Get into your party dress in a fortnight, part 3

It’s sufficient to make a significant difference but not so much that you won’t have the energy to complete the workouts.

Here are some top tips on how to cut those calories...

• You might think the best way to zap 350 calories from your daily diet is simply to skip a meal. Wrong. Your body actually burns up calories in digesting food, so the fewer meals you eat, the less of a chance it has to do that. Space your meals out throughout the day.

• Downsize your portions by approximately a fifth on everything except for fruit and vegetables (potatoes don’t count!).

• Eat mindfully. Over the next fortnight, you can’t afford to ‘waste’ calories by eating mindlessly at the fridge, or straight from the saucepan – make sure that you sit down to savour all your meals and snacks.

• Don’t scrimp on protein. Eat a portion of protein at lunchtime – equal to the amount of carbohydrate you eat -- to help avoid an energy slump in the afternoon, which could have you heading for the vending machine.

• Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper to fit in with the body’s natural rhythm in metabolism – which is primed in the morning and tails off during the day.

• Go easy on the mochas, flavoured lattes and hot chocolates with cream on top – stick to plain Americano coffee, tea or herbal tea for the next fortnight.

• Watch the booze. If you regularly drink your maximum recommended units (21 per week for women), then you are taking in over 1,000 extra calories. Just one 440ml can of premium lager weighs in at 260 calories, so opting for a soft drink instead over the next two weeks is wise.