One way to scale down

The Motivation Weight Control Centres operate in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Belfast. There are centres in Canada, the US, and in the New Year one will open in London, operated by the Irish franchise holders, directors Paul Connolly and Aisling Tobin. The first Irish clinic opened in 1994 and operates under the programme devised by Dr Maurice Larocque, a Montreal-based obesity specialist who first started treating the condition in a clinical setting in the early 1970s. The cost of the programme is £15 a session, which must be purchased in blocks of four, but the counselling sessions are held privately with a qualified nurse/councillor, who monitors the client's progress and provides a weekly information and behaviour modification pack devised by Dr Larocque. The centres are supervised by a qualified physician.

The diet itself is centred around balanced, low-calorie menus that emphasise a daily protein intake of at least seven ounces of lean meat and fish. Low calorie protein supplements, which cost £1 each, may be recommended to supplement the diet either with a meal or as a snack. Clients are also provided with a natural herbal supplement in tablet form, which apparently aids the fat-burning process. Once a month the client undergoes BERT, the computer questionnaire that measures behavioural changes. Body measurements are taken again, and any changes in your body mass - your proportion of lean tissue, fat and fluid - are noted and compared. The diet is adjusted if there is any sign of loss of lean tissue, which cause the lightheadedness and fatigue that usually causes most people to give up diets after just a few weeks. 99£117£9056