Agree entirely. The basics of educational requirements are a stopper. In the essay stage if you can't write you're done. No point sugar coating it, better you get the advice and work on it, plenty of others out there will.
Add into that the tap being (markedly) reduced and the level of competition increases even further. That said, as has also been covered, go for it. motivation is a big part of it - but only a part.
Loosing weight is one thing, but academics are something else. if God gave you a Pentium Quad Pro Google Pixel Mega Processor then great, if he gave you a 286 then you're stuffed. Period. We can knock the corners off a bit, but you're stuck with it.