Healthy eating is the key to weight loss success, according to nutritional experts.
Crash dieting, or following the latest celebrity fad, may result in a fast weight loss initially, but the pounds are likely to pile back on again once regular eating habits are established.
Catherine Wickens, Community Dietician for South Warwickshire Dietics Service, said: “These quick fix diets may work in the short term, but they are impossible to keep up, day in, day out, and don't give your body the nutrition it needs to stay healthy.
“Anyone wanting to lose weight should eat sensibly and develop a pattern of healthy eating that they can stick with for life. You have to find foods that you enjoy eating or you will get bored and are more likely to fail in the long-term.”
She added: “Most people are aware that to lose weight the body must burn up more fuel than it consumes, which is obviously more difficult for people who have mobility problems.
“Everyone has days when they feel bored and turn to food for comfort. In my role as Community Dietician I see a lot of people who are sometimes housebound because they have problems with mobility. If you are in the house a lot it is easy to eat perhaps more than you should.”
Catherine says the key to long-term weight loss success starts with making small changes to your normal diet.
“Reducing your calorie intake can be quite simple and relatively painless,” she said.
- Eating smaller portions is a good way to start. If you have too much food on your plate to begin with, it is easy to eat it all, even though half the helping would have been enough to fill you up.
- Think about giving up that spoonful of sugar in your tea or coffee. One teaspoon of sugar has around 20 calories. That isn't a lot, but if you have five cups of tea a day, that means 100 calories. In a week that adds up to 700 calories. “The drink might taste foul for the first couple of weeks,” Catherine said, “But after a couple of weeks your taste buds adjust and the chances are you won't want to take sugar again.”
- Do you really need high-fat spreads on your sandwiches or beans on toast? All fats are high in calories.
- A good guide for main courses is to fill half the plate with vegetables, which are full of vitamins and, providing they aren't cooked in fat, are low in calories.
- A quarter of the plate should have protein foods, which the body needs for growth and repair. Choose lean meat, fish, eggs, quorn or tofu.
- The remaining quarter of the plate should have a carbohydrate food, such as potato or pasta, again, not prepared with calorie-laden fats. Carbohydrates provide a slow release of energy which will help stop between-meals snacking.
Catherine added: “Set yourself small targets and you're more likely to be successful. For example, cut out sugar for the first couple of weeks. Then try eating smaller portions.
“Everyone who needs to lose weight wants to lose it by the end of the week, which is unrealistic and impossible.
“Do things gradually and you'll develop good eating habits that will last a lifetime and eating will continue to be a pleasurable experience.”
