It actually isn't a given, surprisingly. I had mine tested 3 months ago when I was 4 stone over the max for my height, so probably also 5 stone over optimum. It was at a very healthy level. I was more than surprised, I was gobsmacked

Moving on, though, weight loss tips I have a-plenty. I've tried various ways of losing weight and some have been more successful than others, but I've finally tried one which has been, believe it or not, easy, painless and I'm certain the healthiest. It's taken me a long time to get here, and I'm not saying it'll definitely work for you, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

First and most important by a very long way - exercise. Four times a week in my case. Walking is a good place to start, as long as you're getting your heart rate up. Exercise is absolutely key in my book, not just because you're burning more calories and keeping/building muscle (so doing good things to your metabolism and losing fat instead of muscle), but because it makes you feel good about yourself, so you don't WANT to eat too much. You want to eat healthy food to keep feeling good about yourself.

Next, drink plenty (water or other healthy stuff, not alcohol and fizzy drinks!). It also helps keep you feeling good, which helps keep you eating healthily, ...

Rather than changing how much you're eating, start by changing what you're eating. You might find that the how much falls automatically as you're likely to eat things which fill you up more. Richard's advice about keeping a food diary is invaluable when working out what you need to change - you might actually be surprised about some things which are much worse than you thought, and others which are nowhere near as bad.

Try to prepare all your food from scratch. If you can't, then at least do it for your main meal of the day. I always admit defeat on that front where lunch is concerned, but buy soup (after checking the ingredients!) or salad or sushi, to limit the damage. If you cook from scratch, you'll know exactly what's gone into your food, and you'll find it tastes better and has less fat, salt, etc, than anything you can buy ready prepared. Make sure you eat plenty of veg, low-fat protein (beans, lentils, poultry, fish are all your friends here) and healthy carbs. Let yourself snack, just replace cake/biscuits/sweets/crisps with fruit/nuts/cereal bars*/etc. *NB, although these aren't entirely healthy, they're still a vast improvement on a bar of chocolate as they will at least fill you up a bit for slightly fewer calories. So you won't want another one 10 minutes later

Don't be mean to yourself. You need to enjoy the food you eat, or you'll go back to your old ways far too easily. You just need to work out what is healthy, that you don't mind preparing/cooking, and like to eat. Don't think of it as cutting out the bad things that you like, but as eating more of the good things that you like.

Actually, enjoying your food is another thing that makes a huge difference. Ask yourself, am I really enjoying eating this, or am I eating it just because it's there/because it's a habit/whatever. It'll help with the need to finish what's on your plate, and with eating through habit.

Finally, you really need to reduce the amount of alcohol you drink. It's not just the calories in the alcohol, though there are plenty of those, but if you're anything like me, you also eat much more than normal when you've had a few, and eat much less healthily too. I have no power to resist chips when I've had a couple of glasses of wine, so I have to avoid drinking wine when I'm anywhere that chips are available. Either might be OK now and then, but wine AND chips is just a bit too much! And then the hangover recovery food is never healthy either.

Blimey, I've gone on rather a long time. Feel free to ignore anything you don't believe will work for you. I've lost track of how much diet advice I've ignored, given to me by well-meaning friends who've found things that work brilliantly for them, but which I know would never work for me (not eating after 6pm - hmmmm, since I don't get home from work till past 7pm I'd be going pretty hungry )

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Plodalong puddy

Having read everything else I would just like to put my bit in too.

I have just lost 4 stone so I understand how you are feeling now. Along with everything else my advice would be

Deny yourself nothing, if you want a fizzy drink have one, just a can and make it diet.

Do not allow yourself to become hungry, thats when we start going for the rubbish.

I don't know about your domestic setup but if you don't want to eat it, don't buy it. If there needs to be goodies in the fridge (i.e kids lunchbox) label it in your mind as that persons.

If you want a Mcdonalds have it, there is half the fat in a cheeseburger happymeal with orangejuice as there is in a bigmac meal with diet coke!!!! (Just as a treat)

Personally I measure fat not calories so I fill my fridge with fat free yoghurt, nice and easy when I have let myself get hungry.

I didn't even start excersising before I lost weight so to add walking etc will be even better for you.

If you feel like you're going to have a food binge and know you're not hungry, clean your teeth. I know it sounds silly but what tastes nice after you've just done your teeth?

If you're sitting down to watch a film and want to eat ( I know I do) make your own popcorn, theres nothing in that. If you can't stand it plain then either use a little salt or when its still hot sprinkle a little iceing sugar on it.

Oh yeah, there are 170 calories in a pint of guinness. Your 12 pints is 2040, thats your entire days intake (a little less for a bloke) cut that out and you've saved yourself 2 days worth of the extra you were putting in.

Last of all, best of luck, I hope all your efforts pay off.