Millions of British viewers are familiar with Letitia Dean’s big hair, dramatic exits, and door-to-door altercations on Albert Square. Letitia Dean has lived inside one of the most scrutinized characters in British soap opera history for forty years because Sharon Watts has been a mainstay of EastEnders since its first episode in 1985. Another story about her weight, her relationship with food, and a cycle she couldn’t seem to break no matter what she tried ran silently alongside the headlines and storylines for a large portion of that time.
She has discussed it herself, which requires a certain level of candor. The majority of celebrities in her position either release a carefully crafted statement through a publicist or completely ignore the topic. Letitia didn’t either. She talked about the years of weight gain, the unsuccessful diets, the red wine, and the day she finally woke up and decided she was done with it all when she sat down with Closer magazine. Her story sounds so commonplace that it’s almost disarming. No dramatic intervention, no flight from Los Angeles for a personal trainer. Just a brief moment of personal tiredness that most adults over forty would recognize right away.
The before-and-after pictures that are making the rounds online tend to condense the entire story into a tidy visual contrast, so it’s important to make it clear that the weight gain didn’t happen overnight. The actual situation was slower and messier. She acknowledged that for years, her weight fluctuated continuously, rising after a period of poor eating, falling after a harsh round of fad dieting, and then slowly rising once the willpower ran out. She gave Atkins a try. She experimented with eating just eggs. In a few weeks, she lost a stone and, almost unavoidably, found herself back where she had begun. Many people will find this pattern unsettlingly familiar, and it seems like she knew it and was sick of acting otherwise.
Strictly Come Dancing appears to have changed the situation. She stated that she felt physically better after the show and the live tour than she had in years, and that feeling stuck with her. It was the act of moving her body consistently and observing the difference, not the performance or the spectacle on television. Perhaps Strictly provided her with a framework that she had never really had before, an incentive to continue being active that went beyond appearance.
Her strategy was noteworthy for what it wasn’t when she eventually made the decision to change her habits. No brand-name elimination plan, no dramatic detox. She built her meals around grilled skinless chicken and vegetables and settled on about 1,300 calories per day, which is less than the NHS’s recommended 2,000 for women. She added running and boxing. In just four months, she went from being 10 stone 4 pounds to 8 stone 3 pounds, losing four dress sizes in the process. When she returned to EastEnders, she looked very different from the person who had left.
It seemed that the trolling had been cruel for a long time. Although that portion of her story is frequently mentioned in passing before being ignored, it most likely merits more than a footnote. Public personalities who exhibit any discernible weight gain soon discover that some online communities view their bodies as subject to criticism. Letitia Dean was not an exception, and she put up with it for years while still appearing on one of the most popular shows in the UK. It’s difficult to imagine that the criticism had no impact at all, regardless of whether it influenced her final decision to alter her lifestyle.
What’s left is a woman who claims to have more energy than she’s had in years and who has given up the fad diet cycle in favor of something that seems, at least temporarily, sustainable. Nutritionists may take issue with the 1,300-calorie figure, and it’s still unclear if this is a long-term change or just a new chapter. However, there’s a sense that something has actually changed as she makes her way back to Albert Square, not just in her appearance but also in the way she conducts herself. After all these years, Sharon Watts appears lighter in a number of ways.
FAQs
Q1: How much weight did Letitia Dean lose?
She lost approximately two stone, dropping from 10st 4lbs to 8st 3lbs.
Q2: How long did Letitia Dean’s weight loss take?
She shed four dress sizes in just four months.
Q3: What diet does Letitia Dean follow?
She eats grilled skinless chicken, lots of greens, and around 1,300 calories daily.
Q4: What exercise does Letitia Dean do to stay fit?
She keeps active through boxing and running.
Q5: What triggered Letitia Dean to finally address her weight?
Strictly Come Dancing made her feel physically better than she had in years.
Q6: What diets did Letitia Dean try before her successful weight loss?
She previously tried Atkins and extreme egg-only fad diets.
