Being a healthy weight

Most of us eat too much and less than half of us get enough physical activity. Almost two thirds of people living in Scotland are overweight or obese. Being overweight can lead to ill health, such as heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes. If you have any concerns about your weight, contact your GP or a dietitian. If you think you need to lose a little weight, here are some practical tips.

Whenever we eat more than our body needs, we put on weight. This is because the calories we don't use are stored in our bodies, usually as fat. It’s easy to eat more than you need to without noticing; even a few too many calories each day can lead to weight gain. Losing weight means using more calories than you consume, over a sustained period of time. If you want to lose some weight, you should look at ways of:

• improving the balance of your diet
• making sure you only eat as much food as you need
• being more active

Getting the balance right

Healthy eating can help you manage your weight and it's important to eat a balanced diet, otherwise you might not be getting all the nutrients you need to keep your body healthy. While eating less is important when you are trying to lose weight, avoid going on a crash diet, because you can’t maintain this sort of change in the long-term. For most people, the aim should be to:

• eat more fruit and vegetables
• eat more starchy foods such as bread, pasta and rice
• cut down on fatty foods
• cut down on salt and sugar

Fruit and vegetables should make up a third of the food you eat. Aim to eat at least five portions of fruit and veg every day. These can be fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or cooked, and a glass of fruit juice can also make up one of your portions each day. It's best to vary the types of fruit and veg you eat so that you get enough of the different nutrients.

Starchy foods should make up another third of your diet. Try to eat a variety of starchy foods and choose wholegrain, wholemeal or 'high fibre' varieties whenever possible. Starchy foods include:

• bread
• breakfast cereals (choose low sugar and salt varieties)
• pasta
• rice
• potatoes

You might have heard that starchy foods are fattening. This isn't true; starchy foods usually contain less than half the calories of fat. It's spreads on bread, cream or cheese sauce with pasta, the oil for frying and sugar on breakfast cereals that makes starchy foods fattening, so try to cut down on these.

A healthy diet also means eating and drinking less fat and sugar. Foods and drinks which are high in fat and/or sugar make it very easy to have more calories than you need. You'll probably eat some foods containing fat every day, such as margarine or butter and cooking oils, but keep these to small amounts. There's no escaping the fact that most people have too many sugary drinks, cakes, biscuits, pastries, confectionery, crisps and ice cream. Keep these kinds of foods to a minimum, choose smaller amounts and use low-fat alternatives when you can, for example, lower fat dairy products, spreads, dressings, mayonnaise and desserts. Don’t forget that alcohol is also high in calories.

Making changes to the types of foods you eat and the way you cook them, can help you to adopt long-term healthy eating patterns:

• base your meals on bread, cereals, potatoes and fruit and veg
• choose wholegrain foods such as wholemeal and wholegrain bread and wholegrain breakfast cereals
• choose lean cuts of meat and always trim off any fat
• choose lower-fat varieties of dairy foods such as semi-skimmed, 1% or skimmed milk, reduced-fat cheese, lower-fat yoghurts
• swap sugary drinks for water or diet drinks with fewer calories
• boil, steam, grill, poach or microwave food rather than frying or roasting

How much should you eat?

An important part of healthy eating is eating the right amount. The amount of calories needed every day is different for everyone, depending on whether you are a man or a woman, your body weight and how active you are. As a guide, the average man needs around 2500 calories per day and the average woman needs around 2000 calories per day, to maintain a healthy weight.

Checking the label

Knowing how many calories are in our food can help us to take in the right amount of calories to achieve a healthy weight. The calorie content of most foods is stated on the nutrition label on the back of the packet and often appears on the front of the pack as well. ‘Kilocalories’ is another word for calories, so 1000 calories might be written as 1000 kcals.

The label will usually tell you how many calories are in 100g or 100mls of food or drink and you can use this information to compare different products. Be careful with the number of calories ‘per portion’; this will be the manufacturer’s portion and might be smaller than you would serve yourself as a portion. You can also look out for calorie information in restaurants and check the calorie content of foods when you are eating out. Knowing how many calories are in your foods can help you to work out how these foods can fit into your diet.

Getting physical

Physical activity is a good way of using up extra calories, and helps us to maintain our body weight. It's a good idea to get active each day, but you don't need to join a gym. Here are some suggestions of activities that will help you to burn off excess energy. You could:

• go for a walk after lunch
• choose the stairs instead of taking the lift
• leave the car at home for those short journeys
• get off the bus one or two stops earlier

More information

There are lots of websites that have useful information on being a healthy weight. Check out some of the links below to find out more?