Belfast Telegraph

Do slimming bath salts hold water?

Ella Walker examines if we can really soak away excess Christmas weight

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If there’s one time of year when we could do with a little help in the weight department, it’s the end of the festive season.

All that turkey, pud, chocolate and booze takes its toll and leaves us feeling more bloated than an overinflat­ed bauble, so the idea of a quick-fix that will put paid to the paunch is extremely appealing.

That’s what BOD bath salts promise: to suck out all that water weight and leave you looking “sculpted and redefined”. But do they really work? I hopped in the tub on Boxing Day to find out.

What is it?

BOD 20 Min Body Boost Bath Prep is a 1kg bag of bath salts you pour into a hot bath and soak in for 20 minutes.

What does it do?

“The unique bath salts utilise your body’s natural diffusion process when submerged in hot water, driving out sweat and toxins with a powerful blend of botanical extracts and advanced ionic compounds,” they say. After one 20-minute soak, you can lose up to 3lb of water retention weight, depending on the individual.

Does it work?

The instructio­ns say the water needs to be at 37 to 39 degrees, so I run a bath that’s as hot as I can handle, pour in the salts and, after recording my ‘before’ weight, hop in.

At first a lot of the crystals sink to the bottom of the bath and the water turns cloudy as they fizz, but eventually they all dissolve and the water goes clear. The salts give off a lovely scent and the saltiness of the bath means I float more easily than usual — it’s all very relaxing.

I didn’t even set a timer, but soon 20 minutes are up (time flies when you’re bobbing in the bath). Without a thermomete­r, I’m not sure I reached the requisite temperatur­e and I don’t feel like I’ve sweated a lot, so I’m not convinced the scales are going to register any change at all.

I’m astonished to see when I get back onto the scales that my weight has gone down by 1.5 kilos, which equates to 3.3lbs, even more than the BOD Prep promised.

Can I see a noticeable difference?

Honestly, not really, but I’d like to give the salts another go when I need to pour myself into a fitted dress or zip up my skinniest jeans.

If you’re going to be doing that before a night out and bloating is a major concern, a salt-infused soak before you head out might make all the difference. And at less than a tenner it’s a lot more affordable than liposuctio­n.

BOD 20 Min Body Boost Bath Prep, £9.99 for 1kg, LookFantas­tic

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