‘I FEEL AMAZING'

It took 10 years and two surgeries to lose a whopping 273kg – now Paul Tuthill is finally comfortable in his skin

- LAVERN DE VRIES

HE WAS so sure he was going to crush his wife they slept in separate bedrooms for years. His weight was affecting everything – his self-esteem, his relationship with his family and his sex life.

At his heaviest, Paul Tuthill from Inverness in Scotland, tipped the scale at 368kg. The morbidly obese 44-year-old admits he was slowly eating himself to death.

Paul, a former fitness enthusiast, started gaining weight after a back injury left him wheelchair bound. He got so big he couldn’t fit on the toilet. Unable to bathe or even go to the loo by himself, he slept in the living room with a commode.

Having to rely on his wife Pauline to take care of him left him feeling like a burden to his family and he tried to take his life several times.

When his sister offered to pay for his gastric surgery, he decided to turn his life around – but never in his wildest dreams did he imagine what an uphill struggle it would be.

Paul started eating smaller portions, cut out sugar and had weight-loss surgery. Though the surgery was a success, progress was slow, and he still battled to walk.

Through gruelling physiotherapy and sheer determination, he went from using a wheelchair to a walking frame to crutches to a walking stick within three months.

More determined than ever, he stuck to his diet and started smashing small goals for himself.

When he reached 158kg, he started cycling again. But his extreme weight loss left him with swathes of skin hanging all over his body.

In December 2020 he went under the knife where surgeons removed 5kg of excess skin. In the past two years, he’s lost a further 70kg – and his remarkable transformation has given him a new lease of life.