The controversial Atkins diet, credited by a host of celebrities for helping them acquire a svelte figure, has a new figurehead — a portly British cat that has shed half its body weight under the regime.
Using a version of the no-carbohydrate, high-protein diet, dubbed perhaps inevitably ”Catkins”, Fidget has slimmed down from a hefty 10kg to only 5kg, his owner said on Wednesday.
Pet-shop owner Shaun Kirk tried the new regime after Fidget, aged 18, found it difficult to crunch dry biscuits.
The newly sleek cat, who used to tear open packets of food for himself in the shop whenever he felt peckish, instead tucks into tins of meat.
”I suppose you could say he’s on the Catkins diet,” said Kirk, from Tyneside, north-east England, adding that the weight loss had nothing to do with a new exercise regime.
”He still just knocks about the shop and he’s never gone out much. He loves his home comforts,” Kirk said. — Sapa-AFP