from True Love
Image: Ablestock

Before gaining weight, Dorcas worked out at the gym but unexpectedly quit and that's when her waistline expanded. Unfortunately for Dorcas, desperate times called for desperate measures, so when a friend introduced her to weight loss "Chinese tea" called True Slim, Dorcas saw an easy way out.

"It gives you diarrhoea. When you drink it, whatever is in your stomach comes out immediately. About three minutes after I drink it, I have to go the toilet. I used it for a year and it stopped me from gaining weight but it didn't help me lose any. I eventually stopped because I was worried about constant diarrhoea."

Since she stopped. drinking the tea, Dorcas says her weight situation hasn't improved either. She's put on more weight, resorted to walking three times a week and doing stomach exercises but she's yet to see the results. Now she's using appetite suppressants. "I travel a lot for work and the only options for food a lot of the time is junk food in which case I'd rather not eat."

Dangerous side effects
Clinical dietician Tabitha Hume says Dorcas' "tea" is a bowel stimulant in the guise of a weight loss remedy and its side effects are dangerous.

"The tea she is describing is a bowel-muscle stimulant. This means it makes the bowel cramp and then eliminates its contents very quickly. This causes dehydration as well as a lazy gut, because your digestiion now relies on the stimulant. But using a bowel stimulants will not lead to much weight loss, contrary to popular belief. Most of the weight lost, if there is any, is water and is usually replaced as soon as you drink something."

The second reason people need to stay away from these types of weight loss remedies, says Hume, is that they lead to water and muscle loss, which slows down your metabolism. "A lot of these so-called weight loss remedies contain guarana, ephedrine or caffeine, or other central nervous stimulants, which may decrease appetite but their side effects include nausea, tremors, an irregular heartbeat, insomnia, dependency, headaches, mood swings and even depression. Best not to touch these if you want to be slim and sane," she recommends.

If you are like Sbongile and constantly find yourself repeatedly losing and gaining weight you are also in danger of ruining your metabolism.

"Each time you starve the body of food, the body burns up fat and muscle to convert this to energy for it to keep going. The result of this is that the body loses muscle mass and this means a lower metabolism and once you start eating properly again, your metabolism is slower and cannot cope with the calorie onslaught.

"Besides the fact that the weight will most probably come back quickly, yo-yo dieting raises the body’s fat percentage and results in insulin resistance. And insulin resistance, if untreated, can develop into diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems and infertility," warns Hume.

Extreme Hollywood
Even famous people struggle with weight and go to extreme lengths to stay trim or lose weight.

Janet Jackson – The youngest Jackson is also the chubbiest and has made no secret of her battle with the bulge. She's publicly admitted to being an emotional eater. In 1993 she gained a respectable amount of weight for her role as Justice in Poetic Justice with the late Tupac Shakur. And afterwards went back to her rock hard abs and slender figure, which she maintained with a strict diet and exercise routine.

When pictures surfaced of her 27kg heavier (weight she gained for a movie role that never happened) in 2006, Jackson went into diet overdrive. She reportedly worked out six times a week and ate six small meals per day to regain her figure, in time for the release of her album 20Yo. If recent pictures are anything to go by she's lost the battle yet again.

Star Jones – The former host of the celebrity show, The View, recently admitted to having gastric bypass surgery in 2003 and since then has lost 72kg. At her heaviest, Jones says she weighed 139kg. In the September issue of US Glamour, she admits that she still struggles with her body image but says being healthy is more important. "I'm not saying that in order to be happy, women need to be a certain size, but I am saying that we should all strive to be healthy."

Beyoncé Knowles – The queen of all things bootylicious lost 10kg in two weeks in 2006 to prepare for her role as Dina in Dreamgirls. How did she do it? She lived on water, cayenne pepper and maple syrup, something she was heavily criticised for. Afterwards she vowed to gain back every pound she lost because she "loves curves". So far she has kept her word.

Felicia MaBuza-suttle – In 1997, Mabuza-Suttle shocked South Africans when she admitted her new and slimmer body was the result of liposuction. Unfortunately since then no other South Africans celeb has disclosed their plastic surgery weight loss solution.