OK, there's two ways to approach this. One, weight loss is a mystery and I have to do lots of extraordinary things. Two is I just have to do what I'm prepared to do for the rest of my life and that's the end of it.

TBH, I went with the latter. I'm not prepared to go to the gym or do lots of structured exercise. I walk a fair amount anyway because I don't drive. I AM prepared to cut down my portion sizes and the booze. That's the trade-off, for me.

I honestly don't think it's bamboozling. If you eat healthy and in smaller portions you don't have to do heaps of exercise. If you want/need your junk, yes, you're going to have to exercise heaps. It's really as simple as that.

I know I sound like a smartarse and this is coming from someone who was completely flabbergasted by their weight gain in their early to mid thirties but the simple fact was that I was eating TOOOOOO much. One of the many eye-openers for me was going to a sushi bar. The skinny people have one piece, the average people have two pieces and the overweight people (as I was at the time) have three pieces and think "that doesn't count cos it's healthy" and then have a big dinner when they get home.