Mind over platter

TV PRESENTER Steve Miller certainly doesn’t pull his punches when he confronts some of Britain’s fattest people – because he knows just how miserable it is to be a “big fat slob”.

The host of Fat Families, which has returned for a second series, All New Fat Families, on Sky1, is toe-curlingly honest with the people who take part in the show.

He tells them just what he once had to tell himself: “Be honest. You’re fat because you’re lazy and you’re pigging out on the wrong food.”

And when they offer excuses he retorts: “No one’s fat in a famine. It’s not difficult to lose weight, you’ve just got to get on and do it.”

It’s what he calls a “tough love” approach and it seems to work wonders – families on his first series lost on average three stone each, and most have not only kept it off but are still losing weight.

But Steve, 40, freely admits that fighting the flab was something he struggled to do when in his late 20s.

After being a skinny teenager, weighing only eight stone, he ballooned to 15 stone. He was at least three stone overweight for his build and height of 5ft 7in.

“I was eating all junk food and being a couch potato when I wasn’t working,” he explains.

“And, as I put on weight and started to feel bad about myself, I’d just eat more.

“You get in a horrible cycle when you feel embarrassed about the way you look but because you feel so low and you can’t face up to making yourself do something about it.”

The health implications are serious, too. Research by Diabetes UK shows that almost one in ten adults, or 5.5 million, are obese. Excess weight can make people prone to type 2 diabetes as there is a strong link with the condition and being overweight.

Steve says: “I’m passionate about motivating people. I know that, apart from the health concerns, obesity can hugely affect confidence and self-esteem, which in turn undermines your ability to get a job, a relationship or even just get out and socialise.”

On the programme he moves in with individual families for 24 hours to analyse their bad habits and devise a programme for them.

He says: “I have a big heart and I do get moved by their stories, but sometimes you can’t show too much empathy otherwise they won’t turn themselves around.

“I’m never rude, although sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. If they get demoralised I’ll give them a hug.

“Occasionally, I’ll also indulge in a bit of shock tactic. I surprised one guy by popping out of a coffin to show him that his high blood pressure caused by his obesity meant there was a danger he would pop his clogs!”

Steve’s successful book, Get Off Your Arse And Lose Weight, is based on his own experiences of beating his weight problem and getting down to a lean 11 stone.

He says: “Getting slimmer isn’t about willpower, but common sense. You eat less, exercise more and change your lifestyle. It’s certainly not about denial and living on lentils or lettuce. That’s boring and you end up with overwhelming cravings and binge eating.

“Unfortunately, so many people have ingrained bad eating habits and a script in their heads that tells them, wrongly, that it’s really, really hard to lose weight, which gives them the perfect excuse to fail.”

Steve, a motivational trainer and life coach, realised that he had to use the power of his mind to change his shape. “I call it ‘mind over platter’,” he says.

“I ditched every excuse in the cookbook, and convinced myself that losing weight wasn’t just easy, but would be exciting as it would make my life so much better.”

He advocates three meals a day, and allowing yourself occasional treats.

“I follow the 80/20 rule – 80 per cent of the time you eat healthily and 20 per cent of the time you can have something like a takeaway or a dessert, or in my case a bag of chips. Life can’t be all pain and no pleasure,” he says.

“I’ll be honest. As a gay man there was more vanity than health reasons for sorting out my weight. But I’ve had health bonuses – my blood pressure’s down and my asthma symptoms are minimal. I’ve taken up walking and have never felt better.”

He further appreciated the power of the mind when hypnotherapy sessions cured him of panic attacks 12 years ago.

About one in ten people suffer from panic attacks which are characterised by the sudden onset of intense fear or apprehension. Symptoms can include nausea, trembling and sweating.

Steve, who lives in Birmingham, was then a director of a human resources department in Manchester, until the attacks meant he had to resign.

“I had them for about four months, sometimes twice a day. The trouble is after the first one, which is terrifying, you dread one happening again, and that fear provokes another one,” he says.

After successful hypnotherapy treatment he qualified as a hypnotherapist, and used the method to help him four years ago when he again started to gain weight.

“I know only too well that keeping weight off can be the hardest part,” he reveals. “I’d started to slip backwards which was depressing.

So I followed my own mantra: JFDI – Just Flaming Do It – and cut out all the junk food and sweets I’d started bingeing on.”

When, a year ago, he was approached to present the Fat Families series, it was the fulfilment of a youthful dream to go into showbusiness.

“I’ve always felt showbusiness was in my blood,” he says. “When I was a teenager I worked as a Butlin’s Redcoat at Skegness doing singing and stand-up. Now I’m on telly and helping people change their lives. I really feel I’ve got the best of both worlds.”

■ All New Fat Families is on Sky1 and Sky1 HD.

■ Get Off Your Arse and Lose Weight by Steve Miller (Headline, £8.99)