TV chef Rosemary Shrager has revealed the secret to her incredible three stone weight loss.
The This Morning star weighed 20 stone at her heaviest after years of “despising exercise” and eating too-big portions.
The 74-year-old is now four dress sizes smaller and feels like she has “created a second chance at life” after overhauling her fitness and diet regime late last year.
Shrager, who is currently taking part in an 18-day, 450-mile charity bike challenge, revealed she has combined eating two meals a day with cycling, a personal trainer, and Ozempic to lose weight.
“After a lifetime of despising exercise and struggling with my weight, I’ve reached a place where I’m reaping the physical and emotional benefits of prioritising my body and health,” she told MailOnline.
“Nine months after I started training, I’m more than three stone lighter and four dress sizes smaller. And while I can credit perseverance plus the support of a personal trainer and cycling partner, I have something else to thank for my achievements – Ozempic.”
Shrager said her motivation wasn’t just about losing weight but “building longevity” as she was living an “incredible lazy life” after having a hip replacement in 2023.
“I wasn’t exercising at all. Indeed, I was so unfit I couldn’t walk around my kitchen island without steadying myself on the counter. I live in a beautiful part of the country, on the border of Kent and East Sussex, but I dared not walk into my village for fear of not making it back home,” she admitted.
The TV personality revealed she ate relatively healthy meals but with “excessive” portion sizes and felt “deeply worried” about her health when she hit 20 stone.
Shrager had struggled with her weight her whole life and was diagnosed with a low metabolism as a child, she explained. The chef built up a “negative association” with exercise after being told to do private fitness sessions at school.
The cook - who is mother to son Tom, 52, and daughter Kate, 50 - developed bulimia in her early 30s in a “desperate” bid to come down from a size 16 and, after a decade, “sorted herself out” by checking into a recovery centre.
Shrager temporarily lost 2 stone 3lb during her 12 days in the I’m A Celebrity jungle in 2012 and, after regaining the weight, lost it again following her diagnosis with type 2 diabetes in 2018.
After finding that the weight loss attempts were “never sustainable”, she started taking Ozempic last autumn and also signed up to the Two Wheels For Meals cycling challenge, hoping to raise £100,000 for the Hendy Foundation’s food banks initiative.
Shrager explained that she also started training three times a week with a personal trainer and, nine months later, feels fit enough to cycle for four to five hours a day, which is up to 42 miles.
She said it was crucial to find a sport you actually enjoy, which for her is cycling.
The Real Marigold Hotel star dished that her lifestyle overhaul has had a major impact on her health - last month, her doctor revealed her blood sugar levels have reduced and her blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and kidney function have all improved.
Shrager, who plans to stop Ozempic in a year’s time, is hoping to reverse her diabetes altogether in the long term.
While she praised weight loss injections, she credited exercise above all with helping her trim down in an interview with Good Morning Britain last week.
"Well, it's all, it's exercise. I mean, you know, it's exercise. It's all about getting out there, if you can, enjoying the fresh hair, it's the mental health,” she said.
