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Diane Cooke vowed to give slimming patches a fair try.
Diane Cooke vowed to give slimming patches a fair try.
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Patchy progress for Diane

Diane Cooke
21/ 4/2008

In October last year, Diane Cooke embarked upon a new way of losing weight with the aid of slimming patches. At the time she vowed that she would give her honest opinion, good or bad, on this new product which has swept America and is making inroads into the European slimming market. Six months later she gives her verdict...

SIX months ago I attended an event at a Wilmslow hotel to launch a slimming product in Europe - the Jen Fe Plus Slimming patch, which, according to reports, has been a success in America.

The event was aimed at people who wanted to sell this product, but in response to a piece I had written about obesity, one of the "sellers" contacted me to let me know that the answer to the nation's blubber problem may well lie with these patches.

Naturally, I couldn't wait to hear more. Having previously worked as Women's editor of this newspaper, I had covered almost every diet book ever published, so I have a good basic knowledge of what makes people lose weight.

Despite being weight conscious myself, I have piled on the pounds since the age of 30 and I'm now a good couple of stones overweight, despite going to the gym regularly.

Not obsessed

My weight hasn't altered for around five years, so I've stopped the rot and I'm certainly not obsessed with getting to a size 10. I'm not a yo-yo dieter, I'm not a binge-eater, I don't have an emotional relationship with food and I don't suffer from lack of self-esteem, so I'm not one of those poor stereotypes the dieting industry loves to prey on. I am a victim of middle-aged spread, it's taken me 18 years to become two stones overweight, so I'm not expecting a miracle cure, but if one presents itself to me, I'd be a fool not to give it a go... so I did.

After writing the first article about the patches saying I was going to trial them and give my results, the Manchester Evening News received several letters and emails from people who seemed desperate to try them. I wrote to a couple telling them to hold on because I wanted to see if they worked for me. Naturally, like every slimming aid they're not cheap at £55 per month, although looking on the internet a 90-day supply from one seller has been reduced from £257 to £150.

At the Wilmslow event I met Christina Perry, from South Carolina, who was carving a successful business out of selling the patches in America, having given up a top job in a global technology company. She had also lost 50lbs after giving birth to her second child with the help of the patches.

I also met Jackie from Scotland, a self-confessed yo-yo dieter, who has lost a dress size and is now selling the products and also Tracey Hollowood from Sale, who has slimmed down from a 14/16 to a small 14 without changing her eating habits. Each one had another success story to tell, so I was keen to get started.

The patches feature a natural blend of ingredients (Griffonia extract, ForsLean, Guarana, Cosmoperine, ChromeMate) which are absorbed slowly through the skin to stimulate the body's metabolism. Users have noted an increase in energy and feeling of well-being. The Plus patches contain Griffonia extract, from the African plant Griffonia simplicifolia, a natural and powerful appetite suppressant which works specifically on carbs.

Measure yourself

The idea is that you measure yourself very specifically above the bust, around the bust and directly below and all the usual other places, stomach, hips, thighs etc. and keep a record.

In the first two weeks of wearing the patches on my collarbone, I was amazed to record a weight loss of 5lbs and a total inch loss of about four inches, more specifically from above and below my bust which seemed an odd place to lose it.

The instruction was to eat a healthy balanced diet, including protein in most meals and to exercise regularly. All of which I did. I even took a milk thistle supplement to detox my liver.

By week three, I was convinced I'd lost more, but the scales told a different story. I'd gained a couple of pounds. Week four, I lost those couple of pounds. Week five I'd regained them and the inch loss had come to a disappointing halt too.

Then I received an email from Tracey saying she imagined that I'd probably lost a dress size by now and I reluctantly reported that I hadn't. She was genuinely shocked because it seems the patches work for everyone - bar me, it would seem.

Persevered

But I persevered because I'd promised to do a fair trial. Christmas had also fallen in the middle of the three month period and I probably over-indulged for a couple of weeks. Surprisingly, my weight didn't change at all. When I got back on track, I wasn't dieting because I always eat healthily. My one vice is alcohol, but I wasn't going mad there either and I was visiting the gym two to three times a week.

At the end of the three months, I was the same size and weight. That's when I received a call from Jackie in Scotland who was also shocked by my lack of success.

"Didn't you notice a feeling of well-being?" she asked. Well, if I did it was cancelled out by the feeling of disappointment at my lack of weight and inch loss. I did notice that PMT symptoms improved, but that's not what I was after.

Didn't they curb my appetite and cravings? Well, they didn't make me forget to eat and I can't say I have cravings, apart from white wine and they didn't stop me drinking.

Jackie conceded that sometimes the patches take longer to work on some people and asked me to try another month. I reluctantly agreed and in January I stepped up my fitness routine to try and give them a bit of a boost. I was as keen as the sellers were to report that these patches were the answer to the nation's obesity problem. After all, they have been endorsed by doctors and in America, diet guru Lucy Beale says it is the only weight loss product that she has ever endorsed. After wearing the patches for four months, (towards the end I wore two together), I can report that I'm exactly the same size and weight as when I started, although a little more toned thanks to the gym.

The good news is that these patches come with a 30-day money back guarantee. They didn't work for me, but then neither did WeightWatchers.

At the beginning of the programme I was trying to lose weight to make the patches a success, but I'd been told that there was no need to diet. Possibly, if I'd continued to diet I could have recorded a decent weight loss, but that would have defeated the object.

My conclusion? With a money-back guarantee they're worth a try, without it I wouldn't bother.


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