Dragon's Den star Sara Davies opens up on weight loss but admits she 'doesn't feel any different'

Sara Davies "doesn't feel any different" despite her huge weight loss.

The 40-year-old businesswoman - who has Oliver, 10, and Charlie, seven with her husband Simon - has managed to shed three stone but insisted that she is "still as happy" with herself as she was, even though now an added benefit is that she can spend more time being active with her children.

She told Prima magazine: "I don’t feel any different about myself when I’m in this size 12 body than when I was in the size 18 body. I’m still as happy with the woman that I see in the mirror. She’s still not confident about the stretch marks, wobbly bits and the mum pouch that never went, but I wouldn’t say I wasn’t happy when I was bigger. I’m happier that I can run around after the kids and not be out of breath. I feel like I’ve been through a health transformation."

But the 'Dragon's Den' star - who is worth an reported £37 million thanks to her Crafter's Companion business - revealed that the key to her weight loss success lay in cutting out sugar, but she does not believe in following "fad diets" and has focused on the idea of keeping fit rather than losing weight specifically.

She said: "I spent the end of last year cutting out sugar. And when I say cutting out sugar, I don’t just mean I stopped eating chocolate and cake. I stopped drinking fruit juice or eating fruit, and cut down my alcohol intake. A lot of people say to me, ‘What’s your trick? How are you doing it?’ And I think they just want some kind of magic bullet, but it really was just lifestyle changes.

"Last year, I was cutting out sugar and focusing on weight loss. This year hasn’t been about losing weight, but I’ve trimmed down. I got fit to go to the Arctic.

"And had I not lost that weight, I wouldn’t have managed trudging through the ice. And then at the Great North Run this year, I shaved 42 minutes off my time and just absolutely smashed it.

"What’s really helped is understanding how my body works. I’m not following a fad diet. I’m just understanding how my body processes sugar and I’m making lifestyle changes to support that. So I think that knowledge is power."