We’ve all heard about models wasting away to size zero on a diet of espressos and cigs, but now it seems there is a far healthier way to harness the slimming powers of coffee. Over the past few years, those ‘naturally’ willowy women of Scandinavia have been getting a helping hand with their figures from a green coffee extract called Svetol, and now it’s finally here in the UK.
Unlike certain dodgy diet pills that only work by making you too jittery to eat, Svetol is creating a buzz in a different way. It’s a decaffeinated extract of roasted green coffee beans which seems to switch on fat burning while reducing the amount of carbohydrate that gets stored as flab. A recent clinical trial on Svetol found volunteers lost, on average, 11lb in 60 days.
Other studies show it increases the ratio of muscle to fat by 4% without doing any extra exercise.
GREEN AND LEAN
‘A lot of diet products sell people false dreams, but green coffee looks really promising,’ says nutritionist and herbalist Dale Pinnock (dalepinnock.com). ‘Unlike many other products on the market, it’s not a stimulant, so it’s not putting the body under stress. What it seems to do is reduce the amount of glucose that gets absorbed from food by about half, forcing the body to look for other sources of energy. And the most obvious one is stored body fat.’ Hoorah!
Of course, there’s no such thing as a magic bullet for weight loss, so you’ve got to stick to a sensible diet, too. ‘It’s a great tool for helping people hit their target weight as it speeds up the effect of diet and exercise, but it can’t replace them,’ says Dale.
‘GREEN COFFEE GOT ME INTO MY WEDDING DRESS’
Laura Yilmaz, 29, from Ealing reveals how a pill got her out of a very tight spot and into her honeymoon bikini
‘I’d better breathe in,’ I joked as the seamstress started lacing up the corset on my wedding dress. It was my first fitting and there were just two months to go until I married my fiancé Ozgur in the big white dress of my dreams.
But as the dressmaker began to tug harder and harder at the laces, battling to squeeze me in, the smile fell from my face.
A month earlier, in October 2006, I’d asked to have my dress made in a size smaller, confident my strict diet and exercise plan would
melt away the pounds. But now the awful truth was staring back at me in the mirror: it didn’t fit. The seams strained, and the boning dug in painfully, creating ugly bulges. My dream dress was turning into a nightmare.
It wasn’t as if I’d been slacking off from my pre-wedding regime either.
Over the past two years I’d lost 2 and a half stone through sensible dieting and exercise, and ever since Ozgur proposed I’d made an extra effort to shift the final few pounds and get down to 7st 5lb in time for the big day.
But now my weight had hit a plateau – and I was starting to panic. Why on earth had I agreed to prepare for a wedding in just three months?
To make it even more frustrating, I’d always been effortlessly slim until I stopped smoking back in 2003. I knew I had to quit for my health, but giving up the cigarettes left a big gap in my life that I filled with food. Lots of food. At work, I tucked into big cheese baguettes, then at dinner I’d pile my plate high with huge portions of spaghetti bolognese, pizza or lasagne, plus butter-laden garlic bread. I’d crack open a bottle of wine most evenings to cheer myself up about not being allowed to smoke any more, and as soon as I’d polished off my dinner I’d rifle through the kitchen cupboards for snacks.
I knew the pounds were steadily piling on my 5ft 4in frame but I tried to tell myself I didn’t mind – the important thing was staying off the cigarettes. But deep down, I was miserable about my increasing weight, especially when I went out with my slim friends. Before, I’d always been so proud of my figure. Now, when I went on holiday I’d feel horribly self-conscious in a bikini and would always hide behind a sarong. Sometimes I’d put myself on lettuce leaf diets, but after a couple of days I’d be so starving I’d crack.
By 2005, my weight had crept up to 10st 9lb and I was finally ready to do something about it. This time, instead of relying on fad diets, I carried on eating all my favourite foods but simply cut my portion sizes in half, filling up the rest of the plate with steamed veg or salad. I also joined a brilliant belly-dancing class which was just for women so I didn’t feel embarrassed about jiggling my stomach about. Before long my belly was shimmying and toned, and by the time I met Ozgur, at a friend’s party last spring, I only had a few pounds to lose.
But how on earth was I going to get rid of that final dress size before the wedding? Luckily, a friend had an idea. ‘Have you heard about green coffee?’ she asked. ‘It’s meant to be brilliant for weight loss.’ I didn’t fancy taking dodgy diet pills, but it turned out to be a food supplement, completely natural, so I decided to give it a go.
As well as sticking to my healthy diet and belly-dancing classes, I started taking three Green Coffee Slim pills every day with breakfast. They didn’t have any caffeine in them, so I didn’t feel jittery or wired, but I immediately felt more energetic. Within days the stubborn final pounds began to fall away, and after six weeks I could have cried with relief as the scales settled at 7st 5lb.
On the day of the wedding, my dress fitted perfectly and I felt like a princess as I walked down the aisle on my dad’s arm. Some of the guests hadn’t seen me since I lost the weight and remembered me as a chubby girl with dark hair, so they got a bit of a shock when they saw a slim blonde wearing the big white gown! ‘I thought I was at the wrong wedding,’ one of my aunts told me at the reception.
The next week, relaxing in the sun on our honeymoon, I felt fantastic in my bikini. It was so good to feel slim and attractive again, rather than covering myself with a sarong. Of course, I thoroughly enjoyed the delicious food and drink, and by the end of the honeymoon I’d put on a couple of pounds but I just went back on the green coffee for two weeks and it vanished again. Some people think I’m going to pile the pounds back on now I’m married, but I’m determined to stay slim forever.’
• Green Coffee Slim 400, £14.99 for 75 capsules from health food stores, revital.com or call 0800 252 875 for stockist info and mail order.
• Laura’s belly-dancing classes, see nualabellydance.net.
• For Svetol info, see svetol.com
CAFFEINE CURES FOR CELLULITE
Reckon no cream can make a difference to your dimply thighs? Well, science says otherwise. New research has found cellulite products can give real results, just as long as they contain the magic ingredient: caffeine. After a month of applying caffeine creams, volunteers lost, on average, 2/3 inch off their thighs and their lumps smoothed out too. Experts reckon caffeine helps cellulite by speeding up the rate at which the body gets rid of stored fat. Here’s four of the best new caffeine products to perk up your thighs...
L’Oréal PerfectSlim Pro Massage, £13.99
Inspired by salon treatments like endermologie, this works in two stages. First, you run hand-held rollers over trouble areas to increase circulation, then you massage in a concentrated caffeine gel.
MonuSpa Body Therapy Gel, £27.80
A double-action gel which tackles puffiness along with cellulite. Should the weather ever warm up, you can keep it in the fridge for an icy body treatment.
Body Coffee Invigorating Body Polish, £14.95
The combination of salt scrub and caffeine helps boost blood flow to trouble spots while shifting lumpy flab.
Sothys Thalassotherapy Total Resculpting Serum, £37.80
This brand new serum works on lymphatic drainage to speed up the removal of the fat cells broken down by the caffeine it contains.
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