Reality television star Amy Childs has detailed how a vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting left her lacking body confidence, revealing how structured nutrition and strength training helped her recover after her weight previously plummeted below seven stone.
The 36-year-old saw her weight drop to 6 stone 13 following a brief trial of weight-loss injections and severe stress caused by her mother Julie suffering a heart attack last year.
Childs rose to fame on the ITV reality series The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) and is a mother of four children: nine-year-old Polly, eight-year-old Ritchie, and three-year-old twins Milly and Billy.
In a candid post shared on Monday, Childs reflected on her weight journey alongside three photographs taken at various stages of her physical transformation.
Admitting she struggled for years with restrictive eating, Childs explained that she previously failed to manage her nutrition and energy levels properly.
"Time to be really honest with you all. For as long as I can remember… I thought I was doing everything right. I'd diet, cut things out, push myself… and yet I'd always end up back in the same place," Childs wrote.
"I was definitely not happy with how I looked and, honestly, not happy with how I felt either, I was dieting all wrong. I wasn't managing my nutrition properly. I wasn't managing my energy. And I definitely wasn't looking after my health the way I thought I was."
She added: "I'd under-fuel, stress, lose a bit of weight, then it would all come back and I'd start the whole thing again. I was in that yo-yo cycle that so many of us get stuck in… that was me."
Nutrition and fitness transformation
Childs credited fitness trainer and nutritionist Jon Kirk with transforming her approach to health by building her strength and teaching her about proper nutrition.
"What I didn't understand was that it's not just about 'eat less, move more'. There's so much more to it… the different phases, your mindset and actually making it work around your real life. Since working with Jon, that's what has changed everything for me," she explained.
She noted noticeable physical changes, including developing muscle tissue in her shoulders, improved skin, and increased confidence.
"My shoulders have actually built tissue (so random) which is something I never thought I'd be saying. I feel stronger, I feel more confident and, for the first time, I don't feel like I'm stuck in that diet, lose, regain cycle anymore," Childs wrote, describing her fitness journey as an ongoing work in progress.
She encouraged followers who felt stuck in similar patterns to seek professional guidance from Kirk.
Skinny jab illness and family stress
The post follows comments Childs made in May on the No Parental Guidance podcast, where she opened up about using prescription weight-loss injections, commonly known as skinny jabs, to drop extra weight.
Childs revealed she used the injections for two weeks in a bid for a quick fix while continuing her regular training and healthy eating routine, but suffered severe side effects.
"I was being sick, nauseous - I thought I was pregnant," Childs recalled. "After two weeks I thought what am I doing, and I never took it ever again. I lost a bit of weight and then all of a sudden my mum had the heart attack, and that's when it went downhill for me."
She spent three days in bed due to illness before deciding to stop the medication permanently for the sake of her young children.
"I tried the skinny jabs, it didn't work for me, I was so ill. It actually scared me how ill I was. Three days I was in bed for. I thought I've got the kids, really? I've got the kids to look after, they need their mummy," she said, adding that while the treatment worked well for her mother's friends and her own peers, it caused her severe illness.
Four months after her mother suffered a heart attack, Childs reached her lowest weight of 6 stone 13, explaining that severe anxiety prevented her from physically training.
Online scrutiny and marriage
Childs disclosed that she receives daily online abuse regarding her appearance, with critics scrutinising her weight and questioning her role model status.
She noted that critics targeted her look at her wedding, commenting: "You look terrible at your wedding. You looked so skinny on your wedding..."
Childs confirmed her health has since improved, and she now works out roughly three times a week and plays padel, a racket sport.
Earlier this year, Childs married her partner of five years, 43-year-old Billy Delbosq, following their initial meeting on a night out.
The couple completed their legal wedding ceremony at Marylebone Town Hall in London, with a second wedding celebration planned for later this month.
