An 18st 6lb childminder who gorges on cheese and chocolate sheds 7st after struggling to fasten size 22 skirt on Boxing Day and likes her body

An 18st 6lb childminder who gorged on cheese and chocolate was prompted to shed over 7st after struggling to button up her size-22 skirt on Boxing Day – and now likes her body for “the first time in her life.”

Bullied from the age of 12 for developing early, Anna Elmore, 51, began a long cycle of comfort eating through her early teens, secretly scoffing “slabs of cheese” and “pots of jam” in bed at night.

After years of unsuccessful dieting, when Anna. whose husband Steve Elmore, 52, is a data controller,  became pregnant with their twins, Dean and Robert, now 25, her dress size ballooned to a size 22 – and stayed there.

Desperately ignoring the scales, 5ft 1in Anna, of Thurlby, Lincolnshire, had a body mass index (BMI) used to gauge a healthy weight of 48.6 – compared to the NHS healthy range of 18.5 to 24.9 – meaning she was obese.

But it was her too tight denim skirt that made her vow to take action and join Weight Watchers (WW) in January 2021.

Now a slender 10st 12lb and a dress size 10, with a far healthier BMI of 28.6, Anna said: “For the first time in my life, I don’t hate myself.”

She added: “I have been trying to lose weight since I was 14 years old and had given up. I never thought this would happen.

“It has changed my life because now I can put this joy into everything I do and make the most of life.”

Developing curves before her peers at school, Anna said she suffered constant teasing for her weight from  the age of 12 when she was a size 12.

She said: “I was constantly told I was fat. And when people tell you you’re fat often enough, you start to believe them and comfort eat, because it doesn’t matter – you’re already fat.

“My mum would give me money for school dinners and if I got a salad the girls would say, ‘What this point in you eating that? You’re never gonna lose all that blubber’.

“So, instead of going into the lunch hall, I would spend my money in the chocolate machine and sit in the cloakroom and eat chocolate.”

At home she also began comfort eating and said: “I would take a huge slab of cheese from the fridge, about half a pound of cheese, and take it up to my bedroom and eat it at night.

“I used to mix up butter icing and take that upstairs at night or pots of jam my mum made. It was something sweet that gave me comfort.”

Heading off to Cardiff University to study Welsh Language, aged 18, Anna was a size 18 and tried to embrace her larger size.

She said: “I decided to reinvent myself and become the ‘bubbly fat girl’.

“I started smoking and cider became my best friend. I was drunk and outgoing.

“Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I would be out making myself the fool and make everybody laugh.”

She added: “But inside, I hated myself.

“Some days, I would have a meltdown and stay in my room for days then come out and just lie that I had a little bug or something.”

Meeting her husband in her second year of university, Anna managed to stay around a size 12 for a couple of years.

She said: “I met Steve in 1990 and I felt like I had found someone who genuinely liked me for who I am and made me feel appreciated.

“I was spending so much time with him. It was harder for me to eat in secret and I didn’t want him to see blocks of cheese hidden in my room.”

But leaving university to work as a manager in Waterstones in Peterborough, the daily stresses of life saw Anna return to comfort eating.

“I was like a Labrador, I just couldn’t stop,” she said.

Then, after marrying Steve in 1995, Anna was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal disorder which can cause infrequent or prolonged menstrual periods.

Anna feared she might not be able to have children, so was thrilled when she fell pregnant with her twins early the next year, aged 25 – but her weight struggles began to peak.

She said: “I just thought, ‘I’m eating for three. I can eat whatever I like and as much as I like.’

“I am 61 inches tall and eight weeks before I gave birth I was 63 inches wide.

“I was humungous, I needed a size 49H bra.”

She added: “After the boys were born, I avoided the scales for many, many years. I just thought, I am never going to lose that, so I proceeded to eat whatever I wanted.”

Snacking on cheese toasties, pizzas and portions three times the size of her husband’s, Anna said she was in “complete denial”.

“I had no idea how much I weighed, but I could only fit into a size 24,” she said.

Anna still pretended not to mind her weight – but on the inside she felt very differently about it.

She said: “I would cry about my weight privately then laugh about it with my friends. I just hated every bit of me.”

And it affected what she did with her twins when they were little.

She said: “I never took my boys swimming because there was no way I would get in the pool.

“I chose camping holidays instead of trips abroad, so I didn’t have to wear skimpy summer clothes.”

Becoming a childminder in 2008, she started to notice the weight having an impact.

She said: “I started getting out of breath running after the kids. My knees started hurting, my hips started hurting. I couldn’t kneel on the floor to change nappies, so I got a changing table.

“But I just made excuses, saying it was because I was getting older.

“I’d given up. I thought, ‘Even if you hate yourself, the people that matter around you, love you.'”

Encouraged by friends to quit smoking and lose some weight, when she turned 39, Anna managed to get down to a size 20.

But, diagnosed with adenomyosis, a painful condition where the tissue that normally lines the uterus grows into its muscular wall, a hysterectomy at 41 made losing weight even harder.

She said: “After my hysterectomy, I developed this over-riding love of chocolate. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk became my best friend.”

Anna added: “I would eat a 250g bar a day, within 20 minutes, just dunking it into my coffee.”

Then, in 2020, one of Anna’s relatives suffered heart failure, believed to be caused by their weight.

She said: “It was horrendous, seeing how it impacted them.”

But it was only on Boxing Day, when she could not fit into her skirt, that she decided to do something about her weight.

She said: “I just thought, ‘You know what? We’re not doing this anymore.'”

Immediately, Anna began searching for dieting options and stumbled on the WW app.

She said: “I realised that I could do it all online and didn’t have to face the public humiliation.

“On January 1, I threw out all the chocolate from Christmas, and got started.”

Within two weeks of using the WW recipes, Anna had lost 12lb.

With the support of her lovely husband and sons, in the months that followed, Anna lost 2-4lb every week.

But it was tackling her self-esteem and confidence that really began to make a difference.

She said: “Slowly, I started looking in the mirror and realised, ‘Actually, now I  can see my shoulder blades and my collarbone and I haven’t got all that fat on my face anymore. And you know what, it’s not too bad.'”

Dropping from a size 22 to a size 12 in one year, Anna decided to join the gym in January 2022.

And in July 2022 she hit her goal weight of 10st 12lb.

“I genuinely have never felt this kind of elation,” she said.

To celebrate her new weight, Anna has enjoyed buying herself a stunning new wardrobe – including a new pink and white off-the-shoulder dress.

She said: “I saw the dress and it was so cute and lovely and I couldn’t believe it was a size 10.”

And now, Anna is excitedly awaiting a trip back to Wales, to meet childhood friends she hasn’t seen in five years.

“I get to go back and finally say, ‘Look what I’ve managed to do’,” she said. “I will be smaller than they have ever seen me.”

For further information about WW, go to https://www.weightwatchers.com/uk/

DIET BEFORE

Breakfast – Coffee
Elevenses – Cheese on toast, chocolate biscuit and any leftover cake
Lunch – Baguette with cheese, bacon and mayonnaise
Snack – Homemade brownies or cake
Dinner – Spaghetti bolognaise, with half a block of cheese and garlic bread
Dessert – Ben and Jerry’s tub of ice cream

DIET NOW

Breakfast – 0% fat free Greek yoghurt with a banana and some blueberries with a cup of coffee
Lunch – Tuna mayo salad or sandwich with raw courgette
Dinner – Chicken and lentil curry or grilled salmon, new potatoes and tenderstem broccoli