‘I’ve been body confident from ayoung age’
Former Love Island winner chats about her fitness transformation which helped her shed a stone in six weeks
Three months ago, Amber Gill told her Instagram fans she had been “living in hoodies and sweatpants” for most of 2020 and had put on weight because she couldn’t cook and was treating herself to takeaways for “breakfast, lunch and dinner”.
But fast forward to 2021 and the
2019 Love Island winner has shed the pounds she gained during the first lockdown, with one stone of that being lost during the first six weeks of her new fitness regime.
Amber – who went from 10st 1lb to 8st 11lb and has dropped two dress sizes from a 12 to an 8 – has been working out with personal trainer Jon Hosking four times a week, focusing on boxing and combat training. Her transformation has spurred her on to launch a fitness platform, Amberflexx.com, which offers 20-minute workouts four times a week.
Here, the 23-year-old talks about how she has achieved her toned physique and addresses the romance rumours about her and Jon…
Hi Amber! Can you tell us about your new fitness project?
I’ve brought out a Six Week Blast Plan. During lockdown, I moved from Newcastle to London, which was a big change. I stopped training and got into a bad diet. I put on weight and I lost my motivation and productivity. I decided to start training and met up with my PT Jon, who I met through mutual friends. We started doing fun exercises. I enjoyed Muay Thai boxing and combat training, so I decided to focus my training around that.
How much weight have you lost?
I ended up losing over a stone in six weeks, which I didn’t think was possible. It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy with my weight, it was more to do with the way I was feeling. It wasn’t weight focused – it ended up coming off with me enjoying training.
Why do you think you put weight on during the first lockdown?
I hadn’t realised I was slowly gaining weight. It was hard to be active. Before lockdown,
I was out and about, going to events and burning calories when working and on the move. Then I wasn’t eating great. The weight crept up on me.
Are you where you want to be now in terms of how you look and feel?
Definitely. I don’t like to be hung up on the scales or dress sizes because I’m a different size in different brands.
How do you stay motivated to exercise regularly?
Jon helped me get motivated. Keeping the fun element is important, plus keeping it short. The workouts on the plan are just 20 minutes long.You don’t have to train three times a day for an hour and a half.
How often do you work out?
Four times a week. It’s achievable and that was important to me when bringing something out. There are so many voices in the fitness influencer industry who are like, “I’m going to get up at five o’clock and I’m going to train and then I’m going to train after work.” It’s too much. I just look at them and I’m like, “How the hell are you even doing that?” I wanted mine to be realistic.
Has fitness always been a passion of yours?
I’ve always been athletic. I come from a family that had a certain sport they excelled at. So I would say yes, but I’ve never thought about doing anything like this before now.
Are you body confident?
I am. I think that it wasn’t necessarily about the way I looked, but it was more about the way I felt. I’ve always been body confident from quite a young age.
Does being in the public eye put extra pressure on your body image? I did get a couple of opinions about my weight, but that’s not what spurred me on to do it. I didn’t think, “I need to be skinny.” I just thought, “You’ve actually put on a bit of weight, you don’t feel great, so start working out and see where the road takes you.”
‘I think I’ve got a nice figure, especially my bum’
Do trolls’ comments ever upset you?
I can’t say that I sit and cry because people comment on my weight, but it’s just not nice. People get this weird sense of confidence when they know that nothing can really be done about it. Nobody would come up to you and say anything like that because it’s just rude. But when you’re hiding behind a computer screen you get a bit of confidence.
What’s your favourite part of your body?
I like my figure. I think I’ve got a nice figure, especially my bum. Everybody asks how I work out to get my bum.
Do you have a part you find it harder to work on?
My stomach fat is the most stubborn out of all the areas. That’s the last thing to become toned, which is obviously the first thing you want to become toned. It’s typical!
What’s your diet like?
Before this, I was eating so much bad stuff and I wasn’t realising how unhealthy it was and how much it was affecting my weight. I’d just