Personal trainer Richard Smedley replies: You are right to watch your fat intake, although you need 50-60g a day to get fat-based vitamins into your system. Without them you will, in time, get ill. There are other danger areas that can make you fat and they are as follows:
Don't overeat carbohydrates as this pushes your blood sugar levels too high, which hinders the fat-burning process. Limit your carb intake at any one meal to no more than two servings. This means having to eat little and often.
Don't eat late at night - you'll store excess energy from the meal as fat because your metabolism is slower at night. Alcohol and coffee don't help either. Take a break from them for a month to detoxify your system. Instead, drink a litre of water a day. Fat burning relies on your body being hydrated.
Any food contains calories and if you eat more calories than you are expending you will not burn fat, so be aware of your intake of all foods, not just fat. Paradoxically, you can hinder the fat burning process by eating too little, as this slows your metabolism down as it goes into 'starvation mode', so make sure you're eating enough. Hope this helps to get rid of your spare tyre!