Made for Sharing Tom Kerridge's Lose Weight For Good

I'm Tom Kerridge. Chef, husband, and dad.

A few short years ago, I weighed in at almost 30 stone.

-Wow...

-Mental, isn't? That's at my peak.

I decided I had to do something about it.

So I cut out carbohydrates, quit the booze, and hit the gym,

losing 12 stone.

It worked brilliantly for me.

But it's a strict regime which isn't right for everyone.

Like these struggling dieters from my neighbourhood,

whose habits and lifestyles require a different approach.

So I've set myself a challenge,

to help 13 locals lose weight for good,

with my calorie-controlled recipes.

It is no coincidence that the first three letters of diet are die.

The NHS recommends cutting calories is the best way to lose weight.

But low calorie food has a poor reputation.

You punish yourself, eating, like, literally cardboard.

I want to show them and you that you can cook and eat the food you love

and lose weight too.

This is the bit that makes the dish come to life.

It's so nice. So satisfying.

And it really tastes like a big treat.

I need to be there for them to show them

how they can do it and help them along the way,

to pick them up when they're down...

I just want to give up.

Listen, you've done so well. Don't give up now.

Last push, last push, last push, last push.

..and encourage them to support each other too.

I reckon if lower-calorie food could come packed full of flavour

and in generous portions, people would have

a much better chance of losing weight and keeping it off for good.

My gang of dieters have been following

a calorie-controlled diet for the last ten weeks.

That is beautiful.

-I'm loving this.

-That's lovely. Nice.

All have them have lost weight, and there's a real buzz among the group.

You look a different man, mate.

But as we approach the end of our time together,

there's still something I need to tackle.

Social eating.

It brings us together.

But just because you're trying to lose weight,

shouldn't mean that you have to miss out.

I'm inviting the guys to a celebration party

to mark the end of an incredible 12 weeks together.

And the buffet needs to be stunning.

On the menu are my crisp-on-the-outside

but soft-in-the-middle baked falafel with tzatziki dip,

succulent pulled pork tacos with homemade pickled onion relish,

and grilled veg, halloumi,

and couscous with a herby no-oil dressing.

For this recipe, start with the red, yellow,

and green pepper, cut into large chunks.

And to go with them, I've got one red onion.

I'm just going to cut it into wedges.

About the same sort of size as the peppers.

And then courgette - nice, thick chunks.

Courgette cooks a lot quicker than the onions,

so you can be a bit more heavy handed with your courgette chunks.

Season it up with salt and pepper,

then a few sprays of the one cal oil, before giving it a good mix.

Next, get the griddle pan on the heat.

I'm going to spray the griddle pans with one cal oil.

Go careful. Put the veg onto char,

and resist the urge to shuffle it around.

Just leave it so it gets those nice char bars.

Meanwhile, I'm making up a no-oil dressing.

Start with two tablespoons of red wine vinegar

in 200ml of water,

adding in one teaspoon each of Italian herbs, garlic powder,

and granulated sweetener, and bring them to the boil.

And then the trick to this is thickening it

and giving it that consistency of an oil-like dressing.

And that's going to come from corn flour.

Now, gently, cook it out until it thickens.

Then pour into a bowl to cool.

The vegetables are beginning to get a lovely

charred bit of colour on them.

That's all we want, that lovely flavour.

I'm just going to pop them into a bowl.

And then I'm just going to char grill my halloumi.

Now, I'm a massive fan of halloumi.

I love the way that it cooks beautifully on the chargrill.

It gets a wonderful texture, but do you know what?

I love the way that it squeaks between your teeth.

Dry the slices before spraying with one cal oil.

Straightaway, look, you can see those lovely char bar markings.

Now, if your griddle pan is hot enough,

it should come off really easily.

My dressing is cool,

so time to add in two tablespoons of flat leaf parsley.

I'm just going to put a spoonful or two all over the veg,

and give them a stir around,

so they begin to take on all of that lovely flavour.

Lay the dressed veg out on a bed of couscous.

Then the halloumi cheese.

Kind of strong, chewy, almost meaty-like texture.

The final touch is a little hit of heat and a dash of colour.

Some finely-sliced red chillies.

Just going to drizzle on a little bit more of this dressing,

and finish it off with a little bit of fresh herbs.

Doesn't that look lush?

My griddled veg and halloumi salad.

As part of a buffet, this will serve six.

But for bigger crowds, double it,

triple it, quadruple it, if you need to.

Oh, we've got some guests just arriving.

Thank you very much. That's lovely.

My halloumi recipe is getting its debut today

at a barbecue hosted by event planner Sandra.

She's celebrating an impressive academic achievement.

Today's a special day. We're having a graduation party.

I've tried to incorporate as many of

Tom's recipes as I can in the barbecue.

The best one is the lovely halloumi with the herb oil.

And then we've got the potato salad over here.

I've done a whole chicken in the piri piri recipe, so that's that.

At the start of the 12 week experiment,

Sandra had her sights set on this moment.

I'm hoping to look very good in my graduation pictures.

And ten weeks after I first met her, and 15 pounds lighter,

it's mission accomplished.

Has anybody tried the turkey?

Please, help yourself to food.

Sandra's fully committed to her new way of eating,

but it seems some of her guests didn't get the memo.

It looks absolutely fantastic.

You would not notice the difference.

It's quite creamy, you'd think it's quite high in calories.

I was wondering whether that was a bit bad for us.

Sandra's not the only member of my group having a barbecue.

Young Tom's been asked round to his parents' place.

My mum always calls up and goes, "Oh, the weather's nice today."

And it's like, "OK, that means barbecue."

We always have family barbecues and they all come, so it's lovely.

Including Tom's twin brother Chris.

Wow, this looks great.

Dig in before it gets cold.

I remember they were greedy and speedy.

There were really funny when they were younger,

because they had their own little language.

Until recently, the twins were a similar weight.

But since taking part in my diet,

Tom has lost a staggering 22 pounds.

I've arranged to meet up with the twins

to see if Chris might join Tom on his weight loss adventure.

The big thing for me was meeting Tom and him who's done it

and come out on the other end of it,

that really helped inspire me and I think that might help him, actually.

But maybe a golf course wasn't the best choice of venue.

Great connections!

-Where has it gone?

-You do like them trees, don't you, Tom?

I'll tell you what, what sport should we do next?

Because this is great.

-Your twin brother.

-Yeah.

What are you making of his weight-loss?

-I'm really proud of him.

-Yeah?

-Really proud of him.

He's a lot more confident, he's a lot more happy.

And I think having the weight loss has done a lot towards that.

-Do you think it's improved his golf?

-No. No way.

No chance.

-Oh, he's done it again.

-It's the same.

The brothers have dieted successfully in the past,

-but it didn't last.

-Between the two of us, we lost about eight stone.

That was when we were both at our sort of lowest.

-Yeah.

-And then it all kind of went Pete Tong,

and put it all back on, because I am at the heaviest I've ever been.

I definitely need to lose a few pounds, if not a few stone.

Tom's made real strides towards getting his weight under control,

but he doesn't want to leave Chris behind on this.

Would you say you were worried about him?

I do worry about him.

Like, I don't want...

I don't want to spend a long time without him,

because he never decided to lose any more weight.

What would be the driving force?

-It worked quite well, us two trying to lose the most week on week.

-Yeah.

I think the twins' competitive nature

might be the key to getting Chris to give weight-loss another go.

Being twins, you're clearly both quite competitive of each other.

-Yeah.

-I just need to plant that seed in his mind.

If he can do it...

Yeah, I suppose, I suppose I can do it as well.

After realising that maybe golf is not my game...

Oh!

..I'm glad to get back in the kitchen

and onto my next sharing recipe.

A big favourite of mine, pulled pork tacos.

The secret to this dish is to cut out the fat, literally.

Starting with a 1.8 kilo piece of pork shoulder.

And it's off the bone, OK?

And you just gently trim out as much fat as possible.

So we are cutting out the calories here.

OK, so once you've trimmed out most of the fat,

sit it on a roasting tray,

and you're going to put together the marinade.

And this is a mixture of really strong herbs and spices and a bit of

orange juice to loosen it up.

And it starts off with this.

Mixed allspice, one teaspoon of that.

And then one teaspoon of ground nutmeg.

Two teaspoons of dried oregano.

And one teaspoon smoked paprika,

again a wonderful amazing flavour.

Lovely aroma.

And also really good for colour.

And then, ground cumin.

Another teaspoon of that.

We're going to add two cloves of grated garlic, and to that

I'm going to add two tablespoons of tomato puree.

I'm using a lot of strongly-favoured ingredients, but trust me,

it really does make this taste amazing.

And here's another one.

100 grams of chipotle paste.

It goes so well with pulled pork.

And start to mix it to gather.

And then to loosen it off, add the juice of two oranges.

And three tablespoons of cider vinegar.

And add one teaspoon of salt.

And mix it together.

Amazing, big, strong flavours,

all going to go over this pork.

Now, don't be scared of getting your hands dirty.

Massage that marinade into the pork,

and make sure you get it everywhere.

All the gaps, deep inside there.

After a quick hand wash,

cover the pork with cling film, and bang it in the fridge for at least

three to four hours.

Although, overnight would be better.

After marinating, cover the meat with tinfoil

and get it into the oven.

Make sure it's nice and tight.

You're going to cook it low and slow.

140 degrees, four hours.

Easy cooking, in there, disappear for four hours, come back.

It's a doss, this cooking malarkey.

To go with the pulled pork,

you need something to cut through the richness.

So I'm going to do some pickled onions.

I've got a quick pickling technique

that's a great way to bring acidity to the dish.

First thing, red onions.

We are using red onions for two reasons.

Firstly, they're a wonderful colour.

And two, I'm not using any sugar in this pickle recipe.

And red onions have got this wonderful natural sweetness to them.

I've got a pan of water on the boil.

I'm just going to pour it all over the top of the onions.

And that just gently softens them.

It starts to bring the colour out.

And I leave it to sit there for about ten minutes.

And after ten minutes, drain the water,

and you can see they're beginning to soften,

but they've still got a bit of crunch.

And it definitely brings the sweetness out,

but now I need to make them pickled.

Firstly, half a teaspoon of dried oregano.

And just sprinkle it over the top.

And then half a teaspoon of cumin seeds.

They're going to give it a little bit of crunch and texture.

The juice of one lime.

Pickle needs vinegar, and for this you're going to use cider vinegar.

Two tablespoons.

And get your hands

and massage that acid into those onions.

Cover them and pop them in the fridge for a couple of hours

for all that acid to do its work.

And now it's time to take a look at that pork.

You ready? It smells amazing.

Wow.

Oh, look. See, it just breaks up.

It's ready to flake up, but don't get too keen, too eager.

You've got to leave it to rest just a bit.

I'm going to put the foil back on.

While it rests, I'm going to prepare the crunchy casing,

starting with a soft tortilla.

I want to make these into crisps, kind of like tacos,

but I don't want to fry them.

So I'm going to bake them in an upside down muffin tray.

So you put the tortillas into the tray.

You just kind of sit it so it acts like a cup.

Don't worry about making them look too neat,

they just have to serve a purpose.

They've just got to hold all of that flavour that we've got here.

And then I'm just going to give these guys a quick couple of sprays

with our one calorie spray oil.

And I'm going to stick them in the oven. Seven to eight minutes

at 180 degrees, so they go nice and crispy

and crunchy, and hold their shape.

OK, so whilst those tortillas are baking and crisping up,

I'm going to pull the pork.

Just flake it and pull it apart.

And you do it in the tray that you baked it in.

So all of that sauce and all those juices

can mix together with this pork shoulder.

Pork pulled, it's time to haul my shells out of the oven.

How cool do they look held in their shape like that?

It's now all about assembly.

I'm going to do four of them up.

You can be nice and generous with it.

Two good forkfuls.

And on top of that, some of these lovely, pink pickled onions.

Some fresh coriander stalks and leaves.

How amazing do they look?

Perfect, beautiful, crispy, crunchy, tasty.

Really fresh, really vibrant.

There is nothing about that that says diet to me.

Nearing the end of our 12 weeks together,

quite a few of my dieters are hitting targets

they set for themselves.

Today, nurse Sam is at a local airfield

with her fiance Bobby to take part in a tandem skydive.

I feel petrified, absolutely petrified.

When I saw her a few weeks ago,

she explained to me why she needed to lose weight to do this.

When I first started this, I was too heavy to jump.

My goal was to get to the jumping stage, which I've sort of smashed.

But, yeah, the actual thought of the jump is...

Now you've made the weight, you've got to

-go through with it and do the jump.

-Yeah.

Sam needed to be below 15 stone, and now weighing 13 stone 10 pounds,

there's nothing stopping her from actually doing it.

She's coming down!

It's amazing what can be achieved when you set your mind to something.

I'm immensely proud of Sam and she should be very proud of herself.

Good girl. How was that?

I did it! To have achieved it,

and lost weight to be able to do it, is unbelievable.

-Oh...

-Amazing.

-Yeah.

Absolutely amazing.

I am really proud of myself.

Yeah, I am.

Oh, you're being a gentlemen.

Of course, after you.

-Thank you.

-Another member of the group

who had a big reason to lose weight when we started was Kayleigh.

Her motivation was all about her health,

and today I'm accompanying her to the local hospital for a check up.

-Hello, there.

-Hello.

Take a seat, and just roll your sLeighve up a little bit for me.

I have diabetes, high blood pressure,

and my kidneys are playing up a bit.

So with all that going on, if I don't sort my life out,

in a few years I might not be here.

Kayleigh has made real progress.

She's lost 17 pounds in all since we started.

Take your shoes off. They're extra weight.

And I'm really hoping today's check up

will deliver some good news to spur her on.

So it's lower than what it was in December.

There you are, so blood pressure's dropped.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-So that's an improvement.

-Come on. Let's go and wait for the doctor.

-Right, thank you.

-Thanks, girls.

-Bye!

Kayleigh, do you want to come in?

-Yeah.

-So, how is it going with...

I've been eating a lot healthier.

-That's good.

-I'm not having no sugar, hardly at all,

so I'm on a positive thing of changing my lifestyle.

The doctor wants Kayleigh to have a blood test

to see if these changes are having a positive effect

on her glucose levels.

The aim is to get down to nondiabetic ranges,

which is 48 or below.

So I just need to go and have another blood test done

and see what level that is.

Hopefully next week, I'll write to you

with the results. Thank you very much.

Anything close to the magic figure of 48 would be amazing.

Kayleigh's promised to let me know the results when they come through.

Another recipe I'm making for our celebration party

is a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine.

Falafels are typically deep-fried and can come laden

with calories. But I'm cooking mine in the oven.

Start off with one large onion

that's been fried with just one teaspoon of olive oil.

I'm going to put that straight into the food processor, and into

that I'm going to add two cans of cooked chickpeas.

And they've been washed and rinsed.

Then you need something to bind all these ingredients together, flour.

I use 40 grams of it here.

And then the flavourings.

The most classic North African lovely flavours.

Three teaspoons of cumin,

two teaspoons each of ground coriander and salt,

four grated cloves of garlic, and 30 grams each

of fresh coriander and parsley.

The combination of these two herbs together

getting chopped is releasing this wonderful aroma.

And then at this point, don't want to make a puree,

but I do want to kind of bring it together.

The trick to this is pulsing, not blitzing.

And at this point, throw in the chopped herbs.

Lid back on.

And there you have it. A really nice fragrant, fresh, lovely falafel mix.

Roll the mix into a sausage and divide into 18 equal pieces.

Roll them up to these oval, small-like rugby balls.

Just give them a little pinch at the end.

Shape all 18, then give them a spray with the low cal oil.

Don't be shy with it,

because this is what's going to help make them nice and crispy.

Bang them in the oven at 230 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Then turn it down to 180 for a further 20 minutes.

While they bake, time for tzatziki.

Grate one third of a large cucumber straight onto a clean tea towel.

Lift it all up.

I'm just going to give it a right good squeeze.

You want to get as much moisture out as possible,

so it doesn't make the yoghurt too lose and runny.

Stick the cucumber in with 200ml of zero fat natural yoghurt

flavoured with one small clove of grated garlic

and a pinch of salt and granulated sweetener.

And a little bit of sweetness goes so well

with the yoghurt and the cucumber.

And then to that, a good handful of freshly chopped mint.

Give it a good stir.

Now, look at these guys.

And you can hear as they're going down,

they've got a really nice crispy outer shell,

which still means that they're nice and soft and cooked in the middle.

Perfect. Having a little dip of tzatziki.

A great recipe to share with friends,

which is exactly what I'm off to do now.

I've organised an evening river cruise

to celebrate my diet group's achievements...

-Hey, girl. Come on up.

-How are you?

Thanks for the lovely weather.

And to wish them well for the journey that lies ahead...

Hello. What is that shirt?

-I know, I'm sorry.

-Welcome aboard. Come on, come and get a drink.

Come and get a drink.

Look at you, Tom. Look at you, mate.

That shirt is hanging off of you now.

With my 13 weight loss pirates on board...

..it's time to head downriver and hit the buffet.

So there's some food downstairs.

There you go. Take your plate.

As well as my pulled pork tacos, grilled halloumi and couscous,

and baked falafel and tzatziki dip,

I've brought along a reduced-calorie carrot cake for afters.

It's quite nice, really colourful.

Bon apptito.

Now everyone's been fed,

I want to talk to the gang about how much weight they've lost since we

started 12 weeks ago.

Ladies, amazing work.

-How are you all feeling?

-Great.

-Yeah, really good.

-Yeah, fantastic.

-Amazing.

Well, at the start of this 12 weeks ago,

I was saying that wouldn't it be great

if everybody could lose a stone each?

Between the four of you, you have lost over four stone,

which is amazing, which means that the target that we've set ourselves,

we've got to. And that's incredible.

It's only the beginning. It's only the beginning.

To help her weight loss,

Leigh overcame her inhibitions and took up exercise.

How are you doing? Kick boxing extraordinaire over here.

Yes, that is right.

No, it's going good. Yeah, I'm still doing it all.

You two have lost between you over three stone.

-Wowsers.

-Nice.

-That's amazing.

You know, 12 weeks is such a short space of time, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And to achieve so much is just jaw-dropping.

Has it been painful at all?

Well, apart from a torn muscle, my sports injury.

No, it's not, it's been good.

Restaurant regular Kai couldn't cook before he joined me,

but I soon sorted that out.

It's actually not just changed my life,

it's changed my family's life as well.

I cook now for Emma and I cook for the boys.

For some of the group, it wasn't all plain sailing.

Ozi had a bumpy start and Petri struggled halfway through.

Here's a little fact. At the beginning, Petri,

you were losing the weight the slowest.

And then the last month, you've lost more weight than anyone.

Something, something has clicked in.

We had a little chat a couple weeks ago, and I think that helped me.

You know, it helped me a lot.

Initially isolated,

Ozi took up rugby training with young Tom and Andy.

It got him out of the house and away from the biscuits.

-No short cuts.

-Ozi, you just got yourself a whole new life with new

friends and new people and you're about to take up rugby.

Yeah, Andy just told me today that

it's coming soon. I think in a week or two.

Between the three of you,

you have lost an incredible four and a half stone.

That's just phenomenal.

Tom and Beth were the only couple taking part.

Tom has lost over twice as much weight as Beth,

but she's achieved a milestone to be proud of.

We've put your latest weight into the BMI calculator

and you've gone from overweight to healthy weight.

-Oh, my God.

-That's amazing, isn't it?

Yeah, I do realise that. Yeah, that's really good.

So, Tom, from your point of view,

what are the chances of persuading your twin brother Chris

to join you on that journey?

As of three days ago, he's just started a diet again.

-Yes!

-So hopefully.

Right from the start, one of my dieters

wanted to exceed my expectations.

Tom's challenged us with a stone. I think I can do better than that,

so I'm hoping to double that and get a couple of stone off.

So, David, you, my friend, have lost the most weight out of the group.

In 12 weeks, you've done three stone.

Amazing!

Yup, I'm going to lose the same again

over the course of the next five or six months.

Cheers, Tom. Thank you very much.

After sharing weight loss news with everyone else,

Kayleigh has something she wants to share with me.

When I last saw her,

she was going for a blood test,

hoping her blood sugar level had come down towards

the magic figure of 48.

I went and got my blood test results.

-Yeah...

-My blood results have come back, and now I'm 41.

You have to come here. You have to come here, you have to come here.

Oh, my God...

Oh, my God, that is so amazing.

So I'm not diabetic no more.

And thank you.

In December, I was dying and I didn't even know I was dying.

Because it was so bad.

And now I'm alive again.

Simple as that.

Oh, don't start.

It's amazing.

Don't start.

So how much weight did the group lose altogether?

Well, they lost 18 stone and 10 pounds.

And do you know what?

That's basically one of me.

12 weeks ago when I met you all,

none of us knew how this would pan out.

But you guys really have surprised me, and I think most of all,

you surprised yourselves too.

Anybody wanting to lose weight

only needs to look at you guys and see what you've achieved.

You're an inspiration and, I have to be honest,

I couldn't be prouder of every single one of you.

And so should all of you. I think you're all incredible.

I always believed they'd make positive changes in their lives,

but I'm truly amazed by how far they've come

and the friendships they've formed.

And tonight, Tom...

It's a thank you for your services.

Oh, guys... Amazing.

Look at your faces. What a lovely record of our time together.

I'm going to treasure this.

Yay!

Oh, hello!

These 12 weeks have really opened my eyes to a whole new way of living.

I feel so much better for it.

I do want to carry on.

This is not a diet. This is a change that is permanent.

Oh, my God!

Look at that!

I do not see that this is an end.

I see this as a chapter of my story of life.

Oh, look at that. Oh, guys.

We were lucky we did it as a group,

and we've had really amazing camaraderie.

I hope we still keep the social media group going that we're

all part of, and you know, just continue to give each other support.

Come on, group hug, group hug, group hug!

It's been so many positive things to come out of this,

and I think probably the most important thing for me, as a chef,

is that these guys are actually loving the food,

and still losing weight.

Now that has to be a perfect recipe for success.

Since the experiment ended,

nurse Sam married Bobby in her gorgeous wedding dress.

Photographer Kai married Emma in his own unique style.

Detective inspector Andy celebrated his silver wedding in new shorts.

Leigh glowed with confidence at her 40th birthday party.

And Ozi, well, he's embarking on a whole new career in mobile catering.

Serving healthy fast food, of course.