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Heather Smith is also the first British woman EVER to be awarded professional status in the "figure" section – which means she can now compete in the US against others who lift weights for a living.

And her triumph is all the more impressive because despite looking so beefy – she's actually a vegetarian.

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She has to scoff NINE egg whites a day to get the all-important protein that most competitors gain from eating meat, to build those massive muscles.

The super-fit 28-year-old beat nine other regional finalists – the best in the country – to take the British Champion trophy and said: "It's amazing. I was completely overwhelmed – I didn't expect it. I had to go outside to ring my mum – it was about 10.30pm and I was stood in the car park in Glasgow still in my bikini – it was freezing."

Bodybuilding is an amateur sport in the UK but as part of her prize for being crowned the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation's (BNBF) Miss Figure, the perfectly-packaged fitness instructor is being whisked away to Washington DC, in the hope of posing her way on to the podium with the pros.

This year's BNBF final was the first time the coveted pro-card – which enables bodybuilders to compete against professionals in the US – was included in the prize, so the stakes were high.

Heather said: "People who hadn't done shows for years came back. Everyone was fighting to get this pro-card."

Standing at 5ft 4in, and weighing 8st 3lbs, with a 23.5in waist, the petite powerhouse lifts weights of up to 200kg with her legs and 26kg in each hand when training for shows.

She puts in up to 20 hours of body-sculpting sessions a week on top of teaching 20 hours of fitness classes at gyms across Leeds.

She competes in the "natural" competitions where everyone is drug tested and has been among the top three in each of the seven shows she has entered this year.

In Washington she will be competing against professional bodybuilders from around the globe and a win there, unlike in Britain, can mean a cash prize.

But down-to-earth Heather's more interested in the size of her swimsuit than her bank balance.

She said: "I get taken to the US, that's enough of a prize for me.
"I get to wear a bikini and get a sun tan."