Healthy living
Diet and weight loss
Lose weight and stay slim
Shedding some pounds, if you need to, can help lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, osteoarthritis and even some kinds of cancer
Losing weight and keeping it off isn't easy but it is possible: here's how.
Motivate yourself
Motivation is most important factor in determining whether you will lose, so try these tricks to give your willpower a kick-start.
- List all the reasons why you want to lose weight.
- Boost your confidence by reminding yourself of previous successes both large and small.
- Make a note of what you want to achieve, why and by when and check progress against these goals.
- Set a start date and plan your campaign of eating and exercise.
Get moving
If you dislike formal exercise don't do it. Walking 10,000 steps a day - a brisk hour's worth - burns around 300 to 500 calories. That's a pound lost every 10 days without dieting.
- Get a pedometer to log your step count.
- Try dividing exercise into bite-size chunks - 10 or 20 minutes at a time
- You've heard it before but increasing your daily activity level by walking for part of a journey or avoiding lifts and escalators really does burn calories.
- Resistance training uses weights or your own body weight as in yoga or Pilates to develop muscle tissue which burns more calories than fat - even when you're sitting down.
Portion control
Average portion sizes have increased 30 per cent in the last decade and not just in restaurants and fast food outlets. Dinner plates have got bigger, so we're eating more at home too.
Rather than weighing everything, build up a mental image of what the right portion sizes look like.
Portion guidelines
As a rough rule of thumb a serving of fruit, vegetables or potatoes is equal in size to half a tennis ball; three ounces of meat, fish, or chicken to a deck of playing cards; an ounce of cheese to your thumb; and a teaspoon of oil to around the tip of your thumb.
- Use a smaller plate to fool your brain into thinking you are eating more
- Boost your confidence by reminding yourself of previous successes both large and small.
- In a restaurant share a main course or have another starter instead.
- Fill up your plate with green veg such as spinach, broccoli, kale and salad leaves to curb your appetite for high calorie foods.
Opt into breakfast
As well as preventing mid-morning 'munchies', it may lower your risk of insulin resistance syndrome, characterised by weight gain and belly fat, an early sign of developing diabetes.
- Porridge, muesli, wholegrain toast and a boiled or poached egg help stabilise blood sugar levels.
- If you can't face eating whiz up a smoothie with a handful of fruit, skimmed milk and low-fat yoghurt.
Get enough sleep
Recent research has shown that lack of sleep lowers blood levels of leptin, a protein that suppresses appetite and affects how our brains sense when we have eaten enough.
- Get up half an hour earlier so you have time to wake up properly before facing any food.
- Don't eat too late or go to bed hungry.
- Avoid strenuous exercise just before bed as it can be over-stimulating.
- Prime yourself for sleep by having a wind-down routine: with maybe a warm bath or a chamomile tea
- Avoid caffeine, cigarettes and alcohol in the evening.
Reader comments
i found your advice to ken very interesting on a change of diet. i thought i was eating healthy apparently not as i should, i will be taking your advice and making a change asap, i am a 61 year old with health issues and weight that has piled on and will not come off thank you so much, wish me luck.
Posted by: irene mercer | 22/08/2007 04:25:29
Dr Henderson can not say definitively that if a side effect persists after ceasing a statin for four weeks, the statin will have been metabolised away in a short time and is not the cause. But the depletion of such substances as Coenzyme Q10 and dolichol from its use is very likely to have caused long term or permanent damage in almost any part of the body, by starving the cells making up that function of the energy which they need to carry it out, or even to survive. These are not effects recorded in trials, as they are insidious, often creeping up gradually, and explained away perhaps as something to do with ageing, or "statins don't do that" Statin side effects are real and damage many lives, and an embarassment to those promoting the treatment.
Posted by: Ray Holder | 21/08/2007 21:08:54
i would like to see more for the older lady in your magazines iam 60 and find most of the success stories are for the younger woman .
Posted by: mrs fensome | 21/08/2007 17:39:49
Insulin will make you put on weight. My husband was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes five years ago and is still not on any medication. We control his diabetes with diet alone, although I would have more success if he would eat more of what he is supposed to. Even on insulin, you need to watch your diet to help control type 2 and eating the required amount of fruit and vegetables is not enough. You need more wholegrains and pulses and people who successfully control their diabetes with diet often find they no longer need medication of any kind. I would suggest that anyone with this complaint log onto to the Diabetes UK website and conduct their eating habits on the questionaire. I also recommend that you subscribe to Diabetes UK and obtain their bi-monthly magazine, diet sheets and cookery books, which give positive help with the condition. Diabetes is not the end of the world and there is help available if you look for it. It also helps with a healthy diet for the slim and not so slim. So give it a try.
Posted by: Irene Joicey | 20/08/2007 18:58:52
I would like to add that, as a long time sufferer of dry skin (excema) I recommend taking an 'Oil of Evening Primrose' capsule each day. It has vastly improved my skin. When I stop taking them (i.e. in hospital) the dryness returns.
Posted by: Jennie Lisney | 18/08/2007 12:23:44
You did not mention Avon products or Boots No 7, are these as good as I have bought Avon creams and they seem to keep my skin supple? Thanks. Roberta
Posted by: roberta corley | 18/08/2007 11:32:58
I recently stopped taking my statin tablets after realising that, at 58, I felt very old and achy. After only one week I noticed a difference. My joints did not ache so much nor did my muscles. I shall be seeing my Dr to discuss the problem.
Posted by: Melody Mackay | 17/08/2007 21:21:04
surprised not to see Liz Earle skin products not mentioned. wonderful quality ingredients. very green great results and superpriced.
Posted by: deanna charlton | 16/08/2007 10:01:11
I was Not over weight, I have always been very weight conscious, and was always around 8 st, 3 Lbs 8stone 6 lbs, yet I was diagnosed with type two diabetes, then after being put onto Metaformin which made me ill, and I started gaining weight with it, then was put onto insulin which mad me even worse,dreadful itch awake all night with it and gained even more weight.I have just about 1000 calories a day.and used to walk to the park every day.yet I cannot lose weight,I am on thyroid tablets and all to no avail, and I suffer with S.A.D. I am so depressed with it all and getting no where fast. I read that St Johns Wort would help me, with the depression etc. I cannot eat any less,and now can't walk to the park, as I am in such agonizing pain,I need to lose all this weight, I have gained 7stone and only 5ft 2 I feel ugly unhealthy and so depressed.I Have tried everything and cannot get on top of it.........I just want to die now ! sem to get no help anywhere ...and I was so slim all my life............regards Esther
Posted by: Esther Allen | 10/08/2007 16:32:37
Of course it is good to be healthy and a reasonable weight. After celebrating 25 years of marriage and wearing my wedding dress again, I had a stress heart attack in 1991 just three days later. Beta blockers made me put on 5 stone in 18 months and although I have tried on several occasions to reduce this, I can only maintain one stone loss. It is infuriating after being the same weight for so many years, but one just has to get on with life and make the best of it. I eat as I have always done with 4 vegetables and 4 pieces of fruit a day, three meals a day and plenty of water. Exercise since heart surgery two years ago has proved more difficult but life is for living so don't dwell on excess weight if you cannot shift it and live healthily otherwise.
Posted by: Roz Venner | 24/07/2007 21:50:38
Information on this site is for interest only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should consult your own doctor about any specific health concerns.
