A year ago, Ana Sirbu weighed 32 stone and was eager to change her lifestyle. The Romanian pizza chef, who lives in York, lost 18 stone in one year through a combination of healthy eating and weekly counselling sessions. Ana said she first started to put on weight five years ago as a result of working irregular shifts and eating pizza and chips "at the wrong time". Anna joined Lighter Life and explained her story: "I simply ate the wrong things at the wrong time, for example at 5am in the morning when I got in from work before going to sleep, which is not healthy at all. The 28-year-old said that it got to the stage where she couldn't do her usual daily tasks.  "My weight affected everything in my life. I couldn't do the housework; I couldn't even walk to the corner shop to buy a loaf of bread. "I even got turned down for a job because of my size – the manager telling me that they couldn't have anyone working in their kitchen as big as me". Ana lost 18st in a year Ana also revealed that she felt "depressed and exhausted" and it got to the point where she couldn't leave the house. "At 32st, I couldn't sleep, so much so that my boyfriend would have to wake up in the middle of the night just to check that I was still alive. It was a really scary time for everyone". Now a size 14, Ana says that the support of her family and boyfriend proved invaluable and she doesn't think she could have done it without them. '"My boyfriend was absolutely amazing. He loved me the way I was and was always supportive but my unhappiness made him unhappy and didn't allow us to lead the life we wanted to. "Now when he looks at me I can see him just explode with happiness, he is so so proud of me. 'My mother was always very worried for my health as was the rest of my family. I promised my father that the next time he would see me that I would be a completely different person and I didn't let him down". Images via Lighter Life