Fitness Articles

May 2006 issue

SLIM DOWN FOR SPRING

Weight gain is caused by a combination of exercising too little and eating too much. It boils down to an imbalance between ‘calories in’ and ‘calories out’ you may be getting your exercise all right, but many will still be troubled by being overweight or the excess weight still won’t come off. Their basic problem is often that they are still eating too much. Eat healthily but eat less. Learn to say ‘ Less Please’.

Half a stone to go

If your still struggleing to lose that last half a stone, it can usually be the hardest to shift, not least because it’s the easiest to disguise from others and yourself. That means you need extra motivation to really get to grips with the sticky seven as we call it. Once passed this psychological barrier, you can deal with the reality that in order to burn off seven pounds, you need to create a total energy deficit in your body of 2,500 calories. Yep that’s right, 3,500 calories = 1lbs of fat. It may sound a lot, but to lose two pounds a week (therefore seven pounds over the course of a mere three and a half weeks), you only need to cut you calorie intake by 500 a day in addition to burning 500 a day with exercise.

• Stop snacking
• Cut out full fat or semi skimmed milk and replace with Skimmed.
• Half your potion sizes.

Ditch the diet drinks

Studies have shown diet fizzy drinks can alter your taste perception, so naturally sweet foods like fruit just don’t taste that sweet anymore. The result? Only super-sugary cakes, biscuits and sweets will satisfy. Switch to fruit juices, water and herbal teas and discover the joy of snacking on dates, dried figs, grapes and honey. It’ll take your taste buds about a week to readjust.

Snacking in front of the TV?

Try a bowl of crudite’s and low-fat dip or a bowl of mixed berries, dried fruits or seeds instead of the usual high fat snacks.