Lose weight and be healthy

Obesity is on the rise and according to the NHS, one in every four adults and one in every five children aged 10 to 11 are affected by the problem. There are hundreds of diets about but not all of them promote safe and sustainable weight loss.

It’s easy to be tempted to go for the quick fix option, however, losing weight in the wrong kind of way can actually have the opposite effect for the long term and can potentially make you put weight back on.

Here we look at a few tips to help you shift the weight for good!

Improve your eating habits

Keep a diary for a week and record your daily intake of food. This will allow you to evaluate how much food you are consuming, the types of food you are eating and can help you avoid those bad habits. Making small healthy changes to your everyday life can be the key to losing weight permanently, here are a few top tips:

• Eat low-fat foods
• Trim visible fat off meat
• Eat five portions of fruit and vegetables per day
• Drink less alcohol
• Avoid high-calorie foods like chocolate and cakes
• Try grilling, steaming and poaching your foods

Fight emotional hunger

Emotional eating is a problem for everyone, especially if you are feeling stressed, tired or low. It’s easy to turn to your favourite cake, pizza, chocolate or crisps in a time of despair to fill that gap of feeling happy. Finding alternative ways to deal with stress and emotion can help you avoid emotional eating. Physical activity has a positive effect on our health and can help enhance our mood too! When you’re feeling down next, instead of heading for the cookie jar go out for a 10-minute walk.

Stop blaming your metabolism

Metabolism is the term used to describe the chemical reactions that go on inside our bodies to keep us alive and our organs working properly, including digestion, breathing and repairing cells. There are many factors which play a role in the speed of your metabolism and this includes your age, gender, genes and body size.

According to the NHS, fad diets and calorie-restricted diets can slow your metabolism down, and the lower your muscle mass is, the slower your metabolism is. There isn’t much we can do to increase the speed of our metabolism, however, you can control how many calories you burn through being physically active.

Get active and be healthy

Combine your healthy diet with physical exercise to see long-term results and reduce your risk of developing serious illnesses. To maintain a healthy weight ideally we should be consuming the same amount of calories as we are burning, to keep an equal energy balance. If you’re looking to lose weight then you want to be burning more energy than you are taking in.

The NHS recommends that adults aged 19 to 64 should at least do:

• 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, such as brisk walking or cycling, or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity such as running or a game of tennis each week
• Strength exercises on 2 or more days a week

Here are some top tips to becoming more active:

• Set yourself a little target each day, for example, a 20-minute walk
• Take the stairs instead of the lift
• Join an exercise class
• Move about more
• Walk to the shop instead of driving
• Schedule exercise into your routine
• Take a look at the Couch to 5K programme

If you have any health concerns before exercising you should always consult your doctor first.