Claire's diet with a difference
Claire Sweeney first came to the public's attention as Lindsey Corkhill in Channel 4 soap Brookside, and as a screen and stage performer it is crucial she keeps herself slender and fit.
But it's a body that comes at a price – regular exercise, careful food choices and years of discipline – as she admits she's a naturally curvy girl.
In tonight's documentary, she shows what happens when all those rules are relaxed.
Left to eat whatever she wants and without her usual exercise regime, the programme tracks the effects as she changes from a trim nine stone 13 pounds with a 27 inch waist, up to 12 stone with a waistline of 37 inches.
"It was quite pleasurable in the beginning," says Claire. "It wasn't as extreme as Supersize Me or anything, it was just a licence to eat what I wanted.
"I did the programme because I'm someone who's always aware of my weight and I always have to watch it. Also, weight is a common subject with women, and I'm not someone who's lucky enough to be able to eat whatever and not put weight on. I only have to look at a cream cake and it goes on my bum.
"If I'm going into a musical, I'm aware I need to be slimmer, because you're on stage surrounded by lots of skinny dancers.
"But I wondered what would happen if I went heavier than 10-and-a-half stone, the heaviest weight I've ever been, how it would affect my work and my energy levels."
Claire shopped for all her favourite forbidden foods, including cheese, white chocolate, custard slices, crisps and full cream milk.
"I would have a cooked breakfast, the full works, a pizza for lunch if I felt like it, and maybe fish and chips for tea – whatever I wanted, it was great," she says.
"Usually I'm very good Monday to Friday. On a normal day, I have two pieces of WeightWatchers bread as toast with a cup of coffee and skimmed milk, a piece of WeightWatchers bread and low fat houmous and carrots as a snack, then when I go back to the theatre I'll have one of those WeightWatchers meals or a jacket potato with baked beans. Later on, I may have a poached egg on low fat bread and an apple. That's the type of diet I live on to stay slim.
"So I did really enjoy the freedom at first. But then I began to feel more and more lethargic, I began to get a boil on my face, my energy levels dropped and I began to feel like a human dustbin. I'd go to rehearsals and end up having a sleep in my lunch hour."
While there was no huge difference in Claire's looks in the first couple of weeks, soon she began filling out all over.
"I gained on my bum and I developed a chin, then my boobs went from a size 36C to a 36G – they looked fantastic."
Part of the experiment involved her being flown to Los Angeles, a city infamous for its obsession with looks.
"I went to a casting director and was told I'd need to be an English size six to work in that town, which to me is completely unachievable," she says.
"The plastic surgeon said hips were out of fashion – with who?! I had more attention off men when I was bigger than I'd ever had, though the boobs probably had something to do with that.
"I think the best figure I've ever seen is Kelly Brooks. She's a curvy girl and has a beautiful bodyshape, and I think Nigella Lawson is beautiful and she's a big girl.
"Emotionally, during the programme I was up and down. On the one hand, I was being chatted up by men who preferred bigger women, then on the other hand someone says you've got to be a size six."
At a size 14, Claire was the national average size for the UK, but a medical examination at the end of the six weeks revealed that her body had already become a health timebomb.
"What I didn't expect was the drastic effect it had on my health," she says.
"When I got that size, no one really commented as it's not huge, but the lesson in all this is that while we may think that size is normal, it's not.
"When I put the weight on it went to my belly and that's the most dangerous area to carry fat because it's around organs like your liver."
Since finishing the programme, Claire admits it's been a struggle to return to her former size, but the start of 2009 has spurred her on to get back in the gym and start counting the calories once again.
"I've watched the programme and looking at it I can't believe how big I went – I think I was in denial," she says.
"I'm a curvy girl, and though I accept the shape I am, I try to be the best I can.
"I think the best thing you can do to control weight is to write down everything you eat to make you keep an eye on what you're eating so it doesn't mount up.
"At the end of the day, it's all about being healthy and being the best you can be – not whether you can fit into skinny jeans.
"Weight isn't just about vanity and fitting in your clothes, because when you eat badly and gain weight there are a lot of dangers there, and that's the message to get across."
You can see Claire in panto Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at Hanley's Regent Theatre until Sunday January 11. For tickets and more information call 0870 060 6649.
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