As you progress through all this, the knowledge pennies will begin to drop, one by one. Scrutinizing food labels delivers an insight that probably most people do not yet own. You will feel remarkably confident and empowered, as you release yourself from the influence of confusion, deliberate misinformation and seriously unethical advertising.

Once you reach your target weight, you will need to revise your intake sharply upwards. Think about this. By definition your minimum intake must be not less than the higher guideline figure suggested by the NHS application. My default intake (as I call it) is now slightly above the original maximum guideline figure referred to, otherwise my weight would continue to fall and I do not want it to.

As you settle down into your new healthy status-quo, you will routinely adjust your intake to suit varying episodes of activity or relative inactivity. No one can be fully active every day, all year round. Equally no one should find themselves in a situation where they feel sentenced to hours or days of unsustainable hard labour every week.

By all means enjoy pleasure which involves hard labour but make sure it always remains pleasurable experience. That is the crux. On such pleasurable days, intake can be increased as required. It will probably have to be.

You will ultimately and instinctively adjust your intake to suit your lifestyle, like adjusting the volume control on a TV. You will ultimately find yourself jealously guarding your target weight against temptation.

It is important to recognise that with your new knowledge, you will become so alert to kcal temptation, some occasions may wrongly be interpreted as attempts, by people you know, to sabotage your success. I have been in that place. They do not have your new knowledge.

If you stand back and look objectively, such occasions may actually have been commonplace in the past. A polite no thank you will serve such occasions without causing offence. If necessary you can add that you are on a special diet at the moment, which will not be a lie; very special.