Extreme Slimmers tells the stories of five people who have each waged a life-long battle against their weight and have all taken extreme action to successfully fight the fat. The film asks what happens after you’ve transformed yourself from morbidly obese to slim.

The programme meets the man who has lost 45 stone after having weight loss surgery and is now left with over a stone of excess skin which he wants rid of.

It also features the woman determined to achieve a ‘Barbie body’ after losing 15 stone following a gastric band operation; the woman who went under the knife to lose weight because she feared for her life; and the woman who spent £30,000 on her dream body and now runs a support group for people considering weight loss surgery.

Also, the man who lost 30 stone naturally explains why he would now consider a gastric band operation to help him face his daily battle against his food addiction.

Nearly six million ITV viewers first met Colin in 2007 and followed his extraordinary weight loss journey in the film Lose 30 Stone or Die. He has now lost 45 stone. The film features footage of Colin before his weight loss when he weighed nearly 50 stone. At his heaviest he was 60 stone, was virtually bed-ridden and couldn’t wash himself, dress himself or go to the toilet without help.

But despite his astonishing weight loss Colin is far from happy. He has struggled to cope with the mass of loose skin which hangs down his front. In revealing scenes he tells the programme that although he is happy with his new weight he is embarrassed by the excess skin and it is preventing him from getting a girlfriend.

The programme follows Colin as he meets a surgeon who examines him and prepares to remove the apron of excess stomach skin. Before the operation Colin tells the programme: “Today’s a big day for me…from being a little kid I’ve had man boobs. Hopefully when I go home I can burn my bra.”

The film follows the procedure and shows footage of the operation. Afterwards Colin is weighed and is down to 14st 4lbs.

He tells the programme: “When I first started…I had these images of all these body beautifuls and all the muscular fellas and now that I’ve got there and had plastic surgery it’s nothing like that, but it’s a big big difference. I know one day I’ll look in the mirror and I’ll be happy with the way I look and the way I think and it’s coming soon.

“Everything I’ve been through it’s been totally worth it. As a big person it stopped me doing a lot of things but now I haven’t got the weight I just want to get on with it. I just want to get on with my life and live it.”

Four years ago Michelle weighed 24st 12lbs but has now lost 15 stone after having two gastric operations. She tells the programme that she decided to have the surgery because she was desperately unhappy.

She says: “People that say they are happy being big, they are not. They are living a lie because it’s a miserable life. Everything is an effort. You don’t look after yourself because you can’t wash, you can’t dry yourself in areas that normal people can. So you end up with sores and smells and things like incontinence, I suffered really badly from it, I had to wear a sanitary towel every single day of my life. For five, six years.”

After her operation to have a gastric band fitted, Michelle lost ten stone in two years – but when the weight loss slowed down she decided to go for a more drastic operation and had a gastric bypass which limits the amount of calories her body takes in.

Michelle tells the programme that her life has been transformed by the weight loss, she looks after her appearance much more than before and has got a boyfriend.

She says: “I decided that I wanted to make more of myself. I have my hair dyed every three weeks, I have my nails done, I have botox injections. I’ve had permanent make up on my lips and on my eyebrows and I take more care of myself.

“I actually enjoy looking at myself in the mirror as I never used to before. Since losing weight I have had a lot of male attention…four months ago I met a new partner…he’s just a normal guy, and that’s opened up a new world for me, because I’ve been going into bars and nightclubs and living a normal life for the first time ever.”

However, despite her newfound happiness, Michelle suffers from the same problem as Colin and the film follows her as she sees a specialist to see if she can have her excess skin removed. Michelle says: “I guess what I’m aiming for, what I would absolutely love is a Barbie body.”

Twelve stone Sam lost nearly 20 stone after having a gastric band fitted and then had almost £30,000 worth of plastic surgery to give her the body of her dreams.

She now runs a support group for people who have had or are considering weight loss surgery. The film meets her as she shows the group the scars from her surgery and describes how it changed her life.

She also is seen as she visits a specialist who injects fluid into Sam’s gastric band to maintain her weight loss.

Since having the surgery Sam met a boyfriend who has now proposed – she is seen shopping for the wedding dress of her dreams which she never thought she would have been able to fit into.

She says: “I’ve had several operations to remove the excess skin, I’ve had a tummy tuck, I’ve had a posterior half body lift, I’ve had a thigh lift twice and I’ve had my arms lifted.

“I’d lost all my weight when I first met Ben, then last July he proposed to me. I don’t think I ever thought I would get to this point in my life when I was that size, I thought I would probably just be lonely for the rest of my life.

“The only time that men spoke to you was if they were making fun of you. I feel like I’ve got everything that I wanted. I’ve got the man of my dreams, I’ve got the body that I couldn’t have dreamt of really, I don’t need anything else.”

Extreme Slimmers also meets Zoe, who says that she decided to have weight loss surgery because she doesn’t want her husband to have to look after her if her weight causes ill health in later life.

Five years ago Zoe met her husband in a big beautiful women chat room when she weighed 34 stone. Zoe tells the programme that after her wedding she realised she wanted to lose weight for the sake of her health so had a sleeve gastrectomy operation on the NHS which reduced the size of her stomach and cut down her food intake.

The documentary features emotional footage of Zoe before the operation as she cries and says if it doesn’t work she doesn’t want to come round from the anaesthetic because she is so unhappy with the size she has become.

The operation was successful and Zoe lost 11 stone in 11 months. But she tells the programme that after 12 months the weight loss stopped so she decided to have a further operation – a gastric bypass – to help her to lose even more weight.

The film catches up with Zoe six weeks after the gastric bypass. She has lost another two stone but describes her fears for her health as she suffers a complication and has to spend another night in hospital.

She tells the film: “People think that having the weight loss surgery, that’s it, you’ve had the operation and the weight comes off, and that’s the end of it, but obviously it’s not. It’s been two years now and I’ve had two operations and now this slight hiccup and I’m not where I want to be, but I will be.”

The film also meets Charlie who lost weight the natural way and shed 30 stone in 20 months after following a strict diet and exercise regime.

His journey began when he hit 44 stone and a friend wrote to the This Morning show begging them to help him to lose weight.

The bingo caller describes how he used to eat two cooked breakfasts in a morning followed by crisps, pies, chocolate, cakes and takeaways. He says he contemplated suicide as he battled to bring his weight down. He describes throwing food out to take away the temptation – but then getting it back out of the bin again.

He says: “I used to say to myself, I’m not doing this any more I’m not going to sit here in my house and eat all the time. I’d throw the food in the bin and I’d try to rip it up and break it up so it was inedible and then the next day I would be rummaging through the bin taking the food out and eating out of the bin. I know it’s disgusting to say, but it’s something I used to do.

“I was in such a bad way I did honestly contemplate suicide. I went to bed some nights and used to think, ‘I hope I don’t wake up in the morning.’”

Despite reaching a healthy weight, Charlie describes his daily battle with his food addiction.

He says: “With alcohol, cigarettes, drugs at least you can leave them alone and never ever touch them if you don’t want to. Food, you need to eat to survive, so for me it’s so difficult because every day I’ve got to have a little bit of the thing I’m addicted to. And that one taste can lead me to wanting more and more and more.

“I have a terrible relationship with food even now. I haven’t got anything restricting what I eat – I can eat what I like. I could be sat here in three years time back at 50 stone quite easily.

“Maybe I could have the band fitted now, because it’s now really that I need to control myself and at the moment I’m fitting an invisible band in my own head, just to stop myself overeating and just to try to eat like a normal person. But it’s difficult I am addicted to food.”

Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 9:00PM – 10:00PM ITV1