How actress Pauline Quirke lost eight stone in one year

Pauline Quirke is half the woman she used to be.

A year ago she was a size 28, tipping the scales at almost 20 stone; today she weighs 12 stone 4lbs, although she has been as low as 11 stone.

“I remember trying on something that was a size 14 and it was too big. I thought I’d gone far enough. I never wanted to push this to the extreme. It was about being healthy and feeling well.

“I’d like to stay between 12 and 12 1/2 stone. Every week I’ll weigh myself just to keep an eye on it.

“But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life being frightened of what I want to eat. You can have a slice of cake, but not every day.”

Pauline the down-to-earth, “cor blimey” Londoner won the hearts of the nation as Sharon in the hit comedy series Birds Of A Feather, and more recently starred as Hazel Rhodes in Emmerdale.

The 52-year-old, who suffers from osteoarthritis, says that a hip replacement in 2009, aching knee joints and a fall in which she broke her arm, were among a series of catalysts which led to her decision to slim down.

“Steve (her husband and agent) knew I was upset about the hip. He could see me getting bigger and bigger. Professionally and personally I was very happy, but the hip was the beginning of it.”

Constant tiredness, no exercise, feeling generally unhealthy and the difficulty she had managing day-to-day events such as buying clothes sent Pauline into an all-time low.

She recalls the humiliation she felt in her book, Where Have I Gone?, which charts her weight loss on the controversial LighterLife diet. Normal meals are substituted with low calorie packs of powder mixed with water. She didn’t eat normal food for eight months, but lost seven stone in half a year. At the time, she was living in Leeds, working on Emmerdale and initially she’d privately have her replacement meals while the rest of the cast went to the canteen.The weight came off so dramatically that it was even worked into the Emmerdale script, as it has been in the 17-week Birds Of A Feather theatre tour,(June 25-30,Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield)

She’s confident she’ll not put the weight back on, as counselling has helped to change her attitude to food, she says.

She’s joined a gym and enjoys clothes shopping. She is eating normal food – porridge for breakfast and mainly fish in the evening – but still regularly uses the meal substitute packs.

“I can’t remember the last time I peeled a potato and it’s given me a great sense of freedom,” she says with a smile.

She wouldn’t dream of having surgery to remove any folds of loose skin left by the weight loss, though.

“I’m 52 – it was never going to all ping back. I won’t be doing bikini shoots in the near future but it’s not as bad as one would have imagined.”

She has two children, Emily is 27 and Charlie 17, who joins her in the stage show, sharing the role of Travis, Tracy’s son, with Robson’s son, Louis.

Pauline admits to crippling nerves.

“I went through 101 episodes of Birds Of A Feather not sleeping the night before filming them and vomiting before the actual taping.

“As Charlie’s there as well, I don’t want him to see how nervous I get, hyperventilating or being sick. I’ve spent most of my professional life terrified.

“It doesn’t make any difference if it’s live or recorded. What gets me going is the audience.”