{"id":199205,"date":"2025-09-04T09:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/199205\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T09:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:35:10","slug":"suffolk-grandmother-competes-as-bodybuilder-after-losing-weight-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/199205\/","title":{"rendered":"Suffolk grandmother competes as bodybuilder after losing weight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"bbc-by8ykd\" role=\"text\">Image source, Shaun Whitmore\/BBC<\/p>\n<p>Image caption, Fran Smith lost more than half her body weight and now competes in bodybuilding competitions<strong id=\"article-byline\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"bbc-m04vo2\">Article Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"bbc-1rvtlej\">\n<li class=\"bbc-oe8da4\">\n<ul role=\"list\" class=\"bbc-r1yif8\">\n<li>Author, Suzie Fowler-Watt<\/li>\n<li>Role,  BBC News, Suffolk<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul role=\"list\" class=\"bbc-r1yif8\">\n<li>Author, Alice Cunningham<\/li>\n<li>Role,  BBC News, Suffolk<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"bbc-1clfxfc\">\n<p>4 hours ago<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"bbc-1clfxfc\"\/><\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">A 58-year-old grandmother who has lost more than half her body weight said she felt like a &#8220;winner&#8221; when she now competes as a bodybuilder.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">Fran Smith from Marlesford, near Framlingham, Suffolk, started a weight loss journey 12 years ago when she weighed 20 stone (127kg).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">During her journey, she developed a love for the gym and weightlifting and later began entering bodybuilding competitions, some in which she has scored highly.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">Ms Smith now weighs nine stone (57kg) and said her bodybuilding passion had meant her grandchildren thought of her as &#8220;pretty cool&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;The children had just about left home, there was six of them, and I suddenly realised there was still me,&#8221; Ms Smith said of the start of her journey.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;I had tried every diet in the book and it hadn&#8217;t worked.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"bbc-by8ykd\" role=\"text\">Image source, Shaun Whitmore\/BBC<\/p>\n<p>Image caption, Ms Smith said the gym and bodybuilding had changed her life<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">Ms Smith began to lose weight slowly by changing her diet and exercising, and gained confidence to start working out in a gym.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;I&#8217;d lost about four stone (25kg) and I started in the gym, and I haven&#8217;t looked back,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">She has competed in several bodybuilding competitions as a natural competitor who does not take body enhancing drugs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bbc-by8ykd\" role=\"text\">Image source, Contributed<\/p>\n<p>Image caption, Ms Smith said she always felt like a winner during competitions after her weight loss<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t have to necessarily win because I&#8217;ve already won on that stage from where I started,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;I can&#8217;t explain to people how that feels.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;From being overweight, been through the menopause and having so many children, the female body is incredible and very forgiving.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;This is why I chose to go down the natural route because I wanted to see what my body is capable of.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;I haven&#8217;t got the perfect bodybuilding body, but the expression you are what you eat is so true, especially for a bodybuilder.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">&#8220;I have seen my body change dramatically and I kind of like what I see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"bbc-hhl7in e17g058b0\">Ms Smith wanted to encourage other older women to take up exercising to &#8220;lift their endorphins and feel good about themselves&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"bbc-1jgawt3\" id=\"Get-in-touch\">Get in touch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"bbc-l8i50e\">Do you have a story suggestion for Suffolk?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image source, Shaun Whitmore\/BBC Image caption, Fran Smith lost more than half her body weight and now competes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":199067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1198,210,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-199205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115145351313919940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}