Operation transformation plans to shed a million pounds from the nation’s waistline

Health Minister Leo Varadkar is putting his weight behind a campaign to get the nation to lose one million pounds in just one year.

The Million Pound Challenge by RTÉ’s Operation Transformation has been inspired by Oklahoma Mayor Mick Cornett, who announced in 2007 that the city was going on a diet.

He was shocked when a fitness magazine ranked his city as one of America’s most obese places to live.