How to cut your calorie intake (without putting yourself in danger)

It sounds deceptively simple: to lose weight, and decrease your likelihood of succumbing to a range of weight-related diseases, just reduce your calorie intake.

Indeed, this week we've learned that a clinical trial involving 300 people in Scotland and Tyneside, funded by Diabetes UK, discovered that an 800 calorie diet can reverse type 2 diabetes (which is strongly linked to poor diet and excess weight) in half of cases.

A number of diets aimed at a more general audience - that is, those who want to shift weight but don't necessarily have diabetes - are also based on significant calorie restriction.