'I lost three and a half stone without exercising - here's the key food for weight loss'

Steve Bennett had . He went to the gym, cooked at home, followed the low-fat rules - and still, the weight wouldn’t shift.

At his heaviest, he at over 15 and a half stone. Now 59, Steve is a picture of health at 12 stone - and he credits his transformation not to intense workouts or calorie counting, but to one overlooked nutrient: fibre.

"I was doing it all wrong," says Steve. "I exercised daily, but I was still obese. I followed all the usual advice - eat low fat, burn more calories - but it just didn’t work." The wake-up call came on a trip to Tanzania, when his wife told him she was pregnant.

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He was about to become a dad again - at 50. Steve began researching nutrition in depth, and what he discovered turned decades of dieting advice on its head.

"The idea that exercise alone leads to weight loss just isn’t supported by the data," he says. "Exercise is great for your health and I still do it every day - but for losing weight, it’s all about food. And fibre is the key."

That revelation led Steve to create The Fibre First Diet, based on the principle of putting fibre-rich foods at the start of every meal. "When you eat fibre first - think salad, leafy greens, seeds or nuts - it slows down your digestion. You feel full sooner, and you eat less.

"Plus, it helps manage blood sugar and insulin levels, which are crucial for weight control."

Steve explains that when insulin is present in the bloodstream - typically after eating carbs - the body struggles to burn fat. That’s why he avoids most starchy foods like bread, rice and potatoes, focusing instead on natural fibre sources.

"The trick is in the fibre-to-carb ratio," he explains. "Not all fibre-rich foods are helpful if they come with a load of sugar. I stick to foods where fibre is higher than carbs - things like seeds, nuts, leafy greens, berries and avocados."

He’s also strict about cutting out ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which he believes are at the root of the nation’s health crisis. "People are starting to realise that crisps and fizzy drinks are bad for you, but they’re still eating things like protein bars and processed ready meals thinking they’re healthy."

"If something in the supermarket has a big health message on the front - ‘low fat’, ‘100% natural’ - it’s probably hiding something," he says. "Real food doesn’t need a label. You don’t see signs on broccoli saying ‘high in fibre’. But you’ll see a protein bar with ‘gut healthy’ written all over it – and it’s got more sugar than a Mars bar."

For Steve, a good rule of thumb deciding whether it's something your grandparents would recognise as food. "If your grandmother wouldn’t recognise it as food, don’t eat it.

"Fish should look like fish - not be breaded, frozen and shaped into a rectangle. If it comes in a shiny packet and it’s shelf-stable for a year, you should be asking questions."

And his results speak for themselves. "Once I started putting fibre first, cutting back on processed carbs and focusing on real food, the weight just came off. I’ve lost three and a half stone, and I’ve kept it off. I feel better at nearly 60 than I did in my 40s."

Steve's meal plan

Breakfast

• One-pan eggs and greens: fry two eggs, wilt spinach, and warm sliced mushrooms in the same pan, top with Parmesan
• Fibre smoothie: almond milk, cocoa powder, peanut butter, and a few strawberries
• Greek yoghurt with berries and a handful of nuts
• Leftover meat or fish with half an avocado
• Protein shake with frozen berries and a handful of spinach

Lunch

• Hard-boiled eggs with cherry tomatoes and salad leaves, drizzled with olive oil
• Leftover roast chicken with coleslaw and a handful of nuts
• Tinned fish mixed with avocado and pre-cut vegetables
• Cold salmon fillet with tzatziki and baby spinach

Dinner

• Sautéed vegetables with salmon, nuts, and cherry tomatoes
• Roast chicken with root vegetables and pumpkin seeds (keep the skin on)
• Stir-fried Asian greens with pork belly and sesame seeds
• Roasted Mediterranean vegetables and pine nuts with baked fish
• Slow-cooked lamb shoulder with vegetables and crushed walnuts

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