Chanelle wows fans with her new look
After years of extreme dieting, Chanelle Hayes looks confident after swapping fads for healthy eating and low-impact exercise
Ayear ago, reality star Chanelle Hayes told Closer her main goal was to look after her health and revealed she’d set herself fitness targets in order to get active, saying, “My weight has always gone up and down, but I want long-lasting results.”
Fast-forward 12 months and it seems the former Big Brother contestant has stuck to her word, as she stunned fans when she debuted her newly slim physique over the Christmas break.
Posing with sons Blakely, 10, and three-year-old Frankie on Instagram, Chanelle looked healthy, with fans praising her new look. One wrote, “You look like you have lost loads of weight, you’re looking great.”
Chanelle – who’s remained single since splitting with PE teacher Ryan Oates – found fame on Big Brother in 2007 as a tiny size 6, but, after gradually gaining weight, she opened up about how depression had kick-started her bad eating habits in 2013. In 2014, she dropped four dress sizes, going from a 16 to a size 8, through finding a love of exercise, but despite her best efforts continued to yo-yo.
Two years on, Chanelle said, “I’ve been on such extreme diets, if I try to lose weight it’s a slower process because I’ve messed up my metabolism.”
After welcoming Frankie in 2017, Chanelle – who split with his father Ryan weeks after giving birth – was a size 18 and told Closer that weight gain had left her with back and knee problems. Doctors warned her that she was likely to become diabetic if she didn’t become healthier.
In 2019, Chanelle shed four stone in six months, slimming to a size 12-14 and said, “It’s about changing my mindset towards food and a balanced way of living.” And last year, she told Closer, “I’m focusing on healthy eating and lots of protein. I had problems with my back when I was bigger, so I’m now exercising in a low-impact way, like walking.”
She revealed she’d had a hair transplant, saying that constant dieting had accelerated a receding hairline. After the op, she posted on Instagram, “Never before would I have been able to wear a headband with my hair back because of the receding at the sides… So so happy I can put my hair back.”