

“I had no education on what to eat that was healthy,” she continued.

“It was all that I had ever known, unhealthy food.

“Breakfast would be two or three packets of crisps. I’d go to the chip shop for lunch, and then go back again in the evening, because it was convenient.

"That was all I knew, and that I was brought up on.”

Losing weight didn’t come without its struggles for the mother-of-two, who has been named Faversham Slimming World’s Woman of the Year.

“If I went out with my family, they would say let’s have a McDonalds or a Burger King.

"That was difficult when we were eating out,” she continued.

But, having persevered, Jane has found a new lease of life and recently rode a horse for the first time since the age of 14.

“That feeling was just amazing. I got on that horse and it was like going back in time.”

Having also done a skydive, she is now planning a wingwalk.

“I was smiling in the plane, and I was smiling when I was falling out of the sky, and I was smiling when I landed,” she said.

“If I can jump out of a plane, I can stand on the wing of it too.

“My personality has come out. I feel like I’m living, whereas I used to feel like I was always saying no, I can’t do that, I can’t do this.

"I wouldn’t dance at parties, because I was the biggest one there.

“Even going to the petrol station, I have people saying, you look amazing, and it makes me walk on air for five minutes.

“I feel alive and I feel like a different person. It’s just unbelievable.”