I’m 49 and lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks on the retro 90s Slimfast diet – but there are drawbacks

As I struggled to zip up my favorite size 46 jeans, I knew it was finally time to make some lifestyle changes.

No matter how hard I breathed, I couldn’t get them on. I knew I still looked good, but at 5ft 9in and just under 13st I was officially overweight, I didn’t like my reflection and I didn’t feel comfortable.

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I started to feel insecure when teaching yoga and found it difficult to share how great yoga is, as I was overweight myself.

I’m turning 50 in January and I want to look and feel my best.

So in March I started exercising and eating healthier, but after four months of losing a stone and a half I hit a wall and my weight loss stalled.

Then I decided to give SlimFast a try.

I remember my mother’s friends using it in the 90s, usually as a quick slimming fix before the holidays, back when flawless supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Elle “The Body” MacPherson ruled the roost.

SlimFast has had a tough time of late, with sales down by a third in the US last year, likely due to the rise of “miracle” diet shots like Ozempic.

But recently it’s become a hit among the TikTok generation, with videos from Gen Z SlimFast fans amassing more than 20 million views.

The diet brand’s latest ads, which feature model Kelly Brook and TV star Big Narstie in a humorous rap video parody, caught my attention on social media.

Kelly always looks amazing, so maybe a few weeks of drinking nothing but shakes will be just what I need to lose those last few pounds.

SlimFast’s 1-2-3 plan recommends that you eat one “sensible” meal, two meal replacement shakes, smoothies or bars, and three snacks per day.

Each shake contains approximately 227 calories, 23 vitamins and minerals, and 14 grams of protein.

It sounded convenient and, crucially, didn’t require much cooking or meal prep. But I still had pretty low expectations, assuming the shakes would taste awful and I’d be starving most of the time.

How wrong I was. The chocolate and café latte varieties were both deliciously creamy and easy to make. You simply mix two scoops of powder into skimmed milk and stir. I used a whisk to prevent lumps.

I had a shake in the morning and for lunch I had something like baked potatoes with tuna and sweetcorn, or skinless chicken breast, air fried with a few new potatoes – where I left out the oil and butter.

Then I had another shake in the evening.

Often I didn’t need more and I was rarely hungry.

But on the days I was teaching a lot, I would have a snack, like a SlimFast bar with caramel and chocolate (99 calories per bar) or a handful of berries.

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The results were quite impressive.

In the first week I lost 2 kilos, which gave me the extra push I needed.

By day ten I had lost 5 pounds and it didn’t even feel like I was trying.

By day ten I had lost 5 pounds and it didn’t even feel like I was trying

For me, this weight loss is mainly to give myself a chance as I approach sixty.

My parents both died in their fifties and although their deaths were not due to their size, I have always known how important health is.

I noticed that the extra weight also affected the clothes I wore.

‘Felt unachievable’

I had a few dresses that I hadn’t worn in years and I found it difficult to photograph them from certain angles.

Even my face, which is naturally full, looked fuller in photos.

As a yoga teacher I did enough exercise and although I didn’t overeat, I did regularly eat the wrong things.

I would eat Cadbury Dairy Milk bars as a snack or about six biscuits a day. I also love curry and as well as making my own curry every week I would go and get one every month.

Since I had never weighed that much before, I started tracking what I ate in the MyFitnessPal app, and then cut my calorie intake down to between 1,200 and 1,400 a day.

I started losing weight at an average rate of 2 pounds per week.

By early July I had lost 60 kilos and weighed only 75 kilos.

I had to lose another 3 pounds to get back to the weight I was before I had my daughter. It only took me 10 years to lose the baby weight.

But it felt unachievable.

I’ll only do it five days a week so I don’t miss out on weekend dinners with my family.

SlimFast really helped me get rid of those few extra pounds. However, it also has its drawbacks.

While it was convenient during the week, the weekends were harder. On Fridays I usually eat out at the pub with my husband Paul, 55, who works in insurance, and our children Zak, 18, and Lexi, 10.

And because I teach most nights, I had to bring the pre-made bottles with me. I couldn’t make a shake in the studio.

They cost £10 for six on Amazon, so they are quite pricey.

The cans of powder cost £8 for 16 meals, so in two weeks I spent £26 on cans and bottles of shakes, and bought a box of six SlimFast bars for around £3.

I also missed eating proper meals and normally I stick to five portions of fruit and vegetables a day but that was hard to achieve as I didn’t feel like I could fit that much into one meal and I rarely snacked.

The shakes are supposed to have a balanced nutritional value, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I got one of the worst colds ever while on this diet.

It also affected my social life, as I spend a lot of time having coffee with friends or going out for dinner.

But in the short term SlimFast is useful. I would recommend it if you want to start a weight loss regime or if you are trying to lose weight but are hitting a wall.

I plan to continue with the plan as I want to get back to the same weight I was before I had Zak: just under 110 pounds.

But from now on I’ll only do it five days a week so I don’t miss the weekend dinners with my family.

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