Every magazine, it seems, gives dietary information these days. Sometimes this is good and is written by qualified people; often it is sheer nonsense. The plain fact is that, when you lose weight, you literally "eat" your own fat - and a mighty indigestible substance it is. Unless this fat is burnt up in your system, by proper balancing of fuel in the shape of sugars (NOT sugar!), you may feel - and look - awful, You may also emaciate in the face and neck and get left fat in the middle. Some people, too, can miss an occasional meal with benefit; others cannot do this without feeling ill.
If you are seriously overweight (and that means over 10 per cent up on what was your correct weight at 25), a doctor who knows what he is doing about nutrition - not just any old doctor - is the proper person to whom to go. If his diet makes you feel ill, after the first day or two (when it often will), go back to him and continue to worry him until he gets it right. And, by the way, just make sure that you have not got hidden diabetes. Many people who put on weight are affected in this way; detected early, it can be cured and later calamities averted.
There are unqualified people about, often naturopaths, who are extremely knowledgeable about diet, but it is always sensible to have a thorough check-up with your doctor before undertaking a heavy programme of slimming. Every person is slightly different from every other; and every person's slimming may pose slightly different problems. You should feel well - even stimulated - during correct weight reduction. If you feel tired and irritable, except for, say, the first 48 hours, something is likely to be wrong with the method.
Secret remedies have gone somewhat out of fashion in England. "Slimming Creams" are still with us, and there are a few potions and pills about. If they worked, they would be dangerous; the few that do anything at all, such as destroying appetite, are, of course, prohibited from sale, except on prescription.
Preparations containing glandular extracts, such as thyroid, should never be taken at all except under medical direction. The best chemist's shop buy is the scientific meal-in-a-glass. These are carefully worked out; they stem from the old original hospital drip-feed, in which some bright boy saw the splendid commercial possibilities. Being devised to hold body and soul together, they are at least safe so that, if you can stand their monotony, you can slowly lose weight on them, if you are healthy. They all contain vitamins and minerals, in addition to balanced, pared-down nutrition; they are all virtually identical. Let palate and economy guide your choice.
Will Turkish or Finnish baths slim you? They will not, though they will clean and refresh you. Temporarily, you will lose some water weight, until you make it up with your first drink. Cold baths, or showers, or even air baths, on the other band, help to speed up metabolism and so assist any regime. Will reducing creams? They will not, except that some people seem to find that rubbing, if persisted in long enough, may break down a little fatty tissue, pro tem. You should never touch the breasts, either with 'reducing cream" or massage; and creams for reducing, which warn you against their use for the first two days of the monthly cycle, are highly suspect.
Will massage do the trick? It does appear that a limited amount of what is called "spot-reducing" can be done, provided that any loss in weight is held by diet. The great value of massage or exercise is not so much that it reduces, as that it helps to firm up muscles and prevents the sagging that often follows loss of weight. Most of the other salon treatments, vibrating couches, friction belts, radiant and infra-red heat baths, and so forth, stimulate bodily energy so that a lazy system wakes up and does come work for itself which will occasionally astonish all. If massage sometimes gets slightly undeserved credit for this, it matters not. Suggestion, too, can work in slimming, as in all else.
Much to be commended are the beauty clubs, springing up ill over the place. They do not pretend to be medical in any sense; but the young girl who forms the habit of using their exercising-room showers, and fruit juice bars is more likely to retain her figure than her mother had the chance to do. Recommended, only as part of a prescribed regime, are the "fillers" - the cellulose stuffing which kids the stomach into thinking it has had a proper meat. Used unwisely, cellulose may lead to not eating enough or, alternatively, the very fact of distension may keep appetite going and prolong the agony. On correct dieting excessive appetite fades quickly.
To sum up: the only sensible and lasting way to slim and remain slim is through correct eating and drinking, if you are healthy and only a little overweight, common sense and self-control will do the trick. If you really need to lose a lot of weight, get proper advice; and, in any case, do nothing unadvised if you are not in the pink of condition. This is not being hypochondriacal; it is horse sense. Disregard, as ever, the advice of friends, often followed with a devotion that would be envied by a mere medical adviser. Above all, try not to let it happen. Occasional overeating hurts no one: it is the steady build-up that matters. It is all so much a matter of habit.
· This article was republished as part of a special edition marking 50 Years of the Guardian women's page.
