Steve Bennett from Clubwell who has advised the House of Lords on tackling obesity. (Image: -)
For 25 years, I battled obesity despite being the CEO of a £100 million online retail company with access to the best advice money could buy. I jogged most mornings, restricted calories religiously and tried every diet going. Nothing worked long-term.
Today, having transitioned from business to become a qualified health coach, I’ve not only maintained a healthy weight for years but helped thousands achieve the same as the founder of Clubwell, the UK’s first app-based wellness programme.
The weight loss industry thrives on confusion, but the solution is remarkably straightforward once you understand what’s actually happening in your body. Here’s what you need to know…
Understanding the real problem
Your entire bloodstream, all five litres of it, is designed to carry just one teaspoon of sugar. Exceed this, and your body releases insulin to remove the excess. Here’s what nobody tells you: insulin is your fat-storage hormone. When insulin floods your system, burning body fat becomes virtually impossible. It’s like trying to empty a bath whilst the taps are running.
Nine out of ten adults now have some degree of insulin resistance, meaning their bodies require increasingly more insulin to manage blood sugar. This creates a vicious cycle: more insulin leads to more fat storage, which leads to further insulin resistance.
Six evidence-based weight loss strategies
1. Fibre first
This single change transforms everything. Start every meal with high-fibre foods: nuts, seeds, or green vegetables. Fibre creates a gel in your intestines that slows sugar absorption, reducing the insulin response by up to 30%. I call it addition, not subtraction; you’re adding food before your meal, not restricting anything.
Aim for 30 to 35g of fibre daily. Most Britons get just 15g. The shortfall directly correlates with our obesity epidemic. Legumes (beans, lentils and peas), whole grains (oats, brown rice), nuts and seeds, and certain fruit and vegetables are all excellent sources. The Clubwell app details every “real” food in the supermarkets, with their corresponding fibre amount [KEEP PLUG].
2. Eliminate ultra-processed foods
If it comes in a packet with more than five ingredients, put it back. Food manufacturers deliberately strip out fibre (it makes you feel full, so you eat less) and pump in the “Taste Bud Trio”: sugar, fat, and salt. This combination triggers dopamine responses similar to cocaine. You’re not lacking willpower; you’re fighting engineered addiction.
Shop the supermarket perimeter: fresh meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts. Real food doesn’t need an ingredients list.
3. Protein at every meal
Protein requires 20-30% of its own calories just to digest, compared to 5-10% for carbohydrates. A 100-calorie portion of chicken effectively provides just 70 to 80 calories after digestion. Protein also stabilises blood sugar, preventing the energy crashes that drive snacking.
Target 1.6g per kilogram of body weight daily. For a 70kg person, that’s roughly 110g.
Prioritising sleep can aid weightloss. (Image: Getty Images)
4. Strategic carbohydrate reduction
All carbohydrates become sugar in your bloodstream. A bowl of cornflakes impacts your blood sugar identically to eight teaspoons of table sugar. That “healthy” jacket potato? Fifteen teaspoons worth.
I’m not suggesting zero carbs; that’s unnecessary. Instead, choose fibrous vegetables (broccoli, spinach, cauliflower) over starches (potatoes, rice, pasta). Swap regular pasta for fibre noodles, potato mash for cauliflower or celeriac mash. You’ll barely notice the difference in taste but experience dramatic changes in hunger and energy levels.
5. Prioritise sleep
One poor night’s sleep reduces insulin sensitivity by up to 25% the following day. Your body treats sleep deprivation as a stress, releasing cortisol which dumps stored sugar into your bloodstream. This triggers insulin release, promoting fat storage.
Sleep deprivation also increases ghrelin (your hunger hormone) whilst suppressing leptin (your satiety hormone). You become hungrier whilst simultaneously lacking the willpower to resist poor food choices.
Aim for seven to nine hours nightly. It’s not negotiable if you’re serious about weight loss.
6. Movement matters more than exercise
I used to jog regularly while remaining obese. Why? Because exercise alone cannot compensate for a poor diet. However, movement dramatically improves insulin sensitivity.
A 20-minute walk after meals can lower blood sugar spikes by 22%. This isn’t about burning calories; it’s about your muscles acting as glucose sponges, soaking up excess sugar without requiring insulin.
Don’t sit for more than an hour at a time. Stand while taking phone calls. Walk to the shops. Garden. Play with grandchildren. Your body doesn’t distinguish between “exercise” and “active living”; both improve metabolic health.
The fluid factor
Hydration affects metabolism more than most realise. Mild dehydration slows metabolic rate and often manifests as hunger. Before reaching for a snack, drink a large glass of water and wait 20 minutes.
Avoid fruit juices, even “healthy” ones. Orange juice contains as much sugar as cola, just without the fizz. The fructose in juice bypasses normal satiety signals, leaving you perpetually hungry whilst damaging your liver through a process called de novo lipogenesis (literally “making new fat”).
Coffee and tea, consumed black or with minimal full-fat milk, can actually support weight loss through their effects on metabolism. Just avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners; both trigger insulin responses.
The GLP-1 injection reality
I’m frequently asked about weight loss injections like Wegovy and Mounjaro. Here’s my honest assessment: they work, but at what cost?
These medications suppress appetite by mimicking GLP-1, a hormone your gut naturally produces when you eat fibre. Notice the connection? You can achieve similar effects naturally by eating more fibre.
There are problems with fat jabs too: research shows users lose almost as much muscle as fat. Muscle burns calories even at rest, so losing it devastates your metabolic rate. When you stop the injections (and eventually, you must), you’ve now got less muscle than when you started. Weight regains rapidly, often surpassing your original weight.
The injections also don’t address why you gained weight initially. Stop them without changing your diet and lifestyle, and you’ll return to exactly where you started, potentially worse off.
A 20-minute walk after meals can lower blood sugar spikes by 22%. (Image: Getty Images)
They’re expensive, require lifelong use for sustained effect, and come with side effects including nausea, vomiting, and some so serious they can be life-threatening.
If you’re considering GLP-1 medications, I’d urge you to first try increasing dietary fibre to 35g daily for three months. Many people achieve comparable results naturally without the risks and costs. If you do decide on the injection, I 100% recommend you speak to your doctor first.
My work with the House of Lords
Earlier this year, I was invited to present to the House of Lords on obesity solutions. The government has proposed nearly 700 different policies since 1992 to tackle obesity, yet rates continue climbing. Why? Because they fundamentally misunderstand the problem.
Their guidance still promotes high-carbohydrate diets based on 1970s science. The Eatwell Guide, which dictates school meals, hospital food, and military rations, recommends that over 50% of calories come from carbohydrates. This is precisely what’s making us sick.
I presented evidence that obesity isn’t about calories or lack of willpower. It’s a hormonal disorder driven by insulin resistance, caused primarily by our modern diet of fibre-stripped, sugar-laden processed foods.
The solution isn’t more restrictions or education about portion control. It’s changing the fundamental advice we give people about what to eat. We need to prioritise metabolic health over calorie counting, fibre over grains, and whole foods over processed alternatives.
There’s growing interest in Parliament for evidence-based approaches. I’m hopeful we’ll see significant policy changes within the next few years, though the food industry lobby remains powerful.
The path forward
Weight loss doesn’t require perfection, just consistency with the basics: prioritise fibre, eliminate processed foods, eat adequate protein, reduce refined carbohydrates, sleep properly, and move regularly.
At Clubwell, we’ve distilled this into a four-step programme: Fibre First, then the Human Diet (whole, unprocessed foods), which naturally leads to lower carbohydrate intake, which facilitates intermittent fasting. Each step makes the next easier.
We’ve also developed the Metabolic Sugar Tolerance Monitor, allowing people to measure their metabolic health at home. Most people have no idea their metabolism is struggling until they develop diabetes or heart disease. Early detection enables early intervention.
The weight loss industry profits from complexity and confusion. The truth is simpler than they’d have you believe. Your body isn’t malfunctioning; it’s responding exactly as evolution designed to an environment it wasn’t built for. Change the environment (what you eat and how you live), and your body responds accordingly.
After 25 years of failure, I lost weight and have kept it off for years. As I approach my 60th birthday, I am in the best shape of my life. Not through willpower or restriction, but by understanding and working with my body’s natural systems. If I can do it, so can you.
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For more information, visit clubwell.co.uk; Sugar Tolerance: Why 99% of Diets Fail and how to join the 1% by Steve Bennet (Amazon, £9.99) is out now
Sugar Tolerance: Why 99% of Diets Fail and how to join the 1% by Steve Bennet (Amazon, £9.99) is out now (Image: -)