A 45-year-old mother of two has revealed her tips for shifting the bulge after losing more than six stone.

Shelley Archer, from Greenhill in Herne Bay, weighed nearly 17 stone at her heaviest, but now weighs less than 11st.

Over the last 24 years she tried a range of fad diets, which included eating 500 calories on particular days of the week, replacing meals with milkshakes and taking weight-loss pills.

“Having got married and had children, I’ve gone up and down by drastic amounts,” Shelley said.

“I’ve done cabbage diets and bars. The shakes were the worst; they made me heave. I also took tablets that stop your body digesting fat – that was pretty grim.

“They worked temporarily, but they never changed my habits. All they’d do is make me crave the rubbish more because I was depriving myself.”

Regularly yo-yoing in weight meant Shelley was largely “unhappy” for the past 24 years.

She would spend most of her days indoors, only leaving to take her children to and from school.

She also tended to eat just one large meal each day containing “all the wrong things”, like pizza and ice cream.

The turning point, though, came earlier this year when she started to attend Slimming World groups in March this year.

“My diet has changed dramatically,” she said. “I wouldn’t dream of eating a Dominos pizza now – it makes me feel sick. I can’t bear the greasy feeling around my lips that I used to have.

“I used to love things like lasagne and Bolognese, but I’m more careful now as I wouldn’t put all the full fat cheese in it or have as much pasta as I would before.”

She believes the secret to losing weight is making a “habit” out of exercising regularly and eating healthily.

Instead of having one “huge” meal, she eats three small ones every day.

Additionally, she goes to the gym five times a week, goes to burlesque classes and fills her weekends with activities.

“I do an awful lot now and I don’t hide in a corner anymore or shy away from anything,” Shelley added.

“I suddenly became more confident and realised I was worth doing it for because I’m not getting any younger.”

She has recently become a weight-loss consultant for Slimming World and now holds weekly sessions every Thursday at 5.30pm in the Herne Centre.

Despite the strides she has made, she is aiming to lose a further 13lbs in order to reach her target weight.