Me and my lemon again! The weather's got a little chilly last day or so so I've decided to sip my lemon with water as a warm drink. I was making it up with chilled water from the fridge but this got too cold for my stomach first thing in the morning.

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Going well on my new experiment. I definitely am less hungry in the morning after I have my lemon with water first thing. Doesn't seem to have any effect on my appetite during the afternoon or evening but that's exactly what I what have expected. It's a morning only thing.

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Day 3 & 4 were both the same - I felt exactly the same on both so I've combined them.  What I noticed on both these day is that the my glass of water with lemon really makes you feel hydrated first thing in the morning. Especially if you'd had a wine or two the night before and not drunk enough water before going to bed.

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Started my morning with a chilled glass of water with lemon juice as yesterday. Was a bit of an effort to get it all down again this morning but I did it. And I must say it does fill you up and stop you filling hungry.

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I've started my day with an old-fashioned diet inclusion - a glass of water with lemon. I squeezed out the juice of half an average lemon and mixed it with cold water - then down the hatch before anything else!

Lemon-and-water is advice I've seen around for years. It's often listed on diet plans supposedly as an early morning cleanser or detox. The diets tell you that the lemon can "magically melt away unwanted fat" - something we all love to hear. In all honesty, I suspect it's just a low-calorie stomach filler that stops you stuffing your face with a croissant or bacon burger.

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People often ask me why we nutritionists keep changing out minds! One year, carbohydrate is wonderful, the next year it's not. One year, fat is a no-no, the next year, it's only saturated fat that we should worry about, the other fats are ‘good' fats that are OK to eat and enjoy. Protein was ‘forgotten' for some years, now it's back and considered important for satiety and weight loss.

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Sugar. We all love its soft sweetness but it's clear we overdo its consumption. As a nation, Australia has a collective sweet tooth that sees us consuming ¾ of a kilo a week of the stuff. From soft drinks to ice cream, doughnuts to dessert, sugar is everywhere. While it's not the cause, it's certainly contributing to health problems such as tooth decay, and being overweight .

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Now that the 2009 series of The Biggest Loser has finished in Australia, here's my take on the third season:

1. It's hard - very hard - to lose weight. It takes time and persistence, two things in short supply in our modern world. The contestants had nothing else to focus on except their weight - they had the time to exercise for 3 or 4 hours a day, count calories, plan their meals, think about why they turn to food for comfort.

2. The contestants didn't have to cope with the ‘real world' - they didn't have to go to work, look after a family, shop for groceries, cook for others who can eat what they like without putting on weight, deal with the stress of traffic, queues, delays, road rage, screaming kids and demanding bosses.

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Everyone loves to indulge in chocolate yet we all know it's a food that's laden with fat, sugar and kilojoules - and it's damn hard to stop at just one mouthful.

So it's hardly surprising that dieters have turned hopefully to light chocolate to provide pleasure without guilt. At first glance, it looks like the answer to a dieter's prayers!

I have to say right up front that choc isn't one of my weaknesses (I have others like nougat or soft jellies). But I was interested to see how much you could save by doing a swap from say a regular Mars Bar to a light Mars Bar.

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