‘My diet used to be awful’: Iskra Lawrence opens up about her previous restrictive eating disorder

Iskra Lawrence sat down with her partner, Philip Payne, on Monday to discuss her previous battle with a restrictive eating disorder and her negative experience with diet culture.

The model, 30, revealed she doesn’t limit herself to certain foods on Instagram after previously admitting to being fat-phobic during her teenage years.

She relaxed on her sofa in teal leather-look trousers and a vest, as she said to her partner: ‘Restricting is the last thing [I want to do], that’s how my eating disorder felt, it felt restricting. 

‘Not just in the forms of foods that I ate but in the mindset I had, in the insecurities that were restricting, everything was restrictive…  

‘My diet used to be awful, in the sense that I wasn’t nourishing my body, it would be barely anything in the day or just protein because I’d seen those fad diets in magazines, it was the Atkins [Diet]’. 

She also opened up about the shame surrounding her emotional connection with food and revealed she felt she only deserved ‘treats’ such as brownies if she had completed a workout.  

Iskra has since found a better relationship with food by adopting intuitive eating.

Her new approach entails eating food based on what you’re body is craving and what feels nourishing, as opposed to what is deemed ‘healthy’, or what meets a calorie intake criteria.

Her discussion with Philip, 32, isn’t the first time the model has opened up about her eating struggles, as she previously revealed she ‘lived in fear of being fat’ during her teenage years.

She also took to Instagram in October where she admitted she had been fat-phobic and held herself ‘to impossible standards and judged/ stereotyped others’.

Iskra shared a video where she counted down from 10 on her hands while answering a series of questions about the times she had criticised her figure or another’s.  

She wrote: ‘Not proud to share that I’ve been fat-phobic, I didn’t understand at the time why or what it even meant. 

‘I lived in fear of being fat during my teenage years, because everywhere I had been shown that success, desirability, popularity and acceptance was only for those in societies parameters of body size and beauty ideals.  

‘I wish I had known better, I wish I’d have never held myself to impossible standards or judged / stereotyped others. I know better now, recovery truly is a gift.’

She went on to say that recovery isn’t easy when ‘everything has been stacked against you to not feel enough’, but being you ‘is the best you can be’.    

Iskra became a first-time mother back in April, when she and her beau welcomed the birth of their baby son.  

The model recently admitted that her exercise regime hasn’t been ‘consistent’ since giving birth but said she was ‘in awe’ that her body has given her the gift of motherhood. 

For help and guidance surrounding eating disorders contact Beat Eating Disorders’ helpline: 0808 801 0677