Leeds mum lost weight and dropped four dress sizes - by eating curries

Soneeta Bondhi, 39, gained weight after snacking on cakes and sweet treats that she baked for her side hustle gig.

But she shed the pounds and dropped from a size 22 to a size 16 after ditching the sweet treats for healthy, home made curries.

Instead of using oil in her recipes, she would use water and she swapped out double cream for fat free yoghurt.

Soneeta said: "It was quite easy because we would just take out oil and use fry-light or water instead.

"When you put the onions in the pan, then they just don't burn to the bottom of the pan.

"We would also just chuck everything in the slow cooker and then blend it when it's finished cooking, which is brilliant.

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"We would also swap out double cream for fat free yoghurt - we would blend it before we put it in the curry and it would come out like double cream. We just used simple solutions."

The mum-of-one never wanted to know exactly how much she weighed so instead her Slimming World consultant would cover up the scales.

She even started selling bags of curry-inspired seasonings to other people who attended the group.

Soneeta said: "We would go into the group and would talk about the different foods we were missing eating.

"We would tell people we've had the curry but had turned it into a Slimming World, healthier version.

"People were then asking for the spices and were trying it at home - they were really enjoying it because they were bored of having boiled vegetables.

"But if you boiled vegetables and added some spices like garlic and ginger, then they were more interested and eating more of it.

"It was revolutionary really.

"People started to tell others about it and it got busier and busier - we were selling them to people from Canada, Belgium and Finland."

Soneeta now owns restaurant The Spicy Biker in Wakefield and always ensures there is a Slimming World syn-free option on the menu.

She said: "We always have something on the menu that's Slimming World friendly.

"It could be lamb keema or ribs - we always try and work out how many syns each meal has because we've worked with the diet for so long.

"We get a regular Slimming World group come here after their meeting because there's something for them."