How this challenge works

This challenge is designed to help you slow down, tune into your body, and build a more peaceful relationship with food — one small step at a time.

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How can we make our willpower work better?

Researchers believe that by structuring our lives so that many of our decisions are automatic rather than active,  we can strengthen our resolve around goals. We spend about a quarter of our waking hours making decisions, using up our well of willpower.  When  tempting decisions come along we may already have reached ‘decision fatigue’, where we choose the easiest option. This may of course be ‘blueberry muffin and no exercise with that thank you’!

Learn how to work with willpower

1. Avoid tempting situations

Out of sight and out of mind really does work.  If you are cutting down on biscuits  don’t buy any.  If you want biscuits for others in your household then keep them in an opaque container in the back  of the cupboard. Buy biscuits you don’t like! Make it easy to say no.

2. Plan Plan Plan

Make an action plan as to how you will achieve your particular resolution.  Write down all the steps to get you to where you want to be.  Do you want to walk 5 k every day? Do you want to run a marathon? Buy the trainers, the watch, the kit, the headlamp, the waterproof  jacket, the hat, the gloves.  Schedule your training programme into your diary. Know the route you intend to take. Is anyone going with you?  Your plan is no longer a decision to be made. Like turning up for work, you show up for your training programme.

Now document your steps, monitor your progress, and feel proud.

3. Pin it

Whatever you are trying to do write it down. Take a photo and make it your phone screensaver. Put post-it notes on your bathroom mirror, inside your office locker, on your computer. Remind yourself all the time why you are trying to achieve this particular goal.  Reminding yourself regularly what it is you are trying to achieve, and why, will strengthen your motivation and your ability to get there.

4. Think your way there

Be confident of your goal. Be confident you will achieve it. Rehearse what you will say if others are trying to tempt you from your good intentions. Prepare your answers in advance e.g. “I no longer drink during the week.  I save it all for the weekend.”  It doesn’t matter if this is a goal you are working towards for the hundredth time.  Believe this time is the right time.

5. Eat regularly

Though food may have nothing to do with what you are trying to achieve, eating regularly will help you get there. Because your brain runs on glucose skipping meals and trying to resist temptation can leave your brain depleted of its willpower.  By eating regularly we not only fuel our brains we also fuel our willpower.

6. Choose wisely

1. Really think about what you are trying to achieve with your healthy lifestyle.
2. Then choose one great habit to work on to begin.
3. Focus on this particular habit within your bigger picture to improve your chances of being successful.
4. Consider how this habit will fit with your daily life.
5. Break it down into really small steps.
6. When you feel this habit has become part of your normal routine,  move onto the next habit for the bigger picture.

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The 5 components of Physical Fitness

1. 1. 1. Body composition
      2. Flexibility
      3. Muscular Strength
      4. Muscular Endurance
      5. Cardio-respiratory Endurance.

To be physically fit we ought to be including all of the above elements in our exercise programme, with different types of exercise ticking one or more on the above list.

Aerobic Activities

These develop cardio-respiratory endurance and burn calories to help us with our best body composition.

Muscle Strengthening Activities

These activities develop muscular strength and endurance, and also help with our healthy body composition.

Activities to Improve Flexibility

Activities such as yoga and stretching help us improve our flexibility. Flexibility is important for maintaining joint health, and protecting us from injury.

Aerobic Activities – we need

1. 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity OR 75 minutes of vigorous activity OR and equivalent mix of both.
2. We count the minutes in blocks of 10 minutes or more, but the minutes should be spread across the week
3. For greatest health benefits go for 300 or more minutes per week of moderate aerobic activity or 150 minutes of vigorous or an equivalent of both
4. For help with maintaining your current weight we need around 150-250 minutes of moderate activity
5. For help with losing weight we need more than 250 minutes per week of moderate activity.

What is Moderate Intensity Activity?

1. 1. Walking briskly ie about 3-4 miles per hour or 5-6km per hour
   2. Aqua aerobics
   3. Cycling – but riding less than 10 miles per hour
   4. Doubles tennis
   5. Ballroom dancing
   6. Gardening

What is Vigorous Intensity Activity?

1. 1. Race walking, jogging and running
   2. Cycling at 10miles per hour or faster
   3. Swimming laps
   4. Aerobic classes or dancing
   5. Skipping
   6. Heavy gardening e.g. digging or hoeing so that your heart rate increases
   7. Hiking uphill or walking with a heavy backpack

Muscle Strengthening Activities

1. 1. We need to do these on 2 or more days per week
   2. Time spent doing muscle strengthening activities does not count towards the aerobic count
   3. All major muscle groups have to be worked ie legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms
   4. The exercises for each muscle group should be worked 8 – 12 times per set. As the exercises become easier, increase the weight or do an extra set

What are Muscle Strengthening Activities?

1. 1. Lifting weights
   2. Working with resistance bands
   3. Doing exercises that use your body weight for resistance e.g. push-ups, squats and lunges, pull-ups and sit-ups etc.

How to Work your Flexibility

1. Take time before and after your workouts to stretch the major muscle groups – 10 minutes should do it
2. Taking a yoga class, learning technique and incorporating 10 minutes of practise daily will greatly improve your flexibility and strength
3. Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds
4. Repeat each stretch 3 – 4 times.

If you would like some help to incorporate aspects of physical activity into your plans for a healthy life get in touch. I am here to help.

The post Are you physically fit? appeared first on Felicity Lyons.

What is The Stages of Change model?

The Stages of Change is a model based on Intention to Change. When applied to health what this means is that you are thinking about, or actively doing something, which you know is good for your health.  The steps through which you pass, to get to that healthier way of behaving are considered cyclical. We all have capacity to move through the stages of change.

How do I change?

Most people do not change behaviours quickly and decisively. Before you even feel the desire to change you live in PRE-CONTEMPLATION. This is a stage where you may not realise your behaviours are unhealthy, or you may know but have no desire to change. For some reason, or many reasons,  you then  start thinking about changing – we call this CONTEMPLATION. This stage can last months, even years. You might think it’s not worth changing as the actions seem too much, too difficult, involve too much time. Or, you might only spend weeks thinking about things, then you decide to commit.

PREPARATION is next.  You might buy equipment, or stop an unhelpful subscription. You  might set aside time, or ask someone to buddy with you. Professional help might be sought, family and friends involved. Again, you can spend weeks or months in this stage, as you get yourself ready to take that first real step. Most usually, once you have decided to work on something, you spend less than 4 months in this stage.

Now it’s the time for ACTION. You are making changes to how you more usually behave. One of the objectives of the action stage is to look to new habits to work upon, and to embed them in your life. You learn confidence and believe you can continue with the changes you have begun to action. Despite temptation to return to previous habits, the action stage serves to remind you that if you can change across one day, you can change across  another day.  You usually spend around 6 months in this stage, though often it takes less time to feel like a habit is embedded. Everyone is different.

The MAINTENANCE stage of the cycle looks to where you no longer really look to the older behaviours. Instead, the positives associated with changing feel so good, it is worth keeping going with those changes. Previous ambivalence resolves. Making behavioural  changes into habits can still be challenging, but they no longer involve conflict. You are different now.

Do I pass straight through from one stage to the next?

Usually not! The illustration describes LAPSE and RELAPSE.  If you have ever tried to change anything in your life you may be familiar with lapsing. This is where you have slipped from what you had been trying to do on a single occasion. A slip can be a one off, or could lead to a series of slips or lapses. When we spend more time lapsing versus carrying out the new behaviour, we are considered to have relapsed. We have returned to our old habits. The illustration shows how we can slip in and out of all of the stages. Even a habit you have carried out for 6 months can be dropped.  But the longer you stay in the action and maintenance stages, the more likely you are to change your health status for the good.

What do clinicians  do? What do I do?

Clinicians will use different tools to move you from one stage of the cycle to the next, or to keep you in a stage as best fits with your life right now. Our goals are always to support you and your physical and mental health. We aim to keep you steady with  changes you have already adopted, or move you to a position where you feel able to implement change.

I use strategies such as the ones below.

1. Raise consciousness

I might talk to you about a healthier way of being, versus staying the way you are now

2. Dramatic Relief

I might help you to explore the feelings you have when you think about keeping the unhealthy behaviour or behaviours. These can be feelings like anxiety, or guilt, or shame. I help you to explore feelings you have when you think about behaving differently, perhaps feelings of optimism and hope

3. Evaluating the Self

I use tools such as imagining how things would be if you did change, what being and feeling healthier might look like, what you would gain through the process

4. Evaluating your environment

I help you think about how your  unhealthy behaviours might impact others, and what they want for you

5. Liberation of the environment

I  assist you in exploring your environment so that you see opportunities for change, and that society supports what you are trying to do for yourself

6. Liberation of Self

I guide you to believe in the possibility of change and then commit to doing so

7. Helping Relationships

I work with you to identify people who can support you in your endeavour; individuals who will help you to achieve your desired outcomes, not get in your way

8. Counter Conditioning

I work with replacing particular ways of thinking or behaving with other healthier ways of thinking and behaving

9. Reward systems

I ask you to think through rewards for yourself, things that might keep you motivated along the way – these could be experiences, or gifts, or even just time for your self

10. Stimulus Control

Together we figure ways to help you  change your environment, whether at work or at home, so that you have cues towards the carrying out of the healthy behaviour or behaviours. Those cues associated with the unhealthy behaviours are removed.

If you would like me to help you move forward with your healthier way of being, please get in touch. I would be delighted to support you through the stages of change model, to better health.

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The Gut Microbiome

We know that eating well supports the gut microbiome i.e. the trillions of micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi and viruses) that live and work for us in our gut.  Many bacteria are especially beneficial to our immune system, they work  for the immune system by:

• maintaining and contributing to a healthy gut lining
• producing nutrients e.g. short chain fatty acids which are involved in the energy supply for the cells lining the gut, in metabolism and liver and brain function
• protecting our tissues from toxic waste products by absorbing those products, or changing them to less harmful molecules.

So if you  eat well for the gut microbiome you eat well for the immune system too.

What should I eat for my healthy gut?

Include the following foods in your  diet daily, if you can.

Eat  PRObiotics – these  foods contain healthy bacteria as part of their make up.

Examples: live yogurts,  sauerkraut, kimchi, and keffir

Olives and gherkins are also fermented foods  and although not as widely studied, are also considered supportive of gut health.  I’m not really a fan of kimchi, and sauerkraut tends to give me lots of wind, but I eat  natural yogurt every day. I regularly include olives and pickles in my diet – probably 3-4 times per week – with olives going into sauces and salads, and pickles in my salads and sandwiches.

Eat PREbiotics – these  foods contain a type of soluble fibre which feeds our good bacteria and stimulates their growth.

Examples: oats, bananas, apples, artichoke, and asparagus

A daily porridge with seasonal Bramley apples or bananas is such a healthy way to start the day. Choose artichoke or asparagus when in season, or marinated artichokes all year round.

What plant based foods can I eat for a healthy immune system?

Eat wholegrains – these are the foods which still contain the outer husk of the cereal grain.

Examples: brown rice and pasta, barley, buckwheat, rye, spelt, quinoa, as well as wholegrain labelled breads.

I find quinoa tricky to cook but I love barley in soups and stews, have used it for risotto, and like barley flakes in a muesli mix.  Peanut butter on rye bread with a banana and a smidge of honey is a quick-fix easy and delicious working from home or take to the office lunch.  Team with a pot of natural yogurt and you are ticking a wealth of boxes for your immune system.

Eat beans, pulses and legumes  –  these words are often used interchangeably but mean different things.

Legume refers to e.g. a pea pod which would include the pea, but the pea on its own is the edible seed of the legume, and called a pulse. Slightly confusing and all you really need to know is that if you are eating lots the plant based foods you are eating well for a healthy immune system.

Examples: lentils, peas, chickpeas, beans and peanuts.

Lentils are super as thickeners to soups and stews or to make a lovely dahl. Peas go with everything in my house. Chickpeas – though a bit windy – are consumed in curries, cold in a salad, or as hummus.  I throw a handful of peanuts into salads and stir fries for crunch and texture.

Eat plenty of  fruits and vegetables

Eating a rainbow of colourful fruits and vegetables offers up all sorts of goodies nutrient wise.   Variety is considered key as different colour fruits and vegetables provide a slightly different nutrient profile.

Examples: try to think seasonally. Persimmons, pears, pomegranates and passion fruit are delicious jewel coloured winter fruits to enjoy, when more of us are more vulnerable to the colds and flus.

Top tip: think fruit or vegetable at each meal and snack time.

What foods are  NOT   helpful to a healthy immune system?

Highly processed foods: There is a difference between highly processed and processed. If you make some cakes or biscuits at home then enjoy in moderation. if purchasing out and about then look to the list of ingredients and consider if this is a healthy food to consume. Usually, the higher the number of ingredients then the less healthy the product.

Take out and fast foods: Keep a close eye on take-out foods or fast foods which will be high in salt and fat, as well as inflammatory in the gut. Essentially they give the microbiome more work to do in terms of calming things down. We really need to mitigate this work by ensuring that the majority of the time we do our best with healthy eating, and enjoy occasional dips into less healthy items.

Avoid artificial sweeteners as best you can, they are not worth it. Simple!

What VITAMINS  will boost my  immune system?

Optimising nutrition for a healthy gut is exactly the same as eating well for a healthy gut.  Read about  individual nutrients if you are interested in their unique properties. If you just want to know what to eat – reread what’s  above and enjoy it!

Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E

These are the vitamins which have been mostly associated with a healthy immune system, each for a variety of reasons:

• Vitamin A helps to maintain gut structure and lining, as well as mounting the immune response.  Preformed sources are animal based such as eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese and oily fish.  Plants give us betacarotene which is made into active vitamin A in the body. Red, yellow and green fruits and vegetables are good sources of betacarotene.  Tomatoes, carrots, mango, papaya, and spinach  are some examples of what to eat.
• B Vitamins influence the production and activity of natural ‘killer cells’ once they recognise a pathogen. Good sources are both plant and animal based. Plants: green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and spinach,  wholegrain cereals, and chickpeas. Meat, salmon, milk, cheese,  eggs and fish provide us with all the B vitamins we need.
• Vitamins C and E help to protect cells from stress. These vitamins are also involved in making specialised cells which mount an immune response. Great sources of Vitamin C are citrus fruits, blackcurrants, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, potatoes and peppers. As vitamin E is soluble in fat rather than water we look to healthy oils such as plant oils, nuts and seeds as well as wheat germ for our intake.
• Vitamin D helps some immune cells mount the immune response and destroy pathogens. We get most of our Vitamin D from the sunlight and should all be taking a supplement October through to April when we begin to restock our Vitamin D levels.  Looking to foods we find Vitamin D is  found in oily fish, red meat, egg yolk and fortified foods such as breakfast cereals and milk.

What MINERALS   will boost my immune system?

Minerals – zinc, selenium and iron

These are considered especially important to a healthy immune response:

• Zinc tends to be better absorbed from animal sources such as beef and seafood. Good plant based sources are wheat germ, beans, nuts and tofu.
• Selenium – Brazil nuts (2 per day will meet your needs), or mushrooms, meats and wholegrains are all great sources of selenium.
• Iron – red meat is a really good source of iron. If you want to reduce your intake of red meat look to chicken and fish as alternative animal sources, or  whole-grains, legumes  and fortified breakfast cereals for vegans/vegetarians.   Including a source of fruit or vegetables with each of your meals and snacks  will optimise your uptake of the iron from the animal or wholegrain source.

So we see whether we focus on foods, or individual nutrients, supporting our immune system is all about consuming a variety of foods. If we can recognise the food on our plates this is always a good thing : )

Contact me for a consultation if you feel you are confused or would like some help with immunity.

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Lower your cholesterol with a low cholesterol diet? What does that look like? I suggest to my clients to think the F word i.e. fats and fish and fibre and fruit. By  choosing the right types of fats, and regular intake of the rest you can optimise your diet to influence cholesterol levels. This does not mean you may not still need medication but ideally first steps in managing cholesterol levels ought look to your best healthy diet. See below for some top tips.

What is cholesterol? Reduce your LDL-c

Cholesterol is a waxy substance found throughout the body. It is necessary to make the cell membrane, hormones, and bile which helps to break down fat we consume. We produce cholesterol in the liver as well as eat it in food with the cholesterol we eat not considered especially tricky in terms of blood cholesterol levels.  Cholesterol, like a family, is made up of many different bodies. We want to concentrate on LDL-c or Low Density Lipoprotein-cholesterol.  LDL-c is the main influencer when it comes to risk of heart disease and angina, heart attacks and stroke, because it can pass through the walls of the heart and cause a build up of plaque. The plaques make it difficult for blood to flow freely, not only through the heart but also to the brain.

If you have been diagnosed with high LDL-c we want to  reduce this number as quickly as possible. This is because the hardening effects of LDL-c in the heart and elsewhere are  cumulative, so the longer LDL-c remains high, the more risky the situation can be for us.

So what can we do to lower LDL-c?

1. Focus on  Fat Intake Daily

Reduce your intake of saturated fat in food: saturated fat is found in cakes, biscuits, pastries, butter, cream and ice creams, and  all fried foods.

Choose your cooking fat carefully: switch from frying with hard fats e.g. butter or ghee, lard, goose fat, duck fat or coconut oil,  to  peanut, rapeseed, olive oil, or sunflower oil. Think moving from animal fats to plant fats  – except coconut oil which is highly saturated. Ignore the current media content on seed oils (plant oils) as there is no evidence to suggest they are bad for us.

2. Swap saturated fat for omega-3s

Omega 3s are a specific type of polyunsaturated fat and can help  to keep the heart healthy by lowering

1. 1. Blood pressure
   2. Triglycerides  which can lead to hardening of arteries and
   3. The  risk of irregular heartbeats.

Omega-3 oils are found in

1. 1. oily fish e.g. sardines, mackerel, salmon, trout and  tuna; fresh and tinned is fine (weekly)
   2. nuts e.g. walnuts, almonds, macadamia, hazelnuts, pecans,  and peanuts (daily)
   3. seeds e.g.  linseeds, and chia seeds (daily)

The omega-3s found in fish are more powerful than those found in plant foods, but they are all good choices. If you eat fish then include  oily fish 1 – 2 times per week, make your serving 140g. Enjoy white fish as often as you like, just being mindful of some white fish which contains low levels of mercury.

Nuts (30g is a serving)  can be enjoyed daily and have been found to be especially associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Eating nuts 5+ times per week is a recommendation of the Mediterranean Diet for heart health and longevity.

3. Enjoy your Daily Dairy – it’s not as bad as you think!

Interestingly, the fat found in diary products is not as bad as we once thought. This is because the saturated fat found in dairy is contained inside a matrix called a milk fat globule membrane.

• Milk – choose  skimmed or semi-skimmed milk (daily)
• Yogurt – choose low fat or reduced fat yogurt (daily)
• Cheese – choose reduced fat, ideally 60 – 90g per week only.

Other foods in the dairy domain such as double cream, sour cream, ice cream  and butter are high in saturated fat and should only be eaten in small amounts.  You can of course choose dairy alternatives such as drinks, yogurts and cheeses derived from plants – just be careful of the additives and go for the ones with least ingredients for your healthiest options. So whether you choose dairy or choose alternatives, both options can be part of your low cholesterol diet.

4. Focus on Fibre Daily

Increasing your intake of fibre has been shown to have a modest effect on reducing LDL-c. Fibre has a dose response relationship, so the more we consume the more impact on mopping up LDL-c. Fibre is great because it not only reduces blood cholesterol, it can also help to protect from the formation of small blood clots that trigger heart attacks and stroke.

i. Include more oats – a WOW fibre -aim for 2 – 3 servings per day.  The best fibre to add for heart health is oats as oats contain a type of fibre called beta-glucans which fibres seem to have the most impact on LDL-c. Barley also contains beta-glucans and can be swapped out for oats in soups and stews or included as part of your muesli or porridge mix.  Another idea is to swap rice for barley and make a risotto.

1 x serving = 50g of jumbo porridge oats OR 3 oatcakes OR 2 x Oatibix OR 45g of barley flakes

ii. Increase your intake of beans, pulses and legumes to half a tin or half a cup per day. Similarly to oats the soluble fibre found in these foods has a mopping effect in on LDL-c, effectively preventing the re-absorption of some cholesterol back into the body. If you find the gas producing effects of beans and other foods challenging, just take it slow and increase you intake in small amounts. Eventually with time the gut microbiome will respond and you will be better able to mange potential gas and bloating effects.

5. Flourish with Fruit and Vegetables – eat the rainbow of colours – 800g daily

Working  towards 2  different pieces of fruit daily and 3 different vegetables is a great start. Ensure to include a rainbow of colours and lots of different leafy greens. You can lower your blood pressure by eating leafy greens, which in turn will reduce your risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Reminder that fresh or frozen or tinned in own juice (fruit) are all equal in terms of nutrition. Dried fruit is also acceptable but can be easily over consumed leading to weight gain, and the occasional upset tummy. We want to ensure we are eating around 5 servings of vegetables daily – 500g is around 6 UK servings as a UK serving of veggies is 80g.

Increasing your intake of fruit to around 300g or 3 x servings per day seems to offer an optimised scenario also.

So that’s 800g of vegetables and fruit daily – remember to eat the rainbow.

If you would like more support implementing a heart healthy and low cholesterol diet get in touch. I would love to help you.

The post Lower your cholesterol with a Low Cholesterol Diet Think the F Word! Fats & Fish & Fibre & Fruit appeared first on Felicity Lyons.

There is very good evidence to support the use of self-monitoring as a strategy to help you manage your weight. But weighing everyday may not be necessary.  Ask yourself “what am I trying to find out when weighing?’  Then decide how often to weigh.

Active weight loss – weigh every day

If you want to lose weight, set yourself a target within a healthy time frame. A healthy time frame is one which is scientifically possible. A healthy time frame will not tip you over the edge to unhealthy eating patterns. Weighing each day can be helpful as you will  learn how your body loses weight. Everyone has a different body. None of us will lose weight at the same rate. Nor will we respond to the same programme in the same way. Weighing every day can help you to understand how you respond to a particular programme of weight change.

Will weighing every day affect me psychologically?

The evidence suggests that for adults who are actively seeking treatment to lose weight, weighing daily is helpful and supportive. Weighing daily does not lead to individuals feeling bad about themselves. Instead, the closer  connection with weight and the changes noted on the weighing scales, the more likely we are to be able to reduce our weight and maintain a new, leaner mass.

What makes my weight fluctuate?

Hormones

When you weigh every day you see that your weight can change if your hormones are changing e.g. during menstruation.  This can be to do with hormones affecting bowel emptying. Perhaps you become constipated or experience very loose stools and lose fluid.

The food and drink you consume

You may notice how eating late in the day,  or eating spicy or salty meals can affect your weight. Even when you eat the same number of calories but there is different macronutrient content, you may notice changes in your weight. Eating carbohydrates late often looks like weight gain in the morning. Don’t worry. Your weight will settle again during the day.

Alcohol

If you drink alcohol the evening before weighing you might be dehydrated in the morning. You might look like you have lost weight. Again, your weight will settle  as long as you drink plenty of fluid.  Weight fluctuations are often driven by changes in bodily fluid.

Exercise

Exercise can also affect fluctuations in your weight. This is not usually due to burning up 1000s of calories, and more to do with fluid and carbohydrate storage in the body.  Weighing daily  helps you to understand these nuances in weight change. Weighing daily can help you to learn to be calm with your weight, as you figure out what might be affecting weight changes.

Weight loss maintenance – weigh frequently

Once you achieve your goal weight, after a weight loss programme, it’s a good idea to continue to weigh yourself regularly. The evidence suggests that when we remain vigilant with this, and pay attention to the weighing scales, it helps us to keep between a narrow band of weight fluctuations.

You don’t have to weigh everyday.   You could weigh 2 – 3 times per week, or perhaps once per week, but on the same day each week. Weighing is a strategy which helps to keep us focused on weight. With weight loss maintenance it can you keep you bought in, and motivated to your new self, your new body weight.

if you wish to continue to weigh daily, this is perfectly acceptable.

When should I not weigh?

If you have ever experienced an eating disorder, or are perhaps in the midst of one, it can be challenging to figure your way through with the weighing scales. The best thing in this scenario is to work off the guidance that your dietitian will have given you if you are in recovery. Your dietitian  will have given the best guidance for you as an individual. Your guidance will be determined by your history and what type of eating disorder you have or are experiencing.

If you would like help with your weight management, or with an eating disorder, please get in touch. I will listen. I will see you.

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Important things to consider when you achieve your weight goal

1. Outline your motivations for wanting to remain at this new weight –  be clear on how different you feel now to how you felt at a different weight
2. Employ a system of accountability to yourself and ideally to another – this could be inputting data to a phone app, or discussing things with a friend, your partner, your GP, or a dietitian
3. Be able to identify the habits that you have managed to embed that helped you with changing your weight. Work on maintaining these new habits so they really do become defaults
4. Set goals in terms of managing your weight short and long term –  this can be weekly, monthly, yearly
5. Think through the challenges you might experience on a daily basis and how you can work through them to ensure you stay on the right path eg working from home or working in the office
6. Be aware of your triggers to unhealthy behaviours and consider ways to adapt how you might previously have responded eg how you handle stressful situations
7. Seek support from the people you mix with regularly eg your family, work colleagues or friends
8. Ensure your environment supports your continued efforts – fill your cupboards and fridge with healthy food, make choosing well easy

Those individuals who have managed to maintain a new weight in the long term are a really interesting group of people. We know they are the minority not the majority. Below is a list of things which differentiate between those of us who maintain a weight loss and those of us who don’t. We can all maintain a new weight – see how successful individuals manage to do just that.

Successful weight loss maintainers

1. Employ continuous self regulation eg weighing once per week, or keeping a food diary one week per month
2. Revisit their reasons, their motivations for their goal weight frequently, reminding themselves WHY they feel better or different at this new weight
3. Actively manage themselves in terms of ensuring they maintain a healthy lifestyle – keeping a focus on the drivers of a healthy weight eg scheduling activity, choosing healthier foods, employing good sleep hygiene, meeting up regularly with friends and family
4. Experience a change in how they see themselves, now as someone who can work hard to achieve a personal goal, and be prepared to  act differently and do different things to the person they used to be. Successful weight loss maintainers are prepared to see themselves as different to who they were before they lost the weight
5. Have changed their habits eg they may  get up earlier in the morning to exercise, or always plan their food across the week
6. Find fulfilment in different ways than previous to their weight change programme. They  find strength in positive experiences they attribute to losing weight

Success is linked with

1. Strong self knowledge eg using a journal to capture how you are dealing with pressures or triggers as well as capturing successes
2. Self accountability eg prepare yourself to  step on the scales even though you might not want to
3. Active continuous self monitoring, resulting in actions when required eg paying attention to if  your weight increases and drawing upon measures to reduce it again. You might complete a food diary for a week
4. Trust in the approach, the process and the measures taken – having faith that your personal ability to work hard on maintaining weight, will enable you to do just that.

If you would like some help to work on reducing your current weight, or keeping to a weight that you have achieved yourself, please get in touch. I will be happy to help.

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Is my BMR all my calorie needs for the day?

BMR accounts for the calories required for basic functions such as breathing, the circulation of blood, and maintaining body temperature. Anything we do above this e.g. sitting, walking, running, will increase our energy requirements. The more active we are the greater our energy requirements for the day.

Basal Metabolic Rate

Accounts for between 50 – 75% of your daily energy needs

Varies by age, by weight, by height, by gender

Varies by the amount of lean mass that you carry, and the amount of fat mass

Decreases with age because we slow down and lose muscle mass as we get older

Use of Equations

In clinic or at home settings,  we use equations to calculate out BMR or RMR. This helps us  to understand our caloric needs, without having to have a lab assessment. If I calculate  my BMR and RMR using my weight, height, age, and being female I get:

BMR = 1259kcal per day

RMR = 1162kcal per day.

So you can see there is just a slight difference between the two. From here, I will refer to BMR as it tends to be the term used most often.

How do we know how many calories we need in 24 hours?

To estimate our total calorie requirements we can use different systems, depending on the type of individual concerned. For the general population we make use of a factor which suggests the amount of calories an individual might need across a day.

For a sedentary worker ie a person who works in an office and goes about their daily life without much of anything else, we use a factor of 1.4. This refers to a Physical Activity Level. The more activity is absorbed into that person’s day, the higher the factor we use. For example  we might use 1.6 for an individual who runs for a half an hour three times per week, but is also a sedentary worker.

If I consider myself a sedentary office worker who is not doing much activity, perhaps achieving 8 –  10k steps per day, my total requirements look like this

1259 x 1.4 = 1762kcal per day

If I consider myself as sedentary, achieving 10k steps per day,  but active in an exercise class  3 times per week or more, my requirements increase

1259 x 1.6 = 2014kcal per day

What is a metabolic equivalent?

For the most part a dietitian will use clinical judgement and experience to assess the factor to make use of when calculating an individual’s energy requirements. But if the individual is seriously active, then a different system will be employed in an effort to be as accurate as possible. In this case a sports dietitian will  use metabolic equivalents.

Metabolic equivalents or METS are estimates of the energy used by the body during particular activities relative to the basal metabolic rate. Running  might have a MET value 8.0, this means the body is working 8 times as hard as it normally does at rest, but only across the minutes the individual is actually running. METS are based on consumption of oxygen and have particular values for different sporting activities. As a sports dietician I will use these MET values and apply them to the number of minutes an individual is performing a single sport, or range of sports, to assess their energy requirements.

This way of working is slightly more complicated, but more applicable when an individual is very active.

What are  UK Physical Activity Guidelines

Physical activity guidelines  describe exercise generally as light, moderate or vigorous; this really refers to what the MET value will look like for that type of exercise.

Light = < 3.0 metabolic equivalents (METS) per minute

Moderate = 3.0 – 5.9 METS

Vigorous = ≥ 6.0 METS

Current UK physical activity guidelines suggest we all need to carry out at least 30 minutes of moderate activity per day ie warm but not sweating, on at least five days per week. If we cannot make this happen we can work out more vigorously ie 3 times per week for 25 minutes each time – but this time we do have to sweat.

If you would like me to help you with your sports nutrition or weight change needs, please get in touch. You don’t have to be an athlete to enjoy the numbers game.

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