Morbid obesity - now there's something to think about.

Did you know being overweight can be worse for your health than smoking?

It shocked me when I heard that. Not as much as being told I was morbidly obese. That actually stopped me in my tracks.

I went to see a doctor the other day, a great chap called Peter Brindle who is based at the Wellspring Healthy Living Centre in Barton Hill.

I felt it was important to get a professional opinion on what I am doing and to see whether I needed help in the brain department for attempting this thing in the first place.

I came away feeling more determined than before to push on with the project because in no uncertain terms he told me that if I didn't lose weight and get fit, my life would be cut short.

It took a few days to run that around my mind, and even now writing that out it sounds just as stark as when he said it ten days ago.

The fact is I had become officially 'morbidly obese'. That is to say, I was so overweight that all the health problems and illnesses that causes could kill me eventually. And in fact it is more dangerous at that level of obesity than smoking. So I'm glad at least I gave up the fags a few years ago.

Dr Brindle took all my measurements, blood pressure, fat index etc, and obviously it was no surprise to learn I was overweight.

But what did surprise me was that my BMI was 39. The morbidly obese scale starts at 40. So bearing in mind I have been on a diet for two months and had lost a stone before I saw the doctor, my BMI would have been way over 40 for a while before that.

In fact last year was my heaviest when I weighed in at 18st 11lbs. Knocking on the door of 19 stone is quite something, almost impressive, but had I continued the way I was living it is likely I would have developed diabetes, been more at risk of heart disease and cancer, to say nothing of the damage it does to your mental health.

I realise none of this is particularly cheery or my usual 'wry take on the ups and downs of weight loss', but I think it's important for people who may be in a similar situation to understand that being really overweight isn't just a problem on a cosmetic level, but is a serious threat to your health.

I had accepted being obese, (when did we start using that term all the time anyway) and even made light (excuse the pun) of it and tried turning it into something to be proud of in a perverse way.

The idea of being morbidly obese is something else entirely.

You think of the 50 Stone Man or something almost inhuman and grotesque when you use that term. But the reality is that being so dangerously overweight that it becomes a life-threatening illness, is just a year of living badly away.

Needless to say I've been eating Special K, tons of veg and salad and low fat soups ever since. Not all at once of course otherwise it would be in danger of becoming an interesting meal.