Alesha partner shimmies into shape

4:31pm Thursday 15th May 2008

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Alesha Dixon's professional dance partner Matt Cutler has revealed he lost weight during Strictly Come Dancing because she insisted on training so hard.

All the celebrities slimmed down and toned up thanks to the gruelling practice sessions, but though Matt dances regularly even he shed the pounds. And it paid off because he and Alesha went on to win the BBC talent show.

Matt said: "It was amazing, I think I lost about 5 or 6 kilos working so hard because Alesha really wanted to train every hour.

"I think because she was so dedicated to it it meant we could do good routines and we had a lot of time to make the routines good so we just tried every week to go out and do the best dance we could and just hoped for the best.

"Luckily Alesha was beautiful and a great dancer that helped me stay in the competition."

The weight loss has now inspired a new show Diet On The Dance Floor - which also stars fellow Strictly dancer Karen Hardy - to help other people shimmy into shape.

Matt said: "It's similar to Strictly as 10 people do a new dance every week plus they also have to try and lose weight, get fitter and there's certain challenges they have to do during the week as well.

"It's trying to show how fit you have to be to be a dancer and them training four or five hours a day has helped them all slim down and lose lots of weight."

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