Claire, ‘I've Won My Body Battle'

After enduring years of diet hell, the Steps singer seems to have finally beaten her demons thanks to an amazing six stone weight loss.

She found fame with chart-topping pop band Steps – but Claire Richards has become just as well known for her wildly fluctuating figure and public weight battle, which has seen her yo-yo between a size 10 to 20 for most of her adult life.

After admitting food was ‘like a drug’, Claire, 41, appears to have conquered her addiction, shedding an incredible six stone and embracing a permanent lifestyle change. We look at her weight loss roller-coaster and the secrets behind her transformation.

EATING DISORDERS

Claire was renowned for her high octane dance moves and washboard stomach in Steps, but the singer confessed she ‘starved herself’ and struggled with bulimia and anorexia during her years with the band.

She admitted, ‘I ate as little as I could possibly get away with.’ When Steps split in 2001, Claire turned to comfort food to cope as she struggled with crippling depression amid the break-up of her first marriage to Mark Webb. Within five years, her weight had ballooned from 8st 7lb to 16st 7lb and her self-esteem hit rock bottom.