AN OVERWEIGHT pub landlady lost a stone tackling alligators and snake-infested waters in a TV weightloss challenge.

Emma Stubbings, 22, from Chelmsford, joined two other tubby landlords from Essex to be part of the Texas Water Safari challenge featuring on Channel 5’s Go Hard or Go Home show later this month.

The self-confessed snacker and chocoholic had to undergo a strict gym fitness programme before heading to the USA last June.

With temperatures hitting 40 degree celsius, Miss Stubbings and fellow Essex-based landlords David Ripo, who runs The Barge Inn on Hawk Hill, Battlesbridge, and Nick May, who runs the Alma Inn in King’s Head Street in Harwich, spent two days winding down the rapids in a canoe.

Miss Stubbings, who used to run the White Horse in Townfield Road in the city centre, said:Got this quote from here: “Taking part in the show was a tough but absolutely brilliant experience.

“What it proved to me the most is that you can do anything when you put your mind to it!”

The show is hosted by transatlantic sailor Hannah White.

She said: "My dream with this project was to give people the opportunity to experience the incredible, life defining moments I’ve been lucky enough to have when competing.

"Setting yourself a goal, working towards it, and eventually achieving that goal is a feeling that I wanted everyone in the show to experience – so much is possible if you work hard, believe in yourself and never give up.”