Overweight Britons who travelled the world on a quest to lose weight as part of a new Channel 4 series were brought to tears after meeting a 27-year-old woman in Tonga who had both legs amputated after developing diabetes.

The second episode of the series, Around the World in 80 Weighs, which will air tonight, sees follows six people, all overweight, from around the UK travel to the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga to learn about weight loss.

Tonga is one of the most fattest nations on earth, with 93 per cent of the population overweight. 

The visit is a stark contrast to the previous episode, where the Brits headed to Japan, where  only 4 per cent of the population are obese compared to 25 per cent of Britons. 

Leaving Japan behind, this week the tourists travel to Tonga to meet a young woman who has lost both her legs. 

There they meet Ofeina, who is battling to turn around the island nation’s extreme obesity crisis, and Winnie, who, at only 28 years of age, is 47 stone. 

Winnie takes the group to the local diabetes clinic, where they meet a young woman who, at the age of 27, has lost both of her legs. 

One of the group, Tiffany, is visibly moved by the experience.

‘I’m a bit speechless to be honest,’ she says to camera.

‘She’s only 27, that’s only two years [older] than me,’ the NHS waste coordinator added.

‘And she has no legs’.

‘I’m just so shocked, it’s hard to put it into words.

‘I would be mortified and horrified if I had to have both legs amputated’ 

The woman’s doctor explained that she had been worried to come to the doctor, after cutting her leg.

But the wounds developed into sepsis, eventually leading to her needing an amputation.

Another of the group, Russell adds: ‘My father also passed away and it’s his anniversary in a couple of weeks and he had diabetes and things like that. It’s horrible. It’s like the worst feeling to lose a parent.’

Marisa, 31, added: ‘I’m just so shocked, it’s actually quite hard to put it into words. Like I’d be absolutely mortified and horrified if I had to have both of my legs amputated.’

 ‘I’m personally glad that I’ve seen this. I feel like this is so brutally honest. 

‘Diabetes, it isn’t a game, it isn’t something that you can just brush under the carpet. I need to stop any sugar. 

‘If I left it for another couple of years, I think I could end up the same with diabetes and I just think, ‘”Just don’t waste your time. Life is so short, just don’t waste time. You need to sort yourself out now.’

‘I know we have talked quite a lot about like death and dying and everything, but that is literally like the brutal truth, isn’t it, if we don’t change how we are.’

Elsewhere in the episode, Marisa, develops a close relationship with 47-stone Winnie, and realises that the two of them share many challenges – and that, just as she doesn’t want Winnie to die young from her weight, neither does Marisa’s family at home want to lose her.

‘Tonga is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world. I think ranking third heaviest in the world.’ says Ofeina, CEO of government body Tonga Health.

‘If we want to lose weight, we have to watch what we are eating. Here in Tonga 99.9 percent of our adult population are vulnerable to carrying non-communicable diseases. And 85 percent of death is directly related to weight.’

 At the end of each leg of their journey they are weighed together on a giant scale, to see if their hard work – and the shocking things they’ve seen – have helped them achieve their goals.

Around the World in 80 Weighs follows six people from across Britain who are each living with obesity as they travel across continents to learn about the obesity crisis in different countries.

The contestants set out to discover the implications of their own health and to meet people in each country who might be able to help them lead healthier lives and lose weight along the way.

It comes after the group travelled to Japan  in a quest to learn weight loss secrets were left upset by their experience in Tokyo where people stared, pointed and laughed at them. 

The first episode of Channel 4’s latest series, Around the World in 80 Weighs, which aired last night, follows six contestants from around the UK who ventured to Japan, where only 4 per cent of the population are obese compared to 25 per cent of Britons.

Workers are legally obliged to do a morning exercise session – and have their waists measured by their employers – and with obesity so uncommon in Japan, the participants quickly stood out from the crowds in suburban Tokyo where members of the public openly gawked at them.

‘As we walked past all of the school kids pointed and laughed at us,’ said Tiffany, 24, who admits she needs help to ‘not eat c**p all day every day’. ‘I’m starting to feel a bit self-conscious, as we’re walking, everybody’s staring. 

‘They’re so open about being rude,’ she continued. ‘Why would you point and laugh at another human being? It’s just cruel.’ 

‘It just blows my mind that you’re not allowed to be who you are and you just have to fit it,’ agreed 31-year-old Marisa. 

‘I don’t feel like I should be here,’ Marisa continued. She added: ‘In this country I don’t feel comfortable, and for me personally, it isn’t somewhere I would come back.’

The young women braved their journey through the busy streets despite appearing dejected from the humiliation. 

They joined the rest of the group to meet with their tour guides – YouTubers called Mr and Mrs Eats – who admitted that upon meeting the group, it was their first time seeing ‘bigger people’ in the flesh. 

‘Obese people are extremely rare,’ said Mrs Eats/ ‘Do we have obese people in our town, maybe. But I just don’t see them at all.’ 

She explained to the group: ‘A lot of Japanese people are very disciplined. We believe that harmony is very important, so that if you are too big and you stand out too much, you kind of destroy the harmony in society in a way.’ 

The group move in with the couple for a few days to learn a new approach to eating, and are served a meal of miso soup, fresh veg and meat and fish.

They are only allowed to eat with chopsticks so that they eat slowly, giving more time to digest their food. They are told to eat in a triangle, by trying a little bit from each plate at a time, and to finish when they are 80 per cent full. 

Contestants faced scrutiny from cameras, the intrusive eyes of mocking strangers, and now their tour guides.  

Reality TV shows have become all too accustomed to the dwindling mental health of their participants, and if there was any support from medical professionals throughout the show, there was no evidence of it.

Instead, the support system was formed of Mr and Mrs Eats, who toured the six around the city and judged them as they went along. 

They struggled to comprehend the participant’s lifestyle and fuelled feelings of discomfort for the viewers by talking down to the participants.

From measured waistlines to being pointed and laughed at in public, Japan’s weight loss lessons quickly became shrouded by continuous embarrassment.

The group were subjected to more shame at the end of the episode when they visited a spa to find the open-plan public changing rooms – prompting further shame.

Later in the trip, the group also partook in a Japanese practice called Rajio Taiso.

To help combat obesity, the Japanese government broadcasts an exercise class  every morning, and it’s the law that workers across the country pause to work out together.

In 2008, Western eating habits sparked a rise in obesity in Japan, and the government introduced a law making the employees responsible for monitoring waistlines.

Individuals are measured at work and waistlines should be no more than 85cm for males and 90cm for females.

The group were initially surprised about the association between work and healthcare, but after learning more, they found it to be an admirable aspect of Japanese culture.

Around The World In 80 Weighs, Tuesdays, 9pm, Channel 4.