The 25 stone teenager: Natalie Cox is a junk food junkie, consuming 7,500 calories a day

13 April 2012

It looks like enough to keep a whole family fed.

But this spread is just some of what 15-year-old Natalie Cox consumes alone on a typical day.

Natalie Cox wiith a selection of her daily snacks

Natalie can pack away a staggering 7,500 calories – almost five times the recommended daily intake.

As a result, she already tips the scales at almost 25 stone.

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Doctors have warned her that if she doesn't stop eating vast amounts of junk food, she may not reach her 30th birthday.

Natalie, who has been piling on the pounds since she was a toddler, is addicted to a low-quality diet dominated by crisps, chocolate and pies.

She said: "I weighed about eight stone when I was eight years old. I started putting on an extra stone every year until I was 11 and learnt to cook for myself.

"Then it just got worse and worse. At age 12 I was 14 stone 7lb and at 13 I was 20 stone.

"Now I'm almost 25 stone and a size 32. I'm only 5ft 6in tall and more than three times the size I should be."

Natalie consumes 7,500 calories a day and is three times the size she should be

Her mother Cheryl, a 42-year-old care assistant, said Natalie had tried everything to lose weight, including endless diets and regular sessions with a personal trainer.

But she said the teenager's addiction to food beats her every time.

Her problem is so extreme she once resorted to eating the leftover scraps of a family meal from the dog's dinner bowl.

Speaking at at the family home in Winchester, Mrs Cox, who spends £150 a week on food for Natalie, said: "She just can't stop eating. She loves food.

"The first thing she'll do when she gets in from school is go straight to the cupboard for a load of biscuits then onto the fridge to see what she can get her hands on.

"She's very secretive about it too. Food goes missing all the time."

Mrs Cox said she does not dare to stop buying junk food because she knows Natalie would find other ways of getting her hands on it.

She has conned money from her family by claiming she needed to buy books. And in the past she has stolen food to satisfy her appetite.

Her mother, who weighs 16 stone, added: "I'm at the end of my tether. Nothing seems to work."

She and her husband Ken feel the only option left for their daughter is tohave a gastric band fitted.

They have a son, Peter, 13, who has a normal weight. Natalie, who struggles for breath and gets chest pains because of her size, has suffered taunts of "Fat Nat" at school.

She was horrified to read recent reports about eight-year- old Connor McCreaddie and nine-year- old Samantha Hames, who each weigh about 14 stone.

She said: "I just want to tell them to do something about their eating now – otherwise they'll end up like me.

"I can't get any nice clothes and I've got horrible stretchmarks all over me.

"I see girls on the TV like J-Lo and Kelly Brook and think I'd love to look like that. It really gets me down."

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