Obese woman becomes a bodybuilder after her husband signs her up to the gym – without asking her

An overnight mum went from a couch potato to a prize-winning bodybuilder – after her husband signed her up to a gym without asking her.

Clair Rauso, 41, from Croydon, south London, was furious when her partner Adam signed them both up for an exercise membership without consulting her.

At the time, the mum-of-two was a size 22 and weighed 17 stone as she loved to binge on junk food and hadn’t worked out for years.

Clair said she felt like the fattest person in the gym when Adam dragged her along for the induction.

But despite her initial reluctance, she soon embraced a new healthy lifestyle and went on to lose seven stone.

Clair slimmed down to 10st 6lbs and is a size eight thanks to her exercise regime and following healthy recipes on nutrition website, MuscleFood.

She says she now loves hitting the gym and is even flexing her muscles on stage at bodybuilding competitions.

Adam joined his wife on the fitness journey and dropped four stone to reach a healthy weight of 12st.

Clair said: “I remember the day Adam came home from work and told me he’d signed us up for the gym. I was fuming. We went to an open day and must have been the fattest people there.

“Before then the only exercise I had was walking across the road to the school where I work. I even used to get in the car to drive to the supermarket at the end of the road because I couldn’t face the walk.

“I was still angry at my first session but it didn’t take long for me to become addicted to the gym, especially when the weight began falling off.”

The couple, who have two teenage sons, have gone from doing no exercise to training together at the gym five times a week.

They never buy ready meals, instead choosing to cook from scratch using protein rich meats from Musclefood.com.

Before embarking on their healthy lifestyle, the couple and their sons were eating high fat, calorific foods.

An average day would include buttery toast for breakfast, sandwiches and crisps for lunch and lasagne and chips for dinner.

Snacks would include pies, cakes, biscuits and huge bags of crisps.

“Initially we just cut out all the rubbish food like the biscuits and crisps but once we could see the change the exercise was making we wanted to take it a step further,” she said.

“That’s when we started looking at our diet. I try to cook using single ingredients so for dinner we may have chicken, rice and vegetables. I avoid using any tinned or processed food where I can and we make all sauces from scratch.

“We were eating massive portions before so have really cut down on portion size too.

“I feel healthier now than I ever have and my energy levels have gone through the roof.”

Now Clair cooks using single ingredients and the family snacks on fruit, yoghurt, nuts and raw vegetables.

They also satisfy their craving for treats with high-protein snack bars, crisps and protein ice cream.

Clair had been suffering with back problems for years due to her weight and despite talking about exercising and eating better, the couple never did anything about it until Adam took the matter into his own hands.

Now she’s a fitness fanatic, adding: “We go to the gym five times a week and train with the weights for about 90 minutes. I also do an hour of cardio on a Sunday morning.

“Despite all the time working out, we spend more time with the boys than before and do much more together – losing the weight really has changed us as a family.”

Last year Clair competed in her first body building competition, Pure Elite and came second in the Body Transformation category.

“I was so proud of the weight I lost that I wanted to show it off,” she said.

“I also wanted to prove to people that regardless of your age, how much you weigh or how little exercise you’ve done in the past, you can do this.”

Adam agreed: “Going to the gym and eating well is now part of our lives. We’ve become really passionate about it – I can still see us tottering to the gym when we’re in our 80s.

“Doing this together has been great. If Clair’s having an off day I encourage her and if I don’t feel like going to the gym, she’ll push me to carry on.”