I WAS MISTAKEN FOR MY HUSBAND'S MISTRESS!

When Gemma Loveden, 38, lost l6st, a family member was convinced she was someone else...

- JULIA SIDWELL

Pushing a buggy to the shops with my six kids, sweat dripped down my back. ‘It’s not even sunny and I’m boiling,’ I thought. Then a group of teenagers walked by, their eyes widening as they saw me.

‘Come on kids, nearly there,’ I said, heart racing, and hoping more than anything that they didn’t make a comment.

It was spring 2021, and at 27st 7lb and size 28, I should have been used to people’s stares, rude gestures and laughter by now. But I wasn’t – I was absolutely mortified to be so heavy.

As a kid I was always taller than my friends, but as the years passed, I became bigger too. I tried my first diet at 13 but never managed to keep the weight off.

At 17, I moved in with my partner Guy and loved cooking tasty homemade meals, but my portions were huge and I couldn’t resist getting takeaways, too.

At 18, I fell pregnant with our first child, Crystal, and craved Ribena and sugary foods, making me more than 20st by the time she arrived.

After that, I ate anything and everything. In 2011, when Crystal was five, Guy and I had Curtis. Then, between 2016 and 2020 I had four back-to-back pregnancies, adding Cassius, Clayah, Creeson and Carmelo to our brood.

EATING TOO MUCH

Each addition to the family added another stone or so to my frame. And even a few stark words from a nurse when Carmelo was six months old didn’t shock me into making a change. My obesity was contributing to my asthma and high cholesterol.

‘If you don’t lose weight, you might not make it to your 40th birthday,’ the nurse said.

I just brushed off her comments, telling myself that baby weight can be stubborn and that it would soon fall off. But now, a few months on, pushing Carmelo and Creeson in their double buggy surrounded by their siblings, I was a hot, sweaty mess, and even though I could try and tell myself that at 5ft 9in tall I was just big boned, I knew I was in denial.