What happened to fat but happy? How our favourite female foodies have shed the pounds

So, our best-known female exponents of eating anything thats naughty but nice have begun to back-pedal and appear, rather proudly (if not triumphantly) in public as mere shadows of their former selves.
No more Its mine! from Dawn French when confronted with a Terrys Chocolate Orange. Shes become the high priestess of sensible weight loss no faddy diets, simply a resolution to eat less and walk more. A plan which is clearly working like magic. Now theres Nigella Lawson.
No longer the voluptuous Domestic Goddess who licks her lips in erotic delight at the mere thought of a deep-fried Mars Bar or lashings of butter and cream with, well, absolutely everything. Shes not letting on how shes achieved it not yet anyway but the photos suggest shes been making a serious stab at reducing her bulk.

IS THIS HOW NIGELLA DID IT? Nigella Lawsons dramatic weight loss may be down to noodles made from an Asian plant called Konjac. The ground root is used to make a tasteless grey goo and then processed into noodles which are very high in fibre and virtually calorie free. One serving, says Nigella, contains only ten calories. On her blog at Nigella.com she writes: We are jubilant about the discovery of Miracle Noodles, which appear to be a carb-free pasta. But she advises: Rinse them as the water theyre in can be a bit stinky. Thats not the only hazard. Konjac is also used to make sweets so high in fibre they are hard to swallow and have caused death by choking.

And then, of course, theres me, for whom th! e Dukan worked wonders... at least, until a recent five-week holiday, where I felt joyously released from the tight strictures of the protein-only regime, only to find that most of the weight Id lost is right back where it shouldnt be.

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So, what is making so many larger women begin to pay attention to their size as they hit their 40s and 50s?
For years weve been happy to potter about in the kitchen, rustling up food, glorious food for family and friends and always tucked in heartily ourselves.
Weve made fun of the stick-insects who feel that anything more than a lettuce leaf for lunch is gorging.
Weve put the need for elastic waists and baggy tops down to the natural order of things for the woman who has given birth to children and spent her every waking moment worrying about how best to feed them, rather than how best to feed herself.
Weve always been comfortable in our own expanding skin. Until, at some point in mid-life, we realise weve reached the tipping point. Suddenly, the spreading waistline has become a sign that youve done precisely what you vowed you never would: Youve let yourself go!

For a lot of us and it was certainly so in my case its health and mobility that drive us! to pay more attention to the weight weve gained gently over the years.
We live in pretty cosy, long-term relationships with men who may also have gained a few inches in the tummy area and would never be so rude as to mention that youre now a little on the tubby side.
But you know your knees and ankles are starting to creak as they strain to support your bulk. And none of us can ignore the hazards of type 2 diabetes and the horrors it can cause for the circulation.
There are also reports borne out by every oncologist I know that being overweight is a serious cause for concern in the development of breast cancer and tumours in the bowel and the colon.
Given that the risks of life-threatening diseases increase anyway as we get older, it makes perfect sense for middle-age to be the moment of truth the now or never time, when you have the chance to take better care of yourself in preparation for a mobile and productive old age.
After all, theres travelling to be done, taking the opportunity you havent had since the children were born, finally, to see the world. And there may be grandchildren to consider.
They want fit, active grandparents. They want to go for walks, play sport or run round the garden. And they want you to join in, not be stuck like a Victorian matriarch, unable to rise from her chaise-longue.
There is, though, another compelling consideration. Its not such a worry if your old man shows no signs of criticism or of a wandering eye, but if a middle-aged woman feels her younger (and generally thinner) sisters are attracting the attention that once was hers, its not surprising she would endeavour to recover her former allure.

If her partner of many years has left she has two options: eith! er to ea t herself silly to relieve the depression or to starve herself a traditional way for women to punish themselves for any perceived failure.
If theres a gorgeous, slender daughter waiting in the wings, the pain of passing your sell-by-date must be even greater.
So why not drop a few stones in the midst of a relationship thats cracking up and embark on what may well be a final attempt at a romantic flurry?
The one thing we must all remember, however, is that no matter how much weight we lose, or how many nips or tucks we indulge in, we will never again look the way we did when we were our daughters age.
There is no fighting the ravages of time without the danger of distortion (think Kylie, think Madonna).
So lose a bit of weight if it makes you feel more confident but make sure you do so on your own terms, ignoring the universal pressure to be thin, and remembering that it will not make you look young.
Well-known women are lauded in the newspapers for their fabulous new figures, which are invariably perceived as taking years off her, but the faces still show the wrinkles where the fat has gone, the skin will still sag unless youre either blessed with exceptional genes, or prepared for major plastic surgery.
Perhaps its time that we learned to grow old gracefully or disgracefully, if thats what we want so long as we are reasonably fit and healthy and, above all, secure in the affection of friends and family who love us for what we are, not what we weigh.