A 24-year-old from Brookmans Park has appeared naked in a national magazine – after shedding 10 stone in two years.
Kelsey Arif had the bold photoshoot for the April issue of Cosmopolitan, on sale now.
She featured in the magazine’s monthly My Body’s Amazing feature, where she talked about her weight loss.
After the piece was printed, she told the WHT: “Now I’ve seen it, I’m really proud.
“I’m really pleased. Everyone’s supporting it and everyone’s really pleased.
“It did take a lot of courage, but I hope it can help inspire someone to feel better about themselves.”
Kelsey added: “Throughout my teens, my weight matched my age – I gained around a stone a year.
“Then, when I went to university, I lost all self control, living off junk food and going out drinking.
“In just a year I went from 20st to 23st.
“Even though I was unhappy, I decided my excess weight was my burden to carry alone.
“So on the outside I was the stereotype of the fun, bubbly, overweight girl.
“I even flew to Las Vegas to enter plus-size beauty pageants.”
But after spotting girls who were size 16 – “not skinny, but healthy and still beautiful” – Kelsey decided to cut out junk food and count calories, and soon progressed to exercising regularly.
She said: “It was completely worth all the hard work.
“The only body worry I still had was the loose skin I’d developed as I lost weight. It made me reluctant to wear a bikini or even start a relationship, so last year my parents paid for me to have a tummy tuck.
“Now I’ve reached my goal I feel healthy and amazing, and want to show everyone my hard-earned new body. I used to hide it under baggy clothes and never had the confidence to get naked.”
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