Linda Robson light as a feather after dropping three stone

Her huge weight loss, in a matter of only four months, comes in the wake of her pal and sitcom co-star Pauline Quirke's dramatic slimming.

Robson showed off her new size 12 figure in a photoshoot for Woman magazine, and said she had even started borrowing her teenage daughter's outfits.

The star, who has dropped from 14-and-a-half stone to 11 stone, admitted she had not really realised how big she was.

'When I was told: 'You're no longer obese,' I replied: 'I didn't know I was," she told the magazine.

Quirke recently stunned many people by losing a colossal eight-and-a-half stone, and like Robson she followed the Lighter Life plan.

Robson, who admitted the dramatic change had not been easy, said: "At my heaviest I was 15 stone, but I hid it well. I wore bias cut skirts and I always wore scarves.

"I used to be a size 20 on my top half (because I've got big boobs that I hate) but now Pauline and I are both size 12. How amazing is that? I joke, 'It'll be Lesley Joseph (who played Dorian in Birds Of A Feather) who's the fat one now'.

"Now that I've lost weight, I feel so much better, much more confident. It takes me less time to get ready because I'm not trying to cover up bits of my body anymore."

Robson said many people have asked whether she has had surgery, such is the change in her look. And she said she is constantly being stopped to ask about her new shape.

"I've been going to my local market in Islington all my life, but now it takes me twice as long. People stop me every five minutes, saying: 'You look well, are you trying to keep up with your mate?"'

She added: "I never thought in a million years I'd be swapping clothes with my 16-year-old daughter - Bobbie says 'you better not get smaller than me, mum'."