Takeaway Alternatives 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 30st.

-Wow!

-Mental, isn't it?

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 12st.

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!

THEY LAUGH

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.

Mm. 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 are down.

-I just want to give up.

-Listen, you've done so well.

Don't give up now.

Last push, last push, last push!

And encourage them to support each other, too.

THEY LAUGH

I reckon that, 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.

It's week seven of my 12-week diet experiment

and, so far, I have given the gang

45 delicious recipes they can make at home.

From quick things to rustle up when life is hectic...

How lovely do these look?

-Oh, they are nice.

-..to special treats

to be savoured with friends and family.

It's amazing.

This ticks all the boxes for me.

My 13 volunteers have all lost weight,

and some have surprised me with just how well they are doing.

The results are just stunning.

14 centimetres off my body in two weeks.

-No way!

-Yeah.

-But we can't get complacent.

Just one slip-up could lead to someone giving up altogether.

And I know for a fact that a couple of the lads in the group

have sneaked off for cheeky takeaways.

So I'm coming up with a batch of new recipes,

designed to tackle this problem head-on.

Oh, yes!

I'm cooking up a juicy turkey burger that's even topped with cheese.

A chicken tikka masala which tastes

every bit as good as the original.

And my biggest test of the lot,

a post-pub favourite that typically exceeds 1,000 calories -

a doner kebab.

OK, doner kebab.

Who doesn't love a doner kebab?

I love a doner kebab.

But that's a bit of a challenge.

How do you make a low-calorie doner kebab?

I've spent time thinking about processes that add flavour

and cut calories, and transforming this nutritional horror story

begins with the cut of the meat.

Lamb meat normally used for doner kebab is lamb breast,

and lamb breast is fantastic.

It's wonderful, full of flavour, except it's really high in fat.

So I've got to go for a lean version.

I'm using 175g of lean lamb mince,

and 175g of diced leg of lamb.

This is the first time I've done this, and it's an experiment.

And it's one that I'm very confident is going to work.

Meat goes straight into the food processor.

And, of course, I'm going to add a fistful of spices.

I'm going to grate in two cloves of garlic.

One teaspoon of paprika.

One teaspoon of onion powder.

This gives a fantastic savoury kick.

Cumin. Goes so well with lamb.

Two teaspoons of that.

One teaspoon of dried oregano.

Good pinch of chilli flakes.

Bicarbonate of soda.

Now, this is the binding agent

that is going to hold everything together.

One teaspoon of this.

Flaky sea salt, the seasoning, and then cracked black pepper.

Lid on, we're just going to pulse blitz it

so it kind of makes it jump about and mix quite quickly.

That, for me, is just about perfect.

Of course, doner meat is usually cooked upright on a spit.

But I'm doing things a little differently.

First, I need to flatten the mix.

So...

Between two pieces of baking parchment...

..I'm going to squash this lamb out.

I'm going to roll it as thin as possible.

OK. One very thinly rolled lamb doner.

Just going to stick it on to a metal tray.

Now the meat goes in the oven, but not for long,

just five minutes at 220 degrees.

Top shelf, really high, really hot.

Now, whilst that lamb's cooking,

I'm going to make a bit of a yoghurt dressing.

Going to chop some mint, because lamb and mint - classic.

And don't be shy with the amount of herbs you use.

OK. Mint into a bowl.

And on top of that, some zero-fat Greek yoghurt

and a pinch of granulated sweetener.

And a pinch of flaky sea salt.

A good mix.

And back into that bowl.

OK. The lamb will be ready.

It smells amazing.

I'm going to do something now that makes it look even better,

I'm going to give it a bit of flavour with a blowtorch.

This extra process causes the proteins in the meat to caramelise,

producing rich and intense flavours.

This is just like that big bit of lamb being spun round

in front of those flames.

And you can tell this is nice and lean

because there's no fat coming out onto the tray.

I'm slicing the meat into strips

and laying them on a small flour tortilla.

Look at that!

It's the dream!

My doner kebab with yoghurt and mint dressing and extra chilli sauce.

Familiar, delicious and lower calorie.

Job done.

I've got several big blokes in my gang

who are struggling to resist the siren call

of their favourite fast foods

and stick to the calorie limit I've set them.

Tom and girlfriend Beth

are both taking part in my 12-week experiment,

but it is Tom who knows he's got the most to lose.

I need to do something about my weight.

I'm 22 and 23st.

So I am actually more stones than my age.

36-year-old Pittri is all too aware of where his weaknesses lie.

I do like my carbs, my good old carbs.

So, chips, crisps, mashed potatoes, chip-shop chips, roast potatoes.

I could eat them all day!

In the first fortnight of our diet experiment,

Pittri lost 7lbs.

But in the month since, he has only lost a pound.

I've had one or two slip-ups so far.

We had a few drinks. And then afterwards

I went into a kebab shop,

and I got myself a burger and chips, which was rather naughty.

It was nice at the time,

but then, obviously, the day after,

you realise, "Oh, I shouldn't have done that."

So I am popping over to Pittri's to find out where he's going wrong.

And it seems to be due to a concept all of his own called Cheat Days.

During the week, I wouldn't drink.

Sunday evening, when I have my dinner,

is the one day a week that I would have a cider to drink.

So that would be my one drink of the week.

All that work that you've done Monday to Friday,

it all disappears on the day that you go,

"Well, I'll just treat myself."

And that's the bit where you have to go...

Cheat Days, they just don't exist.

We need to eradicate Cheat Days.

One consequence of putting on weight

is that Pittri has outgrown much of his wardrobe.

Shirts and trousers.

-Yeah.

-That's nice.

Some of the stuff that I would wear out...

-Yeah.

-Nice little occasion.

-I think I wore that once to my sister's birthday.

-Once.

I've been a big lad all my life because of the food I ate.

But more importantly, the volume of food that I ate.

There was no measuring.

I just used to eat till I...

..couldn't move. Never worn it since.

-Really?

-Yeah. Can't button it up.

Same with this one. Need to trim down for it to fit.

-So this would still be OK on the top?

-It might be.

It's around there?

-It's around there.

-OK.

-Yeah.

To see where I was and where I am now, it's quite a shock.

It will be a good positive thing if I can get back there.

OK, my friend. We are going to get back here.

A way to help that along is, of course, exercise.

And Pittri is the only one of my dieters

that hasn't yet taken up exercise,

despite the fact that he manages a gym!

Oh, jeez, I've got to go to the gym.

-It's hard to get there.

-But you work there!

After work, I like to get home, to, you know, have family time.

When you have come home already,

that motivation then to leave the home and go to the gym is hard.

So it turns out this adoring dad

is prioritising time with his young son.

This is a very common theme.

When you have children,

it's very difficult to make that fit into your life.

But you need to focus on you to be able to be everything for them.

And I think that's...

..that's the way you need to re-twist that motivation.

And, of course, Pittri has got that added incentive

of fitting back into his wardrobe.

A couple of inches.

Just this little bit there.

Yeah. It's a challenge.

I don't think it comes in a bigger size, so I can't buy a bigger one.

THEY LAUGH

Can't just buy a bigger one.

-There's no cheating here, my friend.

-No cheating here.

If burgers are one of Pittri's weaknesses,

I've got the perfect recipe he can cook at home.

I'm going to start off with turkey mince.

It's incredibly lean, but it is very flavoursome.

500g of that.

And to that, I'm going to add...

..500g of grated courgette.

All you've got to do is squeeze out as much moisture as possible.

And the courgette acts as a great filler for the burger.

It's going to help almost double it in size,

but without all of the calories.

So, once I've squeezed the life out of the courgette,

I'm then going to add it to my turkey mince.

Now, into my turkey and courgette,

I'm going to put two teaspoons of dried Italian herbs.

And then half a teaspoon of chilli flakes.

Like with my doner,

I'm bringing the mix together with bicarbonate of soda.

Two teaspoons of bicarbonate.

And then two tablespoons of capers.

Capers give a well-deserved lift to burgers.

Their acidity level is fantastic.

It makes everything, I suppose, zing and come to life.

And into the burger mix.

Seasoned with a little bit of salt and pepper.

And then get your hands in,

and start massaging all of these ingredients together.

You really want that bicarbonate of soda to start working its magic

and it helps to firm up our burger mix.

I'm going to separate this into four.

Form the mix into a burger patty.

Just put them on a tray lined with baking parchment.

Look at those. They are a really good portion.

They are a proper size, them.

And that's that courgette helping to bulk it all out

and give us more burger for our buck.

Now, I'm going to put these guys into the fridge,

just to firm up a little bit, for about an hour.

Just to give them a little bit of lubrication,

give them a couple of sprays of low-calorie spray oil.

I'm going to stick them in the oven,

220 degrees, for about ten to 12 minutes.

You get a nice little bit of browning on them,

they'll be beautiful, them.

I did say it comes with cheese, and I'm not lying.

This is mozzarella, but it's reduced-fat mozzarella.

I'm slicing the mozzarella

to try and get as much coverage from it as possible.

So we've got four nice slices like that.

The burgers, they are ready.

Look at them, they look amazing.

And just at this point,

I'm going to put a piece of mozzarella on each one.

So with the mozzarella on the top,

I'm going to put the turkey burgers back into the oven

for another two to three minutes,

just until that mozzarella starts to melt.

For me, this is very, very exciting.

This is a wholemeal bun,

just going to drop it onto this grill to try and get those markings.

Heat off, burgers out.

Ha-ha-ha!

Look at that, the cheese just melting.

How lush does that look?

Slice of tomato and rocket.

Then one of these lush turkey burgers

with the melted cheese on the top.

Put the lid on it.

I know you normally associate burgers as bad things,

but look at that -

it is bad, but in a good way.

With coleslaw and a bun, this comes in at a tasty 605 calories,

a great recipe to have in your arsenal

when you get a big burger craving.

In addition to counting calories...

I'm looking forward to beating you, I've got to tell you.

..all my diet group are stepping up their level of physical activity.

I'm loving it, I'm beginning to feel a lot more mobile,

a lot more energetic. It's great, really.

But seven weeks in,

and things aren't running as smoothly for everyone.

I've received an e-mail from Kayleigh

telling me she is struggling.

-Hey, Kayleigh.

-Hi.

I've got your e-mail. What's going on, girl?

-It was just getting too much.

-Yeah.

There is so much stuff going on

that's causing me so much stress.

31-year-old mum Kayleigh has her hands full running the household

and looking after her autistic son.

She used to turn to food in times of stress.

Because I was getting so stressed out,

I was like, "I just want to give up."

And I thought, "You know what?

"I just need to go and get, like, food and stuff like that

"and just eat loads of junk."

Listen, you've done so well so far.

And what I think you need...

-Thank you.

-What I think you need to do,

when you feel like you're going to have one of those binges,

do it on the food that you cook yourself.

Don't give up now.

-Thank you.

-All right, mate.

Well, listen, if there is anything else I can do,

-you must call me, yeah?

-Thank you so much.

-All right, babe.

-Take care, Kayleigh.

-Bye.

Here is something Kayleigh and the gang can cook themselves,

which is normally considered junk food.

My spice doughnuts will fill them up

when they get a craving for something sweet.

The main difference between these doughnuts and any other doughnuts

are the fact that these ones are baked in the oven

rather than deep-fried.

Straight away, that helps slash the calories.

Begin by gently heating 180ml of semi-skimmed milk.

You don't want to get it too hot

because I'm going to add yeast to it.

And if it's too hot, it will kill the yeast.

And into that, 25g of butter.

Then, into a mixing bowl, put 250g of self-raising flour,

two tablespoons of granulated sweetener,

and one teaspoon of baking powder.

And the next thing to add is flavours.

And because that doughnut

is not going to have that deep-fried crispy skin,

we need to overtake it with taste.

So, first of all, half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

And then half a teaspoon of Chinese five-spice.

Now this has got this wonderful kind of savoury kick to it,

goes so well with these doughnuts.

Now my milk is just warmed through.

I'm going to put one teaspoon of dried yeast.

Give it a good mix.

OK, whilst that is cooling,

I'm going to form a well at the bottom of this flour mix.

Then add one beaten egg.

And slowly, I am going to work that together.

And then I'm going to add the milk, butter and the yeast to the flour.

And just with a wooden spoon

bring it together until it forms quite a nice thick batter.

Try and get rid of most of those bumps and lumps.

And it begins to form quite a tight and stretchy dough.

Then stick the mixture into a piping bag.

And then I've got this lovely doughnut-shaped mould.

Just going to give these moulds a quick spray with the oil.

And then, you just pipe the mix.

About halfway up.

So at this point,

I'm going to leave that yeast to react and start to prove.

That will take about an hour.

I'm just going to bake them in an oven now

for about nine to ten minutes,

210.

Cake rack down, doughnuts are ready.

You can see they're puffed up, they've gone nice and brown.

They look amazing.

Beautiful little round doughnuts.

Then brush with water,

and dunk them in a mixture of golden caster sugar

and Chinese five-spice.

It does make it feel like you're being really naughty

and having an amazing treat.

But each one of these doughnuts is only 120 calories.

As sweet treats go,

my calorie-counted doughnuts are a real winner.

Just the kind of thing to satisfy one of my biggest dieters,

22-year-old Tom.

Sometimes, when I walk upstairs and things,

I get out of breath, and at 22 years old, I don't want that.

So Tom has been motivated to join up with another rugby fan

in my diet group, 49-year-old police detective Andy.

Just a brief warm-up. We're going to do four shuttle runs.

-OK.

-OK, to the line.

Along with Ozi, they are going for a Wednesday night work-out.

One, two, three.

I'm a big rugby fan, I've always been like that.

Me and my dad have gone and played rugby a lot.

Even today, Tom still loves the game.

I can just about play 80 minutes,

but you will probably find that I will walk for the last 20!

Suck it in.

But it's not just sports performance that's driving Tom to lose weight.

A big motivator for me is my uncle.

He died from a heart attack at 42.

He was probably 30-plus stone.

I don't think anybody expected him to die so early.

It was awful.

I don't want to be like that.

I don't want having my older brother

and my older sister having to bury me in my early 40s.

And I think now is the time to change.

Keep your shoulders relaxed.

And then we turn.

All the way to the end.

Hips.

Four, five, six.

We are nearly halfway. We are going to do 100.

Tom's got a big game plan.

I want to take part, I want to succeed.

That's good. Right, over here, boys. Jogging. And that's halfway.

He wants to drop from his current 23st to 18.

I don't expect 5st in 12 weeks,

by any stretch of the imagination.

But I am hoping that I will keep that lifestyle change,

and in two, three years' time, I can feel that I'm at a healthier weight.

Oh, my knees are cracking. Did you hear that?

-Yeah.

-After a long work-out,

what better way to reward yourself than with a hearty,

but healthy meal?

Traditionally made, chicken tikka masala is very high in calories.

However, with some simple tricks,

we can cut that right back and still deliver on taste.

Because we are on a diet,

we need to remove the amount of fat that's in a dish,

starting off with taking the skin from my chicken crown.

Now a crown is the two breasts still on the bone.

OK? So just gently remove the skin.

If you need to, just loosen it off with a sharp knife.

Then the next thing I want to do is just score it or slash it.

It's going to allow us to get the flavour

of the marinade into the chicken.

My tikka marinade starts with zero-fat Greek yoghurt.

Add a big bit of grated ginger, four cloves of grated garlic,

medium heat curry powder and hot smoked paprika.

And then you just give it a good mix.

And then it just forms this lovely orangey, thick, tikka masala paste.

Just going to add the juice...

..of half a lemon. A pinch of salt.

Then I'm going to take my chicken crown...

..and massage...

..this paste into the meat, and flavour it right up.

And you can see why we've put those slashes in it now.

Because all of this lovely flavour, marinade,

is going to be able to work its way into the chicken.

But first of all, we're going to leave it to marinade overnight

in the fridge.

Here's one that I put in yesterday.

And it's started to take on all those flavours,

and now I'm going to stick it into an oven

at 120 degrees centigrade for two hours.

Now, that sounds quite low, but don't worry,

we're just trying to get it cooked on the bone and stay nice and moist.

When it comes out of the oven, leave it to cool.

To make the masala sauce,

I've got two onions finely diced here,

and I'm sweating them down in the pan

and they've just started to caramelise

and get that lovely little nutty, sugary bit.

To that, I'm going to add a big lump of ginger, freshly grated.

And then two large cloves of garlic, exactly the same.

The garlic and the ginger goes in.

Now, into the pan, I'm going to add my spice in.

Firstly, two teaspoons of hot smoked paprika.

And then two teaspoons of ground coriander.

And then, lastly, for that little bit of colour, turmeric.

One teaspoon.

And we're just going to cook the spice out just a little bit,

just to start releasing those natural oils and flavours.

And at this point, I'm going to add one tablespoon of tomato puree.

And then just as that tomato puree is also beginning to caramelise,

this is the point where you add the liquid.

And that's going to come from one tin of chopped tomatoes.

Because this is quite thick, I'm going to add about 300ml of water.

Going to bring it up to the boil.

Turn it down to a simmer.

I'm going to cook it out for about 15 to 20 minutes.

And then add two chopped peppers.

And this pepper goes quite a long way to bulking out

and filling this sauce.

I'm going to cook them out for about five minutes.

And now I'm going to move on to our chicken.

At this point, it would taste lush and amazing,

but I want to give it another layer of flavour.

Blowtorch.

You can see straight away the spices are toasting

and giving us much more flavour.

This is going to be delicious.

Let the crust cool for a bit

and then we're going to get the meat off.

Cut through the spice, down the wishbone.

It is beautifully cooked.

Then I'm just going to dice the chicken up.

And that lovely crust that's on the top.

Tell you what, who needs chicken skin when you've got that?

I'm going to add my chicken to the masala sauce.

I mean, how lovely does that look?

The smells that are coming from it.

And the final flourish, 150ml of natural yoghurt, zero fat.

It goes in now and it can't be on the heat.

Because if it goes in and it's super hot,

then the yoghurt will split.

Don't go heavy-handed and smash it all up.

Keep those chunks of peppers and chicken together.

Finish with a handful of chopped fresh coriander.

How amazing is that? Chicken tikka masala

with less than half the calories

of your average takeaway.

It's rich, it's tasty, and enough to satisfy the biggest appetites.

I need a couple of hungry guys to try it out,

so I've invited over Pittri and Tom.

Come on in, chaps. Come on in, come on in, come on in

for some food and footie.

Oh!

That was Pittri.

2-0 to Pittri.

So have you two always been big guys?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-Is it like part of your make-up and part of your person,

you've always been known as, like...

-..as Big Pittri or Big Tom?

-I would say that.

I've always been known as Big Tom.

-Yes.

-Yeah, definitely.

-I do want to lose weight.

But I do think there's a limit to where I could lose.

I don't see myself below a certain weight

because I have always been like that.

-What about you, Tom?

-Being a twin,

me and Chris have always been known as the Big Ginger Twins.

Never really been small.

I think being seen as a big bloke is an identity

that doesn't encourage us to cut down.

But we need to be healthy blokes, too.

-ALL:

-Oh!

So this is chicken tikka masala with some saffron rice, loads of flavour,

tastes amazing. Get in there.

-Mm.

-It's really nice, that is.

-Nice?

The sauce is quite rich, yeah.

But I like it like that, you get a lot of the flavour out there.

You wouldn't know that it was a low-calorie recipe.

Less than half the calories than a normal tikka masala.

That's good. I'll take that.

How many calories are you allowed a day?

About 2,700.

2,700 a day? You can have five of them, mate!

What about you, Pittri? How many are you allowed a day?

-2,400.

-Well, you can have 4.5.

4.5. There's one portion there.

The person who wins table football gets it.

Come on, boys, finish that and then come and have a game.

As usual, my gang have sent in their latest weights,

and I'm particularly keen to see how the big blokes are doing.

Tom has only lost a couple of pounds since the last weigh-in

but, in total, he has done 21lbs since we've started.

That's great progress.

Ozi, who was struggling early on,

has had the best fortnight of everyone,

losing 8lbs in the last two weeks.

And this is exciting -

three more people have now lost a stone or more.

Nurse Sam, Detective Andy and mum of four Leigh.

-Yeah, go.

-We are on.

And as I expected,

Pittri has put on a few pounds,

but I'm hoping our chat and some gym time

will see him heading back in the right direction.

Last push, last push, last push, last push!

Yes, boys. That was amazing.

I wouldn't have done it without you guys.

Next time, I'm turning my attention to food

you won't want to leave home without.

Packed lunches and snacks to help my dieters

when they are out and about.

I surprise nurse Sam at work.

Knock, knock, I've got an injury.

Oh! Oh, God!

Oh, my God!

-Oh, my God, Tom!

-I'm loving it.

And photographer Kai gets the gang

to show off their new-found confidence

in front of the camera.

LAUGHTER