‘I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman’. Homer Simpson

The great thing about Homer Simpson is that he does everything wrong and it makes us feel good about ourselves. He’s a morally weak, self-centred but loveable fool who has a love of donuts, but this is only part of the reason he is obese.

Many believe that obesity is simply caused by eating too much. But it’s not the whole story. 22-23% of UK men and women are obese (NHS Direct) and perhaps more alarmingly, so are 17% of 15-year-old UK children, which will significantly increase their chance of heart disease, depression, infertility and cancer. 30,000 people die as a result of obesity a year, it can lead to type 2 Diabetes, and it is quickly becoming the western world’s largest health problem.

The crude test for obesity is having a BMI calculation (your body weight in kg divided by your height in metres squared) of over 30. Between 25 and 30 is classed as overweight. Sceptics would say that more people are being tested than ever before which serves to artificially raise the figures, but this simply is not true and the fact is that the number of people affected is rising. Just as in America, the extremes are moving further apart. While some people are becoming increasingly healthy and fit others are becoming more obese.

Obesity is not just about the quantity you eat; it’s also caused by what and when you eat. Most obese people lack certain essential nutrients. The easiest way to reduce the chance of obesity is by doing a little exercise everyday, getting good quality sleep and reducing stress in your life (an important weight gain factor for some).

Everyone is different so it’s important that we reflect this in our diets. Everyone has unique specific dietary needs so educate yourself as much as you can on yours. Recognising your metabolic type is key (see link), and people that are in danger of being obese often eat too much carbohydrate (including bread, pasta and sugar) as any excess is stored as fat. If you eat more good protein (meat, eggs and dairy products) and have vegetables as your source of carbohydrates (which include vitamins and minerals) you could start to lose weight.

Your body cannot properly process food containing chemicals such as artificial sweeteners (like aspartame), artificial preservatives and flavour enhancers (like monosodium glutamate), as they are not natural. They hinder your bodily functions and hormones. Depending on the person, one of the effects of this can be weight gain. There are no set rules as to what will work for each person so it’s up to you to work out what your body is asking for.

People often think they need to diet to lose weight but most diets are not effective in the long term. When you diet and reduce calories, the body’s hormones and enzymes are disrupted. By skipping one meal you create an increase of “stress hormones”. The body then releases glycogen from the liver to increase your blood sugar. Repeat levels of stress result in a yo-yo effect of high and low blood sugar putting further stress on the body. Your body is therefore out of balance craving more calories and in this state it is difficult to achieve and maintain weight loss.

To lose excess weight, help your body by moving it as we were designed to. If you are active, the body stores energy in your muscles, but if you are not active it stores them as fat. Regular exercise keeps your muscles sensitive to insulin, as they want to take it in for energy. When we don’t exercise, muscles become insulin resistant and the body stores more calories to fat cells, normally around the middle of your body. The extreme of this is when all the fat deposits fill up and you become completely insulin resistant which means you become a type 2 diabetic. Basically the body is saying, ‘you have so much energy stored as fat why should I produce more energy for you, use up your stores first!’

So what can you do to lose weight? Balance your body out not just by doing one of the below but all three:

1. Be active – find areas of your life where you can add activity on a daily basis, whether it is walking up the stairs, doing 15 minutes of your own exercises in the morning, cycling or playing tennis.

2. Eat correctly – little and often – speed up your metabolism by eating more often but in smaller amounts. Have a large breakfast and a smaller evening meal. Stay hydrated but avoid sweet drinks and snacks. Find out if you are more of a protein type or a carb-type by doing a metabolic typing test online and eat organic whenever possible.

3. Get good quality sleep before 10.30.

If you do feel like increasing the amount of exercise you do in the gym to lose weight then bear this in mind: exercise routines associated with weight loss change for each person. Some need vigorous exercise, some like resistance with weights, some people like running and some feel better on light exercise like yoga. Often a mixture is best and it helps to keep it fun. Long slow duration of the same aerobic exercise will not necessarily make you lose weight. Interval (fast then slow) training is hard work but effective.

You need to mix up your training to benefit different muscles. If you keep using the same ones on the same machine, your body adapts and you find the same exercise increasingly easy. You could try to mix in some resistance weight sessions, getting advice on technique when you are unclear.

A good all round gym session may include a warm up on an aerobic machine (rower, bike, running, x trainer) two lower body exercises like squats and lunges, an aerobic machine for 5 or 10 mins, 3 different upper body weight exercises, another aerobic machine (perhaps running), then some core exercises and stretching to finish.

Do different forms of exercise and different sports as much as you can to keep it interesting. Burning calories is not rocket science, keep it varied and push it so you feel the burn and you’ll feel the benefits. Whatever type of exercise program you can manage, make sure it’s sustainable so you feel good about sticking to it and don’t put unwanted stress on the body.

The NHS calorie counter tells you how many calories you can burn doing your favourite exercises. It’s good as a guide but remember there’s a lot more to losing weight than burning calories. Think about your whole system and remember to eat correctly, sleep correctly and avoid prolonged stress as well.