Have you struggled to lose weight? Perhaps you have been on diets before and lost a bit of weight, only to put it straight back on again.

Are you tired all the time? Do you find that no matter how much sleep you get, you still don’t have enough energy?

Have you gradually gained weight over the years? More to the point, have you gained more fat on your belly?

Recent research has revealed that excess abdominal fat isn’t just useless lard: it’s actively toxic tissue. Fat in and around abdominal organs, known as visceral fat, releases toxins (‘adipokines’) that poison your metabolism.

Is your belly making you sick?

An expanding waistline is a sure sign that toxic adipokines are upsetting your blood sugar, damaging your balance of cholesterol and blood fats, triggering blood clots in the circulation and raising your blood pressure. This is why a fat belly is linked so strongly with diabetes and heart disease.

And the risk increases with every extra inch of waist circumference. The reason why obesity is so dangerous is that fat people have more abdominal fat. Having a fat belly is harmful even if your BMI is normal (assuming it isn’t a pregnant belly).

Abdominal fat is central to the metabolic syndrome - the key to our Western epidemics of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. In fact, the metabolic syndrome has now been linked with cancer, infertility and erection problems too.

Blood sugar goes to pot

As you get more fat round your tummy, you lose control of your blood sugar, and more of that sugar is converted to fat – adding further to your pot belly. This is a truly vicious cycle!

How about liposuction or a tummy tuck?

You cannot remove the dangerous fat with a tummy tuck or liposuction. The real problem – the toxic stuff – is not the fat under the skin but the fat in and around abdominal organs (such as the liver).

Belle of the beach

You might want to lose weight fast so you can look beautiful in your bikini. Fair enough. But when you choose a diet plan – whether it’s the Cabbage Soup Diet, the South Beach Diet or the Atkins Diet – do you just want to lose weight or would you rather get healthy too? Do you really want to lose six pounds, only to put twelve back on because you’ve upset your metabolism?

How to reset your metabolism

Are you ready to reverse the metabolic syndrome, dump toxic fat and gain long-term control of your weight and health? Then don’t go on a daft diet. Sound nutrition is essential.

It’s not just a case of cutting calories. The traditional low-fat diet makes some aspects of the metabolic syndrome worse. To escape the fat trap, you need to shift the balance of nutrients.

And there’s a lot more to good nutrition than vitamins. You can’t make a poor diet healthy by adding vitamins and supplements. But you can learn to choose the right foods in the right amounts to give you protein, fat and carbohydrate (as well as micronutrients) in just the right proportions. That’s the key to  healthy metabolism.

‘ Food is an important part of a balanced diet.’ – Fran Lebowitz, Metropolitan Life, 1978

Imagine the satisfaction of losing inches and pounds of fat while enjoying three tasty meals and three snacks a day. ‘Fast food’ has come to mean ‘junk food’, but delicious, healthy meals can be really quick to prepare. If good food isn’t convenient, you’ll never get round to eating it.

Of course, no matter how good your diet, your metabolism won’t be well tuned unless you get some exercise. But that needn’t mean going to the gym. Why not make use of my chart to keep track of your exercise?

And if you are poisoning every cell in your body with tobacco smoke, you know you need to stop smoking. You can get help at www.quit.org.uk or www.nhs.uk/gosmokefree or from your doctor’s surgery.