SLIMMING MADE SIMPLE!

Congratulations, you have decided to lose weight, so how do you go about it? We want to make it simple by providing calorie-counted diets and recipes, and the nutritional knowledge to create your own healthy eating plan for life.

HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD I EAT?

Find your healthy weight range on the chart and decide on a personal weight. Then check the box below. The figures assume you are exercising for 30 minutes, three times a week, which is what health experts recommend. If you don’t exercise, reduce these figures by 250 calories a day. If you follow this advice, you should lose around 0.5-1.0kg a week, which is safe and healthy.

COUNTING CALORIES

We believe in the simple, scientific way to lose weight: counting calories. A calorie is a measure of energy in food. We all have a basic calorie requirement – the amount of food we need to eat to keep our weight stable. This varies a lot, but for women, it’s around 2,000 calories a day; for men, around 2,500. If you eat more calories than this, you’ll put on weight, eat less and you’ll lose weight – it really is that easy.

You can lose weight by simply eating less, but by far the best way is to eat less AND exercise, as regular activity helps to boost your metabolism, helping you lose weight – and keep it off in the long term.

KEEP AN EYE ON FAT

As a nation we eat too much fat, which is contributing to a host of health conditions, heart disease. Although we recommend losing weight by managing your calories, we also suggest you cut down on your fat intake. It is recommended to get 33% of our daily calories from fat, but if you are trying to lose weight, you should aim for less than this – between 25-30%. Always check the nutrition labels on products and don’t fall into the trap of thinking low-fat means low calorie. Many foods, such as alcohol and sweets, don’t have any fat at all, but are full of calories, so be careful and take both into account.

BOOST YOUR WEIGHT LOSS

Exercise is vital for good health and weight loss. Not only when you burn off calories while you’re doing your chosen activity, but it’s been proven that exercise boosts your metabolism in general, so you’ll burn off more calories even when you’re doing nothing!

Health experts recommend a minimum of 30 minutes exercise, three times a week. This should be a combination of cardiovascular exercise (anything that raises your heartbeat), such as brisk walking, aerobics, cycling, swimming or skipping, and resistance training (building and strengthening the muscles) such as weight training.

There are literally hundreds of classes to choose from these days, so it shouldn’t be hard to find something you enjoy doing, which is crucial if you’re going to keep it up! But if you can’t bear the thought of joining a gym or class, take steps to make your everyday life more active. Walking’s a really great calorie burner, as is gardening.