She shed 5st in her 20s, but Maxine Peake often wonders if she might have been happier before – praising her weight for being “armour”.
The actress, 46, is still careful about comfort eating, admitting she can spend “a couple of days just gorging”.
She says: “I’ll be in the kitchen and I don’t realise I’ve hoovered up six biscuits and a slice of bread while I’m thinking about what to eat for my lunch.”
After the first series of Dinnerladies, when Maxine was 15st, she was advised by the show’s writer, the late great Victoria Wood, to lose weight to avoid being typecast.
Aged 24, Maxine – who played Twinkle in the popular sitcom – joined WeightWatchers and lost 5st in nine months.
It was so fast she had to wear a “fat suit” in the second series.
She told the Her Spirit podcast: “I still have the mindset of being a big girl. Sometimes I think, ‘was I happier when I was bigger?’. Because it’s a good protection – it’s a good armour.
“I thought ‘Men are not interested because I’m big’. People say ‘Oh, but you’ve got a lovely personality’.
“I lost weight and thought ‘Have I even got an all right personality?’.”
Maxine plays late Hillsborough campaigner Anne Williams in a forthcoming TV drama.