STEPHEN LEWIS talks to a businessman who got back in shape the hard way - in front of the television cameras

TAKING part in a prime-time television series is something York businessman Alistair Watson would recommend. The 31-year-old independent financial adviser, who lives with his wife Amanda and three-year-old daughter Asha at Whixley, lost six inches off his waist in the six weeks he spent filming for Fighting Fit, which runs this week on the Discovery Channel.

How much of that was down to the five weeks of intensive training with an army PT instructor and how much was the result of sheer terror at having to step out of an aeroplane at 14,500 feet for a parachute jump, he's not saying.

"I have an issue with heights," he admits. "I'm not scared of them. I just have a healthy respect for them!"

The jump was a challenge, designed to help him and other participants overcome their fears. It was a tandem jump with a qualified inspector - but that didn't take away any of the raw fear he felt as the aeroplane climbed.

"I was terrified!" he says. "I hated it, and I wouldn't do it again, ever. There was over a minute of free-fall and apparently I ended up doing a somersault. It was just horrible."

Parachute jump apart, however, he was surprised at how he and the other contestants coped with the rigours of their army training.

Alistair was one of six people, in two teams of three, who took part in the programme.

Presented by three times Olympic rowing gold medallist Matthew Pinsent, it is being billed as a 'groundbreaking television experiment' in which science is pitted against tradition.

Alistair was part of Team Tradition, which went through five weeks of training with Army PT instructors at an army base in Aldershot. Their regime included SAS-style exercises, arduous endurance runs, carrying weights, survival techniques and mental agility.

The three members of Team Science, on the other hand, had five weeks of training at the hands of two sports science experts at a centre in Lilleshall. The experts used state-of-the-art physiology laboratories, specialist diets, custom-built footwear and the latest in bio-mechanics to analyse team-members weaknesses.

At the end, the two teams competed head-to-head in a two day challenge. On the first day, team members took part in a swimming, cycling and running 'triathlon' at the Crystal Palace athletics ground in London.

That was followed by a three-hour orienteering challenge on the slopes of Snowdon in North Wales the following day.

Programme bosses are keeping the winners of the challenge under wraps until the series finishes on Saturday.

But a spokesman stressed all the participants benefited from the training they had gone through.

Alistair admits he needed to do something to get in shape after a decade of inactivity.

He was a member of the Wetherby Wheelers in his teens and regularly took part in cycle road races. In his twenties, however, he became a bit of a workaholic, working 12 to 15 hour days and doing no exercise.

"I didn't exercise for about ten years," he says. "I got up to nearly 14 stone."

He had been thinking about how unfit he was when he saw an advert for people to take part in the Fighting Fit documentary. He knew he'd be an ideal candidate.

The army training surprised him, not being as tough as he had expected.

"We weren't up at the crack of dawn exercising till we dropped, and there was no shouting or bawling," he says. "It was very programmed, with varied, easy exercises. We'd exercise, discuss what we had done, have lunch, go back and do a bit more."

For the first couple of weeks, he and his team-mates felt they weren't making much progress. "About Week 4, we suddenly realised we were getting fitter," he says. "I had to go out and buy myself a complete new wardrobe. I lost six inches off my waist."

He admits he's not looking forward to seeing himself on TV. "I'm going to be made to look an a***, I'm sure! I was probably the most unhealthy person there!" But he's glad he took part. He still loves work, but now he's struck up a compromise between that and keeping healthy. Since completing filming last autumn, he's kept up a gentle exercise regime - some hill-walking and a visit to the gym every other day - and, even after Christmas, is a trimmer 10 stone.

"Before I was so unhealthy, I couldn't be bothered doing anything," he says. "When you're unfit you think what's the point? Now I feel and look ten years younger. My wife is quite pleased with the result!"

Updated: 09:39 Monday, January 21, 2002