I WAS really saddened to read today that after losing 5 stone on the Dukan Diet, Woman’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray has gone the way of 95% of dieters and put the weight back on. I was moved by Jenni’s article in the Mail’s Femail section where she described the “shameful guilt and self-loathing” of women who have done well on a diet but then slowly let the weight slip back on again.

Jenni Murray, now back to her original weight of 19 stone after letting herself go on holiday and over Christmas and New Year, thought that perhaps she should just accept that she was fat and try to be happy with what she wrongly sees as an unchangeable part of her persona.

However, she admits that this mind-set was just not working for her, saying “I was fat, but far from happy”; Jenni Murray doesn’t have to let her weight get the better of her, instead she needs to combat it in a manageable and, more importantly, sustainable way.

Jenni Murray was very public about her initial success – and let’s face it, wouldn’t we all be proud to shed over a quarter of our weight in 12 months; but the sad thing is that by dieting you are not guiding your mind and your body towards making a permanent change.

Usually the initial enthusiasm wears off, or as Jenni puts it “your determination to succeed wanes”; most diets fail within the first three months, so Jenni Murray did well to stick at it – of course the problem is that she didn’t find the root cause of her overeating, and therefore hasn’t battled her food demons!

People needing to lose weight have to change their behaviour or they naturally get frustrated and disappointed;they have to start thinking differently about the way food is consumed.

Going in for quick fix solutions and faddy diets is never going to work and the mind needs to see food and exercise differently.

So many people get caught up in the diet-fail-diet-fail trap, and the most disheartening and saddening stories are the ones you read where people have achieved such incredible weight loss, like Jenni, but have slipped back into their old eating habits.

That’s why I love my job so much, because with our Slimpods we can help to gently change somebody’s attitude towards food and exercise; and they will feel good about themselves again, which is so much better than being caught in the cycle of yo-yo dieting, getting used to a merry-go-round of success and failure.

I wish Jenny Murray every success for the future and will be happy to offer her my help.