Waitress who was so greedy she’d eat customers’ leftovers from the BIN sheds five stone to appear on First Dates
Marie Stacey, 40, tipped the scales at 15st when she worked in a Mexican restaurant and gobbled down plates of nachos and tortillas in her breaks
A WAITRESS who was so greedy she ate customers' leftovers out of the restaurant BINS is unrecognisable after shedding five stone.
Marie Stacey, 40, tipped the scales at 15 stone when she worked in a Mexican restaurant - and gobbled down plates of nachos and tortillas in her breaks.
She couldn't stand seeing good food go to waste - and when customers left piles of it on their plates, she'd nibble at the leftovers when she'd taken them back into the kitchen.
Even when she tried to resist temptation and dumped the food straight in the bin, she admitted she’d often go back and fish half-eaten tortillas out of the bin.
But now, the 5ft 5in blonde from Cheltenham has transformed her figure after shedding five stone and turned her life around, having trained to become a technology teacher.
Marie said: "I'd always had a problem with my weight.
"When I was younger, I worked in a restaurant and I couldn't resist the fact that there was free food just sitting there.
"People would get a lot and would then leave loads on their plate when they finished, so I'd scoff the nachos.
"I would put things in the bin to stop myself eating them, then I would go back and get it out.
"One day I was feeling tired and there was a plate of Oreo biscuits on the table.
"I had ten of them, which is basically like 20 because they're two biscuits stuck together!”
But when Marie hit 15 stone and matched her dad on the scales, she signed up for Cambridge Weight Plan - and was named one of their star slimmers of the year.
Marie explained: "I had a love affair with food and it wasn't even good quality food, I would just eat anything that's there.
"I hit 15 stone and that was the same weight as my dad who, in my mind, was a fat man, and that shocked me.
"Over the years things would happen and I would eat because of being on both sides of ending relationships.
"I was coming to the end of my 30s and hit 15 stone. I do amateur dramatics and I was in a play in September 2015.
"I had to sit on a man's lap and every time I sat on his lap, I would hear him groan - not in a sexual way but in a, ‘it's hurting’ way.
"I thought he was an idiot but when I saw photos of me on stage, I was shocked. I didn't I think that was what I looked like.
"I wanted it to happen overnight and other diets I'd tried just didn't give me that immediate response.
"I'm a big fan of food. I eat when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I've had a rubbish day at work, when I just want to treat myself, any excuse I would eat.
"I've always called myself curvy but I was fat, I was overweight.
"One day, a friend said to me, 'Aren't you a bit big to call yourself curvy?’, and I knew I had to do something.”
Marie appeared on Channel 4's popular dating show, First Dates, after her weight loss last year, in what was one of the most memorable dates of the series.
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She said: "One of the reasons why I lost weight was to feel more confident around men, but now it's all for me.
"I applied for First Dates when I was bigger, but they didn't get back to me until a year later when I had lost the weight.
"I think it must be fate that I went on when I was much happier - I can't imagine going on TV three-and-a-half stone heavier.
"I've got a brand new wardrobe but I'm now getting rid of clothes I got halfway through my weight-loss because they're too big.
"I've thrown out 24 bin bags of size 18 clothes and donated them to charity shops. I don't want them around as a comfort blanket. I don't want to go back there.
"Now if I want something nice for dinner I'll purchase it specially.”
Ever since the age of 22 Marie has always been on a diet, but admitted she was just “bad at it”.
"I'm not a sweet or savoury person, I'm both,” she explained. “But I've never had a problem with alcohol.
"If I had a bad day at work I'd buy a whole cake instead of looking forward to a glass of wine.
"I would easily eat to the point where I felt physically sick. This wasn't every day but enough to ruin my dieting.
"Now I'm much more careful about what I eat and premeditate each meal of the day if I know I'm going out for dinner.
"Losing weight has definitely given me more confidence and I'm now in a very happy place."
Earlier this month we told how a morbidly obese 25 stone hospital worker shed more than half her weight in a YEAR after being told she had to dish out diet advice to patients.
Meanwhile a formerly obese mum was left with two stone of saggy excess skin after losing more than half her body weight.