3 Golden Rules for Losing Weight
1. Download an app to help you
- Record your food intake from the start. MyHSN recommends an app called MyNetDiary (although there are others), which can be downloaded on your phone
- You need to input all of your food (and ideally drinks, especially alcohol)
- It not only calculates calories but breaks them down into carbs, protein and fat.
You can also use it to log your daily steps, exercise programme and weight, which you should monitor weekly. Don’t weigh yourself every day.
2. Carbs are not off the menu …
- Some carbs are essential as they are an important energy source for the body and brain
- But eating more carbs than you need means the excess will be stored as fat, so it is important not to overdo it
- Choose whole carbs, such as those found in vegetables, fruit (yellow foods are ok!, e.g. a banana; see below) and pulses, as opposed to refined carbs. You can also replace carbs with protein (meat, fish, cheese, eggs etc).
For example .. some foods with higher protein (and fat) levels are quite filling – so, why not have a 3 egg omelette without bread?
3 … but do avoid beige food
- Anything beige is probably bad news!
- Beige foods include: cakes, pastries, biscuits, lighter coloured bread, crisps, potatoes, rice, pizza (base!) and flatbreads/chapati/naan. Sorry, all the ‘good’ things, yes. Many of these also contain alot of sugar and salt.
Instead, focus on ‘eating the rainbow’ or getting as many fruits and veg of different colours in your diet as possible, which means a wider variety of vitamins and minerals.
Other resource
Dr Michael Mosley’s ‘three golden rules’ for losing weight fast
