Moment Around the World in 80 Weighs contestant breaks down in tears after seeing a child begging for food in Mumbai – while the group try  to resist eating ‘because we’ll get fat’

This is the emotional moment an Around the World in 80 Weighs contestant broke down in tears after witnessing a young child beg for food on the streets of Mumbai.

In tonight’s episode, the hit Channel 4 show follows six obese Britons on a trip to India, where 14 million children are obese and infants as young as 11 months old need bariatric surgery.

The tourists struggled in scorching 40C temperatures and were made to eat a local vegetarian diet to help them shed the pounds fast before finally returning to London.

Along the way, the contestants visited the bustling Crawford Market in Mumbai, where they were flanked by tempting street food stalls and child beggars in desperate need of something to eat.

It proved too much for Tiffany, 24, who said it was difficult to ‘be around all this food’ while some children ‘can’t eat anything’.

In a flurry of tears, Tiffany said: ‘It’s just really hard seeing the kids walk around needing food.

‘They were so small and like we’re around all this food like: “Oh we can’t eat that because we’ll get fat”.

‘And you’re like: “But oh she can’t eat anything”. It’s just a lot to deal with. It’s just nuts here’.

The group were moved by the sight of a disheveled young girl dressed in pink as she stood before them asking for food.

The girl, who appeared to be no older than five-years-old, could be seen walking amidst the group while clutching an empty carrier bag.

Therryi-Jay, short of cash, turned around and said to the unnamed girl: ‘I don’t have anything, baby. I don’t have nothing. Nothing, I don’t have anything’.

Tiffany did her best to hold back tears but it was clearly fruitless. She asked their host Burjiz: ‘Doesn’t she have parents or anything?’.

He responded: ‘They make them do it.’

For this week’s trip, the tourists were guided by Burjiz Mukerji, a plus-size clothing entrepreneur who prides himself on being a ‘hardcore non-vegetarian’. 

Burjiz consoled the crew as they questioned why the young girl appeared to be so hungry and helpless.

Shedding light on the situation, he said: ‘So in India we have different types of people.

‘When we talk of the rich class there is ample food, so they keep hogging [it] the whole day and they tend to put on weight.

‘Whereas in the poor class, it becomes a challenge for them to feed each and every child. So because of this they have to turn to begging on the road’.

In the last two decades, India’s economy has seen an upward trajectory, which has also driven a surge in obesity.

India is now home to one fifth of the world’s overweight population, with obesity in under-fives having increased by 50 per cent in the last five years.

The stats are a stark contrast to what the group observed at Crawford Market, with Burjiz admitting that the situation made him uneasy, despite it being good for business.

He explained: ‘You know on a daily basis we get about one to two children who are genuinely obese at the age of around eight to nine years and 10 years.

‘It’s so much of a challenge when you see the child walking with so much difficulty in coming to your store.

‘And even to try on clothes – you know they start panting when they are trying clothes.

‘You know, for me it’s good for my business but it worries me. Just imagine the kind of problems they will face when they are older… commuting, walking, all the diseases. We don’t want the children to go through that.’

Elsewhere in the episode, the group visited a local children’s hospital and observed an overweight boy having his waist measured.

Father and son doctors Sanjay and Rahul – who have dedicated their lives to fighting back against juvenile obesity – revealed some of their findings.

‘It’s just lifestyle,’ they said. ‘A common idea in the Indian setting is that if you come from a wealthy family you are supposed to be chubby.

‘We say: “A chubby baby is a happy baby”, right? Because malnourishment was always linked to poverty and [being] chubby was a sign of wealth.

‘So then over maybe the last decade and a half people started overeating a lot.’

Upon hearing this Russell appeared pensive, yet he was further moved when the cast was introduced to Tanvi, 17 – a teen who had undergone stomach stapling a month ago.

In the last month she said she lost 10 kg after giving up a diet of pizza, burgers, fries and ‘no greens’.

India was the final stop on the group’s journey, and on returning home, they had a final weigh in. 

They learned they had lost a whopping collective 52 kg since leaving London nearly five weeks ago.

There was a round of laughter and hugs as the group shared their ‘pride’ at achieving such a huge feat amid the trip’s ups and downs.

Last week, things took a chaotic turn once more when the cast became embroiled in a tearful spat about weight loss methods.

In episode three, they were seen visiting Austin, Texas, where there’s a super-sized food culture, and where one in three locals is overweight.

During the episode, Tiffany, who once said she wasn’t on the show to lose weight, attempted to enlighten the cast about her ‘intuitive eating’ philosophy – where people listen to their body and eat what feels right, instead of following a strict diet.

She said she’s a fan of the approach but was taken to task by Sue, who suggested that Tiffany is not a poster girl for the approach.

Tearful Tiffany hit back and accused Sue of hating fat people, while Therryi-Jay stormed out of Rudy’s diner, where they’d gathered for a ‘nourishing’ meal with health and fitness consultant Brogan Graham.

The expert took a backseat and let the participants decide what to eat, while the group discussed weight loss secrets.

While Therryi-Jay and Russell said they found the freedom ‘stressful’, Tiffany thought it was a breeze because she believes in intuitive eating.

Breaking down her eating regime, she said: ‘This is something that I actually practice and do a lot of.

‘For me intuitive eating is all about listening to your body and understanding how food makes you feel’.

Brogan weighed in with the opinion that intuitive eating could be a ‘crutch’ and just an excuse to eat more.

However Tiffany continued to defend the method, saying: ‘I think it’s often, like, misjudged and people maybe don’t know enough about it or do enough research about it’.

She then responded to Sue’s comment about ‘not understanding’ the approach, saying: ‘It’s where you listen to your body and understand what it wants and when it needs it’.

‘It’s unconditional permission to eat what you want.’

‘Is that healthy?’ interrupted Sue. ‘But you say that, then it tells you to eat pizza so I don’t understand’ she continued.

‘I’m not being rude but when they look at you they’ll think, “Well, is intuitive eating good?”.

‘People won’t think you’re healthy, that’s what I’m saying’.

Tiffany took a pause as her face visibly turned red. She retorted: ‘They can think whatever they want about me, but you can be healthy at any size’.

The pair descended into a heated back and forth, as Tiffany tried desperately to defend the method.

Fed up with the argument, she erupted: ‘I feel like I’m being f***ing attacked’.

The other participants tried their hardest to end the spat, but Tiffany refused to back down, exclaiming: ‘no because I haven’t done anything!’

Things finally came to a head when Therryi-Jay stormed out of the restaurant. Speaking to the camera, she said she felt forced to leave because the drama was ‘triggering’.

She also confessed that she was tempted to binge-eat for the first time in a long while, and if given the opportunity she would have polished off a 64-pack of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

Back in the diner, Tiffany could be seen in tears and said that Sue ‘hates fat people’.

The next day, the two came face to face again, but it appeared this time they were more sympathetic to each other’s opinions.

The emotional moment saw Tiffany explain to Sue that she was upset at being used as an example for why intuitive eating doesn’t work.

‘That’s not okay, Sue,’ she added.

A tearful Sue insisted she felt so bad about her outburst that she was contemplating leaving the show so as not to disrupt the rest of the cast, to which Tiffany said it was the last thing she wanted.

Sue apologised before the two shared a heartwarming hug.

With the drama behind them it was good news at the weekly weigh-in when the group discovered they’d collectively lost more than 2 stone in just one week.