Broadcaster and media mogul John Myers has lost nine stones – in just six months.

The CFM founder and former Border TV presenter has managed to shed so much weight – dropping from a 54in waist to a 38in one and changing his physical appearance so dramatically – that people think he might be unwell.

He said: “When you lose that amount of weight, clearly it has a distinct effect on your life and well-being.

“The first thing people wonder, and don’t ask, is if I have been ill.”

But he isn’t ill, he just finally managed to find a weight loss plan that worked.

“There isn’t a diet invented that I haven’t been on,” he told The Cumberland News .

“I have done some of them more successfully than others. My weight has always gone up and down.”

Mr Myers, 57, who stands at 6ft 4in, said he had always carried his weight pretty well.

But 30 years of long lunches with clients was bound to have consequences.

“I love food,” he said, “I have dreams about food. I close my eyes, I see food.”

Despite his love of food, Mr Myers – whose work as a TV continuity announcer made him a household name in Cumbria along with his sidekick Eric the Monkey – reached a point where he knew he had to make a change.

He said: “I had some kidney stones a couple of years ago. Because I was so big they had to give me a number of small operations rather than one big one.

“Then I read something that for every stone over weight you are you shorten your life span for one to three years. So I thought I’d better do something, I’ve got grandchildren now.”

He contacted the Silverlink Clinic in Carleton, on the outskirts on Carlisle, which he described as a real local success story.

The clinic was the second to be set up by Chris Matthews, founder and chief executive of Silverlink Clinics, after the first in Newcastle proved so popular with Cumbrians.

It has since expanded to Berwick-upon-Tweed and Stockton-on-Tees.

In the last two years, the four Silver Links Clinics have helped people lose 10 tons of weight.

There are four main elements to the Alevere Therapy provided by the clinic: a customised nutritional plan, ultrasound treatment to break down fat, skin tightening treatment and a free lifetime maintenance programme.

No exercise is necessary and the eating plan, full of vegetables, is easy to follow and doesn’t leave people feeling hungry.

Mr Myers, who has dropped from a size 54 waist to 38, said the eating plan was simple to follow.

“It was suitable for a man. I did as I was told and I lost all the weight,” he said.

“It’s just been the easiest and the best diet I have been on.”

Although exercise was not required, Mr Myers said he did now walk the golf course instead of taking the buggy.

Mr Matthews praised both Mr Myers and his wife Linda, who also did the therapy and lost four and a half stones.

“He’s been a model patient,” Mr Matthews said. “You couldn’t describe him any other way. He’s absolutely committed.”

To make sure he succeeded, Mr Myers brought his hard work ethic into play. He said: “I tackled it as I run business: to achieve this goal, I have got to do this. Men like simple instructions. I can’t cope with ‘is it a red day or green day?’ I can’t cope with that because I forget what day it is.”

Mr Myers said the staff at the clinic were “absolutely amazing”. He is now on a maintenance programme.

Soon after starting the therapy, Mr Myers had to buy new clothes as he lost nearly a stone in the first week – then four or five pounds consistently every week after that.

He has chucked his old clothes out, saying he never plans to fit back into them.

“They are being used now as tents, housing families,” he joked.