I LOST 10ST BUT IT RUINED MY SEX LIFE

Tara Brown, 39, had an unwanted result from her weight loss

- MISHAAL KHAN, NIA PRICE

As my husband Shaun walked into our bedroom, I pulled the duvet up to my neck to cover myself. You’d think I’d be showing off my slimmed-down body after losing more than 10st, but with an envelope of saggy skin hanging off my stomach, I’m nowhere near feeling confident. 

My weight problem started young. By the time I was four, my mum had taken me to the GP as she was concerned about my size, but doctors couldn’t find a reason. By eight, I could fit into adult size-14 clothes, and six years later I was 15st and struggling with anxiety and depression.

SECRET SNACKING 

I was relentlessly targeted by school bullies and stopped eating during the school day in the hope it would stop them picking on me. Yet when I got home, the hunger pangs hit and although I avoided dinner, I snacked on biscuits and crisps, whatever I could find in the cupboards. Mum and Dad didn’t say anything as I managed to snack in secret, telling them I would eat dinner later or I wasn’t hungry. The same habits continued for years.

After I left school, the pattern was set. I started the day with a coffee, went without eating most days, and finished with a takeaway.

Then, in November 2005, I started dating Shaun, then 23. By now I had two kids, aged three and nine months, from a previous relationship, and Shaun was amazing, treating them as his own. And he never made me feel bad about my 25st body. ‘I love you the way you are,’ he said.