My feature photo captures what I have achieved over the last few months but also what I now need to work on. But more about that later. First why I wish I hadn’t left it until the age of 60 before dealing with my excess body fat.

Our diet is what keeps us alive. It is the sum of the food and drink that we consume. But in our culture the word can conjure up all sorts of negativity. Restriction, deprivation, disappointment, failure. I have spent a lifetime on various diets. They have all worked (as long as I got passed Tuesday) and they have all failed. It is what keeps the £2billion UK diet industry robust.

I cracked it a few years ago when I embarked on a couple of 8 week challenges at the gym I attend. The diet word wasn’t used. With a combination of good nutrition, exercise and accountability I went from nearly 13 stone to 11 and a half. A loss I have maintained give or take a couple of lbs. But I still carried an unhealthy amount of fat which I vowed to deal with but in a half hearted way. That changed 8 months ago when an unforgiving dress convinced me I needed to do something. So I did. I’m now over a stone lighter with a body fat percentage in the normal range. I did it by following a plan where every week I either reduced my calories or increased my exercise. My protein intake was high and my weights heavy.

Whatever I chose to call it I was on a diet where the calories in versus the calories out was in deficit. It was the only way I was going to lose fat.

I’m happy with what I’ve achieved but I can’t help feeling that I should have done it years ago. Maybe if I had confronted my fat two decades ago I wouldn’t now look as if I need ironing. My skin would have adapted to my new shape in a way that my older body is struggling with. As it is I now have parts of my body that need to be pumped up. I need to replace the fat with muscle which at my age will be challenging. Whilst it is never too late to change your body a lifetime of being overweight may mean that you will never have the body you could have had. Certainly true in my case.

More important is the risk to health if you enter these last precious decades being overweight or obese. We all know the increased risk of health conditions including heart disease, stroke, and cancer if you have a high body fat. And then there is the challenges of recovery when mobility is limited. I know that my recovery from open heart surgery was relatively easy as I was able to get back to exercise within days of surgery.

But it is not just about low body fat. We also need muscle mass to keep us upright. My muscle mass is good (according to my dexa scan results) but I do want to pump myself up a bit. To get more definition and fill out those bits of my body that are deflated by my fat loss. To fill the crinkly bits with some lovely muscle. My aim being to increase my muscle mass by 3kgs. A 7% increase. My muscle mass currently being at 46kgs. I’m not sure how possible this is going to be but I’m going to give it a good bash.

To do so I’m going to have to move into a completely different mindset. One where I celebrate the number on the scales going up after decades of willing the opposite.

And I have to admit I am finding it a little daunting.

For body builders increasing muscle mass is referred to as ‘bulking’. This means going into a calorie surplus. At the end of a ‘bulk’ they will also have increased body fat which they then ‘cut’ to expose the muscle they have grown by going into a calorie deficit. They are experts in the process and see the inevitable increase in fat a by product of the process.

For me the process will be slower as I don’t want to increase my body fat. The plan is to focus on maintenance calories which will be tweaked according to my progress. I continue to be my own science project.

But back to my photo. It was taken during a bootcamp. The weights are 7.5kg so fairly light. I’m doing a push press. My nemesis due to having a fairly weak core. As a consequence I arch my back which puts me at risk of injury and limits the amount of weight I can push. So strengthening my core muscles will be a focus over the next few months. If I’m pushing 12.5kg dumbbells by the summer I will be a very happy 61 year old.