Want to go to war on your weight? Try the ration book diet: Mother of three lost nearly six stone

Carolyn’s interest was more than merely academic. A history buff, she had been cooking ration recipes for fun for many years, and knew that the frugal wartime regime had actually left the population healthier — despite the food shortages — than it had ever been before.

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• Carolyn Ekins had tried Slimfast, Weight Watchers and Slimming World
• But WWII diet was first success for 25st history buff from Nottingham
• She ate 'apricot' tart made with carrots and Lord Woolton's rolled oats pie

By LYDIA SLATER

Carolyn Ekins recalls the day her mother-in-law revealed the highlight of  her wartime childhood. ‘The weekly treat for her and her sister was sharing one fried egg,’ she says. ‘I thought: “Wow, how did you cope?” ’

‘There was a huge team of people at the Ministry of Health during the war working on healthy recipes that contained loads of vegetables,’ she says. 

‘That’s what really captured my imagination that you could live on a lot less and feel good on it. It struck me that living on Forties rations might be an interesting way to lose weight and save money.’

The social media administrator from Nottingham had fought a losing battle with her weight for many years. At her heaviest, she tipped the scales at almost 25st.

‘Everyone has a crutch they can rely on and mine has been food,’ she says. ‘I’m an emotional eater.’

A series of family traumas, including separation from her husband, had led her eating habits to spiral out of control until she worried for her own wellbeing.

‘I had a racing pulse, I was sweating, my back was hurting,’ she says. And as a single mother to three children, Jess, now 25, Josh, 21, and Emily, 16, she felt a responsibility to look after her health.

And so she embarked on a year-long ration diet. The results were extraordinary. In 12 months, Carolyn lost 5st 10 lb, getting her weight down to 15st 9 lb.

Numerous diets had failed her. ‘Slimfast, WeightWatchers, Slimming World, I tried them all,’ she says. ‘I had some success, but none captured my imagination. And I didn’t like relying on processed food full of preservatives.’

So in place of the diet meal replacement bars and milkshakes she had previously relied on, she began to feed herself and her family on mock apricot tart made with carrots and Lord Woolton Pie.

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