Weigh Less

Developing a Healthy Balanced Diet:

 

Our program is simple. You will be allowed foods from all food groups, no elimination of carbs, no supplements, and no starvation!

 

Although as part of the home program we would be unable to establish a calorie plan for you as your health status has not been assessed, the following information will service as a useful guide.

 

There are a right number of calories for you to eat each day. This number depends on your age, activity level, and body composition and whether you are trying to gain, maintain, or lose weight.

 

In order to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories per day than your body needs. To lose 1lb a week you need a negative calorie balance of 500 calories per day. To lose weight at 2lb a week you need to reduce your calorie intake by 1000 calories a day.

 

The Weigh Less Program will ensure that you start analysing your Energy Input (Amount of energy you eat or drink and your Energy Output (amount of energy you use, e.g. physical activity.

 

You could use up the entire amount on a few high-calorie foods, but you won’t get the full range of vitamins and nutrients your body needs to be healthy.  Choose the most nutritionally rich foods you can from each food group each day – those packed with vitamins, minerals, fibre, and other nutrients, but lower in calories.

 

Useful tips!

1. Pick foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains
2. Use fat-free or low-fat milk and diary products 
3. At every meal, try to add as much nutrition as possible by having fruit and vegetable based side dishes such as soup, salad, stir fried vegetables, fruit salad etc. 
4. Eat regularly and eat balanced meals from food group above
5. Watch your salt intake
6. Drink plenty of water.

 

 The BMR:

 

Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is an important consideration in any diet as this is the amount of calories your body needs to sustain healthy functioning.

 

The ENR:

 

You then need to assess your Estimated Nutritional Requirements (ENR) (also known as Estimated Average Requirements, EAR) to ensure that you are not taking in too few calories as this will have a negative affect on both your health and the amount of weight you lose. UK Department of Health Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) is a daily calorie intake of 1940 calories per day for women and 2550 for men.

 

Use the following equations to calculate your own kcal requirement intake:

 

Nutritional Equations 

 

To determine the estimated nutritional requirements for adults requiring enteral nutrition for weight loss, please follow the steps below.

 

Step 1:

Determine the basal metabolic rate (BMR) through the equations below.

 

Table 1

 

Equations for estimating basal metabolic rate  (Schofield)
Female (kcal / day)	Male (kcal / day
10 – 17 years  13.4 (Kg) + 692	10 – 17 years  17.7 (Kg) + 657
18 – 29 years  14.8 (Kg) + 487	18 – 29 years  15.1 (kg) + 692
30 – 59 years  08.3 (Kg) + 846	30 – 59 years  11.5 (Kg) + 873
Females over 60 years (kcal / day)	Males over 60 years (kcal / day)
60 – 74 years  09.2 (kg) + 687	60 – 74 years  11.9 (Kg) + 700
75 years +       09.8 (kg) + 624	75 years +       08.3 (Kg) + 820

Kg = weight of the individual in Kg

 

Step 2:

 

Add a combined factor for activity  

 

Table 2

 

Calculating PAL of adults at 3 levels of occupational activity
Non occupational activity	Occupational activity light	Occupational activity moderate	Occupational activity heavy
	Males      Female	Males      Female	Males      Female
Non active	1.4          1.4	1.6          1.5	1.7          1.5
Moderately Active	1.5          1.5	1.7          1.6	1.8          1.6
Very Active	1.6          1.6	1.8          1.7	1.9          1.7

 

 

Step 3

 

Once your PAL is established multiply this by your BMR

 

                    BMR (PAL) = Estimated Nutritional Requirements

For example a 34 year old weighing 9 and a half stone (60kgs):

BMR: 14.8 x 60 + 487 = 1375

PAL(activity light/female) = 1.5

ENR=1375 x 1.5 = 2062

You can now look at reducing 500 claories a day to lose 1lb per week and you are still within a healthy BMR. The above person could recude 500 kcls per day and have  an ENR of 1562.

 

What is a calorie?

Calories are basically units of energy. We take in calories through eating and drinking, and we burn calories through a combination of daily activity and basic bodily functions. If we take in more calories than we burn, we will put on weight; if we burn more calories than we take in, we will lose weight.

So it’s simple; if you want to lose weight you must use up more energy than you eat, if you want to maintain your present body weight you must eat the same amount of energy that you use.

All foods today will have the calories content and nutritional information breakdown on the label or on the packing.

 

It is important to know the calorie content of the food and drink you are consuming;

 

1g of Fat has approximately 9 calories

1g Carbohydrate has only 4 calories

1g Alcohol has 9 Calories

 

1g Protein has 4 Calories

 

 

Foods Groups:

 

Our program follows healthy principals as outlined by the World Health Organisation (WHO). You can use the food pyramid below to look at how many portions of each food group are advised on a daily basis.

Nutrition information on food labels usually shows the energy, protein, carbohydrate and fat levels per 100g food or 100ml of drink. Sugars, saturated fat, fibre and sodium values are also displayed. This information is useful if you are counting calories on a weight loss diet, restricting saturated fat on a cholesterol-lowering diet or limiting sodium for heart health.

However, if you are shopping for health reasons you may need to know more about food related factor than just calories or fat content, this should be discussed with your treating Medical Consultant.

 

“Per serving” information and watching your “Serving” sizes

Legislation requires the nutrient values of a product to be given per 100g for foods and per 100ml for liquids. However, some manufacturers list nutritional information ‘per serving’ as well as per 100g. Foods and drinks come in all sizes and rarely ever in 100g/100ml portions so nutrient information per serving makes it easier to see the amount of nutrients you are actually eating.

The portion size or serving size is also usually listed in a gram amount. To get used to knowing what this amount is you will have to weight your food when you start on the program, over time you will be then able to assess the size without weighing the food. For example many foods will easily record the amount of one serving, for example breakfast cereals, 37.5g Weetabix (2 Weetabix).

Watch your salt levels

Irish adults are advised to limit their salt intake to 6g salt/day. Even if we don’t add salt to our food our food at the table, up to 80% of our salt intake comes from processed foods such as bread, cereal, and ready-meals.

By law, food labels must show the sodium value of their product. Sodium chloride is the chemical name for salt. It is the sodium in salt that can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure in susceptible people. However, sodium values and salt values are not equal. To work out the amount of salt in a product, multiply the sodium value by 2.5. For example, 0.4g sodium is equal to 1g salt.

Food Allergy warnings

The 14 common allergens that must be clearly identified on food labels are: milk, eggs, nuts, peanuts, Soya, shellfish, cereals with gluten, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulphur dioxide, lupin and molluscs. Some manufacturers put an allergy warning under the ingredients list with the culprits clearly labeled. While this is very useful for people with allergies, it is not a standard requirement for food labels.