Weight management

Successful weight management is simply about balancing the amount of calories we take in with the amount we expend in our daily activities.

If you take in more calories than you use up, you gain weight. If you take in fewer than you use up, you lose weight. It’s that straightforward.

Being overweight or obese is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke. If you are overweight, shedding the pounds could drastically improve your health and quality of life.

If you are already slim on the other hand, losing more weight could be very bad for your health – especially if you’re underweight because you restrict how much you eat. People who regularly diet to the point of denying themselves a healthy balanced diet put themselves at risk of a number of nutritional deficiencies such as iron deficiency or osteoporosis in later life.

Most people gain weight over a period of time, the result of eating and activity patterns that become habit.

Losing weight is often simply a matter of ‘unlearning’ those habits. To control your weight, try limiting your intake of calories by sticking to a healthy, balanced diet and becoming more active.

Your ideal weight is generally one which will give you a BMI (Body Mass Index) of between 20 and 25. Research has shown that people within this range tend to live longer and enjoy better health at every stage of life.

You can check your own Body Mass Index using our BMI calculator

It’s also worth checking your waist measurements. People who tend to gain weight around the middle have an increased risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. Doctors call this ‘abdominal obesity’ although many people know it better as a ‘beer belly’. Generally speaking, your weight is likely to be in the healthy range if your waist measures less than 80cm or 31 inches if you are female and less than 94cm or 37 inches if you are male.