There’s a fat person inside me – but I’ll never let her out

She has the ‘obesity gene’ and a dodgy knee but Dr Dawn Harper, star of Embarrassing Bodies, insists there is no excuse for being overweight

NOT many of us would choose to be fat. Yet speaking to some patients in my clinic, I do begin to wonder whether obesity for some people is almost a self-fulfilling prophesy. We think we can’t lose weight, so we give up trying.

Scientists have now proven that some of us are genetically predisposed to being obese. So we really can blame it on our genes.

But that doesn’t mean fatness has to be our fate. I would say that if you tend to ‘run to fat’ you need to use that knowledge to your advantage – and you need to try even harder than everyone else.

I’m not just speaking from the perspective of a doctor but also a personal one. Because, you see, despite appearances there is a great big fat person inside me, just dying to get out.

THE OBESITY GENE

RECENTLY, while filming Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies, I was tested for the dozens of genes that predispose you to putting on weight. I’ve got eight, including the main one, which is called FTO.

It wasn’t a shock. My mother, who’s in her 70s, has always struggled with her weight and puts it on easily but is a keen golfer. My father, 77, swims three times a week and plays golf too.

I’ve always put on weight easily, especially at Christmas and while on holiday.

I went away with a girlfriend not long ago, we ate and drank exactly the same and by the end I’d put on half a stone even though I swam more than a mile each day.

I rein myself in with a weekly 30-mile cycle ride, meaning my weight is a fairly stable eight-anda-half stone. I weigh myself every week and when it starts to approach nine stone, I know to take action. If I didn’t and ate to excess, at 5ft 4in tall, I’d be clinically overweight in a very short time.

PAIN IS NO EXCUSE

AN EXCUSE I’m often given by patients for not exercising, and therefore not being able to lose weight, is ‘my knees hurt’.

Arthritis in the knee is a painful condition in which the smooth lining of the joints wears away. Aside from surgery, there is no cure. But the worst thing you can do if you know you have dodgy knees is be fat.

My knee hurts too. My left one was shattered more than ten years ago when a speeding car hit me. I really feel it when I’m on a long walk with my dog, going downhill. And I also know what makes it feel a whole lot worse: when I put on that half a stone on holiday, and my knee has to lug all that extra weight around.

The thing is, you can exercise even if your knee is uncomfortable – just avoid any sharp pains. The main thing is to find something you enjoy, as I have with cycling, and do it religiously. Having a challenge is also a good motivator so I do long-distance charity rides which I got into after my accident.

START TO MAKE CHANGES

WE CAN’T change our genes, so those dealt the fat card have to work harder to stay trim by adjusting their lifestyle to stay healthy.

Being overweight is a simple equation of how many calories you eat and how much you exercise away those calories. The fact is, most of us eat for reasons other than hunger – it’s sociable and food is so easily available. Losing one to two pounds a week is achievable with minor changes: don’t go shopping when you’re hungry and don’t have junk food at home – if it’s not in the cupboard, then you can’t eat it. If you must have biscuits, stick a note on the biscuit tin saying ‘Do you really want this?’ – or an unflattering picture of yourself.

TURN OFF THE TELEVISION

DON’T eat while watching TV. Research has shown that people who consumed food while viewing a television programme ate more, and got hungry faster than those who didn’t.

And don’t eat standing up, because ‘on-the-go’ food is usually junk food or – my downfall – grazing. That’s the eating you do while you’re cooking, what you clear up off the kids’ plates, the crisps and nuts when you’ve got visitors.

Instead, put everything on the plate at once so you can see what you eating. Also give yourself a 15-minute break after eating because it takes a while for the message to get from your stomach to your brain that you are full. MOTIVATED: Dr Dawn Harper, right, sets herself challenges such as charity cycle rides, left, to help control her weight

DO THE MATHS

IT IS much easier to put on weight than to lose it. But no one wakes up one day and is suddenly obese. Weight gain is gradual. Consistently eating 500 calories extra per day is incredibly easy without feeling like a pig – it’s the equivalent of a packet of crisps together with a fruit smoothie, or two glasses of wine and a few nuts. Do this for a week, and you can put on a pound. Count up the calories in everything you eat and drink, including those little snacks – you might just be in for a shock.

WE CAN ALL CHANGE

I USED to have a sweet tooth. These days though, I can say no to sweet things any day of the week. Perhaps I’ve subconsciously taught myself not to want cakes and chocolates. However, my downfall is cheese. And mayonnaise. And I love granary bread toasted and spread with Marmite on a morning. But if my weight creeps up, I don’t get upset. I set small goals – just a slow, pound a week weight loss.

For many, this won’t be easy and some might even ask why does it matter? The answer is type 2 diabetes. The NHS spends £1million an hour managing it and the hospitals will go bankrupt if it continues, according to a recent shocking report. For most people the disease is entirely preventable, because it is usually caused by being overweight. Yet cases of the condition have risen by almost two-thirds in a decade and the condition now affects 3.3million Brit- ons. One more person on diabetes medication might seem insignificant, but it all adds up, and I don’t want to be any part of an illness that could destroy the NHS if I can do anything to help it.