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Fiddle Miss Moffatt
TELLY favourite Scarlett Moffatt’s best-selling fitness DVD is today exposed as a sham.
The Sun on Sunday can reveal she secretly attended a boot camp and ate just 700 calories a day.
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Scarlett, 27, also faces demands to repay producers £100,000 after putting the weight back on.
The I’m A Celebrity winner’s SuperSlim Me Plan was released on Boxing Day 2016 — a fortnight after she returned from her game show triumph in the Aussie jungle.
On the DVD 27-year-old Scarlett tells unsuspecting fans who paid £9.99 for a copy: “If I can do it — a professional couch potato — then you can too. With the help of . . . this cunning plan.”
But The Sun on Sunday can reveal that while preparing for the film the star, who shot to fame on Gogglebox, attended the ultra-tough boot camp in Switzerland.
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Sources said she was also pushed to “breaking point” by a “starvation” diet.
Last night, a spokeswoman “categorically” denied she had also taken diet pills.
And it emerged Scarlett, who slimmed from 11st 4lb to 8st, faces demands to repay £100,000 after DVD producers claimed she later piled pounds back on.
One source said: “The DVD is a sham really. There is no mention of the boot camp where she was climbing mountains and exercising for six hours a day.
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“Scarlett is one of the most popular young women on TV — a real girl-next-door figure. The DVD gave fans an unrealistic portrayal of how she lost weight.”
The source added: “She was really struggling and finding it hard to cope. She was on a starvation diet, exercising way too hard and not eating enough. She was being pushed to breaking point.’’
At one point Scarlett even texted a pal saying: “It’s so hard losing weight anyway without this pressure of having to persuade people you’re doing everything they’re telling you even though I know it’s bad on my body only eating like 600/700 calories a day (crying emoji).”
In another message she added: “My mam’s going to call I can’t do this anymore its too much and I’m having to almost persuade people to believe me — I wanted to make an honest DVD this doesn’t feel right (crying emoji).”
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As part of the DVD deal Scarlett had to lose three stone and, to guarantee she reached the goal of eight stone, was put through a five-month fitness regime.
On the disc, the star advises fans who want to shed the pounds to follow a diet of 1,200 calories a day — which is almost double the amount she was eating.
The DVD opens with Scarlett saying: “I must admit I was a proper exercise avoider — which is weird for me because, up until five years ago, I was a keen ballroom dancer and I was really into fitness.
“But as soon as I stopped I just piled the weight back on and to be honest I was in denial about the changes my body had went through.
Scarlett Moffatt reveals her diabetes scare before three-stone weight loss
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“I couldn’t face up to my weight either, so when I did it was a bit emotional.’’
Scarlett is put through her paces on the 60-minute DVD by a trainer and tells viewers at the end: “Trust us. I’ve done it myself. You’ll look and feel amazing. It’s well worth the sweat.’’
Yet the source said of the star, who spent a week at the camp near Anzere: “Scarlett was really being put through a tough physical regime she couldn’t cope with. She was really risking her health.”
Scarlett’s desperation grew in late September as she worried over whether she would reach the target.
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She texted a pal saying: “I’m not in a good place with this weight loss, according to the scales I’m eight stone 3lbs. So I’ve actually put a pound and a quarter on. Like realistically I can’t put 5 hours of exercise in every day.
“I have other jobs and now I’m worried I’m not gonna get to the target, it’s put me in such a bad mood, I’m just sat here crying. Just feel like what’s the point making myself this tired and exhausted when next day I’m back to square one.
“Yesterday I ate Weetabix, a shake and then a meal from Marks and Spencer’s which was 317 calories and had 3 cups of coffee during Gogglebox.’’
She added: “During Gogglebox last night I felt like my brain wasn’t even working, I was that hungry but kept going, it’s like my body’s giving up on me.’’
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Scarlett’s DVD has sold 60,000 copies and been in the top-selling sport and fitness charts since its release, peaking at No 2. She is understood to have earned at least £100,000 from the fitness programme.
Speaking to Heat magazine in January last year to promote the DVD, Scarlett confirmed her total weight loss had been three stone 4lbs at the time — equal to the weight of her three-year-old cousin.
She said: “That’s roughly what my three-year-old cousin Noah weighs. It’s like I’ve been piggy-backing Noah for years and I’ve just dropped him off at school.’’
In the same month The Sun on Sunday’s Fabulous magazine ran a feature on the DVD and an exclusive interview with Scarlett, discussing her exercises and her guide to what she ate to lose weight.
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Denying she had ever tried fad diets or slimming pills, she said: “Just do the exercise and just eat right — just don’t eat loads of crap, it’s literally that simple.
“‘I think as well because I find the DVD so motivating, it makes me want to do it, it’s not a chore.’’
Last night the star’s spokeswoman said: “She did go to a boot camp and it was a horrid experience.
“She had to weigh herself every day and was put on a very low-calorie diet — but she categorically did not take any pills.’’
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Scarlett, a former Asda checkout girl, is now facing demands to repay £100,000 after producers of the slimming DVD claimed she regained weight too quickly.
The star had signed a contract which said she would remain at her new weight for a year.
But lawyers have written to her and demanded the producers’ money back after spotting photographs of her allegedly with the pounds back on.
For the past month legal letters have been flying backwards and forwards between lawyers representing Big Shot Productions and Scarlett’s representatives.
A source said: “It’s usually standard for any fitness DVD to have a clause to say the celebrity who made it must keep their weight to a certain level for a year after its release.
“The people who made Scarlett’s DVD got in touch just before the contract was about to expire saying they wanted their money back as they had seen photographs of Scarlett looking fat.
“It’s a bit of a liberty as they can’t just write and say this basing it on photographs, so legal letters have been going backwards and forwards.
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“It’s really upset Scarlett because she went through such a lot for the DVD.
“The exercise regime, the diet and the boot camp were horrible for Scarlett.
“This is all because the fitness DVD market has fallen through the floor.
“They’re not as popular as they were so the producers are trying to get their money back.
“They are trying to say Scarlett is in breach of her contract.”
Be honest and ditch quick fixes
By Laura Armstrong, Sunday ShowBiz Editor
SCARLETT has built her reputation as a down-to-earth Geordie lass who says it as it is.
So what a disappointment to learn she has misled thousands by resorting to a crash diet for her exercise DVD.
The revelation will infuriate those who followed her high- energy regime.
What’s worse, Scarlett has set a poor example for girls who watch her on Saturday Night Takeaway.
Women with a healthy attitude to their bodies are needed more than ever in today’s looks- obsessed society.
Scarlett sends the message that quick fixes are the way to the perfect body. Is this the example she wants sister Ava, 11, and others to follow? Of course not.
I’ve been a Scarlett fan since she shot to fame on Gogglebox.
The exercise DVD market brings pressure. It seems the fear she wouldn’t beat the scales has got the better of her.
Next time Scarlett seeks an image makeover, I hope she remembers she won her fans by being funny, frank — and honest.
They would respect her more for losing weight the healthy way.