Vanessa Feltz has revealed that she starved herself before weigh-ins on ITV's Celebrity Fit Club, a show she described as “horrific”.
In 2004, the presenter, now 64, was a contestant on the programme, hosted by the late Dale Winton, which ran for four series on ITV between 2002 and 2006. Originally named “Fat Club”, the show followed groups of celebrities, including Alison Hammond and the late Ann Widdecombe, as they followed strict diet and exercise plans, with their weight loss tracked each week.
Feltz recalls public weigh-ins
Reflecting on her time on the show during an appearance on the Heretics podcast, Feltz discussed her lifelong struggle with weight loss and gain. She recalled: “When I did Celebrity Fit Club in 2004 – popularly known as 'Celebrity Fat Club', and why wouldn't it be? – they would weigh you publicly on the show. Dale Winton, of blessed memory, would weigh you and your weight would be announced to the waiting world.”
Feltz explained that the weigh-in was so exposing that she would refuse to consume anything the day before in order to keep her weight as low as possible. “For the day before, I would eat nothing and drink nothing, not even water. And then I would go to a really heavy fitness class, and then I would go and be weighed by Dale Winton.”
Dehydration and public heckling
She said this made it appear she was making progress on the show, adding: “And then, of course, I'd be starving to death and totally dehydrated. So then I'd have a drink and a sandwich, and then I'd already put back on the two pounds that he was just celebrating with the nation that I'd lost.”
Feltz described the experience as “just horrific, absolutely horrific”, explaining that it led to a culture where she was heckled in public for eating so much as an apple: “You think, oh, it's only an apple. And I haven't eaten anything at all for days.”
Later surgery and weight-loss drugs
Feltz later followed fellow ITV presenter Fern Britton in having a gastric band fitted in 2010, then underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2019, after which she lost five stone. In 2024, however, she admitted that she “would not have had the surgery” had injectable GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro or Wegovy been readily available when she was first struggling.
“I'd have bloody well injected it in the thigh for the rest of my life and I'd have been delighted to do it,” she told The Times. “Unfortunately I slightly predated it, which is a f***ing shame.”
