WHAT'S got 34 arms, 34 legs and weighs 218 stone? The answer is: members of Asda Cwmbran's newly formed slimming club and they are determined a team effort will help them lose the lard.

The 17 members gritted their teeth and endured their first weigh-in yesterday. They will be working hard throughout January to get svelte for Spring.

Daryl Griffiths, 55, Asda health and safety officer, said: "I want to be healthier and fitter and I think we need to do it as a group.

"It's not an after Christmas thing - it's a rest-of-my-life thing, but you have to have an incentive and the pain of being weighed in front of everyone else should be it."

Steve Cuggy, 38, the store manager, admitted: "I'm 19 stone and I'm trying to lose as much as I can. Being realistic, I'm going for a stone by the end of January. The main reason we're doing this is just to encourage everybody. It's a bit of fun but there's a hidden agenda.

"It's good to see this number of people joining in. "We did this in my previous store in Llanelli where we had even more 'tubbies' and it went really well."

Mr Cuggy knows his ideal weight is around 12 stone and says 2004 is the year he is determined to achieve his goal.

"People have mentioned it before but doing it on your own is hard work," he said.

Asda events co-ordinator Jackie Foster, 33, said: "We've had 17 people so far. It's an incentive to lose weight because they're in the public eye. "I'm going to be realistic and I'm trying to lose a stone by the end of this month.

"I think all the people here are going to be keeping on at each other at break and lunch time and trying to be in competition with each other.

"Working in a shop it is tempting, isn't it? You see all the different things and it all looks nice but we have a slimmers' range which is lower in fat."

Rhian James, Exercise for Life co-ordinator at Cwm-bran Stadium, said: "I visited the store yesterday morning to give them a bit more information and we're looking to do a fitness session with the staff.

"Everybody comes in to us at this time of year wanting to lose a bit of weight - this is our busiest time.

"We get people to do two sessions of exercise a week, and the majority who see real results tend to keep on with it."