Sam Akerman says losing 41 kilos was not a way of hitting back at a man who chatted her up while she was on a night out with friends.

She said: “I was part of a hockey team sports tour. We were on a night out and I was approached by this guy who it turns out was on a mission to pull as many fatties as he could and he then took pictures as evidence.”

Weighing in at her heaviest at 137kg meant that she stood out, but this was “really horrible, I just wanted to be treated the same as everyone else”, she recalls.

“Other people noticed the humiliation. I just laughed it off and my friends were laughing it off because that is how I was dealing with it but I just wanted the ground to swallow me up. It was a joke but it made me a joke. I was just on a night out with the girls.”

Akerman, a civil servant from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, is two years into her health, fitness and weight loss programme which involves regular trips to the gym with a friend for support and work with Slimming World.

Before, I had no control over how I looked or how people were treating me, but now I have lost the weight I have found the confidence from somewhere

Being shamed on her night out with the girls did not help her to rethink her life – it was only wanting to be healthier that made her do that, she said.

“The thing is, food was my security blanket. I loved cooking and it is my comfort zone. If friends are going out you just want to feel part of it and to feel normal.

“If that situation happened again now I know I could deal with it with my head held high.”

She has noticed a greater self-confidence since losing weight and does not tell people about her dramatic change in size unless they “react positively to me in the first place”.

She said: “Before, I had no control over how I looked or how people were treating me, but now I have lost the weight I have found the confidence from somewhere.”

Akerman said it helps that people have contacted her to say they are inspired to try to be healthier and lose weight after seeing how successful she has been.

She said: “When I was overweight and went out I always felt judged and always felt like I was second best, say when I was queuing for a drink at a bar. I feel more confident now. I have still got a long way to go on this journey, but it is a start.”