Melissa was obese – but now she’s lost two stone WITHOUT going hungry. It’s not thanks to fat jabs or a punishing diet, but something thousands of Britons are already doing…

Melissa Amos had never worried about her weight because she didn’t think she needed to. The 45-year-old mother-of-three from Hertfordshire practised yoga, went for long walks with the dog and made sure to eat healthily.

However, things changed, Melissa says, when she entered her 40s and, despite continuing to exercise, her weight began to tick up – in part because she says she began to snack mindlessly on chocolate, cereal bars and cheese.

One day, Melissa stood on her scales and received a nasty shock: Her weight had risen from under 11st to more than 13st. At 5ft 3in this meant that, according to the NHS, she was classed as obese.

However, while her weight left her concerned, it wasn’t her biggest worry at the time. That was her teeth. ‘I didn’t feel healthy or comfortable, but I was more worried that one of my bottom front teeth was starting to protrude. So I went to the dentist.’

That trip, in March last year, turned out to be one of the most fateful of her life.

The dentist recommended that she get Invisalign – essentially adult braces that are removable clear plastic aligners designed to straighten the teeth.

Invisalign, which typically costs between £1,500 and £5,500, is thought to be used by hundreds of thousands of Britons, who typically wear the moulds for around a year and a half. Not only are they more discreet than traditional metal braces but they can also be removed to eat.

Crucially, Melissa is one of a growing number of Invisalign patients who have discovered that it has an unexpected effect – it helps them lose weight.

While patients can take out the plastic moulds (often referred to as trays) whenever they like, they are encouraged to keep them on for at least 22 hours a day – during which time eating is impossible. This had an immediate impact on Melissa’s eating habits.

‘My dentist said that if I wasn’t consistent from the beginning, it would affect the entire course of my treatment,’ she says.

‘That commitment made me much more conscious of the choices I was making.

‘I sometimes used food as a distraction or a way of soothing myself. Since I had to take the Invisalign out every time I wanted to eat, each time I got the urge to snack I had to stop and ask myself, “Am I genuinely hungry, or am I trying to change how I feel?”’

This small change had a direct impact on her weight. Within a month, she had lost more than 2lb and over the next few months she continued to shed even more. As her weight improved, Melissa – who works as a mental wellbeing coach – felt able to do more exercise. ‘I realised how much I loved walking,’ she says ‘I then began weight training, to take advantage of my new strength and vitality.

‘When I started thinking about my health more, I put my diet into ChatGPT [the AI chatbot] and found out I wasn’t eating enough protein. Now, I eat much more protein-based foods like eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese and peanut butter. I feel more satisfied and less hungry.’

Since getting her Invisalign fitted, Melissa has lost around 2st and, with several months to go of wearing the device, she expects to shed even more. She says that her teeth have improved too. ‘The changes to my teeth, bite and jaw have been remarkable,’ she says.

Dr Daniel Sutcliffe, founder of The Bespoke Dentist in London, says: ‘For the best part of a decade I heard the same thing from patients, usually said half laughing, “You’ve made me lose weight.”

‘When every snack means removing your trays, the biscuit simply isn’t worth the hassle. It adds a little hurdle between you and the biscuit tin.’