The key to losing weight successfully is to eat fewer calories than your body uses up in energy, so that it calls on its fat stores to make up the difference. At the same time, if you burn extra calories by being more active you will dramatically speed up your weight-loss progress.
The good news is that, by making informed choices about the type of foods you eat, you can eat well and still lose weight safely and effectively without necessarily reducing the quantity of food you actually consume. The best way to do this is to follow a healthy, low-fat diet. If, at the same time, you increase your activity levels you will lose weight even faster. It’s a win-win situation.
Fat (oil, butter, margarine, etc) provides twice as many calories, gram for gram, as found in carbohydrate (rice, pasta, potatoes, bread and cereal) or protein (meat, fish, eggs, cheese and milk), so the obvious first step is to cut down on fat. By selecting foods with a maximum of 5% fat (5 grams of fat per 100 grams of food), you will reduce your calorie intake quite significantly without having to eat less food.
Gi stands for glycaemic index, which rates foods on the speed at which they are digested and absorbed into the bloodstream. Foods with a low Gi are slowly digested, which helps us to feel fuller for longer. And this, of course, is a great aid when we are trying to lose weight. Studies show that a low-Gi eating plan can also help to reduce our risk of developing diabetes or heart disease.
Eating low-Gi foods prevents those sudden food cravings that are the main reason dieters fail to lose weight. In a moment of hunger they reach for that sugary or high-fat snack which can ruin the most effective of diets.
A low-Gi diet is based around fibre-rich foods and includes lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and generous helpings of beans and pulses.
When following my Slim to Win diet plan, be aware that not EVERY food you eat needs to be low Gi. The aim is to eat a balanced, healthy diet that contains a high proportion of low- or medium-Gi foods and to choose healthy, low-fat options. Adding just one low-Gi food to your meal will reduce its Gi rating.
1 Eat three meals a day and a small Power Snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
2 Watch your portion sizes Use my Portion Pots opposite for measuring out basic foods to make sure you are eating the correct amount.
3 Cook without fat With non-stick pans it is really simple to prepare foods without adding fat or oil. It doesn’t take long to change your taste buds, and switching to low-fat eating is the quickest way to cut down on hundreds of calories and loads of fat grams.
4 Plan ahead Make a list of foods you need to buy each week and stick to it. Don’t be seduced by special offers at the supermarket, because you might be tempted to eat up extra foods to avoid throwing them away once their best-before date has expired.
5 Eat the low-Gi way Eating low-Gi foods will help you feel fuller for longer and so avoid temptation.
6 Get moving! Being more active in your everyday life will speed up your weight-loss progress, and doing any form of exercise that makes you breathe more deeply, such as brisk walking, jogging or an aerobics class, will burn fat!
7 Wear a pedometer It’s a great motivational tool and will make you more aware of your activity levels. Aim to do 10,000 steps a day and, if you can’t avoid having a sedentary day occasionally, do extra steps the next day!
8 Mix with positive people At a Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Club you’ll be made to feel welcome and get support and encouragement from qualified instructors as well as mix with like-minded folk who want to lose weight, just like you. Visit our website: www.rosemaryconley.com to find details of classes near you. Or, join our internet-based diet and fitness club: rosemaryconleyonline.
9 Avoid snacking between meals Eating high-fat, sugary snacks between meals is one of the main reasons why people gain weight. Stop the habit and you’ll transform your rate of weight loss – and your figure.
10 Celebrate your success by rewarding yourself every time you lose a stone or reach a new, significant milestone, such as fitting into a smaller dress size or having to take in your belt a notch.
Only you can decide whether you want to lose weight, eat healthily and exercise regularly. But you’re much more likely to succeed if other family members join in and make some lifestyle changes too.
Parents are the best role models for children and should aim to lay down the foundations of healthy eating so that good habits are learnt early on. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever, as a family, go to McDonald’s or KFC, or eat chocolate or popcorn. You can – occasionally.
The key is to instil some structure into the family’s eating habits – e.g. three meals a day and no snacking on high-fat foods in between. Making simple changes in the way you shop and cook can have a dramatic effect. I know women who’ve done this without telling their husbands or partners. The latter have assumed they’re eating exactly the same food as before and yet ended up losing a stone or so!
So start slowly, making only a few subtle changes initially.
Swap high-fat, high-calorie dressings and sauces for low-fat ones. Avoid buying biscuits if you can and buy more fruit instead. Most children enjoy eating bananas, and satsumas are delicious and easy to peel. Kiwi fruits are also fun to eat if you remove their tops and eat with a teaspoon. If the family insist on some savoury snacks, look out for the very low-fat varieties.
Choose lean cuts of meat, and aim to buy more chicken and fish and cut down on the amount of red meat. Experiment with different kinds of vegetables.
Cooking without adding oil, lard or butter will significantly reduce the calories and fat in your meals. Only very young children (under two years) need to have some extra fat in their diet and this can be achieved by giving them cheese and full-fat milk.
I never add oil, fat or butter to food when cooking, even if the instructions on a packet or jar say I should. When I make a cottage pie or spaghetti bolognese, I dry-fry the minced beef and then drain it through a colander before adding other ingredients. This saves lots of unwanted fat without spoiling the flavour or texture.
Try dry-roasting sweet potatoes and parsnips for a change. Just par-boil them with a vegetable stock cube for five minutes and then place on a baking tray at the top of a hot oven for 40 minutes, or until they go golden brown.
When making sandwiches, rather than using butter or a low-fat spread (most are still very high in fat), use a low-fat sauce or dressing instead. Try Branston pickle, mustard, tomato ketchup or low-fat salad dressings, and spread straight on to bread before adding your choice of filling.
Likewise, don’t add fat when serving food and you’ll avoid eating loads of unnecessary calories. So mash your potatoes with yogurt or semi-skimmed milk instead of butter or spread. If you’ve cooked vegetables in water with a vegetable stock cube, you’ll find there’s no need to add butter and they’ll taste just as good.
Use low-fat Greek-style yogurt instead of double cream or crème fraîche in desserts. Crème fraîche is still quite high in fat, whereas Greek-style yogurt can give you the creamy flavour you crave while saving lots of calories.
An essential part of family life is spending quality time together, doing things you all enjoy, and having fun. Occasionally this may involve eating some not-quite-so-healthy foods and these will do no harm if eaten in moderation.
One family I know has a ‘family night’ each Friday. They take turns at choosing a favourite activity (watching TV or a DVD, or playing a game) and what to eat, and everyone else has to join in without moaning! It works. It gives the children permission to indulge without any feelings of guilt – and that’s healthy! You are much more likely to get the family’s cooperation in creating a healthier lifestyle if there’s a bit of give-and-take.
It’s also important to find time for family activities such as swimming, cycling, walking, kicking a ball around, tennis, badminton, horse-riding, ice skating, or roller skating. When was the last time you all took a walk together in the local park? Try it and see how enjoyable it is.
Yes, it will take a bit of effort and yes, you may come up against a bit of resistance at first, but if you handle it carefully and thoughtfully, you should be able to win your family over. Try to use gentle persuasion rather than bullying tactics. Or don’t tell them at all. Just make the changes to the way you shop, cook and serve your food and maybe no one will even notice!
Drinking too much alcohol is another reason why many people find it difficult to lose weight. As alcohol doesn’t satisfy our appetite in the same way as food, we like to think that it doesn’t count – but I’m afraid it certainly does!
It’s easy to underestimate how much we are drinking and we often forget to take account of the extra calories. On top of that, alcohol weakens our willpower, makes us feel hungry and increases our desire for fatty food.
However, it’s been proven that a glass of wine a day can actually be good for us. The problem arises when we exceed that quantity.
On my Slim to Win Diet, once you’ve completed the Fat Attack Fortnight, you are allowed one (125ml) glass of wine every single day. If you want, you can save a few days’ worth for a special occasion so you can relax and have a good time without it affecting your weight-loss progress! It’s important to understand how the body deals with alcohol, though, because it is processed in a very different way from food.
During normal digestion of food, the body uses protein and carbohydrate as easy-to-burn fuel for energy. It is only when these supplies have run out that it turns to fat for its energy supplies. However, alcohol is a toxin and, as such, the body works hard to eliminate it as soon as possible. Consequently, the calories from alcohol go to the head of the queue and are burned off in preference to those from food. The problems really begin when we drink a lot of alcohol and start fancying something fatty, such as a curry perhaps? The alcohol is burned off quickly, which means the fat from the curry goes straight into storage. In this instance, the so-called ‘beer belly’ is from the curry, not the beer!
Remember to stay within the recommended limits –14 units of alcohol a week for women and 21 for men. With today’s generous wine measures and the varying strengths of beer and lager, it’s not surprising that we often drink more than we realise. But to lose weight, it’s important to count the calories from alcohol into our daily allowance or we won’t see the results we’re hoping for on the scales.
To help put alcohol consumption into perspective, remember that if you were to drink a whole bottle of wine you’d have to walk seven miles to burn off the calories!
Right from the start of their slimming campaign, my Slim to Win dieters found that the key to their success was to get more active.
People who make exercise a habit often tell us how much better they look and feel, how they’ve never been in better shape and that they’ve ‘found’ muscles they didn’t know existed. Their skin has usually taken on a special glow, radiating good health, and their hair and nails are likely to be in great condition. Overall, they have more energy for life.
So, if you want to speed up your weight loss, and look – and feel – your best, you must step up the amount of exercise you do. Choose something you enjoy so you keep it up. You’ll not only see results faster but your body and skin will shrink, your body shape will improve and you’ll achieve the figure you’ve always dreamed of!
Aerobic means ‘with oxygen’ and aerobic exercise is any activity that causes us to breathe more deeply, such as walking, jogging, cycling and, of course, working out at an aerobics class or to a fitness DVD. It’s great for improving general health and fitness and the good news for slimmers is that it also burns body fat.
The heart is a muscle and, if we don’t exercise it, it will become weaker. The sensation of your heart beating faster when you exert yourself – which can happen from as normal an activity as going up stairs – shows that you are stimulating the heart muscle and, in turn, making it stronger. Also, when the heart beats faster, you’ll need more air coming into the lungs, so they work harder too. Finally, as the heart pumps out more blood, the circulatory system (made up of an amazing network of arteries and veins) becomes more efficient at pumping blood and oxygen to every inch of the body, right to the surface of the skin.
When we do aerobic exercise we, in effect, ‘turn up the gas’ and burn extra calories. Even more importantly, regular aerobic exercise causes the body to become a more efficient fat burner in everyday life – all the time. Imagine converting the engine in your car from a 1.6 litre to a 2.8 litre one – it will use more fuel!
Good muscle tone will give you a beautifully toned shape and good body strength to cope with everyday living. You’ve heard the saying ‘use it or lose it’. Well, if we don’t use our muscles regularly they will become smaller and weaker. As we get older our muscles naturally reduce in size and our bodies lay down more fat as our metabolic rate slows down.
When we exercise an individual muscle, that muscle becomes leaner, firmer and stronger. Within all our muscles are what are called little ‘powerhouses’ (mitochondria) that multiply in number when that muscle is stimulated through exercise to cope with the extra demand, even more so if we add resistance in the form of weights, a resistance band, or by using our own body weight. These ‘powerhouses’ are the physical point at which fat is burned off in the body. Therefore, if you have strong, well-exercised muscles that contain loads of mitochondria, you’ll be burning body fat more efficiently, resulting in a higher metabolism and an ability to lose weight more easily.
Strength and toning activities include Pilates, a multi-gym workout, free weights as well as gentler but nevertheless very effective body-conditioning exercises.
Whether we are reaching into a high cupboard, putting on our seat belt or zipping up the back of a dress, it’s important for our bodies to be flexible. Flexibility is incorporated in many forms of exercise. At the beginning and the end of your aerobics or toning session, you should stretch your muscles to help prevent injury during the exercise and avoid aching muscles later. It also encourages greater flexibility in the joints and more elasticity in the muscles.
As we age our bones lose strength but we can slow down that process considerably by doing the right kind of exercise. Swimming, for example, is a great cardiovascular exercise that works the heart and lungs really well but has little effect on the bones.
Walking regularly has been proven to keep the thigh and hip bones relatively strong, but to strengthen the bones in the upper body you need to add some exercises that really load the bones of the wrists, arms and the shoulder area. At the same time if you eat a diet high in calcium you will be doing the very best for your bones.
The more active you are, the better your joint health will be. Too sedentary a lifestyle can lead to pain and stiffness in the joints. If you have a condition such as arthritis, it is best to keep moving on a regular basis. Doing some stretching exercises will ensure that you keep a good range of movement in the joint.
Quite simply, if you want to speed up your weight loss your exercise should make you a bit hot and sweaty and a little out of breath and you need to exercise for 30 minutes five times a week. This doesn’t have to be done in one session – three sessions of 10 minutes in a day will still be effective. If you watch your calorie intake and combine your aerobic activity with some body conditioning work to strengthen and tone the muscles, ideally using a resistance band or weights, for 10 minutes or so on three days a week, you will soon be the proud owner of a fit, trim, shapely and healthy body, one that HELPS you to stay slim because it’s an efficient fat burner.
When you’re well on the way to reaching your weight-loss goal, it can be frustrating when you’re trying so hard to lose those last few pounds but find that progress is slow. Here’s how to speed things along.
1 Cut back on your portions of meat or chicken and increase your portions of vegetables. This will help to fill you up on fewer calories.
2 Stop guessing at portion sizes. Always measure out your portions (use my Portion Pots, if you have a set) of rice, pasta, cereal – and wine!
3 Drink plenty of water or reduced-calorie drinks so you stay hydrated. Sometimes when we feel peckish, it’s because we’re thirsty.
4 Always have a glass of water or a low-calorie drink before and during meals. It will help you to feel full more quickly.
5 Never leave items at the bottom of your stairs to take up later. Each trip upstairs will help you to burn extra calories.
6 Use your exercise time fruitfully: make that phone call to your friend on your mobile while you’re taking a walk; walk rather than drive to the postbox; try walking all or most of your way to work.
7 Walk instead of taking the car when you can. If you can’t manage it every day, then aim to do it at least three times a week. If you take the dog for a walk each day, aim to walk faster and further.
8 Aim to play a sport once a week. Whether it’s tennis, squash, badminton or football or horse-riding, plan to do it with a friend and turn it into a social event.
9 Use a home exercise machine while watching your favourite TV programme instead of flopping out on the sofa.
10 Avoid adding olive oil – or any oil for that matter – to your food. It only adds loads of unnecessary calories and deposits fat on your body.
11 When dry-frying mince, drain away all the fat before adding the other ingredients.
12 Avoid all high-fat snacking between meals.
13 Keep a strict eye on your calorie intake and stick to your daily allowance.
14 When dining out, choose wisely and avoid dishes cooked in or with fat, such as chips, pies, cakes, deep-fried fish or chicken.
15 In restaurants, ask for food to be served without added oil or butter.
16 Drink alcohol in moderation only. Too much will weaken your willpower and give you a bigger appetite.
17 Increase the amount of activity you do by incorporating it into your everyday life. Use the stairs rather than the lift. Stand more and sit less. Walk around while the TV commercials are on.
18 Plan each day’s menu ahead – and stick to it.
19 If you find it difficult to give up your favourite food, find a low-fat alternative. So if you can’t live without chocolate, look for a low-fat chocolate dessert or drink, and count the calories into your daily total.
20 Remember this golden rule: if you’re not losing weight, you’re eating too many calories and not exercising enough. Correct these and I promise you’ll start to lose weight at a steady rate again. Honestly – it works!