A woman dubbed the “queen of the fakeaway” has lost nearly six stone in a year while eating healthy versions of a McDonald’s Big Mac and Nando’s mac and cheese. Latoyah Egerton, 36, who lives in Exeter, started creating easy-to-follow recipes for takeaway alternatives from KFC, McDonald’s and Nando’s during the Covid-19 pandemic, with her content going viral on her Sugar Pink Food social media platforms.
By replacing certain ingredients with lower-calorie alternatives – cooking spray instead of oil, lean beef mince and wraps instead of bread, for example – she has been able to create healthier versions of her favourite takeaways, such as her toasted Big Mac wraps. After breaking her wrist in 2023, however, she was left unable to cook and turned to ready meals, meaning her weight increased and she reached her heaviest at around 20 stone (127kg) in December that year.
After writing a letter to herself on New Year’s Eve, promising “no more excuses”, she said she started cooking again in 2024, eating her favourite fakeaways and other recipes, such as her hunter’s chicken tacos, which are 216 calories each. By December 2024, she had lost 5st 9lbs (36kg) and now feels like “a different person” – and she wants to help others do the same as she believes losing weight does not have to be “boring”.
Latoyah before her weight loss journey
(Image: PA)
Latoyah told PA Real Life: “What I’ve learned the most is that change has to come from within. I think in 2023, I was almost excusing the weight gain because of the broken wrist … whereas in reality, the only person that could have turned that situation around was myself.”
To those who have commented on her weight loss online, saying “you look gorgeous now”, she added: “I was always gorgeous – I just had a little extra packaging. Gorgeous is not a size, it’s a mindset.”
Latoyah, who has written two cookbooks called Slimming And Tasty and Slimming And Speedy, explained that she has always had a “difficult relationship” with her weight. She recalls being bullied at school, with her peers calling her “fat” and “the fat one”, and she said she grew up believing these comments were true – although she was only “slightly bigger” than her classmates.
Latoyah wrote this letter to herself on New Year’s Eve in 2023
In adulthood, Latoyah said her weight “fluctuated up and down” – but in 2023, she broke her wrist and was unable to cook, sending her on a “downward spiral”. “I wasn’t able to eat the usual meals that I would enjoy, the healthy meals, because I couldn’t prepare anything,” she explained.
“I couldn’t chop any vegetables, and I was having to eat ready meals that I could microwave because I couldn’t use a knife and fork to cut anything up either. My job is to create recipes and cook food, so I couldn’t do what I love, and it just sent me on a downward spiral.”
Latoyah said being unable to cook affected her mental and physical health, her business and her earnings – and it “all went downhill from there”. Feeling “useless” and purposeless, she said she started “eating (her) feelings” and turned to comfort foods that she could eat with one hand, including savoury snacks such as crisps.
Latoyah creates takeaway recipe alternatives, such as these toasted Big Mac wraps
With her clothes not “fitting any more”, she said she avoided going out as well – but she was “in denial for a long time”. “I was trying on my clothes and they weren’t fitting any more and I just thought, ‘How have these all shrunk so badly?’” she said.
Latoyah said her weight continued to increase over the following months, even after her cast was removed from her wrist in November 2023. However, she reached a “turning point” in December 2023 when she tried on one specific item of clothing. “There was one particular top that I put on and it used to be a baggy top – it was a shirt that had buttons on it,” she said.
“I put it on and the buttons were just absolutely bursting at the seams. I looked at my face and I had so much fat around my neck, and I just thought, ‘Look, this isn’t right any more. I’ve got to do something about this’.
“That’s when I stepped on the scales and realised the extent of what had happened.”
One of the meals Latoyah cooked while losing weight
Latoyah said she weighed around 20 stone (127kg) at this point and was wearing a dress size 26, but on New Year’s Eve, she made “a promise” to herself for the new year. She wrote a letter to herself, which said: “Latoyah, it’s NYE, and this is a year you would rather forget.
“2024 will be the year that you will feel better. Better mentally, better physically, and you will feel like you did your best to get there. No more feeling sorry for yourself. No more excuses.”
From January 2024, Latoyah said she began making lifestyle changes – she started cooking again, she stopped drinking alcohol and she decided to go swimming two or three times a week. She knew she did not want to “deny” herself of food that she loved, so she cooked recipes that were low-calorie but still “tasty”, such as chicken tacos, chicken shawarma and Mexican beef rice.
Latoyah after losing nearly six stone
Being the “queen of the fakeaway”, she made some of her famous fakeaway recipes as well, including variations of a McDonald’s Big Mac, Nando’s mac and cheese and chicken chow mein. “It was all about having it in moderation and sticking to my calories,” she explained.
Latoyah said the weight started “dropping off” rapidly and, although she reached a plateau at one point, she knew she needed to focus on “a gradual and steady loss”. She said: “It’s more about living that healthy lifestyle rather than the actual numbers on the scales.”
Latoyah wants to help others lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle
Latoyah said she used a tape measure to track her progress and body measurements as well and, by the end of 2024, she had lost 5st 9lbs (36kg) and is now wearing a dress size 16. She said she no longer “dreads” going out and she has “so many more options of what (she) can wear”.
Although she is not yet at her target weight, she said she is going to continue with her weight loss journey – and this year, along with sharing more cheap and healthy recipes online, she wants to focus on strength training with her fitness. She said: “Cooking is my passion and I love doing it.
“I really want to help other people that may have been in the same situation as me because I just would hate to think of other people feeling as low as I did.”
To find out more, visit Latoyah’s website at latoyah.co.uk or search @sugarpinkfood on Instagram or @sugar_pink_food on TikTok.