January is the prime-time for exchanging weight loss tips.

However, while few could doubt that Claire French’s exercise regime was a huge success, most will stick to dieting and sit-ups rather than trying her method: hula hooping – naked.

The 22-stone showgirl (see the picture below) was spurred to lose weight when a barman mistook her for You’ve Been Framed presenter Lisa Riley (see the picture in the lower right).

It was just the motivation French needed to start exercising. And when she got into the prestigious Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts she discovered a passion for hula hooping and started shedding excess pounds.

The 27-year-old now shows off her toned, curvy, 11-stone-lighter new shape in naked hula hooping shows, and teaches her skills via Dreads N Hoops, in Wythenshawe, Manchester.

‘It was really upsetting being mistaken for Lisa Riley,’ said French.

‘I thought, "But she’s massive." I wanted to cry.’

‘Now I’m like an ambassador for hula hooping. It’s really great fun, good exercise, and has totally transformed my body. It could work for pretty much everybody.’

French had always been an overweight child, and when dinner ladies at school indulged her comfort eating she swelled to 15 stone.

At college, an after-school job gave her pocket money to spend on McDonald’s breakfasts and post-work kebabs, she soon gained a further seven stone.

One day, her friend put on a hula hoop show at her house and French thought it looked so beautiful she was immediately hooked.

‘Hula hooping allowed me to tone up fast and keep the weight off because I love it and it was fun. You really lose inches off your waist.

‘I got toned and was curvy instead of fat and for the first time I was really happy and comfortable with my body.’

She urges others to take up hula hooping – which burns about 100 calories in ten minutes – too.

‘I’ve seen it do amazing things. My friend had had a baby and had quite a lot of loose skin around the belly. She started doing it and just toned up so fast.’

French has also added her own touch to the art of hula hooping: doing it naked.

‘I first got naked a couple of years ago. There were a bunch of friends over at the house and we were all just hanging out and having a good time. There were about 20 people over and it was sort of a dare, "I bet you won’t get naked" so I did and I put on a hoop show.

‘I’d have never done that before. My body is still not at all perfect but I’m very happy with it, and that’s largely thanks to hula hooping.

"I think it’s important to see people who don’t have a perfect body but are happy with it and willing to show it off.’ (Daily Mail)

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Female students in China have been eating roundworm eggs to lose weight for job interviews – because employment is so hard to come by.

They hatch in the stomach, allowing those who take them to shed pounds without exercising or dieting in the Xiamen, China.

But swallowing the worms is extremely dangerous – and definitely not to be recommended for those wanting to shed the pounds in the New Year.

With jobs shortages across the country, women in China are under pressure to appear thin if they are to have any chance of landing a role.

Employment stands at 22 per cent – and the size of the labour pool has grown by 112 million people over the last decade to more than one billion people.

Other students are staring at pictures for hours on end to suppress their appetite so they can shed excess weight.

A student called Xiaomei said that women are using a ‘special soap’ that helps them with their diets. Some are having up to 10 showers each day.

The treatments have no scientific basis and are likely to damage health.

In the 1990s Chinese women would take special teas and pills to lose weight. Acupuncture also emerged as a popular choice.

But many students struggle to find work as the world’s most populous nation faces big unemployment problems with only 780 million labourers in jobs.

However, the work problem is largely confined to rural areas. Jobs in cities are being created quickly as China undergoes a rapid urbanisation.

China is facing huge employment pressures at present and for the foreseeable future,’ Yi Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said.

‘As China’s urbanisation quickens, employment pressures from the many surplus rural labourers are getting bigger and bigger.

‘Currently there are about 100 million surplus rural workers that need to be transferred (to urban jobs).’

The country’s urban population will rise to over 700 million people by 2015, outstripping the rural population for the first time.

According to an employment paper, there were 9.21 million registered urban jobless in China at the end of 2009, resulting in just a 4.3 per cent urban unemployment rate. (wrapup)

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