I have examined my concience and find no trauma, no genetic tendendency, no binging no act of will that resulted in me being overweight.

In fact, I have until relatively recently been quite comfortable with my "overweightness". even joking with people that I was not overweight just undertall!

I was the sort who never had breakfast, took a fast lunch or "liquid" lunch in the City, smoked and took the odd mint in the afternoon, and would eat late in the evening and often had a midnight snack. I ate roughly the same as my thin colleagues and perhaps drank less (alcohol) at lunch times.

My job is basically behind a desk and over the years my weight has gone up and down perhaps more in line with the sport and other activities and perhaps most markedly with the wordwide locations and climates that I have worked as a business consultant. I was at my lightest during my stay in East Africa and Asia; my heaviest during the four years in the..... USA!

I have the classic middleaged spread with too much stomach hanging over the belt. ( have lost 3" since LC). I gave up smoking nearly 20 years ago and what ever I gained then I lost, regained ,lost ,and regained again. I have crash dieted before company medicals so that I would not get shouted at by the Dr. who would tell me to eat breakfast and eat less fat. Whatever weight came off by diet.... it was 6lbs off then 7lbs put back on. Yo-Yo until I got so frustrated that I began to believe what I now know to be true...dieting can make you fat!

If I graphed my weight over my adult life it would be a very irregular graph with a gradual tendency up. I have a wardrobe that is a bit like a menswear store I could line up the sizes or my shirts 16.5",17",17.5". Not being able to find XXL was becoming a problem. Frankly I could not afford to be buying any more clothes as I outgrew them.

So last spring I decided to reverse the trend. I joined a gym first with my wife (who can tell a similar story). We would have a go together. A lot of effort not much result. We tried the Heart foundation three day diet .. lose 10lbs in a week it said.. I didn't.
THEN the light went on I was surfing the net for new diets and found a description of high protein- low carbohydrate.

Now it all made sense. I knew it! I said to myself. I was right . I had not been overeating I had just been eating the wrong stuff.
I could for the first time explain the vagueries of my body which I had become convinced had a mind of its own (gaining weight on a fast etc.). I jumped in with two feet a newbie who did not know what he was doing. Eventually bought Atkins and then Protein Power and started properly on 1st November 2001.

I can now choose not to be fat. It is a great feeling.