BRITAIN’S Got Talent star Rosie O’Sullivan has shed a whopping SEVENTEEN stone since appearing on the show in 2013 – and she’s not done yet.
The singer, 23, made it to the semi-finals during her stint on the ITV talent show, but despite captivating the nation with her soulful rendition of When A Man Loves A Woman, people would struggle to recognise her now.
Speaking from her Birmingham home, Rosie explained that she has since had £20,000 of weight loss and excess skin removal surgery, and now feels ready to chase her dreams of stardom.
She told The Sun Online: “When I appeared on BGT I was nearly 30 stone.
“I was hot, sweaty and struggled to walk up stairs, and the costume department had to make dresses for me as it was impossible to get trendy clothes in a size 28.
“I hit a real low and I told my parents I wanted weight loss surgery after seeing an advert online.
“I was active, I went to the gym and swimming, but I thought about food like an alcoholic thinks about drink, I was obsessed.”
Her parents offered to pay for her to have the £5,000 op privately, and it wasn’t long before Rosie started seeing results.
She said: “When I had my gastric sleeve op in 2014 surgeons also cut out the part of the stomach that makes the hunger hormone ghrelin – and since then the weight has dropped off.”
Rosie lost five stone in the first three months after the operation as she was on a liquids only diet, but had lost a total of seven by the time it was Christmas.
Despite doctors advising that she might not lose more, by the time the anniversary of the procedure rolled around in April 2015, she had lost a total of 13 stone.
However, losing so much weight left her with excess skin on her back, tummy and legs, leaving the then-20-year-old depressed that she couldn’t wear skirts and crop tops.
Rosie, who is 6″1, then had a £8,000 tummy tuck, which not only knocked another stone off her weight loss total, but gave her a huge confidence boost.
Spending her weekends performing at local gigs, Christmas light switch-ons, and charity events – plus sticking to a healthy living routine – meant that she soon lost two more stone.
But Rosie still wasn’t satisfied with what she saw in the mirror.
She explained: “When I looked down I couldn’t see my kneecaps as there was so much skin.
“Even when I put jeans on I felt like I had to tuck the skin from my legs in to my jeans.
“It looked like there were stretched bags at the tops of my legs, I was embarrassed and I knew that I had to do something about it.”
Rosie was spurred on to book herself in for a bi-lateral thigh reduction, which saw surgeons slice her from mid-calf to knee and from knee to groin to tighten the skin and remove the excess.
What Rosie eats now
Looking back at what she used to eat, Rosie adds that her weight spiralled out of control as she was giving herself huge portions, something having the gastric sleeve sorted.
BEFORE
Breakfast – Bowl of porridge, three pieces of toast, 2 cups of sugary tea
Snack – Bowl of fruit
Lunch – Two sandwiches
Dinner – Roast dinner or stir fry
NOW
Breakfast – Half a piece of toast or half an apple
Lunch – Half a can of soup (if she is hungry)
Dinner – Half a chicken breast and a couple of florets of brocolli
The £6,000 operation was just last week, meaning Rosie was able to recuperate at home over Christmas with her family – and has lost at least ANOTHER stone in weight from the removal of the excess skin.
She said: “For Christmas dinner I didn’t have much more than a slice of meat and a roast potato, but that’s a standard portion size for me now.”
Rosie added that these days even half a slice of toast fills her up, and while she used to love macaroni cheese, her reduced stomach size now means that just four or five pasta shells fill her up.
Next year she will be flying to Nashville to appear on local show Nashville Entertainment Weekly, as well as releasing her debut album, Something About Nothing.
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