The Photo that made me slim

Madeleine Overton, 30, was forced to face the truth about her weight

Sitting across from my doctor, I shifted nervously as she asked what had brought me there. I’d spent the last four years desperately trying to lose weight, and was slimmer than I’d been in a long time. And yet, despite my efforts, I was still dangerously obese and I didn’t know where else to ask for help.

I’d always been on the chubbier side. Through school, I was a curvy size 14, and while I played rugby, I was always heavier than most of my friends. Jonathan and I got together when I was 14, and, wrapped up in young love, I didn’t give my weight much thought. Like most teenagers, I snacked on biscuits and crisps, and by the time I left for university at 18 and 5ft 7in, my weight had crept up to 13st.

Bored and isolated

Arriving at Sheffield Hallam University to study Sociology, I couldn’t wait for a taste of freedom. But student life wasn’t what I’d expected. ‘I can’t do this,’ I realised after three months. Living away from home was really hard and​ I missed Jonathan, then 19, terribly, so I arranged to carry on remotely, studying from my parents’ house in Grimsby.

Although I visited Jonathan at his university at weekends, during the week I felt isolated. My friends had all gone to university, so I barely saw anyone. I started comfort eating, scoffing whole packets of biscuits in one sitting.

By the time I finished my degree in July 2012, I was size 24. Whenever I moaned to Jonathan about my weight, he told me he loved me no matter my size, but my self-esteem was at zero, and with my studies over and nothing to do while I job hunted, I spent whole days eating and sleeping.

Bored, I snacked on sausage rolls, pork pies, crisps and cakes, and while I knew my eating habits were far from healthy, I couldn’t muster the willpower to stop.