A retail assistant who became fed up of being "the fat twin" after gorging on chocolate and biscuits has shed five stone in less than one year.
Kelsey Daniels tipped the scales at 15st 9lb in February last year after eating takeaways up to four times each week.
But while she got bigger, her twin sister Jodi stayed a size 10/12 from teenhood.
"They always thought of me as ‘the big one’ and I hated that. I wished they were thinking ‘she’s the thin one’ about me and not my twin," Kelsey, of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, said today.
“I was at my boyfriend’s house when his dad took a picture but didn’t show it to me. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later when we were going through his phone looking for a different photo that I saw it and couldn’t believe it.
“All I could think was how tight the top I was wearing looked. I hardly recognised myself, it just really shocked me to see myself the size I was.
“That was when I thought, something’s got to change. This time next year I’m not going to look like that.”
So the retail assistant joined Slimming World and, in the 10 months since, has lost five stone.
Now she weighs a trim 10st 9lb, she's a slender size 10 and eats healthier.
Kelsey added: "Before I stuck to baggy clothes and it used to get me down that I couldn’t wear all the nice things that everyone else seemed to be wearing.
“My sister could always wear the clothes I wanted to wear which really upset me and it definitely affected my confidence.
"Now I’m always buying clothes and taking photos of myself to post on social media and lots of people don’t recognise me anymore.
“When they see me, and how much weight I’ve lost, it’s such a shock to them.
"And having spent most of my life being the fatter twin, I’m actually the thinner one at last."
But she concedes her lifestyle was hugely different when she piled on the pounds.
"I was just eating all the wrong things and I just didn’t know when to stop. I’d have a meal in the evening with my sister and mum and then carry on eating afterwards. I’d think, I’ll just have one or two biscuits, but the whole pack would be gone by the end of the night," Kelsey continued.
"Jodi has never struggled with her weight, so my mum would buy chocolates and sweets for her but then hide them in the house to keep them away from me.
"She was trying to help me be more healthy, but I’d always search the top of the cupboards and manage to find them, no matter where she’d put them.
"When she started work, Kelsey would use any excuse to eat takeaways.
“If I was late finishing work, or if I’d had a stressful day, whatever it was I’d order a takeaway to make myself feel better.
“Mum would always cook us all healthy meals to encourage me, but I’d have those and still eat rubbish on the side – or I’d still order myself a takeaway, three or four times a week."
