Alison Hammond reveals why she is 'frightened' of weight loss medications

Alison Hammond has said she does not want to use weight loss medication after hearing "scare stories" that have made her "frightened" of it.

The This Morning presenter, 49, opened up about how she started her fitness journey after discovering she was pre-diabetic, adding that her late mother's wish for her was to "sort out [her] weight".

In a new interview with Good Housekeeping magazine, Hammond revealed she began seeing a personal trainer twice a week and gave up "sweets" and "fatty foods". She is now no longer pre-diabetic.

She said: "Just before she died, Mum said to me, 'If you can, sort out your weight, Alison' - and that really set it in my head. My mum had Type 2 diabetes and she was worried for me, so when I then found out that I was pre-diabetic, that was frightening.

"I thought, 'I have to be an adult about this'. The sweets had to stop - and the fatty foods."

Hammond, who in September said she lost 11 stone (approximately 69kg) as she was "dying" from obesity, detailed her fitness routine. She said: "Twice a week, I see my personal trainer, and I have a couple of weights in my bedroom.

"I walk, I stretch and sometimes I do a bit of yoga. I try to vary it so it's not the same every day."

A good gym session leaves her feeling like Venus Williams, she added, due to "all those endorphins pumping around".

"If I miss a session or two with my trainer, I notice it. That kick you get out of the way you feel is so good."

Despite the exponential rise in popularity of weight loss medications such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, Hammond said she remained wary of them.

"I think that, for people who need to use them, they're a good thing," she said. "But for me, as soon as I hear any scare story, I get frightened.

"So I haven't wanted to use them, but that's not to say I wouldn't in the future, and I certainly wouldn't look down on anyone who did."

In September, Hammond said she reached 28 stone (approximately 177kg) at her heaviest and that she was "morbidly obese".

She told This Morning: "I was in a situation where I was morbidly obese. 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 (approximately 108kg) rather than being 28 stone."

Speaking further in her interview with Good Housekeeping, the Great British Bake Off star said she is no longer pre-diabetic and can allow herself to have "a bit of sugar here and there" because her body is "working properly" now.

"I love my new shape and although I still have areas I'm conscious of, such as my arms and my tummy, it's great being able to wear things I would never have been able to before. I mean, look at me, I'm a bombshell."

Additional reporting by PA

Read more about weight loss:

• What to know about the risks of using weight loss drugs unsupervised (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)

• Nearly one in four Brits would take weight-loss jabs for free on NHS, poll finds (PA Media, 4-min read)

• Man shares weight loss tricks that saw him drop 6st (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)