Together with the team from Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, I carried out an experiment with a group of volunteers and found that diet, rather than exercise, is the best way to rein in the belly.

Using our calculator below, you can work out how many calories you should consume in order to try to lose an inch in four weeks.

2. Try our calorie calculator

Use this calorie calculator to find out how many calories you need to consume to maintain your weight. Then reduce that figure by 500 calories to start losing weight and belly fat quite quickly.



3. How quickly will I lose weight?



Dieticians advise that if you eat 500 calories less than your daily requirement you will lose about 1lb (0.45kg) every seven days. (When putting that into practice, you should expect some variation from person to person.) This chart shows you how many pounds you can hope to lose per week based on how many calories you cut out of your daily diet.

4. Losing the belly



An inch in four weeks?

The volunteers on Trust Me, I'm a Doctor reduced their waist sizes by an average of one inch (2.5cm) for every 4lb (1.8kg) they lost. So if you lose 1lb (0.45kg) a week you could hope to reduce your waistline by an inch after four weeks.

However the speed of waist reduction varies from person to person, so even if you reduce your calorie intake by the suggested amount, your results may differ.

Keep updating your calculation

As time passes you will lose weight and you'll need to recalculate your calorie requirement. At your new weight you'll find your daily requirement has dropped. So you need to drop again to keep 500 calories below your daily requirement. By recalculating you will keep losing 1lb (0.45kg) a week.

5. The diet that worked



Each person in Trust Me, I’m a Doctor’s diet group had help and recommendations from a nutritionist. To manage their calorie intake they were also given advice about limiting portion size.

The volunteers could generally eat their usual food, so long as they reduced the amount. They were also told to avoid sugary food and things high in fat, such as fast food.

Portion sizes

To help them reduce the amount they were eating, they were encouraged to measure portions based on the size of their hands.

They aimed for a daily intake of three fist-sized servings of carbs, two palm-sized servings of lean protein, two cupped handfuls of vegetables or salad, two fist-sized servings of fruit and two servings of fat or oil covering the tip of the thumb. In addition they could have 200ml/⅓ pint skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, or two 125g pots of natural or low-calorie yoghurt.

The original article was published in BBC.

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