How Fat Are You?

Jan 10, 2017 Weight Loss

January is the worst month to start your weight loss plan because you will still have treats in the fridge and lots of chocolate left.

Instead of setting yourself up to fail, due to temptation - finish off your holiday food and aim to start your healthy eating plan in February, when all of your cupboards are bare.

Diets are always associated with losing weight when in fact a, ‘diet’, describes the type of food you eat. The main aim is to choose a healthy way of eating that will automatically cause weight loss.

How Fat Are You?

Clothes size and whether you would feel comfortable wearing a swimming costume are usually a good indication of how fat you feel.

We all know when we are overweight but rarely know how much weight loss is required in order to be healthy. Your BMI (Body Mass Index) is the most accurate way to measure weight.

It calculates the relationship between height and weight. The BMI calculator below is from the NHS Choices website - it will candidly tell you how much weight you have to lose in order to get your BMI between 18.5 and 24.5.

What Is Your Relationship With Food Like?

If we just ate food to satisfy our hunger nobody would be overweight and this article would be a waste of time.

Unfortunately food is often eaten when we want to feel comforted or need to sweeten the bitter taste of a bad day. We very rarely crave; carrots, celery or lettuce when we comfort eat and favour foods high in fat and sugar instead.

Sugary foods don’t tend to satisfy us so we can devour a whole box of chocolates and still feel hungry. Many of our favourite snacks including; cake, biscuits, chocolate, meat and cheese contain saturated fat. Eating too much fat and sugar can result in obesity related diseases such as; diabetes, high cholesterol, heart conditions and of course increases the risk of strokes.

What You Should Be Eating For Weight Loss

When we talk about a calorie controlled diet we are referring to eating a certain number of calories a day. The NHS Choices website recommends that in order to maintain weight, a man should consume 2500 calories a day while a woman should consume 2000.

In order to lose weight you should eat at least 500 calories less than the recommended daily intake and exercise more. The calories should be made up of healthy food with very little sugar and fat. If you have a BMI over 28 and have reached a plateau in your weight loss you can take weight loss treatments that bind the fat in your body, preventing it from being absorbed.

Weight loss treatments are most effective if you eat a low calorie balanced diet, this page from the NHS Choices website tells you how. If you are psyching yourself up for changing your eating habits and dropping those excess pounds on 1st February 2017 and would like to find out more about weight loss treatments please visit our weight loss page here for a consultation.

By Birpal Virdee (January 2018)