An EastEnders star has shared the one meal that helped her drop four dress sizes in just four months.
Letitia Dean has opened up about her weight loss journey after years of struggling with her size "yo-yoing".
The actor said by focussing on "healthy foods", she has noticed that she now has lots of energy that she didn't have before.
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After dealing with her weight fluctuating over the years, Letitia said she decided to join Strictly Come Dancing in 2007.
She said: "The main reason I signed up was because [I] wanted to do something about my figure," she said on the EastEnders' spin-off show Secrets from the Square", reports RSVP.
She continued: "I was so sick of extreme dieting and my weight yo-yoing."
The soap star explained that she had tried several different fad diets, saying she went through periods of doing: "The cabbage soup diet, the Atkins and a really disgusting eggs-only diet."
Eventually, Letitia decided to change things up and focus on "healthy foods" to help her weight loss journey.
She shared one of the meals she regularly made: "Pitta bread with a grilled skinless chicken breast, for instance, and lots of greens."
She eventually started noticing that the food she had added to her diet was giving her an energy boost, adding: "It was incredible.
"I found I had so much more energy than when I used to eat junk food."
Letitia also put herself into a calorie deficit in order to lose weight, with her new diet totalling 1,300 calories.
The Mayo Clinic explained that people generally cut 500 to 1,000 calories from their typical daily diet, which can result in them losing around one pound a week.
They stated that replacing high-calorie foods with lower calorie alternatives and also reducing your portion sizes can "improve weight control".
They advised that people should also increase their physical activity for a "successful and sustainable" weight management plan.
The Mayo Clinic shared that between regular exercise and healthy eating, it will give people the ability to maintain a healthy weight.
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