A MAN in love normally gets a little thicker around the middle, but in Shane Warne's case it seems he has committed himself to getting thin for Lizzy.

After battling the bulge for decades and becoming embroiled in a diet pill scandal eight years ago for using diuretics, Warne has dropped more than 10kg and looks to be in the best condition of his life.

Warne, in India as captain and coach of the IPL's Rajasthan Royals, is down to a trim and chiselled 82kg after dropping alcohol and fast food and replacing them with water and health shakes.

The spin bowler appears to have taken his lead from girlfriend Liz Hurley, who infuriated dieticians last year after revealing she skips breakfast entirely, replacing the meal with mugs of hot water and coffee.

Yet Warne's manager, James Erskine, yesterday said Warne's trim new form could be credited to the cricketer's single-minded approach to fitness since joining a squad of 20-year-olds in India.

"He has been on a real fitness campaign since about eight weeks before he went to India," Erskine said.

"When you are 42 and you're competing against a team of young 20-year-olds, you have to be fit."

Erskine said Warne's new svelte shape was due in part to a routine of daily runs and workouts as well as more water, shakes and less fatty food in his diet.

"His weight normally fluctuates but he is in unbelievable form at the moment. I was with him a couple of weeks ago and he said he was down to 82kg," he said.

While some wags have raised the possibility that being in a new relationship with Hurley may be helping him burn fat, Warne's manager said he thought that unlikely: "Normally people in love get fatter, don't they?"

For more on Shane Warne's rapid weight loss and Liz Hurley go to the The Daily Telegraph.