How Strictly’s Alexandra is a much sleeker star
‘Three dress sizes smaller’
IT takes an awful lot of confidence to step out onto the Strictly dancefloor. And it takes even more to decide to bare all.
But that is what Alexandra Burke has done, stripping off to reveal her strong, athletic physique.
But she hasn’t always had the defined abs and toned thighs that last week took her to the top of the Strictly Come Dancing leaderboard.
After gaining weight while on a busy tour, the X Factor star, 29, managed to slim from a size 14 to a size 8 by eating six meals a day and learning to love the gym.
She told Women’s Health magazine: ‘I wasn’t overly troubled by how I looked – I was in a happy relationship with my boyfriend and my career since The X Factor was going brilliantly well.
‘My hectic tour schedule meant that I’d often skip the gym, miss meals and then gorge on takeaways late at night.’
But by 2015, the singer felt she had to get into shape because she feared she could develop type 2 diabetes like her mother.
Miss Burke said: ‘I started eating six small meals a day: porridge for breakfast, soup for lunch, a dinner of chicken or fish, with salad, and fruit and nut snacks in between.
‘Healthy eating encouraged me to kick-start my gym routine. I now work out five or six times a week and my training schedule never changes, not even on holiday.
‘Two years later, I’m three dress sizes smaller and two stone lighter, and I’ve built up muscle. It’s been a slow process but the rewards are for the long term.’