'Strictly Come Dancing freed me from obesity,' says Russell Grant

Strictly Come Dancing star Russell Grant has credited the show with helping him lose weight and improve his quality of life.

The celebrity astrologer, who weighed 26 stone just three years ago, said that he embarked upon a weight loss programme and signed up to Strictly after feeling "imprisoned in a body of fat".

"Someone said to me: 'Russell, you've proved that fat blokes can dance'," he told the Daily Mail. "And it's true, I am still fat. That's one of the reasons I'm doing Strictly. But I've gone past morbidly obese. I've lost ten stone, for God's sake!

"I've been given my life back. I'm no longer locked in a dungeon of emotional unhappiness, no longer imprisoned in a body of fat.

"That's why, if I get voted out this weekend, I'm not bothered because I now know where I'm going and what I should be doing. I know I'm on the right road, wherever it leads."

Grant added that despite sporting small injuries from his Strictly training, he was still enjoying competing on the show alongside Flavia Cacace.

"At 60 you can't do it like the young whippersnappers, so I need little breaks, otherwise you kill yourself," he said. "But I'm loving it. Even if I've got all these war wounds, I wouldn't swap it for anything. I'll just carry on until I'm meant to leave and I'm voted out.

"Flavia's absolutely marvellous... She told me: 'I'm not going to have you standing there and me just dancing like a butterfly in front of you.'"

Strictly Come Dancing judge Alesha Dixon recently suggested that Grant could be the competition's dark horse.

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Watch Russell Grant and Flavia Cacace on Strictly Come Dancing below: