It involves, bizarrely, carrying a piece of fat around on a piece of string!

mypetfat creator Jay Jacobs says: "A change of diet will not help a person change their thoughts", which is why he has developed a replica lump of body fat to help people change the way they think about food.

The aim is that people hold it in their hands when making food choices and it will make them conscious of the fat they want to avoid putting on. Keeping it in the fridge, for example, is intended to help stop people snacking in between meals, while taking it out to restaurants is meant to persuade people into ordering a healthy meal.

It comes with an associated set of thoughts, referred to as mind stretches. These consist of a series of mantras – known as perspectives – which are designed to help people break out of their old thoughts and get them thinking more positively about weight-loss.

Depending on how positive you want your thoughts to be, the replica fat pieces are available in 1oz, 1lb and 5lb sizes.

leisure-kit keyword: mypetfat