Vanessa Feltz once had a figure that matched her larger-than-life personality, but these days she's a svelte 12. She talks to Womens Editor Christen Pears about losing weight and her new TV series.

BEING overweight is hard enough, but being overweight and in the public eye must be horrendous. One person who knows better than most is TV presenter Vanessa Feltz.

Once a size 24, Vanessa was the frequent victim of cruel jokes and critics' invective but she says her bubbly personality masked the pain she was feeling.

"It was actually very hurtful. I may have been on television but I'm a human being as well. Part of me wanted to lose weight to placate these people but another part of me thought 'Why should I do it? No way'," she says.

One in three people in Britain is currently on a diet - a staggering 18 million. Everyone, it seems, wants to have a body like their favourite celebrity, while the images that appear on television and in magazines provide unrealistic role models.

"Some people are happy with their bodies but there are far more who have problem areas and things they want to change. I know how it feels to be extremely fat and not to like yourself very much. I also know how hard it can be to do something about it.

"My eating got completely out of control. I was fat and so I didn't feel happy about myself. Because I didn't feel happy abut myself, I ate, but using food as a crutch made me even fatter. It was a vicious circle and I couldn't see any way out of it. I couldn't even face the thought of going on a diet."

It was only when her husband of 16 years told her their marriage was in trouble and gave her 12 weeks to lose weight, that she began to do something about it. She lost the weight but, despite her efforts, she also lost her husband.

"I hated the idea of going a diet but I did start eating smaller portions and cutting down on the fat in my diet. The thing that really made the difference, though, was exercise. At first, I could barely even walk on the treadmill. After just five minutes, I was out of breath, but I started to notice an improvement really quickly.

"You work out and you feel better, you look better and, because you've worked so hard, you're far less likely to stick a cake in your mouth."

In just five months, Vanessa dropped from a size 24 to 12. She still works out six times a week to maintain her new figure. She was helped in her quest to change her body shape by personal trainer Dennis Duhaney, with whom she later became romantically involved.

Both her dramatic weight loss and her relationship with Dennis helped her get over the break-up of her marriage and he appears with her in the new series of Weight Matters, the diet and lifestyle show that begins its second series on the Discovery Health Channel tonight.

The 15-part series explores every aspect of health and wellbeing, including retail therapy for the fuller figure, finding out how effective some of the most popular diets really are and trying out some of the more unusual ways to shed pounds.

James Crossley, better known as former Gladiator Hunter, tries out the latest fitness crazes, ranging from underwater hockey and bellydancing. Chef Daniel Green, who used to be overweight himself, gives his top tips on how to cook with less calories and demonstrates how to make delicious but healthy dishes.

The series also follows the progress of five dieters, who are trying to lose weight by following different diets. They are helped on their way by Dennis who puts them through their paces with personalised fitness regimes.

But are programmes like this just feeding the nation's obsession with weight? Vanessa says not.

"It's very understanding and, unlike a lot of programmes, it has a sense of humour. It doesn't tell people what to do or what they should look like; I despise that. It's much more about giving them tips and ideas and helping them achieve a healthier lifestyle.

"I relate very strongly to the programme and the people on it, whether that's people who want to lose weight but can't or those who have started to change their shape and feel great about it. I've lived the whole gamut of the dieting and weight loss experience and I hope other people can relate to that."

* Weight Matters, 7pm tonight, Discovery Health Channel.