It was Maria who saw the advert in which xtravaganza asked for participants to join the test group and signed Bill up; she wanted them to have a long life together after all. Bill used to be a fireman, and very active, but he now works for the Swedish Rescue Services Agency.

With the change in job, the workout sessions during working hours stopped and, on top of this, Bill rarely gave much thought to what he ate. Slowly the weight started to pile on around his stomach. Maria’s concern for Bill’s health grew.

Eventually, she prompted Bill to join a group and in five weeks he lost 20kg, a large portion of which was obviously down to losing belly fat. He continued in the same vein, quickly reaching his interim target of less than 100 kg and now only has a short way to go to reach the final target weight of 95 kg and he found the key to losing his belly fat.

Having a mentor is a plus

Bill points out how important the Xtravaganza consultant is to losing weight easily. He felt that having a mentor or coach every step of the way was a big plus. The group was also important as motivation.

“It was really good to see how well everyone was doing and how much weight they all lost as a whole,” he said.

“You become aware of how easily you can be discouraged by people outside the program. Maybe it was not on purpose but when they saw me losing belly fat they told me, ‘It's not healthy to lose so much that quickly'. Perhaps they were jealous, I honestly don't know. But we received help on how to handle even that sort of reaction.”

Careful about what he eats

Now Bill lives pretty much as he used to. But today he is more careful about what he eats.

Xtravaganza's plate model with a fist-sized portion of hot cooked vegetables, a fist-sized portion of any protein and a palm-sized portion of cold vegetables still applies for every meal.

Snoring stopped

His weight loss has had a clear effect on his health; Bill is a blood donor and has been told his blood pressure is now really good. As the extra kilos disappeared from his middle, his snoring stopped too, and he is often told that he looks more alert.

"The best thing about losing weight is that I will live longer," says Bill.

Bill is happy. And we're sure Maria is too.