A Plymouth GP has lost a whopping 5st 2lbs and is now able to share her own journey when motivating patients to lose weight.

Dr Katie Giddy-Pannell said due to her profession she "should know better" but with a vegan diet, a supportive exercise class, and Slimming World online, she has managed to shed some weight and control her lupus, a chronic health conditon.

The 41-year-old has undergone the dramatic transformation in just over a year and has seen drastic improvements to her health.

She said: "I was getting terrible debilitating back pain, out of breath, swollen legs. Just generally felt unhealthy, especially in the heat.I had no energy, no get up and go.

"Now, my health is better, less back pain and other joint pain, I have a chronic health condition called lupus, which is better controlled with my diet now, and the exercise."

Katie said that sharing her weight loss journey with patients makes it easier for them to relate to her and helps motivate them.

She said: "I'm a GP so I should know better but we're all humans and weight gain is so easy.

"Losing weight has made all the difference, I can be really confident when I'm encouraging patients to live a healthier lifestyle. I often share my own journey to try to help motivate them, even showing them 'before' photos."

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Katie advises anyone who wishes to lose weight to find an eating plan that suits them and to ensure that they do not make something up, as planning is key.

She said: "I would advise others to find an eating plan that suits them and stick to it, don't try to make it up, a small under-calculation in calories could mess up a lot of hard work. Eat loads of veg and group exercise is also important."

Katie credits her weight loss to RockFit, which has kept her "motivated" and has meant that she has formed life-long friendships, some of which encourage her to attend classes on days where she feels "exhausted" after work.

She added: "I've lost five stone by doing Slimming World online, RockFit and a bit of running, but it is RockFit that's kept me motivated and help change my body shape.

"I sometimes drag myself to RockFit after a busy day at work, feeling exhausted, but by the time the class is done I'm feeling great.

"There's no way I could motivate myself to exercise for an hour on my own. I can talk for ages about this, and often do to my patients."

Let there be rock - the RockFit UK top 20

AC/DC - one of the best bands to get fit to

If you want to get fit, and you want to rock, these are the tunes you need. RockFit UK says these are the most popular songs at its exercise classes.

AC/DC - Thunderstruck

Alice Cooper - Poison

Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar on Me

Disturbed - Down with the Sickness

Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast

The Knack - My Sharona

Korn - Here to Stay

Limp Bizkit - Faith

Machine Head - Message in a Bottle

Marilyn Manson - Beautiful People

Metallica - One

Motley Crue - Girls Girls Girls

Motorhead - Ace of Spades

Stevie Nicks - Maniac

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of

Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

System of a Down - Toxicity

Warrant - Cherry Pie

Rockfit is a unique fitness class which sees people of all abilities ‘rock out’ to rock and heavy metal music.

The classes, which were started in Plymouth by instructor, Hannah Hawkey have gone national and RockFit will be getting festival-goers at Download Festival 2019, in the mood by throwing shapes to AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Queen and Metalica.

Find more information on RockFit, here.

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Get in touch using katie.timms@reachplc.com , call 07584591102 or tweet me @KatieTimms94 .