My food addiction was so bad I had alarms on the kitchen cupboards and ballooned to 23st - but a gastric bypass in Turkey saved me

A self-confessed 'food addict', whose parents put alarms on the kitchen cupboards when she became a secret binge eater aged eight, has halved her body weight after gastric sleeve surgery. Crystal Rudd, 30, who weighed 23 stone at her heaviest, has lost 11 stone and has had a further 11 pounds of saggy skin removed.

The mother-of-three, from from Fleet, Lincolnshire, began using food as a coping mechanism after her parents got divorced when she was a child. Before long, it was an 'addiction'. By the age of nine, Crystal required an adult-sized chair in the classroom when all her peers were comfortable on child-sized ones and, while still in primary school, she wore a uniform made for a secondary school pupil.

As a teenager, Crystal, who is a care home volunteer, was bullied for her weight and, once again, found solace in junk food. Her weight issues became even more severe when a 24-year-old Crystal and her then-boyfriend, Stephen Rudd, briefly split after the birth of their third child.

While the pair soon reconciled and are now husband and wife, Crystal gorged on takeaways every night for two months after the break-up, finding comfort only in eating. When her weight ballooned to 23 stone, forcing Crystal to wear a dress size 24-26, she resolved to undergo bariatric (weight loss) surgery to help her shed several stone.

Crystal Rudd (pictured before and after weight loss) lost 11 stone and had a further 11 pounds of saggy skin removed after gastric sleeve surgery. Crystal, 30, travelled to Turkey for gastric sleeve surgery in 2023 after her weight had reached 23 stone. The mother-of-three was a self-confessed 'food addict' and has struggled with her weight since early childhood.

In January 2023, she travelled to Istanbul, Turkey, for gastric sleeve surgery costing £2,700. And, having adopted a strict diet and exercise plan after recovering, Crystal slimmed down to a much healthier 13 stone, making her a dress size 12. One year on from her gastric sleeve surgery, Crystal returned to Turkey to have 11 pounds of excess skin removed.

She is now a 'proud' size 8-10 and has a flat stomach for the first time in her life. Crystal reflected: 'I started eating comfort food aged eight - I'd hide the crisp packets and chocolate wrappers down the side of the sofa. 'It was an addiction and I became a massive kid - I got bullied and would eat my lunch in the toilets at school.

'As I got older, I went through stages where I lost weight by dieting and exercise, but I gained it back again. 'I eventually started researching surgeries, and after my gastric sleeve the weight came off so quickly. Aged eight, Crystal (pictured as a child) started binge eating in secret.

Crystal used to find solace in eating but she now has a healthier relationship with food. Crystal's weight increased further after the birth of her first son, Ethan, now 10. She was bullied as a teenager because of her weight. Crystal pictured after her weight loss with husband Stephen Rudd and children Ethan, now 10, Blaze, eight, and Poppy, seven.

'Finally this year I had 11lbs of excess skin removed and 800ml of liposuction and now I can see my belly button for the first time in years. 'I'm still recovering and adapting to my new body but I've done something I never thought would be possible.'. Crystal suffered a difficult childhood and started comfort eating snacks from the pantry aged eight.

She would rush home from school to gorge on treats, hiding the wrappers behind the sofa or the garden fence. When her mother discovered the hundreds of empty wrappers, she put an alarm on the kitchen cupboard - but that didn't deter Crystal, who would climb on a chair to get around it.

She added: 'The addiction was bad and because I was limited on what I could eat, I craved it more. 'As a kid I didn't care what I weighed - until I started getting bullied when I was older.'. Cruel classmates picked on a teenaged Crystal for her larger frame, eventually leading her to eat in secret, either in the toilets or behind the stairs.

She has more than halved her weight thanks to the gastric sleeve surgery and following a strict post-surgery diet. She also followed an exercise regime to help her keep the weight off. After undergoing gastric sleeve surgery and losing 11 stone, Crystal was left with a lot of saggy skin (top photo). She later underwent a second procedure to have the excess skin removed (bottom picture).

Crystal feels 'proud' of herself for losing so much weight and dropping from a size 24-26 (left) to a size 8-10 (right). While she lost some of the weight aged 16 ahead of her school prom, Crystal regained it all soon after. She became pregnant at 19 with her son, Ethan, now 10, and had two more children in the following years - Blaze, eight, and Poppy, seven.

With each child Crystal gained more weight - but her weight gain was most significant when she and her then-boyfriend Stephen split up briefly in 2018. She said: 'I was heartbroken, I'd feed the children healthy foods, then order takeaways for me. 'I'd have huge portions - like chicken wraps and chips with onion rings - from the takeaway every day for nearly two months before we got back together again.