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Bianca Gascoigne's diet secrets

When Bianca Gascoigne was growing up, her footballer stepdad Paul nicknamed her Chunk after the chubby boy in the family’s favourite movie, The Goonies.

But it’s impossible to see any resemblance now, because Bianca has dropped to a slim size 8. She even agreed to show off her body by posing for Closer as a slim and sexy Britney Spears lookalike. 

“I love this look,” says the 22 year old, who lives with her mum Sheryl, 42, and brothers Mason, 19, and Reagan, 12, in Hertfordshire.

“I’ve never been confident about myself, but in these pictures I can see that I’ve toned up and I’m much happier with my figure.”

The 5ft 4 reality TV star has been working out four times a week for around two months, since she discovered her weight had crept up to 10st 1lb and she was heading towards a curvy size 12.

“I blame being in love for my weight gain,” she confesses. “I’d been dating my boyfriend Nick [a 22-year-old electrician] for six months and we just grew content with each other.



“We’d go out for dinner or tuck into  takeaways at the weekend. I put on weight around my stomach and grew love handles – which I hate. And it shows in my face when I gain weight too.”

Bianca has yo-yo dieted since she was 14, and believes she was a borderline anorexic when she was 18, when her weight plummeted to 81⁄2st after she split up with an ex.

“I was really unhappy and began exercising too much and eating too little,” she admits.

“I was doing Jordan’s workout DVD twice a day and swimming loads. Plus I was hardly eating any protein.”

Thankfully, Bianca eventually realised she was too thin, and started eating more. And her past experiences made
her determined to shape up sensibly this time around.

“I knew I wanted to do something about my love handles, but I needed to approach weight loss in a healthy way,” she says. 

Bianca stopped snacking and ditched pasta and bread in favour of sushi, fish and fresh fruit.

She says: “I’m a terrible picker – I’ll graze my way through the kitchen cupboards, snacking on biscuits, crisps and sweets.

“I had to ask my mum to point it out to me when I opened the cupboards, because I’d started doing it without even realising.



She would ask me if I really wanted to eat the biscuit or whatever had found its way into my hands.”

Bianca – whose new diet includes a fibre-rich cereal for breakfast, sushi for lunch and fish for dinner – says: “Now I especially love seabass and vegetables.”

The star, who has since split with Nick, also started working with Elise Lindsay, Coleen Rooney’s personal trainer. 
She says: “I wanted results and I knew she would get them.

After all, Coleen always looks amazing.”

Bianca started to work out four times a week using a combination of a Flexi-bar (which creates vibrations to strengthen muscles) and weights, along with regular running and swimming.

“I hate running and find it really, really difficult and boring,” she admits. “But training with Elise made the world of difference. We would chat about things and catch up, which really helped take my mind off what I was doing!

“My tummy and love handles went very quickly – within three weeks I could see the difference it was making to my body.”

In the space of a month, Bianca lost over a stone, going from 10st 1lb to 9st and a size 10/12 to a size 8. She’s also back in her 26-inch jeans.

With various TV projects in the pipeline, including a part in MTV’s Celebrity Agent, which is due to hit our screens in February, Bianca is stepping back into the limelight looking better than ever.

And it’s something she shares with her hero Britney Spears, who lost around 2st by sticking to a strict 1,200 calories-a-day eating plan, running five miles a day and doing regular dance workouts.

“Britney looks fabulous at the moment, and she’s obviously worked famous abs back,” says Bianca.

“I finally feel like I look good on the outside – and inside I’m content too. I feel in the best shape of my life – and there’ll be no more yo-yo dieting in 2009.

“As for love – I’m happy being single for the moment!” 

By Rachel Dobson

Bianca appears in Celebrity Agency on MTV1 in February