If someone promised you'd lose stubborn fat off your stomach, hips and thighs without having to diet or break into a sweat, what wouldn't you do?

Hence the reason I am clambering into a cross between a rubber diving suit and something Neil Armstrong wore on his moon walk.

It's not a pretty sight and it's pretty uncomfortable, but I'm about to try Hydroxi and Vacunaut Therapy – and the science behind it sounds like the miracle we've all been waiting for.

Its makers say it is the answer to the unbudgeable bulges of fat on stomach, bottom and thighs that have plagued women since time immemorial.

Men too, apparently... Robbie Williams is so convinced it works, he's bought his own spaceman suit for a cool £20,000.

What do you think? Post your comment below.

Having seen recent pictures of him looking quite porky, though, I can't help but wonder if he, too, hates the prospect of climbing into a polo-necked rubber babygrow.

Maybe he leaves it standing forlornly in the corner of his bedroom like the dusty rowing machines and exercise bikes that clutter millions of homes across Britain.

But I've got to give it a go.

Regularly hailed in glossy magazines as 'the body shaping treatment', Hydroxi and Vacunaut Therapy already has a big following among celebrities

Apart from slender Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole, and equally petite actress Anna Friel, who used the method to get back into shape after having her baby, though, I can't help but notice that other famous followers Kerry Katona and Peter Andre also tend to yo-yo, size-wise.

Shirley Yates, the woman who has just brought to Sheffield what the celebrity world has already heralded as the greatest – and easiest – thing in fat-busting, is no skinny herself.

And that is exactly why this successful accountant with her own practise has set up Lifestyle Sheffield, a fitness studio with a difference.

Based at Terminus Road in Millhouses, the studio contains nothing that will have you breaking into a sweat – either physically or mentally.

The "revolutionary body shaping equipment" does the work for you,says Shirley.

She's set up shop to help women like her – who have tried all the diets, the exercise routines, the gimmicks and the gadgets and still can't have the body shape they crave.

"I have always struggled with my weight and have tried virtually everything going without lasting success. Women are coming to me with exactly the same stories," she explains. "I tried Hydroxi and was so convinced, I've bought into the company."

The publicity material says it's "a natural, non-invasive treatment that allows you to truly design your body".

So, does it actually work?

"Absolutely," says Shirley, who opened her studio just two weeks ago.

As yet, she has no client case studies to give me. But she has tried the therapy herself during a stay in Surrey, where it has taken off.
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