Lose weight the Healthy way

If you want to lose a few kilos, check out the British Dietetic Association's top tips for losing weight the healthy way.

Set yourself a goal

Before you decide on a way to lose the weight, you need to know how much you want to shed and be realistic about how quickly you’ll achieve it. A recommended guide is a weight loss of 0.5 to 1kg a week. If your expectations are too high you can easily lose the motivation once you realise you’re not losing the weight you want.

Watch your portion sizes

It’s amazing how everyone has such varied ideas of portion sizes and what a difference this makes to total calories consumed. Try weighing out your food and comparing this to the food label portion sizes – you may be in for a shock. When having a treat, think about how much you need in order to enjoy it. Do you need a whole serving of dessert or are a few spoonfuls enough?

Hungry or habit?

Cereal followed by toast at breakfast? Crisps with a sandwich at lunchtime? Are you actually hungry or do you have the additional item just for routine’s sake? If you really are hungry, try replacing that ‘extra’ item with a piece of fruit instead.

Write it down

So you’re only having healthy meals but still struggling to lose weight? How about the crisps you shared with a friend and the biscuit samples at the supermarket? People often struggle to recall everything they eat in a day, and forget about the ‘extras’ that can contribute considerably to the daily calorie intake. Recording a day’s intake can be useful in getting an accurate picture of food consumption.

Beware of liquid calories

How many coffee shop stops do you have in a week? Do you keep a check on those after work drinks? Try to have calorie containing beverages as an occasional treat rather than a regular.

Avoid office snacks

Ok, so you’ve packed your fruit and carrot sticks to cover snack time at work but then realised that it’s someone’s birthday at the office and they’ve brought cake. The problem with offices is that there are often chocolates, biscuits and cakes on offer which can be hard to resist, especially during that afternoon lull. It may be useful to have your own rule of avoiding office snacks completely to help avoid temptation.

Top up with vegetables

If you’re used to having a full plate of food, try to make sure that half of the plate is made up of vegetables. Vegetables are such a good source of vitamins and fibre whilst being low in calories, so are a nutritious way of filling you up.

Be adventurous

Eating healthily doesn’t need to be boring and if food remains exciting, there is less chance to slip up. Try a new food every week and aim to incorporate this into your meals.

Reduce the fat

Fat provides 9kcal per gram which is more than double the 4g provided by protein and carbohydrates. This means you don’t need very much fat to increase the calories in your food. Try to limit the amount of fat when cooking by grilling, steaming or microwaving food and removing the visible fat and skin from meat and poultry.

Published on: 2016-02-17