Fit & Fab: Paget Dare Bryan achieved weight loss in increments

A demanding lifestyle caught up with Paget Dare Bryan 10 years ago. Working hard and starting a family, he had no time for himself and was carrying almost 100kg on his 168cm frame. Outrun by his toddler, he realised it was time to change.

"I looked at myself in a video and thought, 'That's bad. If my own son can outrun me I'm in trouble … I don't want to be a fat man,'" says the 45-year-old partner at Magic Circle law firm, Clifford Chance. Before his second child, he vowed to shift the stubborn weight that he had gathered in his 30s.

"I hadn't noticed the weight gain as much as others. It was just a couple of kilograms a year over 10 years. Hong Kong does that to you, if you're not careful."

Surprisingly for an age of extremes and quick fixes, the path he took to lose weight was not radical.

"I was working on a life regime," says Dare Bryan, who is originally from Britain. "I wanted something that was sustainable for the way I live, not to have six months of weight loss then put it all back on again."

He started exercising moderately and, more importantly, overhauled the way he lived. Within a few months he'd dropped most of the weight and lost 24kg over five years.