"I was so ashamed of my size I hid behind my kids in photos until I lost 7st"

An obese mum lost seven stone after realising she was so ashamed she hid behind her kids in photos to disguise her bulky body.

Clare Skyvington ballooned to 16.3st (104kg) after years of gorging on pizzas, chips, burgers and chocolate.

The 39-year-old office administrator ate up to six meals a day, washed down with fizzy drinks and sugary tea.

Every day she would munch through half a pack of biscuits and scoff a family-size pizza to herself.

The single mum-of-two, from Brickfields, Worcester, was so low she was too embarrassed to have her picture taken on her own.

She would only pose for photos if her kids were also in the snap so that she could crouch behind them to hide her roly-poly figure.

Clare, who was warned she was prediabetic during both her pregnancies, was pushed to take drastic action after she struggled to walk to a shop.

The pint-sized 4ft 11in mum also wanted to keep up with her two children, Jake, seven, and four-year-old Scarlett.

Clare joined a gym and swapped her takeaway diet for healthy cereals, pasta and salad.

After three years of exercising three times a week and eating sensibly, she has lost more than seven stone.

She now weighs a trim nine stone and has gone from a lardy dress size 20 to a svelte eight.

She has got so fit she even competes in distance runs and the gruelling Wolf Run with her new gym pals.