The bizarre secrets of how Fergie lost the fat: Venison for breakfast, chocolate avocados, four-hour 'Nordic' walks... and hiding from Prince Philip

By Wendy Leigh

PUBLISHED: 17:12 EST, 22 March 2014 | UPDATED: 17:12 EST, 22 March 2014

The extraordinary transformation of the Duchess of York from frump to magazine cover girl has made her the envy of millions of would-be dieters

The extraordinary transformation of the Duchess of York from frump to magazine cover girl has made her the envy of millions of would-be dieters

The extraordinary transformation of the Duchess of York from frump to magazine cover girl has made her the envy of millions of would-be dieters.

Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal the secret of her recent dramatic weight loss – eating venison for breakfast, shredded broccoli in place of pasta, thick, green spinach smoothies and avocado mixed with cacao powder as a special treat.

The 54-year-old Duchess, who has had a life-long struggle with weight, lost a remarkable three stone in just eight weeks after holing up in a luxury chalet in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier, together with a private chef and personal trainer Josh Salzmann.

Her efforts paid off – and last week she proudly showed off her new shape on the cover of Hello! magazine.

In the interview, she said: ‘It took courage to go out in public in all the years I have been overweight.

Every time there was a “Duchess of Pork” or “Fat Frumpy Fergie” headline, they didn’t have any idea they were reaching to the depths of my soul.’

The Duchess has never revealed how much she weighed in the past, but at her heaviest was known to tip 16st.

‘Being overweight left me feeling very depressed and the more depressed I became the more I wanted to eat,’ she said in 2008. ‘I was just drowning in eating, drowning in food.’

But Josh, who has trained Hollywood stars such as Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson, devised a special programme for Fergie to finally shift the weight, centering on giving up sugar, alcohol and gluten. This was put together with a fitness regime that included regular four-hour Nordic walks in the Alps, strength training and deep-tissue massages.

‘The Duchess trained like an Olympic athlete,’ the 57-year-old trainer told The Mail on Sunday. ‘She is the strongest person I’ve ever known.

‘I’ve worked with boxers and athletes and they have needed a lot of strength, but it’s nothing to compare with the courage she has shown – both in her life in the limelight at Buckingham Palace and in her determination to turn her life around.’

Indeed, the Duchess has admitted that she initially found the rigorous regimen almost unbearably tough –screaming at Josh at the top of an Alpine mountain in frustration.

Josh explained: ‘When people give up sweets and wine as the Duchess did, they detox, and with that comes fear and anger. Her worst moment came when she had lost only 2lbs in the first week, we went up to the top of the mountain together and she got angry and said: “How can you say this will help? It’s not logical.”

 

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‘I didn’t tell her that I had a magic wand. But I explained that I trusted her and knew she would lose the weight. I said she had to have faith and that, at that moment, faith was all she had to work with. She believed me.’

Josh has been a close and trusted friend of the Duchess for 25 years – and he even credits her with saving his life during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 – a bond he says helped her trust in his weight-loss programme during her darkest moments.

‘We were due to be at an appointment on the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center at the very moment the planes hit. But because the Duchess is so kind, she stopped on the way to sign autographs – and that saved our lives,’ Josh said.

They had been due to attend the meeting at the Duchess’s Chances For Children charity at 8.45am – the first hijacked plane hit the building at 8.46am. The delay in Fergie’s arrival meant the charity’s staff were still downstairs in the lobby waiting for her. Her limousine, with Josh inside, arrived a few minutes later and the Duchess ushered her employees into the car and whisked them to safety.

The relationship between Josh  and the Duchess began when he  was summoned to meet her at Buckingham Palace in 1989 to become her personal trainer.

‘The first thing she said to me was, “Hi, Josh, how are you doing?” I thought she was so cool, so kind,’ he recalled. However, on his first day training in Buckingham Palace’s  gardens, he gained a startling insight into the reality of her life.

‘Suddenly, she looked up, saw a helicopter and said: “Josh, it’s the Duke of Edinburgh! We’ve got to hide. I don’t want him to see me training.” I realised then that her life wasn’t always easy. But she was kind to everyone.’

Old look: This photograph shows the Duchess of York wearing baggy clothes in February 1997

Old look: This photograph shows the Duchess of York wearing baggy clothes in February 1997

He revealed she had paid for a three-bedroom house for him in the Egham Hill area of Englefield Green, Surrey, at a cost of about £900 a month.

‘I’ve never seen such generosity like it. When she discovered that my wife had left me to raise five children, and I only had a small flat, she came into my gym while the radio was blaring an untrue headline that the Queen had offered to pay off her overdraft in return for custody of her children.

She was the one who should have been upset, but she was trying to help me and said, “I’ve found you a house where the children can ride their bicycles and have a proper bedroom”.’

It was in 1996, just before she became a WeightWatchers ambassador. ‘She was £4 million in debt, but she did that for me and even sent over a butler with an Argos catalogue so I could pick out bunk beds. Since then, she has always supported me in difficult periods of my life.’

Josh maintains that anyone could follow Fergie’s dramatic weight-loss programme. ‘Of course, not everyone has a chalet in Verbier, a personal trainer and their own chef, but if you make the decision to change your life, to eat foods that are high in nutrition, but low in calories we can all lose weight, feel better and take years off our appearance.’

But if he has trained the Duchess for 25 years, why has she struggled with her weight, becoming an archetypal yo-yo dieter?

‘Although diet and exercise are key parts of any fitness programme, the most important part (95 per cent, he says) was mental.  We spent a lot of time just talking together – her about her problems. I can’t think of anyone who has had a more stressful life than the Duchess.

‘She has always been in the public eye and has always attracted a lot of critics. We talked about all of this during our long walks – and it was a transforming experience for both of us.’ Amid the military discipline of the Nordic hikes, he said they had a lot of fun: ‘I sang songs like Singing In The Rain, and 50s oldies, and the Duchess joined in.’

Cover girl: After weeks of hard work, the Duchess proudly shows off her svelte new look

Cover girl: After weeks of hard work, the Duchess proudly shows off her svelte new look

But they also spent hours talking, in an attempt to make the Queen’s former daughter-in-law understand the psychological changes needed to turn her life around. ‘Stress is the real problem for most people,’ he said. ‘Leading a stressful life can cause all sorts of problems – lack of sleep, lack of regular exercise or even obsessively doing the wrong exercise. It can encourage us to seek solace in poor food, which is high in sugar, fats and starch and makes matters worse.

‘But most of all, stress causes changes in our bodies thanks to the release of the hormone cortisol. Scientists have found that increased  levels of cortisol makes our muscles atrophy and causes our bodies to store more fat and gain weight.’

It may also lower immunity and bone density, raise blood pressure and cholesterol and is linked to heart disease.

‘That’s why the mental work was so important. I had to encourage her to  rethink her life – and she did. You can see the results. I truly believes she is a changed person and that she will keep the weight off. She believes it, too. She believes she has turned her life around and that she has the tools to be a happier and healthier woman.’ 

The Duchess arrived in Verbier in early October and worked hard until the first week of December.

Asked about the secrets of his programme, Josh said the key was simple: regular exercise, plenty of rest, and eating half a dozen small meals a day, as well as foregoing processed foods, sugar, saturated fat, alcohol and wheat gluten.

The Duchess’s determination was such that she trained rain, shine and in deep snow. ‘Sometimes it was dangerous and slippery, and a couple of times I’d have  to practically carry her down the mountain. What’s the point of losing weight if you fall hundreds of feet to your death!’ Josh says the Duchess even helped him to overcome his fear of heights, when they were traversing an icy mountain with a cable to cling on to on one side of the path and a deep ravine on the other. She took one look at my face, saw the fear, and reassured me that I’d be OK.’

Josh checked Fergie’s energy levels daily and instructed her to rest if the regime was too much for her – they ended up doing their mountain walks five days a week. ‘There’s nothing worse than over-training,’ he said. ‘If your body thinks it is in a crisis, it will store fat – which was the opposite of what we wanted to achieve.’ Sleep was also crucial, as that’s when the body rejuvenates itself.

‘It was important that she had at least seven hours of sleep, but also to rest and relax, too, In the evenings we played Cluedo, and watched England football games. She also kept in touch with her office, and wrote 10,000 Christmas cards by hand.’

But ultimately, Josh says, it was the Duchess’s courage and determination that saw her succeed in her goal of losing three stone.

‘She saw me through my divorce, and I saw her through her bad times, as a friend. She’s a warrior and I’m a warrior and when things got tough, I’d say, “Buddy,” – I call her that, and she calls me that, as well – “Let’s get on a bike and just keep going.”

‘I always had faith in her, I knew she would lose all that weight. She’s never let me down and never will.’

● fitness-inspiration.com

HOW A TYPICAL DAY ON HER GRUELLING REGIMEN WOULD GO...

Team work: This photograph shows Fergie exercising with Josh Salzmann in 1993

Team work: This photograph shows Fergie exercising with Josh Salzmann in 1993

7.30am Rise.

8am Breakfast of natural yoghurt, piece of fruit, and a small amount of protein such as venison or a boiled egg.

8.30am Talk about the day’s exercises and the stresses of everyday life. Stretching exercises and prepare for Alpine walk.

9.30pm Set out for challenging Alpine walk from chalet. Typically the walk would include long motivational talks.

10.30am Mid-morning pause for snack such as oat cakes or low-fat fish pate. Resume walk for ascent on Alpine summit.

12-12.30pm Lunch, typically hot miso soup from Thermos flask, including broccoli, chicken and tofu. A satsuma or a few grapes.

2pm Return to chalet.  Mid-afternoon snack of  vegetable smoothie made from emulsified kale, spinach and  other vegetables or small  amount of fresh fruit.

3pm Deep-tissue massage  or resistance training such as press-ups, sit-ups and  step-ups. Or ‘Joshutron’  training, in which Josh uses his strength to provide resistance  for Fergie’s specially-tailored exercises. More rest.

5pm Supper – ‘pasta’ made  from strips of broccoli or avocado with sauce including low-fat meat such as turkey, venison or lean beef. Or fresh fish and salad or strips of lean meat (often venison) and vegetables.

Dessert made from avocados mixed with cacao powder.

6pm Relaxing evening of rest, conversation and board games. 

8pm Snack such as oat cakes, fruit or small piece of high cacao chocolate.

10.30pm Lights out – sleep is vital to the programme.

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Who paid for that little trip? Waste of money id say. She will be back to her old self in no time at all. And don't tell me Hello haven't photo shopped her cover pic!!!

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Damn awful woman!

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She looks very old.

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The odd thing is that I really don't see a 'fat' or a 'thin' woman whenever I see Duchess Fergie. I just see a woman who really doesn't know how to dress or to present herself whatever size she happens to be.

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Like to see her and the Kardashian mother in a WWE cage match and my money's on Fergie.

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When, the Duchess, was on a weight loss regiment, some 15-20 years ago, she had attributed her weight loss to a daily diet, consisting of beef & oranges. I have not forgotten this. Sure, the acid in citrus will burn away fat, if you have an ample amount of it. However, eating red meat on a daily basis is not healthy.

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If ever there was a free loader its this woman. The Queen did the right thing cutting her off

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Fergie looks brilliant but how do you make strips out of brocolli?

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So, as Rumpole of the Bailey might opine...are we to understand my learned friend........that it is somehow commendable that a woman with NO visible mean of support, with previous debts up the wazoo....has the resources to check into a Swiss ski resort with her own personal chef and trainer...and proceeds to lose over 5 pounds a week (which I'm not sure I believe but oh well). Are we to be impressed and in admiration of her? Oh for cripes sake. That's a sad commentary. I'd admire a widow with 4 kids who holds down a job and loses 3 stone from exercise and food discipline. Not this woman who lives a parasitic life. Which man paid for this jolly?

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Oh PLEASE just go away!

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