Paul James, an underwear model who has trod catwalks in Milan and Tokyo, is halfway to his goal of putting on 40kg. He aims to reach 19 stone - and plans to stay at that weight for three months before shedding the pounds with his gym clients in Melbourne.

Mr James has cut out exercise and admits to enjoying the occasional full chicken with skin, stuffing and chips at night to boost his calorie intake."I have always found it easy to tell clients what to do to lose weight, but it's hard to tell where a client is coming from and how they are feeling. There are health risks, I won't shy away from that. But I'm trying to do it as responsibly as possible, with regular blood pressure and health checks."

He said his body had tried to reject the fat at first, but he had worked hard to make sure he stacked on the kilos, and was now starting to notice people looking at him differently. "Especially when I'm trying to train clients and they are doing sit-ups and I'm standing there with a massive gut," he said.

But Prof Swinburn, director of the World Health Organisation Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University, said putting on weight quickly was dangerous. "There's only such a rate that fat cells can absorb and there's a big spillover into where the fat isn't supposed to be, like the liver," he said.

He's starting to sound like Majory Dawes from Fat Fighters...

Six months later Paul realised the monumental stupidity of his plan.

The original was here