From just 500 calories a day to 5,000: Bodybuilder, 35, says lifting weights saved her from anorexia.

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A woman who once weighed just six-and-a-half stone has told how bodybuilding saved her from anorexia.
Lisa Cross hated her body and as a teenager and had to wear children’s clothes because she was so tiny.
But after discovering the world of female bodybuilding, she swapped starvation for ten meals a day and now feels healthier and sexier than ever.

Lisa Cross, 35, was anorexic as a teenager (left) and only weighed six and a half stone. She took up weight lifting (right) when she was dating a bodybuilder and she say it saved her from anorexia

Ms Cross’s current 5,000 calorie diet consists of oats, rice, protein shakes, turkey, recovery drinks, steak and broccoli.
The 35-year-old, said: ‘I’ve never felt so happy about myself. I feel feminine and I feel sexy.
‘As a bodybuilder you have to be critical about yourself because you can always improve but at the same time I finally feel confident in my own skin.‘Over the years as I’ve trained, my attitude to food has completely changed. I don’t eat it for taste anymore - I see food as fuel whereas at one time I feared what it would do to my body.
‘At one stage I was eating less than 500 calories a day. Now I eat about 5,000.’
Ms Cross’s eating problems began while studying for her GCSEs.

Ms Cross now eats 5,000 calories a day in ten small meals. Her diet mainly consists of oats, broccoli, protein shakes, steaks and turkey. She says she feels healthier and sexier than ever before

When Ms Cross was a teenager, her father took a picture of her in a bikini to try and shock her in to eating more. She was so small that she had to wear children's clothes

Body builder who says pumping iron helped her beat anorexia

The high-pressured environment led her to seek solace in starvation as it was the only thing about her life she could control.
She recalled: ‘I was never the most academically gifted, it didn’t come to me as naturally as it did the other girls and I suppose the pressure came from myself.
‘I had always had an odd attitude to food, using faddy diets and developing strange habits but at around the age of 15 I stopped eating altogether.
‘I would eat a little bit of fruit in the mornings and then fill up on water throughout the day. I would refuse to eat in front of anyone and find excuses not to be around at mealtimes.

Ms Cross said: 'A lot of men are attracted to muscled women. Sometimes it's about them being stronger than they are, sometimes bodybuilding men like a woman who also has muscles'

‘If someone tried to make me eat, I would get aggressive and it caused huge arguments with my family.
‘My whole personality changed and I became really introverted, scared to speak to anyone in case the conversation turned to food.
‘I was buying my clothes from Mothercare but rather than finding it odd I was actually kind of proud of myself, which just goes to show how messed up my thinking was.’
While on a family holiday aged 17, Ms Cross’s father took a photo of her in a bikini in the hope that it would shock her into changing her habits.

She said: 'People often ask me why I would put all this work in just to stand on stage for ten minutes and all you get at the end of it is a tin pot trophy. But this is my dream and I've dedicated my life to it'

But the turning point eventually came a few months later when she started to lose her hair.
Ms Cross, from Plymouth, said: ‘Like all young girls I liked my hair and one day in the shower it started coming out in clumps.
‘It was a real wake up call to me. I was experiencing pains in my heart and I was constantly cold. My joints ached and I had no energy at all.
‘I had no enthusiasm for anything and I was only sleeping a few hours a night. In my spare time I would do sit ups in my bedroom for hours until my spine hurt from rubbing against the floor.

Ms Cross took up body building when she moved to Japan and learned the value of healthy, communal eating. She says that she started to see the value of food as fuel

‘I realised then that I only had two choices; get better or get gradually worse.’
Ms Cross gained all As and A*s in her GCSEs and then achieved four A-Levels which allowed her to take a degree in Russian and Politics at Birmingham University.
But even though 5ft 6in Ms Cross managed to get up to a size 12, weighing 11st 7lbs, her eating and exercise habits remained unhealthy.
‘I was trying to get better but after spending so long being afraid of food I didn’t really know how to eat,’ she said.

Ms Cross's days are now taken up with training for an hour and a half six times a week. She eats a 5,000 calorie-a-day diet

‘I craved sugary things like cakes and biscuits but I was so terrified of the calories, I would spend three or four hours in the gym every day doing cardio.
‘I lived on energy drinks and cola and I was still very secretive, never wanting to eat in front of anyone.
‘But while I was spending a lot of time working out, my body never really seemed to change.’
It was only after finishing her degree and moving to Japan to teach English that Ms Cross finally realised she had a problem.

MS CROSS'S BODYBUILDING DIET AND EXERCISE PLAN

6am: Protein shake
8.30am: Cardio workout for 30 minutes
9am: 120g of turkey, 200g of sweet potato
11am: 120g turkey, 200g of sweet potato
1pm: Protein shake
1.30pm-2.30pm: Weight training
2.30pm: Recovery drink
3.30pm: 120g turkey, 200g of sweet potato
6pm: 120g of turkey, 200g of sweet potato
8pm: Protein shake
10pm: 120g of turkey, 150g broccoli
12.30pm: Protein shake, 25g of almonds
Calories: 5,000

After moving in with a Japanese bodybuilder boyfriend, she discovered the value of food as fuel and started weight lifting.
She said: ‘In Japan they have a totally different attitude to food. Eating is a communal activity and there was no way I could keep my eating to myself anymore.
‘The Japanese diet is based around fish and rice and even their snacks are healthy. They don’t overindulge as much as other cultures.
‘Home economics is compulsory in schools until the age of 18 and while it was completely alien to me, all of the young kids over there knew how to cook healthy meals at home.
‘I was interested in lifting weights and my boyfriend encouraged me to read up on the subject as much as possible so I bought some books on the internet.
‘One of them had some pictures of the female bodybuilder Negrita Jayde in it and I remember thinking how totally unattainable her figure was.
‘The irony of it is she was a middleweight champion and I now compete in the heavyweight class.
Lisa returned from Japan after four years and over time she made friends with other bodybuilders at her local gym. In 2007 she joined them on a trip to Las Vegas to see the Miss Olympia contest.
She said: ‘It was the first time I had seen female bodybuilders up close. In photos their physiques seemed so unobtainable but it was then that I realised I wasn’t too far from what they had achieved.

Ms Cross now competes as a female bodybuilder and hopes to eventually take part in Ms Olympia - an international professional bodybuilding competition

‘Someone suggested that I start competing and in 2009 I started dieting for my first competition.’
The 2,500 calorie diet consisted of oats, rice, protein shakes, turkey, recovery drinks, steak and broccoli.
In her very first competition, Ms Cross came second in the NABBA Universe contest in Southport, losing to Larissa Cunha, from Brazil.
The very next day she qualified for the UK BFF British finals which, to her surprise, she won the next year.

Ms Cross supplements her income by running a community gym, plus modelling and sponsorship deals

This year she hopes to qualify for her ultimate goal - Ms Olympia, an international professional bodybuilding competition.
She said: ‘People often ask me why I would put all this work in just to stand on stage for ten minutes and all you get at the end of it is a tin pot trophy.
‘But this is my dream and I’ve dedicated my life to it. To be Ms Olympia is to be the best bodybuilder in the world, it’s the pinnacle of bodybuilding.’
Her days are taken up with training for an hour and a half six times a week and she eats a 5,000 calorie-a-day diet, spread over ten meals.

Ms Cross said: 'You do get addicted to it because you get addicted to the endorphins your body is producing in the gym. When I'm training, that's my time. It's when I really feel at one with myself'

Ms Cross supplements her income by running a community gym, plus modelling and sponsorship deals.
She said: ‘A lot of men are attracted to muscled women. Sometimes it’s about them being stronger than they are, sometimes bodybuilding men like a woman who also has muscles.
‘I enjoy having a fanbase and sport is all about promoting yourself. The website allows me to do the job I love and I couldn’t imagine how. I could dedicate myself properly to it if I also had to do a normal desk job.

Ms Cross said: 'I've never felt so happy about myself. I feel feminine and I feel sexy. As a bodybuilder you have to be critical about yourself because you can always improve but at the same time I finally feel confident in my own skin'

‘You do get addicted to it because you get addicted to the endorphins your body is producing in the gym.
‘When I’m training, that’s my time. It’s when I really feel at one with myself. I wouldn’t dream of bringing my phone into the gym with me and I get quite annoyed if people try to talk to me when I’m training.
‘I honestly can’t imagine my life without bodybuilding - I love it.
‘My body is just on the cusp of becoming really great and I’ll keep bodybuilding as long as I am able to do it.

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