My weight is holding steady at the two kilogrammes above what I was back in August, which leaves me 22 kilos above my 'target' weight.  This doesn't bother me particularly, because my objective was never to lose weight, but to get fitter and to tone up. I did however assume that three months later, a by-product would be a reduction in my weight.

I expect at some point to go to the doctors for a repeat prescription and only be given it on the condition I submit to being weighed and having my blood pressure taken. At which point a doctor will suggest that I need to lose weight, and I will say that I cycle or swim three to five times a week and have been doing so since August.

I know that one of the objectives of exercise is to build up muscles. I can feel that my muscles are firmer and stronger. I also know that exercise takes energy from one's reserves of fat (and when they run out, the body strips the muscles, which is why rapid weight loss diets are so very stupid). I also know that the more dense the muscles, the more energy the body requires just to sit still or sleep. Furthermore, I know that of two people with the same height and girth, the more muscled one will weigh more than the fatter one. This means that many supremely fit people eg rugby players are well above their target weight.

But I also feel that, as I get fitter, build up my muscles and push my body to use energy, I ought to lose weight. My starting position is being considerably heavier than is advised for my height. I actually don't think I have been that weight since I was at school. If the experts say that I ought be three-and-a-half stone lighter, what must I do to get there, even to start moving in that direction?* It is something that puzzles me, I wonder if there is something about my body (heavy bones? - when I was a baby my GP told my mother I had heavy bones...) that actually means that my ideal weight is actually heavier than the upper range recommended for my height. What would happen if I exercised four hours a day and ate only under the supervision of a qualified nutritionist (other than feeling miserable at losing the sensuality of good food)? Is it significant that my feet and hands swell during the day; that trousers that start the day as tight-fitting end up throttling me?

* I accept that I don't eat the healthiest of diets; I do like my cakes and biscuits, but I know people who work out very seriously, entering marathons triathlons and so on, and they don't spurn the biscuits, cakes and sweeties left 'in the usual place'.