Make a change: combine food such as vegetable soup, top, and red peppers, pictured, with plenty of exercise Photo: Alamy
Q: Since coming back from my holiday, I haven’t stopped eating indulgent foods and I’ve put on three quarters of a stone. How can I lose weight, before the weather turns, and comfort food is back on the menu?
Rosie Leyton, Oxford
A: Dan Rutherford writes
Cutting your food intake is the most effective way to lose weight, but to keep the pounds off you need to take more exercise.
If you rely only on exercise to lose weight then you need to be prepared for plenty of it. One kilogram of fat represents about 7,000 calories of energy, or over 20 hours of walking at a brisk pace, depending on your weight.
Some sort of dietary discipline is essential, but it’s got to be “do-able”. The 5:2 diet (thefastdiet.co.uk) is massively popular, not only because it works if you stick to it (and don’t overcompensate on the “normal” days), but also because it is uncomplicated.
Motivation is key. Slimming clubs, fitness classes, a trainer, or just getting together with friends to lend support can make the difference. For the price of a good meal out for two, try a gadget that can track your daily activities and give you feedback on your progress. There are many, but my favourite is the Fitbit series (fitbit.com), which include “smart scales”, wireless trackers and heart-rate monitors.
Sara Stanner writes
To achieve a weight loss of about 1lb-2lb per week, you’ll need to reduce your calorie intake by about 500 kcal per day, which means consuming around 1,500 kcal per day (although you can offset this against increases in physical activity).
Successful slimmers (those that lose weight and keep it off) have many things in common: they watch what they eat, but don’t completely exclude foods they like; they are physically active; they usually eat a low-fat diet so that they can eat satisfying portions of food to feel full, rather than deprived; they eat breakfast and they keep up with regular meals both during the week and at the weekends.
To follow this pattern, start by keeping a food diary and looking for changes you can make to reduce your calorie intake. Simply swapping to one per cent fat milk rather than whole milk can save over 500 kcals per week. Using low-fat spread instead of butter or margarine on two slices of bread will save nearly 100 kcals.
Fill up on high-fibre, lean protein foods. Start the day with a healthy, filling breakfast – for example, poached or scrambled egg or baked beans on wholemeal toast, a bowl of whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk or grilled mushrooms and tomatoes on a whole-grain bagel. For lunch, have soups made with vegetables, lentils or lean meat, sandwiches or baked potatoes with low-fat fillings (such as tuna or lean ham or cottage cheese) or eat salads with lower fat dressings and lean sources of protein such as prawns or chicken. In the evening try grilled chicken or fish with vegetables, chillies made with lean meat and plenty of vegetables, low-fat pasta dishes, or curries made with vegetables, chicken, lean meat, chickpeas or lentils. Keep healthier snacks, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, unsalted nuts, seed mixes and dried fruit to hand.
Also watch what you drink – a glass of wine has the same calorie content as a slice of cake and you can easily tot up many calories from fruit juices and soft drinks.
Q: Is it true that some people have a naturally faster metabolism? Can anything be done to improve its efficiency?
A: Sara Stanner writes
In the simplest terms, your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories to maintain the chemical processes that keep you alive – such as breathing, repairing cells and digesting food (it is also known as the basal metabolic rate or BMR). As it determines around 60-75 per cent of the total energy we expend, even a small difference in metabolic rate will add up to significant differences in the number of calories we need. If you are trying to lose weight, increasing your metabolic rate is an attractive idea – a faster metabolism will enable you to lose more weight than a person with the same activity level, diet and body size. So it is not surprising that there are lots of “metabolism-enhancing products” on the market.
BMR is influenced by body size, age, gender and genes. Muscle cells need more energy to maintain them than fat cells, so having a higher muscle-to-fat ratio will increase your metabolism. Men usually have a faster metabolism, which is why the guideline for a man’s daily calorie allowance is higher than a woman’s (2,500 vs 2,000 kcals).
There are a number of genetic disorders and medical conditions that can slow metabolism. However, most people who are struggling to lose weight shouldn’t blame it on this. In fact, having a larger body size, larger muscles and internal organs will lead to a relatively high metabolic rate for many overweight people, compared with leaner individuals.
Being active and building muscle, via resistance training, will increase your BMR. But in terms of diet it is much more difficult. Despite all the claims for foods and drinks that are said to boost your metabolism, such as caffeinated drinks, spices and green tea, there is little evidence that these will have a significant effect.
Most experts believe it is simply how much energy you consume, rather than how regularly you eat, which is key. You should, however, avoid crash diets as these can lower your metabolism by encouraging your body to break down muscle to use for energy. This will lower your muscle mass, slow your metabolism and make it easier to put fat on when you come off the diet.
Q: I’m trying to cut back on carbohydrates to lose weight, but have been told that it won’t be effective in isolation. Could you suggest some fat-burning exercises I could combine this approach with?
A: Tony Gallagher writes
If you wish to lose weight, but want to start more cautiously, I would suggest focusing on the food side first and exercise second. Cut back on simple carbohydrates and simple sugars, but continue with complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, vegetables and nuts. A few weeks after the loss, maintain the weight reduction by abolishing most sugary foods.
Try the following combination of cardiovascular and weight bearing, “fat-burning” exercises at home, after warming up: regular squats, lunges, press ups, shadow boxing, shadow skipping, jogging on the spot, one legged squats, tuck jumps, burpees, lateral shuffles, high-knee lifts, planks and jumping lunges (see youtube.com for a visual guide).
If you are keen on toning specific muscles, invest in a set of dumbbells. All of the above exercises can be carried out at a slow, middling or quick pace depending on time constraints and how you feel. Sometimes doing them more slowly is more difficult. Carry out each exercise for about 20 seconds with 10 seconds recovery. Keep hydrated throughout and stretch thoroughly at the end.
Q: Which five foods should I eat in winter to improve my diet?
A: Sara Stanner writes
1. Kale: Part of the brassica family, kale contains the same amount of calories as broccoli (33 kcals/100g) and a similar amount of iron, but packs more fibre, potassium, folate and vitamin C, as well as calcium and magnesium which are important for strong bones. Kale also has five times as much vitamin A as broccoli which is important for good immune function. It is one of the few vegetables that is at its best in winter and is great in soups, stews and stir-fries.
2. Sardines: Contain as much heart-healthy long chain omega-3 fatty acids as salmon, and more iron, zinc, selenium and vitamin B12 and twice as much vitamin D. Canned sardines, with the bones, have plenty of calcium which is important for healthy bones.
3. Red peppers: You can get all the vitamin C your body needs to support your immune system from peppers, especially red ones. They contain three times as much vitamin C as oranges, and you can enjoy UK-grown peppers until the end of autumn.
4. Almonds: Although high in calories, they contain unsaturated fatty acids that can help to prevent heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol. Studies have also shown that incorporating limited amounts of nuts, such as almonds, into weight-loss programmes can help control appetite. The combination of fibre, protein and fat in almonds is filling and takes longer for your body to digest. Always go for unsalted and don’t have more than a handful a day.
5. Porridge: Those who claim that a bowl of porridge “sets them up” for the day are right. Oats provide soluble fibre called beta-glucan which can help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol. The fibre in oats makes it a slow-releasing carbohydrate which keeps blood sugars steady so should stop you reaching for a high-fat snack. If you are not a fan of porridge, add oats to smoothies, mueslis or yogurts, to bread fish or chicken or to make a stuffing for vegetables.
Send your questions to lifecoach@telegraph.co.uk, or to 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT
