Clare Balding: A bet with my MUM helped me triumph in weight battle
CLARE Balding today reveals her weight battle – as she publishes a book featuring a young girl who is teased about having ‘thunder thighs’.
Speaking exclusively to Event magazine in today’s Mail on Sunday, the presenter – who is in Rio fronting Channel 4’s Paralympic coverage – says she wants to help young people gain confidence about their bodies.
In the book, The Racehorse Who Wouldn’t Gallop, a girl, Charlie, is mocked for having ‘thunder thighs’ – until they help her succeed on the racecourse.
‘A lot of what Charlie finds out about is confidence,’ says the broadcaster. ‘She becomes confident because what she saw as her greatest failing – her “thunder thighs” – ends up being the thing she needs most of all. She’s gutsy and inventive. I like her, so she’ll have more adventures.’
In recent years Balding has undergone a remarkable physical transformation, losing a lot of weight since being given the allclear for thyroid cancer.
Though female presenters face pressure to keep trim, Balding says she did not slim for her bosses. ‘I lost weight three years ago because I had a bet with my mother,’ she reveals. ‘They never said I needed to. And actually if you look at me in London 2012, I am much bigger than I am now.’
Balding credits her weight loss to a phone app. ‘I would put in all the calories and all the exercise I took, and if I had 100 calories left over at the end of the day I knew I could have a little mini-pack of Maltesers, which was very exciting,’ she adds.