Meet Our People: Erin Barrett

When Erin was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2021, it was a devastating blow. “I cried a lot because I know diabetes is a serious disease and I had done this to myself,” she recalls. Prescribed metformin, Erin had tried dieting and fasting beforehand, but to no avail.

A house move in 2022 marked a fresh start. Erin committed to Michael Mosley’s blood sugar diet, the Fast 800, intermittent fasting, and joined a gym. “The gym petrified me, I was the fat girl and probably laughed at,” she admits. At nearly 25 stone and 6’1″ tall, Erin persevered: “I had to remove those thoughts from my mind and get my body moving.”

While cycling initially, Erin’s real goal was weightlifting – an area that seemed male dominated. Following beginner routines, she stuck to her plan despite wanting to quit. “I started to research weightlifting for beginners and followed a free downloadable workout routine and stuck to it no matter how much I didn’t want to go to the gym.”

Combining her calorie-deficit diet with protein and shakes, Erin set ambitious targets: lose weight and squat 100kg within a year. By December 2023, she had dropped 6 stone 3lbs, could squat 110kg, and achieved remission by coming off metformin. “My favourite result was coming off metformin, I’m a diabetic in remission, I had eaten and trained myself out of diabetes,” Erin beams.

Erin dismisses naysayers who warned “you can’t”, “you shouldn’t”, and that weightlifting would make her “look like a man”. “Weightlifting does not make you big, it changes your body composition. Believe in you because you can!” she urges.

Having conquered type 2 diabetes against the odds through diet and exercise, Erin is living proof that “if I can do this you can too, its mind over matter.”