How to have your cake and eat it

FADDY diets can work, but only in the short term. Cutting out whole food groups or food types such as carbs, dairy or wheat will eventually take its toll — if not on your appetite, then on your energy levels.

Ultimately, the downfall of many trendy diets is that they are too limiting in the foods they allow and thus they require truck loads of self-discipline to succeed. But what if you could eat anything you like and still lose weight?

That’s the principle behind food swapping, a tried and tested approach to sensible eating that can shift pounds but means that, within reason, you have your cake — and eat it.