According to a US study, couples who diet together are more successful. So how did Noel and Sue Josephides get on?

Love handles, middle-aged spread, the spousal ‘spare tyre’: horrid as these terms are, we often take it for granted that we’ll pack on a few pounds as we move from early adulthood to comfortable middle age. For many of us, our 40s to 60s become a pitched battle against this midlife bulge. This January, 40 per cent of adult Britons will embark on a weight-loss regime, with an estimated two in three women and three out of four men having given up before the month’s out (chocolate and sweets, according to one 2019 study, being our national Achilles heel).

If you’re one half of a couple hoping to lose a few pounds, take heart: a 2014 US study found that 95 per cent of dieters who started a weight-loss programme with a friend or loved one stuck it out, with co- dieters benefitting from the mutual support (and, when it comes to couples, fridge policing) of a ‘diet buddy’.

So what is the best weight-loss regime for midlifers? Zack Cahill, a ‘fast fat-loss’ expert at top London gym Evolve Fitness, puts his clients, male and female, on a similar regime of resistance and weight training rather than cardio programmes. ‘With weights you’re sculpting as you burn fat, so there’s more bang for your buck than on the treadmill,’ Cahill explains.