From Ab Flab to Ab Fab! Actress Helen Lederer sheds eight pounds and drops a dress size in just three days after surviving on 400 calories A DAY in an extreme bid to lose weight

Living the champagne lifestyle isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for Helen Lederer, as her love for ‘the bolly’ has seen her weight hit 13st.

The Ab Fab actress, 61, decided to take drastic measures to drop the pounds – going on an extreme diet consisting of just 400 calories a day.

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Helen, who at 5ft 2in would be classed as obese according to the NHS, revealed that she managed to drop a staggering eight pounds in just three days.

The star – most famous for playing ditsy Catriona in the cult-comedy – checked herself into the extreme detox retreat Slimmeria, and says she’s ready to feel body confident this Christmas as the party dress period begins.

She said: ‘In order to lose the weight I knew I had to change my drunken and somewhat fat habits, be a grown up for the first time in my middle aged life and suck it up.

‘I was a size 16 and full of tummy. The boozing had mounted up and the results could be seen hanging over my elasticated skirt. In fact I could barely bend over to zip up my moderately trendy suede ankle boots.’

‘Upon arrival, I was weighed. I didn’t want to know my exact weight, but I fear it was around the 13 stone mark.

She opened up to Femail about her time at the Sussex retreat, run by weight loss guru Galia Grainger, and how she had to swap her love for champagne, prosecco and vodka tonics for vegetable juices and food laden with cabbage.

‘We were kept alive with food,’ she says. ‘The meals were made from secret recipes of Galia’s ancestors but it might be fair to say cabbage featured quite highly.

‘One day we got a little mound of quinoa and rejoiced. We were surviving on 400 calories a day – an extreme kickstart diet – to get us on track and attack our fat.

‘And it worked, Incredibly, in the space of three days I shed eight pounds and dropped a dress size.’

Helen was left stunned at the results adding: ‘I thought Galia was winding me up when she said I’d lost that much at the end, but she promises she wasn’t. We had a little hug and it was quite emotional.’

Helen, reunited with Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley earlier this year for the Absolutely Fabulous movie, which follows Edina and Patsy, who are now in their 60s and running out of money, try and save their careers.

She said: ‘They say life imitates art… and for me that’s terrifyingly true. My lifestyle off-screen can scarily mirror the popular characters from Ab Fab on occasion and I need to keep an eye on myself

‘But the trouble is, I seem to have more of a social life now than I did in my 20s.

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‘I may be in my 60s, but I seem to be going against the grain right now, and can find myself partying up to five times a week.

‘My favourite tipples are vodka and tonic, champers and Prosecco goes down rather nicely as a happy alternative as well

‘And that’s in no particular order. But the brutal reality is that my Ab Fab lifestyle is making me fat.

‘There’s been times this year I could not get up the stairs without reaching for my asthma spray.

‘I also came off HRT due to press reports that it was dangerous. Trouble is, I look at other people like Trinny who are on it and they look amazing, so I wonder if I’ve done the right thing.

‘It wasn’t always like this. Growing up, I was able to keep the weight off whenever it got out of hand, even though I was never teeny tiny.

‘I was a size 12 or 14 for many of the TV episodes of Ab Fab and pretty much existed on a diet of Wine and Japanese crackers.

‘But in the mid 90s when I was in my 40s the weight began to creep on.

‘I tried every diet going. Powdered food, sliming pills, protein, even funny slimming biscuits.

‘But all that is in the past now and the truth is this year I knew I needed to take action.

‘In one evening, I can easily knock back several alcoholic beverages as well as crisps or Twiglets at the bar.

‘Just like Eddie and Patsy in the film, I’m now in my 60s and am still quite driven to get my work out there! So I started writing a comedy fiction novel last year called ‘Losing It’ about a woman who used to be famous but lost it all – including her marriage and money. So she tries to lose weight to get work again. It was very cathartic.

‘But it took me 10 months to write and it was a lonely business. I was always popping to the fridge for a nibble on some type of cheese or worse bread and then hitting the town in the evening to cope with the loneliness and lack of human contact. Before I knew it, the weight continued to pile on.’

Helen admits she was desperate to shift her belly bulge, which she says was down to all those sugary alcoholic drinks and free canapes, but knew her lack of self-control would be difficult to get a grasp of.

‘I was supposed to detox a week before going but I went out drinking instead and forgot to say ‘no’ to the Twiglets somehow!

‘So when I arrived I sulked for half an hour when I realised how much self control would be needed. Could I do it? Would I be one of the naughty people sneaking out to Tescos?

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‘But then I decided I just had to get over it.

Helen explains the routine at Slimmeria involved getting up at 7.15am every morning to enjoy a hot lemon drink and a tiny slice of apple before heading off for a brisk walk.

‘On the morning after my first night a bell rang at 7.15am to wake us up. In that moment, I wondered if I’d accidentally been transported to a secret convent, instead of a detox retreat.

‘I slipped on my waterproof trousers, which was a first for me, and joined the rest of the inmates downstairs.

‘We jokingly dubbed ourselves inmates due to the fact it was a bit like prison, except prison food might include chips on the odd occasion.

‘I avoided the mirror as I went downstairs for a hot lemon drink and a mini slice of apple “mmm, delicious” we told ourselves.

‘Then we started the first morning walk. One hour in and my body is aching but I keep going. Everyone is faster than me but something inside refuses to stop – also I don’t want to be found weeks later in a ditch wearing waterproof trousers, an anorak and without a phone.

‘Back at the retreat my body goes into shock from the sudden movement and I sink my mouth around a glass of vegetable juice. This is actually very pleasant.’

‘There was no time to dwell on hunger pains or plan an escape. Instead, I threw myself into circuit training (yes me lifting up weights with gay abandon) and dancercise – taught by a proper musical actress who showed us how to do the Saturday night fever dance routine. Watch out Xmas party.

‘I even managed a Zumba with a dodgy lower back, aching feet and arthritic toe,’ she adds.

‘I credit Galia’s no nonsense attitude and commitment to her clients for my weight loss. Without her belief in her system I might have wavered, but I trusted her and even enjoyed her jokes.

‘Normally, I’m a bit of a rebel but I didn’t cheat during my time at Slimmeria and made some good friendships when I was there. I’ve been weaned of my major caffeine habit and reduced my alcohol massively.

‘What’s more, I’m now in a Whatsapp group chat with the other ‘inmates’ called ‘Skinny Minnis’.

‘So how will my naughty decadent cravings for a drink, candlelight meetings and variations of hard cheese go now? Well, most of us are gluten free and eating carefully, except yesterday when I had some wine – but I was working darling.

‘Please don’t tell Galia. She’s my new friend.’

Helen’s book Losing It is available on Amazon

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