Lifestyle: Woman loses 200lbs after she was told she is too big for insurance

A woman lost more than half her body weight after being told she was ‘too big to qualify’ for health insurance.

Afterwards, Brittany Horton, from Nashville, Tennessee, burst into tears and when she went home and stepped on the scales found she weighed 386lbs.

The 30-year-old told Today that the ‘heartbreaking’ experience was the motivation she needed to change her lifestyle immediately. Over the next three years she went on to lose 208lbs.

‘I can just look at you and tell you are too big to qualify,’ the health insurance agent told her. ‘You shouldn’t even apply.’

When the woman asked Brittany how much she weighed she could not answer because it had been months since she last checked.

She said: ‘That was the turning point for me. When I got on that scale and saw 386: I put on 40 pounds in a matter of months.’

Houghton, who is five-foot-11, and now weighs 178lbs, stopped her three fast food meal-a-day habit. Instead she bought fruit, vegetables and a scale and embarked on a strict regime of healthy eating and exercise.

She maintained a food journal, consumed 1,500 calories a day and stuck to a diet of lean meats, fruit and vegetables. Nine months later she had shed 80lbs.

‘It fell off. But, when you are 386 and you lose 80 pounds, you are still in the 300s,’ she said.

Since her dramatic weight loss she has managed to maintain her new weight for the last two years.

‘I’m very determined, I am very strong minded. I work to maintain it,’ she said.

As well as changing her own life, she has managed to improve that of her brother Quinton after he was diagnosed with type two diabetes.

Using his sister’s instructions and meal plan he lost 80lbs and in six months reversed his diabetes.

She advised people who want to lose weight not to be ‘hard on yourself’ and warned that sometimes they will need to put themselves first by choosing the gym over a party.