no more yo-yo! i’ll help you stay slim for ever

WHILE losing weight can be simple when you’re enthusiastic and motivated, what happens a few months in? This is when many people’s willpower starts to flag and they pile it all on again. I’m thrilled to say that shouldn’t happen on my diet — and I’ll outline why below.

First, though, it helps to identify why other diets often fail. You are sure to have friends who swear by slimming clubs, relatives who say they shed pounds sipping cabbage soup or bone broth and colleagues who continually mutter about their low-carb, low-fat, no-gluten or dairyfree food choices.

The truth is that everyone is different and the quest for the holy grail of slenderness has always been one of finding the right diet plan to suit you.

If you’re overweight, there’s every chance you’ve probably been eating too much and exercising too little, but there’s also every chance you’ve got a mix of genes that are predisposing you to having a pot belly or chunky thighs.

Dr Frank Sacks, a professor of nutrition at Harvard, has based his life’s work on understanding how two people can have the same amount of excess weight, be exactly the same age, race, class and gender, yet respond so differently to food.

He and his colleagues believe being overweight is not one disease, but many.

That’s why I believe it’s really important to maintain a flexible approach. Most of the best diet plans work because they apply strict rules that require you to cut out junk food, processed food and alcohol (as per my three key rules outlined in Tuesday’s paper).

They also take you away from your normal eating habits — they are the ones that got you fat in the first place.

But the reason so many of these diets fail long-term is because they are simply unsustainable. I know: I’ve studied them all and tried many of them myself.

You can’t live the whole of your life on bone broth, baby food, juices and smoothies — particularly if, like me, you have any enjoyment in food and the lovely, luscious, supremely delicious process of eating.

It is an individual call, but ultimately, the best diet is the one you can stick to. That’s why my Definitive Diet, which I have been outlining all this week in the Daily Mail, is flexible.

There are rules (because people need rules), but it works in the real world where you have to juggle your family, get to work, socialise with friends and live your life to the full.

Any good weight loss plan quite simply has to be something you will happily be able to stick to for the rest of your life. I should know: