For those aiming for a new body in the new year, a boot camp can be a quick-fix solution. Serial dieter Dianne Bourne puts one to the test.

Atkins, Dukan, Slimming World, maple syrup – you name the diet, I've probably tried it.

I've been a terrible yo-yo dieter over the years, invariably spending the first half of the year losing a couple of stone, only to spend the second, wintry half, piling it all back on again.

In a bid to halt this inevitable decline, I decided to try the one diet strategy that has, thus far, evaded me – the boot camp.

Popularised in recent years in no small part thanks to TV programmes like The Biggest Loser, thousands of flab-fighters are prepared to shell out hundreds of pounds for the pleasure of a week of extreme exercising and rabbit food to shed the pounds fast.

The concept also appealed to my unashamedly competitive spirit, so off I skipped to the Slim Thin Boot Camp in the wilds of rural Lancashire to see if I could become the biggest loser on a five day shape up.

Day One

I, along with five other intrepid women, meet up with the founders of the Slim Thin boot camp, sisters Annie Collinson and Justine Jordan, in the idyllic rural location of Scorton in Lancashire to get our diet and exercise regime under way. The duo decided to launch the concept last year as a friendlier style of boot camp – an antidote to those army-style military regimes.

We head straight off for our introductory weigh-in and measurements, all done in private of course.

Mind you, the group soon start to bond over our mutual battles with the bulge over the years, despite varying backgrounds, ages, and motivations for being here.

It ranges from a hospital doctor aiming to up her fitness to a young mum keen to lose her baby weight.

We meet our first instructor of the week, Steve Cody, who has recently returned from the US where he had been training the likes of Spice Girl Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) no less. I'm hoping he can work similar sculpting magic on us.

While we're all waiting our turn for the dreaded weigh-in he takes us through the basic ethos of the course and

the main rules which are sticking to only the food we are given which will include no coffee or tea (although herbal teas are allowed) or alcohol.

We start our first exercise session – not before our first snack though, two slices of orange that we all greedily chomp.

Then it's on to a group session of aerobic games and shuttle runs in a village hall setting.

There's then a light lunch of tuna and salad at a quaint cottage café, where we are swiftly escorted away from a bulging display of chocolate, fudge and ice cream.

After lunch we head off on a 10km hill trek back to our luxury cottages which will be our base for the week.

Everyone is encouraged to go at their own pace and when we reach the summit of the walk we all jump for joy for some pictures.

To celebrate, Steve hands out our second snack of the day – a solitary oatcake.

However, there is panic in the ranks and a collective gasp when 42-year-old housing services manager Maria Jacobs, from Kent, drops her oatcake.

She quips: “If there isn't another one I'll eat that one off the floor I'm that hungry.”

We eventually make it back to the cottage for some serious stretching while Justine cooks our dinner – a really rather delightful green Thai curry – but without any rice.
Just an hour after dinner we are marshalled straight back out again to walk to the village hall for a boxing session.

It's cold and I laughingly suggest we could run. To my horror all the ladies agree.
We then get stuck in to the boxercise, before another run back to the cottage.

By 8pm we're all shattered and slope off to bed.

Day Two

7am wake up call and we drag our sore limbs downstairs for a weigh-in, but Justine hides the screen so we can't see how well (or badly) we are doing.
Then it's straight off for an hour of interval training. Running downhill is fine, but walking back up again is revealing a nasty groin strain in my thigh.
An hour later we return for breakfast and all concur we'd eat our own limbs we are that hungry. However, two mouthfuls into plain porridge (made with water and no sugar) and I suspect chewing my own arm may be preferable. I can't eat it.
At 9.30am the team set off for another 10km trek but myself and fellow walking wounded Michelle Turner, 41, a revenue services boss from Kent, and nursery owner Emma Leech, 28, from Blackburn, are allowed to bow out.

We head for an hour-long swim instead followed by our allotted snack – an apple which has never, ever tasted this good. I debate eating the core.

We return back to the cottage for lunch with the rest of the gang, who are looking exceptionally weary after that trek. I'm disappointed to discover our meal is quinoa salad with seeds, and no meat or anything. I'm starting to wish I'd eaten that core after all.
2Pm - we head off for team games, with a 30 minute walk to a football field. We take it in turn to throw tyres, carry water buckets and then finish with a tug of war, before another 30 minute walk back to the cottage.
Dinner is a delicious beef stew with root veg, and none of us can quite contain our excitement. Not much time to rest though, as it's then off for another hour long circuit training session before bedtime.

Day Three

I wake up having dreamt of custard creams all night.
I slope down to the weigh in and Annie takes pity on my mournful face and reveals i've already lost 5lbs! Yippee!
I head with a spring in my step to our morning fit session - circuits running through ladders and generally hopping about.
We amble back to the cottage for a breakfast of All-bran which i am dreading but is actually very tasty. And I've never been so grateful to taste milk.
It's then back to the village hall for an epic session of core work and boxercise.

Lunch is a ham and mushroom omelette, and we're all amazed to discover how good it tastes without the need for cheese.

We're soon off to circuits and a relay, before heading back to the cottage for a two-hour talk from a qualified nutritionist about all the dos and don'ts of eating to best prepare us for a healthy lifestyle when we leave camp.

She asks us all about our bad eating habits, chocolate buttons and Maltesers figuring heavily. One of our number thinks she's being quite saintly by snacking on marshmallows, but our nutritionist looks horrified and hisses: “marshmallows are essentially pig fat”. “What about ice cream?”, I pipe up. “Frozen lard,” she shoots back.

That's me told, and hey, she's got the figure of a model.

We all enjoy a dinner of chicken kebabs with salsa and mint yoghurt before our evening workout with core balls at the village hall, which was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

Day 4

Wake up feeling a bit dizzy, but head for weigh-in to discover I've lost another 2lbs! Annie reveals that at half a stone down, I'm the biggest loser so far, which appeals to my competitive side.

I vow to work extra hard at today's exercise sessions to try and secure victory at the final weigh-in.

Trainer Steve reveals to the group that “one lady has lost 7lbs, one has lost 3lbs” which starts a guessing game among the ranks. No one even suspects it is me which is a bit of a depressing indictment of how much not thinner I must be looking.After a breakfast of boiled egg we're all excited to be heading on the big bike ride of the week – which is an absolutely glorious spin through the breathtaking Lancashire countryside. I feel elated by how quickly I've upped my fitness in such a short space of time.

We all remark how lucky we have been with the weather, considering it's November, as despite being chilly it remained lovely and sunny all week. I dread to think how we would have coped trekking and biking in pouring rain.

I practically skip my way to our afternoon fitness session back at the football field for an army-style drill.

Doing 20-odd laps round said field while carrying tyres, a wooden log and a barrel soon knocks the cheeriness out of me.

Later we get to swim, which is a relatively relaxing end to an energetic day.

Day 5

Final Weigh-in and this is it. I dare to dream that I could be the biggest loser, particularly as I jump on the scales to find I've lost another 1.5lbs to get to a final loss of 8.5lbs.

But victory is not to be. I'm pipped at the post, by a measly pound, by a late charge from young mum Emma who is absolutely elated to have lost 9.5lbs. She had perhaps the biggest struggle though, particularly after injuring her ankle on the first day so everyone is really pleased that she has done so well.

I may not have scored the biggest weight loss, but I was particularly pleased that I lost an inch evenly from every area of my body measured. Usually I find it easy to lose weight off my top half, while my pear-shaped bottom half stays resolutely the same.

All the ladies reported weight loss – including over half a stone for Dr Alex, 6.5lb from Maria, and 5lbs from petite Michelle – who also whittled an impressive 9cm off her waist.

One month later.

In the fortnight after leaving the boot camp I stuck rigidly to a healthy eating plan, although only a saint or a celebrity could sustain the 7-hour-a-day exercise regime.

Then came the slide into the festive party season and my diet did become rather more, ahem, relaxed shall we say.

Although I'm pleased to report that I actually kept off all the weight I lost on camp, and now, into the new year, it has become an excellent boost as I prepare to continue with my shape up plans.

Was it worth it?

Despite the gruelling nature of the diet and exercise regime, I found it a really fun experience, helped in no small part by a friendly and enthusiastic group of women. We all agreed that we'd love to come back again – vowing to lose more weight so that we could really test our fitness. Most of us on the camp had a moderate degree of fitness before heading to the camp, and the one word of warning I would give to anyone considering such an intense regime is to have exercised for at least a couple of months to really get the most out of it – it's a pretty expensive way to lose pounds in both senses otherwise.

Slim Thin Boot Camps run monthly, with the next starting Monday, January 23, then Monday, February 20 and Monday March 12.

The boot camp is priced at £550 for a twin share room or £825 for sole occupancy of a room for the four night stay.

Slimthinbootcamp.co.uk Tel: 01524 792562.

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