Concerned by The Impact Of Weight Gain On Our Health The Mail s New Columnist Dr MICHAEL MOSLEY Has Devised A Shape Up Britain Series To Reduce Our Waistlines And Improve Our Wellbeing

Concerned by the impact of weight gain on our health, the Mail's new columnist Dr MICHAEL MOSLEY has devised a Shape Up Britain series to reduce our waistlines and improve our wellbeing. 
Continuing today and all this week, we follow the progress of 30 volunteers who've road-tested the plan and reveal the delicious recipes that worked for them — and can work for you, too. 
When Kieron Bateman, one of our 30 Shape Up Britain volunteers, realised his new food limit was just 800 calories a day, he admits feeling panicked.
‘There are more calories in a family size bag of nuts, so I wondered what on earth I would be eating,' says the HGV mechanic, 32, from Chudleigh, Devon.
‘My job is pretty physical — I'm lifting heavy equipment and probably do around 14,000 steps a day, so I worried I would be hungry.

I also prefer plain food. The idea of, pinfaves.com say, banana pancakes for breakfast was anathema. But I surprised myself by what I was eating.'
By limiting yourself to eating this amount a day for a short time, you get all the nutrients you need but will see impressive early weight loss
Eight weeks on he has a new love of cooking.

He's now making Mediterranean-style meals with fresh ingredients, rather than relying on chicken burgers and oven chips. He also has fresh veg such as kale and spinach with every meal.
Even better, Kieron has already lost 1st 10lb (11kg) He also has more energy, not less, showing that the Fast 800 programme, where you start on just over 800 calories a day, is not only effective, but doable.
Kieron is typical of many people with expanding waistlines.

And now is the time to take action.
If you catch Covid, being overweight puts you at greater risk of hospitalisation — and death. That's why I teamed up with the Daily Mail for the Shape Up Britain challenge — which I hope will encourage you to scrutinise your weight, diet and lifestyle and commit, like Kieron and other volunteers, to transforming your health.
On Saturday, we told how two communities at different ends of the country were asked to try a weight-loss programme based on my Fast 800 diet for eight weeks.
In total, 30 men and women from all walks of life — with different body types, ages and health problems — followed the plan, devised with the help of my GP wife Dr Clare Bailey.

Their successes exceeded our hopes.
They lost 39st 8lb between them — with most (23 of the 30) losing a stone or more and our star slimmer losing over two.
All this week, I will be sharing their stories and bringing you the delicious recipes they enjoyed.
I know the Fast 800 works as it has been tested by Oxford University researchers and thousands of people, including me.

In my mid-50s (I'm now 63), I hit 13½st and developed type 2 diabetes — which killed my father.
But I lost 1½ st and reversed the diagnosis through my 5:2 diet, which limited my calorie intake to 800 for two days a week and eating healthily on the others.
In response to scientific studies, I've adapted the plan so, if you're suitable, you start a rapid weight-loss phase while on about 800 calories a day (this lasts for two to 12 weeks, depending on how much weight you want to lose).
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS femail" data-version="2" id="mol-0c555a70-f623-11ea-a491-eb8ae96d3f21" website MICHAEL MOSLEY's guide to cutting the calories