A mother who lost three stone by just eating curries has started up a slimming group based around her diet.
Sales consultant Suki Burai, 41, has penned a menu of Indian recipes after her success in losing weight.
The mother-of-three allows the slimmers two curries a day which include Tandoori fish curry, chapatis and lentil dishes.
Mrs Burai from Wyken, Coventry, West Mids, says the secret is to customise traditional Asian foods - keeping all the taste while cutting out fattening elements.
Hot diet: Suki Burai has created a booklet of recipes using healthy ingredients for traditional Indian foods, which she shares with members of her new slimming group
She has binned the butter, ghee and cream - instead replacing them with olive oil and natural yoghurt.
She said her group was the first to specifically cater for spicy food lovers and put an end to slimmers being deprived of their favourite dishes.
She said: 'I tried everything to lose weight, but nothing worked.
'A lot of diets are very boring so I thought I would try something a bit different.
Tasty culprit: Asian foods can be no-go area for slimmers due to high content of ghee and cream
'I started making my own recipes with different ingredients and found I could enjoy curries on a regular basis and still lose weight.
'The recipes are really quick and easy to make, which suits a lot of the women who work full-time.
'There is an increasing level of diabetes and heart disease, especially in the Asian culture. It's because some people use too much butter, oil or ghee.
'The secret is to replace them with something a lot healthier, or use smaller amounts and still enjoy it.
'With things like chapatis it's about making sure the dough is weighed properly and they are properly sized and not too heavy.
'Before I started doing this I was very unhappy with my weight but I'm now a coach for my son's football team. I would never have been able to do that before this.'
Ghee, which is also known as clarified butter, is used in South Asian, Middle Eastern and Somali cuisine. But is composed almost entirely of saturated fat - meaning eating it in large quantities is unhealthy.
Research carried out by Which? in 2008 showed a meal of chicken tikka masala, pilau rice and plain naan had more saturated fat than a woman's guideline amounts for an entire day.
MRS BURAI'S BASICS
Suki Burai says a basic healthy curry can have a tablespoon of olive oil (instead of ghee), two large onions , a tin of chopped tomatoes, a handful of chopped coriander, three cloves of garlic, three tablespoons of chopped ginger, a pinch of cumin seeds, four green chillies and natural yoghurt (instead of cream).
Typical menu choices include:
DAY ONE
Breakfast: two biscuits of Weetabix
Lunch: chicken curry with rice and side salad
Dinner: aubergine curry with chapatis
DAY TWO
Breakfast: two slices of toast
Lunch: lentil curry with rice and portion of vegetables
Dinner: Tandoori fish curry with vegetables
DAY THREE
Breakfast: oat bran cereal (28g)
Lunch: chick peas curry with salad and vegetables
Dinner: spinach curry with chapatis
It said it contained an average of 23.2g of saturated fat, 3.6g of salt and 23.8g of sugar.
But Mrs Burai's meals were far healthier by cutting out some of the dishes' more fattening ingredients.
And they have been a hit with members of her group, which has already attracted 25 people to its ranks.
Tracy Phillips, 33, said the recipes had transformed meal times for her and her family. She added: 'I have five children so it's been good to cook this type of food for them as well.
'My daughter loves the curries, we normally have it with rice and naan bread. I didn't notice the weight loss at first by the second week it just fell off.
'I've cut down on the sugar and sweets which has also helped, and the recipes are really easy to make.'
Mrs Burai said she thought slimmers should consider having a go at the spicy diet plan, adding: My group only opened up four weeks ago, but I've already seen one of my members lose a stone from following the diet - it's incredible.
'A lot of Asian slimmers are shocked they can still eat the food they love but lose weight as well.
'I would advise a lot of people to give this a go, it is proven to work and might be a bit more interesting than the usual diets they might try.'