Alison Hammond bravely reflects on 11 stone weight loss: 'I was dying'

9 September 2024, 14:41

By Alice Dear

Alison Hammond bravely opened up about her weight loss on This Morning, revealing that she used to book two plane seats when travelling as not to make other travellers uncomfortable.

Alison Hammond, 49, has revealed how she was "dying" at her heaviest weight of 28 stone before her 11 stone weight loss journey.

The This Morning, Great British Bake Off, For The Love Of Dogs TV star opened up about her struggles while being morbidly obsese on the ITV morning show on Friday, 6th September, during a conversation about airlines providing bigger seats for overweight travellers.

During the discussion, Alison revealed how she used to always book two plane seats in order to make sure people sat next to her on a flight were comfortable after an "embarrassing" and "uncomfortable" incident.

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"I was made to feel uncomfortable on one occasion where I was literally about this much [showing a small length on her hands] in their seat and they asked to move", Alison reflected: "What they actually did in the end was they actually moved me to first class because the guy was being so rude. So they actually moved me to first class because it was embarrassing, the whole thing."

From that moment on, she said she would double the price of her journeys just to ensure it didn't happen again.

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As well as this, she also used to pack her own seatbelt extender as the seatbelts on the plane would not fit. Although she knew airlines provided these, she would bring her own to avoid the awkwardness of asking a flight attendant.

However, she added that not everyone who is overweight can afford to travel the way she used to in order to keep themselves and others as comfortable as possible.

Alison went on to suggest that airlines start to make their seats bigger, pointing out that airplane seats used to be a lot bigger.

"Do you not think maybe airlines should make bigger seats... we are a nation of bigger people?", she asked: "They are making seats smaller to make more money right? If you go back to 1970 the seats were not that small."

She went on: "A lot of people are going to say, 'No Alison no, you should lose some weight' but what if you've got obesity and you can't?"

Alison has since lost 11 stone and shared that during her summer holiday this year, it was the first time she didn't have to use her seatbelt extender, which she said made her feel good.

Going on to discuss her weight in more detail, Alison said that at 28 stone she was morbidly obese and "dying".

"I was in a situation where I was morbidly obese," she said: "I had to lose weight otherwise I was dying... I was dying. I mean I'm still big now, people can still see I'm big but now I'm 17 stone rather than being 28 stone."

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