For years, Laura Price hid behind baggy clothes as her weight spiraled out of control.  She was bullied at school, where she and her best friend – who had the figure of a model – were known as Little and Large.  Feeling miserable only made her eat more and by the time she was in her mid-teens, she was 14 stone.

she was in denial, she was always considered herself chubby but a routine visit to her GP earlier this year forced her to confront the truth.  She weighed in at 210 lbs and at 5ft 3in, was classified as obese.

“It was a shock,” Say Laura from Horsham, West Sussex.  “Nobody has actually used that word before and I’d never considered myself to be obese.”

“It was a vicious cycle.  I was bullied and felt sad, so I’d eat – mainly cheese and savoury stuff.  My weight crept up throughout my teens and I never dieted.”

“After I left school and began hotel work.  I ate food as a reward.  If I’d had a bad day at work, I’d treat myself to a whole tub of ice cream or a pizza, I drank spirits containing coke or Red Bull.  Eventually it got to the stage where I don’t want to be that person any more.”

Eight months ago, for the first time, Laura decided to tackle her problem head on.

There are three main drug treatments – Xenical, Reductil and Acomplia – which have been proven to be effective for weight loss but they can have side effects.  So Laura opted for a radical diet change combined with ‘Proactol™’, a natural treatment made from fiber extracts.  Studies involving small numbers of patients have shown ‘Proactol™’ can work by reducing the amount of fat the body absorbs from food.

“I began losing weight at the rate of 6lbs a week.”  Having shed more than five stone, she now weighs 136 lbs and is a size 10, down from a size 16.

“Losing weight has given me much more confidence,” she says.  “For the first time in years, I’m taking interest in clothes.  I can go into a shop and know that they’ll have clothes that fit me.”