Inside Gemma Collins’ incredible 3.5st weight loss journey – from cryotherapy and skinny jabs to ‘getting her steps in’
GEMMA Collins has been steadily dropping the pounds over the last couple of years and has now lost an impressive three-and-a-half stone.
Since 2016, when the 40-year-old diva was told her weight would make it harder to fall pregnant, she’s been on a constant mission to lose weight.
At the time, she told The Sun: “I'm not saying I'll get to a size 10 but I do need to lose weight. For my health I wouldn't want to be bigger than I am now.
“I refuse to have a gastric band as easy as it would be. I have overcome so many things in my life and I will overcome my weight - but I need time and focus to do it.”
Gemma - who yesterday hit back at LBC presenter Steve Allen for calling her 'Gemma The Hutt' - has experimented with everything from fad diets, juice camps and even skinny jabs, and her weight has yo-yoed.
But in recent years she’s become more focused on healthy eating and hitting her daily step count - and persevering through tiredness, with a little help from her personal trainer.
Speaking on her latest BBC Sounds podcast, she revealed she'd dropped yet another dress size.
She said: "I've been getting my steps in. It really makes a difference.
“I've already gone down a dress size. I can tell in my exercise clothes. It just feels so much better."
She’s also confessed how she regrets previously using quick-fix ways of losing weight, as they can be very damaging.
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"I'm loving my transformation mentally and physically!” she added.
Here we take a closer look at the ups and downs of Gemma’s weight loss journey and how she's finally found a lifestyle that's working for the GC…
Juice camps
Before she started taking her weight loss seriously, Gemma took herself that sees you go without food completely and live off nothing but freshly-pressed drinks.
In four weeks she lost two-and-a-half to three stone while staying at Jason Vale's retreat in Portugal in 2015.
At the time juice master Jason Vale told The Mirror: "She lived on nothing but freshly pressed juice.
“She has been doing exercise as well but not military-style. None of it is forced. Nobody can force Gemma to do anything, frankly.”
Hypnotherapy
That same year Gemma also tried her luck at hypnotherapy to shed more pounds. She was hypnotised into thinking she'd had a gastric band fitted.
She claims it helped her drop two dress sizes, telling Now! magazine at the time: "I've gone from a size 22 to an 18.
"I had a bit of 3D lipo and saw a hypnotist called Robert Hisee, who put a hypno gastric band in me.
"Now I have four mouthfuls of food and I can't eat any more. I feel like I can't breathe, I'm so full."
Dancing On Ice
In 2018, Gemma signed up for Dancing On Ice’s 2019 series in a bid to get really serious about her weight loss.
As training started, Gemma told New! magazine: “This dress I'm wearing is a size 24 but it's too big.
“I should be wearing a 22. So there's no doubt that between now and January I'm going to lose weight.”
She continued: “I’m mainly doing the show for the amazing outfits and as a way of losing weight.
“If I commit myself to training and eating well I think I could really get in shape by doing the show.”
With a hectic schedule of intense training, Gemma saw the weight fall off and she eventually lost two stone thanks to the show.
Her dance partner, Matt Evers, revealed that Gemma asked for double training sessions, and often eagerly got to the rink before him in the mornings.
He added that the show completely transformed her.
"She says she feels stronger, she can feel her core strength as we have started including a few sit ups and squats to warm up now too," he told The Sun.
“There's an emotional transformation too, in all areas of her life."
Going vegan
Ever one to jump on a bandwagon in a bid to fight the fat, Gemma also decided to go vegan in 2019 - despite the fact a meat and dairy-free diet doesn’t necessarily mean a low-calorie one.
Gemma preached about "eating life not death" as she flaunted the results of her two-and-a-half stone weight loss.
She told fans: "Thanks for your weight loss comments my hard work is defo paying off #veganlifestyle #eatlifenotdeath."
Six months later, however, Gemma had overhauled her diet once again to include steak and meat.
Skinny jabs
In August last year, Gemma was seen plugging controversial diet injections from Skinny Jab that act as an appetite suppressant.
Addressing her weight loss on social media at the time, Gemma told fans: "Lots of you been asking me how I am looking so good. I need to tell you about how amazing the team at Skinny Jab have been throughout lockdown.
"Keeping on track of my weight loss and continuing to stay motivated has never been easier with skinny jab on board. Honestly, Caroline and her team have been the best support!"
She went on: "Not only have they kept my supply of jabs up to date, they’ve also been providing me with meals plans and weekly check-ups with how I’m getting on."
But Gemma faced backlash for promoting the "dangerous" diet injections, which experts have previously warned could be "life threatening" and should always be prescribed by a doctor.
Experts revealed that such jabs could come with harmful side effects like diarrhoea, dizziness, headaches, insomnia, skin reactions, toothache and vomiting.
Since then, Gemma has said she "regrets" turning to the injections.
Speaking on her podcast, she explained: "I kind of regret doing it but I feel like sometimes you’re in such a desperate place and you want to lose weight but actually I’ve come away from all the diet promotion because I wish we could get rid of that word diet."
Cryotherapy
Earlier this year, Gemma revealed she was going to more extreme lengths to get rid of her weight.
The TV star said she was hooked on cryotherapy, which shifts the pounds by brief exposure to temperatures close to -200C.
Also called cold therapy and used by the likes of Katie Price and Gary Barlow, it uses liquid nitrogen to reduce the air temperature to well below the lowest naturally recorded on Earth - a bone-chilling -89.2C in Antarctica in 1983.
I went into an ice chamber and, yes, I was naked. It was minus 188C
Gemma Collins
It helps with various ailments and is said to get rid of up to 800 calories in a single five-minute, £100 session.
New ice chambers cost from £50,000 to £100,000. Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly got a £50,000 one shipped to his rented mansion to keep fit.
Ex-Dancing on Ice contestant Gemma told her Radio 1 podcast: "I've been doing some really cool stuff.
"I went into an ice chamber and, yes, I was naked.
"It was minus 188C and it freezes your body and it starts getting rid of all your fat.
"I actually want one put in my house. I want to go in it all day every day."
Pushed by a trainer
In 2021, Gemma has started using a personal trainer, CJ of CJ Fitness, to shift the pounds, and admitted she couldn’t motivate herself without her.
Speaking recently of her exercise plan, she said: "I started my day off today even though I've had no sleep, my trainer came here at half 8 this morning.
“I was so tired, just splashed the face with cold water, get the exercise gear on and get it done.
"I do have a running machine in my house, but I've got to be honest, I never get on it."
And she recently shared a video of herself tackling the battle ropes in her garden with CJ, begging her to let her quit.
Gemma was off-camera, but was filming CJ jogging on the spot with a resistance band across her chest.
Presumably doing the same cardio exercise, she could be heard from behind the lens asking: "Can I have a day off?"
To which her trainer, still jogging on the spot, replied: "No you can't!"
Not giving up, Gemma added: "Please?" to which she was met with the blunt answer: "No you can't Gem, come on."
Talk about tough love!
Healthy eating
Gemma is much more clued up on healthy eating these days, rather than relying on fad diets.
Pleased with her progress, Gemma has credited lockdown for being a "blessing in disguise" and says she's proud of her changing shape,after sticking to a strict diet plan and regular gym routine.
"It’s basically what works for you,” she said. "I eat scrambled eggs, bacon, avocados, I have two bits of chocolate, I have jelly, nuts.
“But my diet may not work for you, it’s just a healthy eating plan.”
And in a recent post-food shop Instagram story, which featured loads of avocados, Gemma stressed to fans: "You do not need to starve on an eating plan, people. You can eat!"
She’s also spoken about meal-prepping, and how it helps her stay focused on her eating plan.
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“Gotta prep hunnies, or prepare to fail,” she told her followers.
Gemma, you’re looking great!
