Gemma Collins is said to be on a health kick as she looks ahead to her wedding day with fiancé Rami Hawash.
The former TOWIE star, 41, is loved up and set to marry her Prince Charming later this year, following a string of unhappy relationships.
She recently told the Mirror she is hoping for a winter wedding at Claridge's in London - a lavish 5-star hotel at the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street in Mayfair, London.
It has long-standing connections with royalty that have led to it sometimes being referred to as an 'annexe to Buckingham Palace'.
But sources have now claimed the GC is on a mission to slim down to a size 16 for her big day to “look and feel her absolute best”.
An insider told Closer magazine: “Gemma knows the size she fells most comfortable at and with wedding fever mounting, it’s made her more determined than ever to hit her target of a size 16, so she can look and feel her best on her big day.
“She’s been dress shopping and has already got her heart set on three different creations – insisting she has the licence to have at least three outfit changes as The GC!
“Gemma wants her wedding to be the showbiz bash of the year and now she’s bagged the A-list location, she wants to ensure she has the A-list look.”
Gemma has long documented her issues with weight and binge eating.
As a teenager she was a slim size 10 with a healthy approach to food. That was until a quick succession of heartaches sent her eating spiralling out of control.
"Every time I felt an emotion I would eat to block it. Food gave me a high," she wrote in her 2013 autobiography, Basically... My Life As An Essex Girl, admitting that in her darkest hour she started self-harming.
"I had always been slim so I never felt guilty," she explained, admitting she would think nothing of eating three chocolate bars in a row followed by two burgers from McDonalds.
"I started to fixate about food. It became a focus away from the grim reality of my situation. I would think about it from the minute I woke up to the minute I went to bed. I had low self-esteem. I was suffering and without realising I morphed into a bigger person," she said.
"I went from being a thin girl who never had a weight problem and was a constant size 10 to a girl who couldn't stop growing."
Within a year she had ballooned from a svelte 11st to a size 18 and was tipping the scales at more than 17st.
Desperate to shift the pounds, she tried everything she could to slim down, including The Cambridge Diet, the Dunkan Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet.
"But I didn't exercise and once the weight was on it stuck. I found it hard to resist temptation and I craved the comfort I found in food," she admitted.
Instead, Gemma embraced her curves and carved out a niche as TOWIE's bubbly diva.
But behind the scenes her health problems were stacking up.
“Food became my friend,” she said, admitting she would eat up to 3,000 calories a day. “I would use it as an emotional crutch. Some people have a blanket or a teddy – for me, when I was eating I felt safe," she continued.
“Once I couldn’t breathe because I was ramming food down so quickly,” she says. “I’d have loved to have been sick, to get it all up. But it didn’t work for me.”
Desperate to cure her 'obsession' with food she tried hypnotherapy and lost three stone at Jason Vale’s Juicy Oasis retreat in Portugal – by consuming nothing but liquids for four weeks.
"I’ve done every diet out there, there’s nothing I haven’t done," she told This Morning of her despair and desperation.
"I was obsessed with food. And life revolved around food and eating. There was no brain space in my head for me not to think about food, it was a living nightmare."
Then in 2016 Gemma was dealt a crushing blow when doctors discovered her egg count was low and her weight could stop her conceiving.
In a bid to turn it around she signed up to Dancing On Ice and started burning a whopping 1,000 calories a day during training.
By the end of the show she'd lost two stone and she's since lost a further 14lbs.
Gemma’s latest health kick, fuelled by her impending nuptials will hopefully be her last as she revealed on her self-titled podcast last year: “Since turning 40 I’ve become so much more aware of my health and I’m kind of regretting not taking my health as seriously as I should have done.”
But since settling down with Rami, and finally finding happiness, her health is back on track.
She recently said: “I feel very content, I feel very secure, I feel very whole. I’ve got a wonderful partner who works exceptionally hard and he’s got his own business.”
While it will be the first time Gemma has walked down the aisle, Rami, 48, has been married before and was recently in the midst of finalising his divorce.
The Closer magazine source told that Gemma’s healthy and loving relationship has given her her confidence back.
“It’s helped her to finally conquer her demons have a healthier relationship with food,” the insider said.
Her husband-to-be reportedly aids her journey by making meal plans with her and being her biggest motivator.
“Rami helped open her eyes and realise that all those years of self-loathing were just a desperate way to mask how unhappy she was.”
And Gemma has reportedly taken inspiration from Rebel Wilson’s incredible weight-loss journey which saw her shed an impressive six stone.
“Gemma has been joking that Rebel’s going to help her get a sexy size 16 figure, but behind the scenes she’d love to get back to the best shape possible to have a child,” a source told the publication.
“She’s hoping her baby dream will come true,” pals said of Gemma who’s suffered the heartbreak of two miscarriages and, like Rebel, struggled to conceive.
