A couple who found love on an ITV dating show now boast more than 100k followers on a weight loss page - after losing nearly 10 stone between them. Charlotte Taundry, 30, and Sarah Hutchinson, 28, were put together on The Cabins in November 2020.
The ITV2 show sees singletons ditch the dating apps and spend 24 hours in a log cabin together in a bid to find love. The pair hit it off straight away and continued their relationship - with qualified personal trainer Sarah helping nutritionist Charlotte shed the pounds.
The women embarked on the journey together and, two years later, have lost nearly 10 stone combined. Pleased with their success, Charlotte and Sarah, both from Manchester, decided to try and inspire others - and have gained a sizeable following.
Now, they say they have helped over 3,000 people - including one mum who lost enough weight to go on rollercoasters with her kids. Charlotte said: “We’ve both been there – it's great to have a platform and use it in such a good way.
“Between us, we’ve lost nine and a half stone – I've tried every high street diet and I have such a hatred towards them now. They ruined my life.
“There are a lot of women out there who have problems with other diets and because we highlight that, I feel like we get some of our following from there because what we talk about is against the norm.”
While Sarah was already a qualified personal trainer, Charlotte had struggled with diets like Slimming World and Weight Watchers for years. With Sarah’s help, Charlotte was able to meet her goals and the couple teamed up to help other women lose weight and sustain their weight loss in a healthy way.
“I yo-yoed for years,” said Charlotte, “I wasn’t into fitness at all and then I met Sarah and she taught me how to do it properly.
“When we came off the TV show, we already had a social media following and wanted to use it for good rather than posting pictures in underwear. We decided to open our own Instagram where we posted about our fitness journeys and people started following us – now more people follow us on our fitness platform.”
The duo started offering a one price set package of workout and weight loss tips, as well as posting nutritious recipes, calorie swaps, and free health information. Since they launched their Instagram page - @weightloss_soulandcourage - they claim to have personally helped over 3,000 people lose weight and hit their fitness goals.
Some of their clients have needed to lose weight prior to surgery. Others wanted to be able to make memories with their children - or even to help deal with symptoms of conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome.
“One of their first people to get our program when we started was trying for IVF was told she needed to lose weight beforehand and had struggled all the other ways," said Charlotte.
“She lost the weight, had successful IVF and her little girl is now six months old. She told us she ‘had a life in this world’ because of us.
“There was a woman who get married 10 years ago and could never fit her wedding ring on her finger. After losing weight with us finally got it on.
“Another woman took her kids to Alton Towers and was embarrassed she couldn’t get on the rides. She said her only goal was to be able to do that and six months later she had managed to go on the rides with her kids.”
The pair have some top tips when it comes to healthy weight loss and say they’re against high street diets due to the way weight loss is measured.
The couple advise anyone wanting to lose weight invests in a tape measure before a set of scales. And they encourage people to take pictures as a way to document their weight loss.
They also have advice on how to be consistent with exercise, as well as ways to swap expensive ‘health’ foods out for cheaper alternatives. Charlotte said, “Sarah’s favourite saying is, ‘You are what you do consistently’.
"So basically, you’re allowed a day off because if you have a consistent number of days on, you’re going to lose the weight you want to lose. However, if you consistently have days off, you’re going to gain.
“I say it’s not going to happen by next week. People think they start a diet and by next week they’ll be a stone down.
“Don’t focus on the scale alone because you can lose body fat but still be the same weight, especially if you’ve created muscle mass. Learn how to volume eat, which is making your meals bigger with fruit and veg so you eat less calorific foods, for example adding veg to a spag bol.
“The best exercise for weight loss is the one you can do consistently. It's pointless telling you to go and play tennis if you don’t like tennis, we tell people to do what they enjoy.
“I don’t want people to ruin their lives as much as I did with it. I’m 31 and have wasted 10 years of my life dealing with this stuff.”
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