Scarlett Moffatt confesses to crying over her pre-fitness DVD weight, breaking down when she found Topshop clothes fitted her and reveals her big plans for 2017
THERE'S no one who knows better than Scarlett Moffatt just how fast your life can change.
In two years, she’s managed to go from total obscurity to Queen of the I’m A Celebrity! jungle.
It was the ultimate end to a year that saw the 26 year old totally reinvent herself, losing over 3st and dropping five dress sizes.
Dropping from 11st 4lb to 8st, she lost an astonishing 11in from her waist and went down six bra cup sizes, from a J to a DD.
Phew – no wonder the jungle trials didn’t faze her.
As a star on Channel 4’s hit show Gogglebox since 2014 – along with retail manager mum Betty, 46, and welder dad Mark, 50 – Scarlett proudly flew the plus-size flag.
But behind the scenes she was gorging on kebab and chips for lunch, nachos and spaghetti Bolognese for dinner and snacking on cold pizza.
“The wake-up call for me should have been when I got a Christmas card from Greggs in 2015,” she says.
“Do you know what it said inside? ‘To Scarlett, our loyal customer.’ I know they thought they were being nice, but it’s a bit of a p**s take, isn’t it?”
Instead, that wake-up call came last February when Scarlett went to the doctor for a check-up.
“I was feeling tired all the time, my back was aching and I went from being a really happy person in the morning to constantly feeling groggy,” she says.
“I was like: ‘I’m not overweight, am I?’ The doctor said no and I remember feeling really relieved. Then the doctor went: ‘You’re obese,’ and I was like: ‘What?!’”
Scarlett glances at the floor.
“I felt so embarrassed and ashamed. My BMI was 31 [24.9 is the top of the healthy range]. I was like: ‘How the hell have I got to this point?’ I was really angry at myself.”
So Scarlett decided to take up a lucrative offer from Universal Pictures – also behind Vicky Pattison’s and Josie Gibson’s fitness offerings – to document her six-month weight-loss journey in workout DVD SuperSlim Me Plan.
Alongside personal trainer Lee Constantinou, the self-confessed “professional couch potato” began doing seven different high-intensity interval training workouts, ranging from five to seven minutes each, for an hour three times a week.
Alternating between cardio and conditioning, the short, sharp bursts of exercise were combined with a healthy-eating plan, swapping Scarlett’s junk-food diet for chicken with sweet potato and tuna steak with vegetables and rice.
“There are other DVDs out there like Joe Wicks’ Lean In 15, but I feel like he hasn’t been there,” she shrugs.
“It’s all right for someone who loves fitness to say: ‘Come on, let’s do this move.’
“I completely empathise because I’ve been there. Hopefully it motivates people to think: ‘If Scarlett can do it, then I can as well.’
“I’m not trying to conform to a certain look. I want to put a message across that it’s important to be yourself, but also to be fit. Your health is your wealth.”
Before her weight loss, Scarlett had been desperate for a breast reduction. Now, however, there’s no need.
“My boobs were a J-cup. One bra cup fitted over an entire head!” she says.
“They were also putting pressure on my neck, which gave me migraines, and were so big, they made me hunch over. I was 5ft but when I last got my height checked I had grown an inch!
“I’ve even dropped a shoe size because I no longer have cankles. It’s great because now I wake up and don’t ache. I got to a point where I thought that was normal.”
It’s a return to the fitness levels that Scarlett was used to growing up, after starting ballroom and Latin dancing lessons from the age of six (she credits the hobby for inspiring her love of fake tan, FYI).
As a teenager, she trained to semi-professional standards, competed in national competitions, and was taught moves by Strictly pro Anton Du Beke, no less.
Everything changed when an 18-year-old Scarlett – then 8st 10lb – gave it all up after enrolling at York St John University to study PE and sports coaching.
She carried on eating the same as before, stopped doing exercise and started putting on weight.
It only got worse once she left uni – so much so that at a reunion last March, her former social circle thought she was pregnant.
“I was mortified,” she says softly.
“Can you imagine having to explain to someone: ‘This isn’t a baby, it’s just food.’ They had only ever known me as slim Scarlett.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get upset about my weight. I remember crying to my mam about being so low and missing nights out with the girls because I felt like I looked awful. Even family occasions…”
Tears begin to fall and Scarlett frantically wipes them away.
“Sorry… my grandma Frieda passed away last January and I didn’t really have any photos with her in the past five years because I’d hate full-length pictures. That’s really sad, isn’t it?
“I wouldn’t even look at myself with no clothes on. There were loads of times when I stayed in and got a takeaway because I’d feel so crap, I’d think: ‘Another McDonald’s isn’t going to matter because I’m already fat.’”
Was it denial that led Scarlett to defiantly write in her book Scarlett Says, released last April: “Life is not going to get magically better if you lose a few pounds”?
Scarlett nods.
“I’m going to be harsh on myself here. I think it’s very easy for a fat person to put down people who look nice because it’s easier than facing up to the facts. I’m so much happier now. One of the biggest things everyone’s noticed in me is how much I smile.”
However, it’s not the only transformation Scarlett has undergone.
A radical image overhaul has also meant playing catch-up with her wardrobe.
“I hated shopping so always wore baggy clothes and would avoid [my] reflection in shop windows,” she says.
“I never cared that much about what I was wearing and put on my ‘buffet tops’ as no one would be able to tell how much I’d eaten. Because
I had little limbs and legs, I thought if I wore baggy stuff I could be a size 8 underneath.
“I wasn’t fooling anyone. I loved all the clothes in Topshop, but nothing fitted, and that’s hard as a young girl.”
Cue a newly slim Scarlett breaking down when she realised that she could finally shop there in October.
“I was like: ‘I’m getting clothes from the front of the rail,’ and started crying. I just never thought that day would come.”
Her new-found confidence means Scarlett now enjoys getting ready for date nights with her boyfriend of 10 months Luke Crodden, and has developed a keen interest in fashion.
“I never, ever thought I’d be able to wear a bandage dress, and I also bought my first pair of jeans in five years. This sounds really shallow, but I started getting tweets about where I got my outfits from on Gogglebox, and I’d never had that before.”
It has also meant Scarlett has ditched the voluminous hair extensions, which she used as a comfort blanket.
But doesn’t she worry about joining the long line of celebs who pile on the pounds months after releasing a fitness DVD?
“It’s completely doable to maintain it, and as I did it for health reasons, I’m never going back,” she insists.
“I think the problem is people try and do too much. They do these fad diets and have shakes – of course your body’s craving food! It’s not good for you. It’s probably just as bad as overeating.”
In the flesh Scarlett is slim, but everything is in proportion and she’s more than happy to get stuck into the catering offered on the shoot.
She’s a bag of energy, too, and has the crew in stitches with her witty one-liners.
Take, for instance, her new obsession with bandage dresses: “I’m like Simon Cowell. I’ve got the same outfit, just in an array of colours!”
There’s also no escaping the massive grin, which doesn’t slip even when discussing the bodyshaming trolls who reared their ugly heads after Scarlett posted a picture in a tight, low-cut dress.
Unkind comments included one that said her boobs looked saggy.
“It made me feel a bit s**t,” she sighs.
“I just think: ‘Why are people putting people down?’ I’ve literally changed my whole body and my face doesn’t even [look like it] belongs to me.
“People want to focus on the bad things, and that’s what de-motivates women. That was the first time I’d worn a bandage dress in my life. I felt so proud and thought: ‘No one’s going to dampen the mood.’”
This defiant attitude means that Scarlett has also backtracked on the suggestion of a post-jungle boob job, after previously joking her breasts were “already starting to clean my shoes”.
One person who is just as pleased with the star’s new look is Luke, a 28-year-old sales manager, who met Scarlett through pals and now lives with her in Newcastle.
“I’m really lucky that I’m with Luke,” says Scarlett.
“He was with me at my biggest, so he loves me whatever shape and size.
“He describes me as an iPhone – he says he gets a software update every month! He was like: ‘You’re the same model, you’re still the same Scarlett that I love, but you just have added features that you didn’t have before.’ He likes how much more confident I am. I don’t mind looking at myself naked now and I get to wear co-ordinates rather than maternity underwear. It’s embarrassing when your mam has got nicer bras than you!”
Scarlett’s career is looking just as peachy, with experts predicting she’ll become a millionaire after winning I’m A Celebrity!
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would get to go on the show, let alone win it!” she admits.
“I wish I could bottle up this feeling and give it to everyone who is feeling a bit down, as it’s just amazing.”
Her humble roots have remained – she confesses to crying when Ant and Dec followed her on Twitter – and she still keeps in touch with her camp mates via WhatsApp group chat.
It’s a world away from her school days, when she was bullied after being forced to have plastic caps on her teeth after being hit by a car while riding a bike.
The accident, when she was 11, left her with Bell’s palsy, which can cause facial weakness or paralysis.
She’s come a long way, too, from the perma-tanned budding reality TV star who first appeared on MTV’s Beauty School Cop Outs alongside Celebrity Big Brother Z-lister Jeremy McConnell in 2013.
A year later, the Moffatts joined Gogglebox after one of the show’s researchers who went to college with Scarlett got in touch looking for families in the north-east.
Scarlett admits that she already has big plans for 2017.
“This year will be about investing lots of time in learning new skills, as I don’t want to just be a flash in the pan,” she says.
“I really want to have some longevity and make a career out of it.”
While she is unsure about her future on Gogglebox, she’s planning to move to London in the hope of following in the footsteps of her idol Davina McCall.
“I’ve got a lot to learn, but I’d love my own show and to become a presenter. I don’t want to do it half-heartedly and just wing it. I’ve already set up [courses] to learn how to do autocue and talkback. That’s the dream, and if someone gave us the chance, that would be amazing.”
If anyone can do it, Scarlett can.
Then her journey from telly addict to screen queen will be complete.
To find out exactly how Scarlett lost three stone in six months, check out her diet and exercise plan - which she exclusively revealed in Fabulous.
Scarlett’s SuperSlim Me Plan DVD (£19.99) is out now.