Bakery worker mum loses five stone in incredible transformation into bodybuilder

A superfit mum ditched junk food and hit the gym seven days a week to become a bodybuilder – despite never lifting a weight until last year.

Samantha Brander, 33, went on a gruelling diet-and-fitness regime to turn her life around and lost five stone in just 12 months.

The ex-bakery worker had tipped the scales at 13st after binging on takeaways but is now a ripped 8st.

In March last year, Samantha hired a personal trainer and started a brutal fitness routine which saw her lift weights for more than an hour-and-a-half, seven days a week.

Samantha, from Stirling, said: “A friend had lost weight using the PT Gregg Thompson.

Samantha Brander in 2015 at her heaviest (SWNS.COM/Daily Record)

“At first, I signed up to lose body fat, tone up and start feeling good about myself.

“Then I saw the bodybuilding competition and asked my husband Campbell if he thought I could do it. He said, ‘Why not?’ so I told Gregg.

Superfit mum Samantha Brander in competition (David Gillan/SWNS.COM/Daily Record)

“He said, ‘There’s no reason you can’t do it but it’s going to be really hard mentally and physically’.

“I had never lifted a weight in my life and started building muscle from June to January. Then from January to the competition this June, I cut my body fat to reveal all the muscle I had built.

“For the first six months, I ate the same thing every day. I even sat with a Tupperware of food at my sister’s hen do. I was consuming about 2400 calories a day while I built muscle. Then I cut that back to 1600 for the fat-burning phase of training.”

Earlier this month, she took part in her first competition, held in Perth by the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation.

Samantha Brander with her husband Campbell and children (left to right) Calvin, 9, Poppy, 4, Lexi, 7 and Owen, 11 (SWNS/Daily Record)

To Samantha’s delight, high school teacher Campbell, 34, brought their four children – Owen, 11, Calvin, nine, Lexi, seven, and Poppy, four – along to watch. She said: “I didn’t get a medal but it wasn’t about that, it was about getting up there in front of people.”

Samantha, who now works as a gym instructor, said bodybuilding has helped her cope with mental health issues. She has type 1 diabetes and tried to take her own life in 2014.

She said exercising and lifting weights has helped her cope with grief, after the death of her grandfather in January.

Samantha added: “After I had my last child, I knew I had to make a change. I had to be fit and healthy for my children and pick myself up.”