I'M SPENDING Saturday night on the tiles but I have vowed to dine out healthily, so I plump for a starter of tomato soup and a basket of bread followed by sea bass in garlic sauce and couscous, vegetables and a small heap of potatoes in sauce.

Things have taken a turn for the worse by the time I've ploughed through a creamy bread and butter pudding and custard.

A few hours on, and I've added a grand total of two-and-a-half Bounty bars, half a chocolate flapjack, a bag of Minstrels, most of a giant Fruit and Nut bar, a mint Aero and a bite of a Boost bar. (A witness can attest to this!)

Swilled together with a couple of Doritos, a yoghurt drink and a tin of curried mackerel in a pitta bread, I lurch, stomach first, into bed in the early hours.

An average Saturday night's intake? Nearly, but not quite. The awful binge is partly brought on by the knowledge that I'm going to have inches wrapped off me the following morning. If my mammoth consumption isn't test enough for the revolutionary new American body wrap technique, I don't know what is.

And indeed, this treatment has been billed as truly remarkable. Permanent inch-loss is promised and a course of six wraps should trim you down a whole dress size - for good.

Fresh from America, it has been the best-kept secret among Hollywood's mega-lithe glitterati, including Demi Moore, Kim Basinger and Uma Thurman. And as only the seventh salon to offer it in the whole of this country, CACI Beauty Oasis, in Northumberland Street, off Grange Road, Darlington, is bringing it exclusively to the North-East.

I turn up to CACI, nursing the signs of a massive food hang-over - swollen ankles, protruding belly and a heavy head. Perhaps not the best physical state in which to strip off down to my smalls but as chirpy American Body Wrap director, Stan Robinson, explains, I need to be measured to do the before and after comparison.

His seven-month pregnant wife, Rosie, does the measuring and reassuringly shows me her growing tummy so I don't feel half as self-conscious about my own.

I'm then covered in green vitamin C cream which, when put on, leaves me looking like the Incredible Hulk, before Rosie wraps me in bandages which feel snug without cutting off my blood circulation.

I'm put into huge blue waterproofs and tucked into bed with an electric blanket underneath and a light duvet on top. I'm left to fester with dimmed lights and gentle music for around 30 minutes and just when I'm nodding off, Rosie comes back in and explains what the effects of my cat-nap should have been.

This wrap, she explains, is different from all those others that get rid of inches by expelling water in the body. While it does help with water retention, it also contains amino acids which penetrate the body and attack fatty cells while the collagen lifts and rejuvenates the skin.

I step down from the bed and shed the dripping wet bandages. I'm told the liquid is the accumulation of my toxins which have been broken down in the 30 minutes. But the final test is in the measuring and to my shock, I have had nearly 11-inches melted off my body.

"The amount you lose varies for every individual and their metabolism but obviously, the more fat you carry, the more you have to lose," says Rosie. I tell her about the damage I wreaked on my body the night before and she says the enormous inch loss makes better sense in the light of it.

I'm told to drink plenty of water for the next few days as the decomposition of fat will still take place in my body for a few days after the bandages have been removed.

Rosie applies some Accelerated Inch-Loss Cream, designed to reduce cellulite, and Elastic-Collagen Refirming Gel, for tightening up the skin, as an added bonus after the wrap treatment.

The greeny Vitamin C cream has soaked into my system and I feel virtuously clean of toxins by the end of the treatment.

I do feel distinctly leaner as I slide on my trousers and can't believe all it's taken is a half hour in a bandaged condition. While I have always maintained a healthy scepticism for any 'miracle' method that promises instant inch-loss, I am genuinely convinced by this one. It leaves my skin feeling satin soft and days later, I still feel the slimming effects of the treatment. Indeed, as Stan tells me, the breakdown of cellulite and toxins carries on for up to three days after so most clients feel leaner days afterwards.

Rosie herself was a cynic before Stan recommended the American treatment, which has apparently been a celebrity slimming secret for the best part of a decade.

It was only after she tried the collagen body wrap and the various creams, including the stretch mark cream that wiped out every stretch mark on her body, that she found herself a convert.

"I used to be a fitness instructor and I had a deep suspicion about any type of wrap. I believed you could only loose inches through diet and exercise until I tried this wrap for myself," says Rosie.

But having said that, she adds there is nothing like this feel-good treatment to set you off on a healthy-eating kick.

"You do have permanent inch-loss with this but you will put the weight back on if you binge eat all the time.

"It's a good way to kick-start you on starting healthier eating habits. When you see you've lost so many inches, you may not want to ruin it by eating a whole packet of doughnuts."

I walk out with a spring in my step, feeling 11-inches lighter. Back on my bike, I resist swinging by Safeways on my way back home. Who needs biscuits when you've just got yourself a refined new figure?

* The body wrap and tightening, anti-cellulite and stretch-marks busting creams are exclusively available at Darlington's CACI beauty oasis with cream refills available at a cheaper price.

* For more information or to book a treatment, phone CACI on (01325) 489970 or the American Body Wrap com 020 8275 0997 or visit www.AmericanBodyWraps-UK.com