Diet another day

The size-26 fashionista and body positivity podcaster reveals why she won’t be going on a diet any time soon

After years of feeling selfconscious about her weight, being trolled on social media and trying every diet under the sun, Laura Adlington is on a mission to help plus-size people gain body confidence and stamp out fat-shaming for good.

The 34-year-old former digital manager – who has an awardwinning podcast, Go Love Yourself, with her best friend Lauren Smith, focusing on body positivity – has now brought out her first book, Diet Starts Monday. It is part memoir, part advice manual to help build inner confidence and fight fat phobia. “There is this narrative that fat people are lazy and slovenly and stupid. We need to dispel that myth,” she said. “I know plenty of people that are smaller, very unfit, very unhealthy.

“And I know plenty of people that are size 16 and they’re marathon runners.”

Laura, runner-up in 2020’s Great British Bake Off, is a size 26, the heaviest – and the happiest – she has ever been. So what has made her so happy?

“I think it’s rejecting the weight of other people’s opinions and saying, ‘You know, what? I am who I am. I’m perfectly good enough,’ and not bowing down to the diet culture or beauty standards that make us feel anything but. I just feel a lot more free now.

“I don’t feel like I have to restrict myself or go on a fad diet or starve myself to be a different person and a better version. “Maybe it’s an age thing as well but I just feel really content with my life and I’m hopefully helping people, giving confidence and empowering women to feel better about themselves. That’s a really lovely feeling.”

Revealing she hasn’t weighed herself for more than a year and will never go on a diet again, Laura said: “I want to focus more on my health and eating more nutritious food but no diets for me.”

Laura was only eight when she started her first diet and developed what she calls “disordered habits”. She would stash sweets, chocolate and crisps in her bedroom and gorge on them when no one was looking.

She explained: “Secret eating for me was – and actually still is – an issue. Because I was told certain things were bad and that I wasn’t allowed them, I used to hide them away. Even now, I still have a little secret stash.

“I do feel like I’ve got to a much healthier, better place now with my kind of disordered eating but I still struggle with cravings and binge eating.

“I think it would be wrong for me to say I’m magically cured. I don’t want my book to be preachy. I’m a work in progress as well. I still have bad days, but my good days massively outweigh the bad.”

Since Bake Off, Laura has amassed nearly 350,000 followers on Instagram and has received thousands of messages saying it is heartening to see a plus-size woman comfortable around food and fashion.

Her biggest challenge, she said, is silencing the critics who accuse her of promoting obesity.

“One of the misconceptions about my messaging is that it’s promoting obesity or saying, you know, it’s fine, eat what you want, and sit on the sofa all day.

“I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying you should live the healthiest life you possibly can but you don’t need to be a slave to the scales. It’s about living a full life as you are.”

Diet Starts Monday by Laura Adlington (Welbeck, £20) out now