91Èȱ¬

Tom Kerridge is challenging himself and a group of volunteers to lose weight and get fit. The plan is simple - stay within individual calorie limits and take regular exercise for two months. If they stick to this, they are promised measurable improvements in their health, plus a decent drop on the bathroom scales. But can they change the habits of a lifetime?

It is the first full week of the challenge and Tom is back in Gloucester, the city where he grew up, to exercise and cook alongside his diet and fitness gang. As team chef, he wants to get the gang off to a good start on calorie counting - and familiar, comforting dishes is the way to go. Normally this kind of food is high in calories but Tom is inventing recipes for the gang that don’t look or taste like diet food.

Before cooking, it is a trip down memory lane for Tom when he visits his old house and neighbourhood. He even bumps into someone he hasn’t seen for years - his childhood cub scout leader. Did his love of cooking start with sausages round the campfire?

Sausages can be high in fat and calories but Tom has come up with a healthier alternative - turkey sausages. He shows us how to make these from scratch, poaching them first before frying them until golden. He serves them with a bean stew (sausage and beans has never looked so good), although his young son Acey finds them a bit spicy.

Window cleaning brothers-in-law Dan and Alex volunteered for the challenge because of health concerns. A normal day sees them tucking in to a big, calorific breakfast and grabbing fast food between jobs. But they now want that to change. Tom joins the boys on a bike ride in the local countryside before giving them a tasty breakfast muffin to try. Tom hasn’t ridden a bike since he was a kid but the experience has convinced him to buy a bike to cycle to work.

Tom invites the team’s personal trainer Adam round to help cook Thai fishcakes and carrot salad for lunch in the garden. While Tom cooks the fishcakes, Adam tentatively prepares the salad under Tom’s watchful eye. Tom needs to stick within his personal limit of 2,800 calories a day and this generous lunch of four fishcakes and loads of salad comes in at only 350 calories per serving – an absolute steal.

Before this challenge, sisters Sandie and Maxine had lost their get-up-and-go. They were spending more time at home on the couch eating junk food than cooking or exercising. But tonight, it is all action in the kitchen. The sisters cook Tom’s recipe of fish fingers, sweet potato wedges and mushy peas while simultaneously doing a workout that Adam has given them.

Pasta is one of the nation’s most convenient and popular weekday meals so Tom shows us how to cook his speedy red pepper and spinach pasta bake. Wholemeal pasta provides extra fibre and it even comes with a cheesy topping. This comforting family dish can be on the table in 30 minutes start to finish. It is lower in calories than a supermarket ready meal - and far tastier.

Bev, one of Tom’s volunteers, finds it hard to resist sugary treats so Tom pops over to cook a mixed berry crumble with her – a lower calorie pudding she can enjoy without putting on the pounds. And on a dog walk, Bev reveals to Tom that she has turned down exciting family holidays because she wasn’t confident about her weight and fitness. But she is fed up with missing out and has set herself two new goals to aim for - to climb Mt Snowdon and go on a family skiing trip.

Back in the kitchen, Tom talks about his love of a Friday night takeaway. But on a calorie-counted diet this is off the menu - unless, as he shows us, you cook it yourself. Tom’s delicious lamb bhuna begins with a base of classic curry flavours before adding tomatoes, stock and generous chunks of lamb. When it comes out the oven Tom makes a confession; he’s tucking in right away and it’s not even Friday.

Tom and his gang have agreed to weigh themselves every week for the next two months. This is their first weigh-in and everyone is keen to make a positive start. The experts say that you should expect to lose a pound or two per week following this plan but some of the gang have done much better than that. Is Tom one of the big losers? And how about Bev, Dan, Alex, Sandie and Maxine?