A chocoholic dropped more than half-a-stone every month for a year – by ditching NUTELLA.
Charlotte Bourton lost a total of six-and-a-half stone in just a year by swapping her morning chocolate spread sandwiches for a healthy breakfast – saving herself 800 calories a day.
The 23-year-old ambulance service worker hit almost 17 stone before deciding enough was enough and denying her sweet tooth in a bid to beat the bulge.
Charlotte, from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: “I’ve had a sweet tooth for as long as I can remember, and my favourites were always Galaxy bars and chocolate spread.
“I’d even sneak the odd spoonful of chocolate spread by itself if I wanted a quick treat.
“By the age of 14, my metabolism seemed to slow down – but my appetite didn’t.
“All those chocolate bars started catching up on me and I began to pile on the pounds.”
Amazingly, Charlotte, would get through seven Nutella sandwiches and 20 chocolate bars a week to satisfy her sugar cravings – racking up 800 calories a day and more than 5,600 a week in choccie alone.
But when petite Charlotte, who’s 5ft4, hit 16.5st and a dress size 18 by December 2013, she hit a turning point after she was tagged in a ‘horrendous’ piccie on Facebook.
She said: “I squeezed myself into a gold dress for my friend’s Christmas party.
“The next morning I was tagged in a photo where I looked like a gold angel – but with bingo wings instead of feather ones.
“I was horrified.”
But by binning the Nutella and cutting out the chocolate, single Charlotte shed a whopping 6.5st in 12 months, and now weighs ten stone – and is a svelte size eight.
Instead, of Nutella sandwiches for breakfast, chocolate bars for snacks and greasy takeaways for dinner, Charlotte started eating porridge for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and a Slimming World spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.
What’s more, Charlotte replaced her three-a-day chocolate bar snacking habit for fruit and yoghurt instead.
She said: “I was sure healthy meals and treats wouldn’t give me the satisfaction that chocolate did.
“But I stuck to my plan and, for the first time in ages, I didn’t feel sluggish – I had loads of energy.
“It makes me feel queasy when I think of how much chocolate I used to get through.”
“It does seem strange to think I’d chomp through bar after bar without ever thinking of what it was doing to my body.
“I never even crave it now.”
