WHEN Kerrie Roberts had her third child she described herself as being a ‘giant whale’ instead of the yummy mummy that she wanted to be.

Now, 14 months later, Kerrie, has a new lease of life after losing more than nine stone – the combined weight of her three children – and dropping from a dress size 26 to an 8-10.

Incredibly, she has even dropped two shoe sizes, six ring sizes and gone from a bra size 48GG to a 32C!

Kerrie’s weight steadily increased after her first daughter was born eight years ago, and although she knew she needed to do something about it, she kept putting it off.

“At school, I was tiny and swam at a national level and even before I had the girls, I’d always been what I would say was a normal size,” says the 30-year-old vegetarian, from Southampton.

“But I seemed to gain weight each time I was pregnant and never really shift any of it. Even when I thought I was eating healthily and exercising.

“When I was 17 weeks pregnant with my youngest, Victoria, I developed gestational diabetes and my consultant told me it was because of my weight. I’d hit a point that if it wasn’t nailed down I would eat it – I knew then I had to change.”

Kerrie weighed a whopping 19st 7.5lbs when she joined her local Weight Watchers group a few weeks after the birth of her baby girl, far too much for her 5ft 6in frame.

“I was, what I would say, a giant whale. I had this beautiful baby girl and I wanted to be a yummy mummy,” she says.

“Instead, I was hiding underneath baggy shapeless clothes and using a hair band as a waist extension so that I wouldn’t have to buy a bigger size.”

Daily Echo:

Kerrie Roberts with her daughters Lillie, six, Mollie, 8 and Victoria, 16 months

Swapping a diet that consisted of chocolate, crisps, cakes and lots of bread for stir-fries, salads, fruit and chilli or curry with a jacket potato saw Kerrie lose 12lbs in her first week.

“I was so happy I felt like crying. I couldn’t believe I had found something that worked for me when nothing had before. I put a fat picture on my fridge to remind myself that I didn’t ever want to be that size again.”

The picture served as a reminder whenever Kerrie’s willpower was weak, and it certainly worked – the married mum-of-three lost 129.5lbs and now weighs a healthy 10st 4lb.

She has ditched all her baggy tracksuit bottoms, T-shirts and hoodies, and instead has a wardrobe full of clothes that compliment her new svelte figure.

She started walking more and driving less, and as her fitness improved and her body shrunk, Kerrie started running.

“I was really worried about being left with saggy skin, so I started walking everywhere. I wore holes in the bottom so many pairs of trainers, but at least they were cheaper to replace than tyres on the car,” she smiles.

“As I got fitter, I started doing a few fitness DVDs and playing on the trampoline with the kids, which they loved, and sometimes I would walk with weights on my ankles.

“I didn’t drive the car for so long once that when I got back in it the battery had gone flat!”

And Kerrie’s increased exercise paid-off; she has no loose skin, can run around with her children and is able to wear figure hugging dresses and skinny jeans.

She is even planning to run in the Southampton Half Marathon in April.

Daily Echo:

“I did the Race for Life last year with other members from Weight Watchers. It was then that I started to think about maybe doing something a bit bigger - if someone had told me a year ago that I would be training to run 10k I would never have believed them.

“Before, although I used to walk the kids to school, I didn’t realise just how hard I was finding it until I lost the weight, now it takes half the time it did before.

“My favourite food was Indian curry, and I still eat out with my husband, Wayne, occasionally, but now I have madras with salad instead of rice and I don’t feel the need to eat all the onion bhajis, naan breads or poppadoms.

"I meet my friends at a burger bar sometimes and just have water and fruit, I just don’t miss all the junk.

“There is one thing I don’t like about being skinny though....I get so cold. I don’t ever remember being cold before, but I am so much happier now. I say yes to things that would have filled me with dread before, like the running.

“I don’t really know where my willpower comes from, but I am determined not to be flabby at 30 - I will never be that big again.”