Chloe Goodman: ‘Giving up meat has helped me lose 3 and a half stone’

Last summer, just a few months after giving birth, Chloe Goodman candidly told Closer how she had struggled seeing other women seemingly snap back into shape soon after giving birth – but she vowed not to put pressure on herself.

Now, the 27-year-old TV personality is thrilled as she tells us she’s back to her pre-baby weight and a size 8 after gradually losing 3½st since having daughter Isla almost a year ago.

She says, “I put on 4½st when I was pregnant and only lost a stone of it immediately after giving birth,” she explains. “I’ve lost 3½st since, through eating a healthy diet, and I feel really good.”

Ex On The Beach and Celebrity Big Brother star Chloe – who shares Isla with her footballer fiancé Grant Hall – was in “the best shape of her life” before getting pregnant, often spending hours in the gym, but says her figure looks very different now.

“I’m the same weight as I was before – 8st 6lbs – but my body has completely changed. I feel softer all over,” she explains. “My boobs are the biggest they’ve ever been and they’re saggy, plus I have no bum.”

Chloe – whose sister Lauryn gave birth to her son Kairo just two weeks before Isla was born – admits to struggling with her body image after gaining weight in pregnancy, and says she cried when she first looked in the mirror after having her daughter.

“I felt trapped in someone else’s body. I know it sounds so vain, but I felt like Shrek,” she admits. “I gained a lot of weight during pregnancy; Lauryn only gained about a stone and a half. But I was hungry all the time and nothing would satisfy me – I’d have a roast and could have eaten it all again. I didn’t wear proper clothes for ages after giving birth. I’d wear size 14 tracksuits and leggings and big tops – anything that would fit.”

But instead of going on a diet, Chloe – who is still breastfeeding Isla – refused to put pressure on herself and instead focused on eating healthily. Typically she’d have porridge with oat milk for breakfast, salmon and vegetables for lunch, and something like a Quorn chilli for dinner.

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“I drink enough water for England and don’t touch alcohol,” she says. “I’ve also given up meat and just eat seafood now. There were lots of different reasons for ditching meat, such as animal welfare and the environment, but also I went off it during pregnancy and never really enjoyed it again. I think cutting out meat definitely helped me lose that stubborn last stone.”

Chloe also says that filling up on healthy snacks was key. “My little sister Amelia [Goodman, 23] lives with me and she’s a health freak, so the fridge is constantly full of healthy food. As a mum, you sometimes don’t have time to prepare food so end up grabbing a Galaxy bar to keep yourself going. But Amelia chops up watermelon and keeps it on a plate in the fridge, so any time I wanted a snack I’d grab that. We also have those rice cakes with a thin layer of chocolate on.”

Although Chloe was in amazing shape before getting pregnant, she actually feels healthier now thanks to her new diet.

“I was always in the gym before I had Isla, but I was eating lots of meat and bingeing on chocolate,” she explains. “Now I don’t step foot in the gym, but my diet is completely different. I feel so much better, less sluggish. I wake up at 6am and don’t stop until about 9pm; I’m on the go all day and I don’t get tired, which I think is down to my improved diet. I have so much energy and I feel amazing!”

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‘We’ll stop at two kids – pregnancy is a lot for me to go through’

Having Isla wasn’t a smooth road for Chloe, and she admits the thought of getting pregnant again is frightening for her. The star suffered a miscarriage when she was 23, with her then-fiancé. Two years later, doctors discovered Chloe had high-grade abnormal cells following a routine smear, which could have led to cervical cancer if left untreated.

Following a biopsy, she had an operation in July 2018 to remove more than half her cervix, which doctors warned put her at higher risk of miscarriage, or having a premature birth.

Then, when she was pregnant with Isla, she had a cervical stitch in her second trimester to help strengthen the cervix and prolong the pregnancy, which was removed when she reached full-term.

“The idea of going through it all again – the worry of miscarriage and then the stitch and the anxiety that comes with it – is a lot,” admits Chloe, who was also not allowed to do any physical exercise while pregnant. “The worry puts me off having another one, but then I look at Isla and think I’d love her to have siblings, like I have. I don’t want there to be a huge age gap, but I think we’ll stop at two. Pregnancy is a lot for me to go through.”