I felt my life would start when I was smaller... it was a diet/binge cycle

BAKE OFF'S LAURA ADLINGTON TELLS HANNAH STEPHENSON WHY SHE'LL NO LONGER GIVE IN TO FAT-SHAMING

A SIZE 26, Laura Adlington is the heaviest and the happiest - she has ever been.

After years of feeling self-conscious about her weight, being trolled mercilessly on social media and having tried every diet under the sun, the runner-up in 2020's Great British Bake Off, is on a mission to help plus-size people gain body confidence and stamp out fat-shaming for good.

Since Bake Off, Laura, 34, has amassed nearly 350,000 followers on Instagram, has given up baking - "I lost my love for it after Bake Off" but calls herself a 'work in progress' when asked about her own body confidence and relationship with food.

"Secret eating for me was - and actually still is - an issue. Because I was told that certain things were bad and that I wasn't allowed them, I used to hide them away.

"Even now, I still have a little secret stash. I feel I've got to a much healthier, better place now with my kind of disordered eating, but I still struggle with cravings and binge eating."

Despite this, the plus-size fashionista and former digital manager, whose Instagram posts show off her voluptuous curves and fashion finds, says she is the heaviest she's ever been and the happiest. She hasn't weighed herself for more than a year and says she will never go on a diet again.

"I want to focus more on my health and eating more nutritious food, but no diets for me." What has made her so happy?

"I think it's rejecting the weight of other people's opinions and saying, 'You know, what? I am who I am. I'm perfectly good enough' and not bowing down to the diet culture or beauty standards that make us feel anything but.