Something people often forget or do not realise is as YOU get smaller in size and weight so does the amount of food and calories you need. A person who weighs 16 stone and consumes 2000 calories a day whilst losing weight is not going to still need 2000 calories at 15 stone, or 12 stone etc.
Luckily the NHS BMI calculator is the perfect tool to not only tell you what your calorie limit is per day but will also adjust as your weight changes.
My recommendation is to reassess your calories after every 7lbs weight loss. The calculator gives you a range to stick to. For example: 1500 to 1850 calories a day. For me personally I recommend using the lowest figure for several reasons.
When I say 'Food Diary' I do not mean writing down what you eat every day. Although this IS very useful and helps keep you mindful of what you are consuming. By Food Diary I means
keep a plan of meals you enjoy and how many calories they are each. Most people rotate their meals over a couple of weeks with some regular meals popping up, like Roast on Sundays or Fish and Chip day on Fridays.
Knowing this you can do the math on all your favourite and regular meals. Just once! This saves you the hassle of calculating your meals all the time and is very handy for planning your shopping list for the week ahead. You can also adjust your calorie limit to suit your
lifestyle! If the NHS BMI calculator gave you a figure of 1520 calories per day you can multiply this by seven to get your weekly total. Then you can change it around a bit! For example: I like to eat more on the weekends and find it easier during the week with work to keep me busy to have less calories so on 1520 calories multiplied
by seven equals 10640 calories per week. Allocate 1810 calories for Saturday and Sunday. That leaves 7020 calories. Divide this by 5 days totals 1404 calories per day for Monday to Friday.
Alternatives are to use the 5:2 pattern, reducing your calories twice a week to a very low amount so you can have the extra on the other 5 days. Or cut it low just one day a week.
As your calorie allowance gets smaller it can be useful to cut the calories on one day a week, keeping your other days constant. If you began this journey with the 5:2 you will find this very easy to do!
In the beginning it is best to make small changes to your diet. For instance I found switching my bread (around 94 calories per slice) to a slice of Milk Roll (46 calories per slice) a great way to continue to have "bread". After a while you get used to the smaller size of milk roll. Then you can reintroduce a slice of bread. But use half a slice as 'one portion'. I really love the Warburtons Tiger Loaf. Half a slice is 47 calories (close enough to the milk roll but thick and tasty!). If you try to go straight to half a slice of normal bread you might find the temptation to use a whole slice hard to resist as you have not retrained your brain to accept smaller quantities. This is why its important to make small changes as you go. I also switched to low-sugar baked beans which are lower calories than regular. For the first few days it took a while to get used to the new taste. Now it is just normal for me and the 'regular' beans far too sweet. I must add I really do think if the food industry cut sugar slowly from our food we would adjust and not always want the sweeter foods. It is amazing how our taste buds quickly adapt. Now on to the absolute BEST bit! Regarding CHOCOLATE!
And I'm not talking about one square a day! As long as you stick within your calorie limit you can choose what you want to eat! However as chocolate is higher calories than some other choices it will mean you will have less overall food in your day. However if you started with the 5:2 diet you will already have retrained your mind to know real hunger and to know you can eat less and be just fine. And like with the bread, you can change your portion sizes so you CAN have what you love at a reasonable calorie level. Again, in the beginning your willpower may not be strong enough to only eat half a bar of chocolate which is why I advise making small changes as you go. The combination of exercise making you feel fitter, giving you feel good endorphins whilst also seeing the results of losing weight and inches all strengthen your willpower to the point where you really enjoy your food and can accept it in smaller quantities. Below is my TOP LIST of chocolate bars along with their calories. See how much easier they are to fit alongside your calorie allowance if halved? Which also means what you buy lasts you longer so you save in your pocket too! Its a win win!
| Chocolate | Calories per serving | Calories half serving |
|---|---|---|
| Twirl | 180 (2 fingers 34g) | 90 (1 finger 17g) |
| Cadbury Mint Aero | 143 (27g) | 71.5 (half 13.5g) |
| Double Decker | 250 (54g bar) | 125 (half 27g) |
| Toffee Crisp | 198 (38g) | 99 (half 19g) |
| Malteser Funsize | 98 | 49 |
| Crunchie | 149 32g | 74.5 (half 16g) |
| Curly Wurly | 118 26g | 59 (half 13g) |
| Mars Bar | 228 (51g) | 114 (half 25.5g) |
| Cadbury Flake | 171g (32g) | 85.5 (half 16g) |
| Cadbury Caramel Bar | 179 (49g) | 89.5 (half 24.5g) |
It is most certainly worth investing in a good digital scale. I recommend digital as the mechanical ones are too easy to misjudge if the little pointer is 'just over the 20g mark' and could easily be adding 20 calories extra onto your plate!
After a while you do get a good sense of what the correct portion sizes are but its always good to check in now and again to make sure your estimate hasn't crept up!
Secondly I recommend downloading a good app to record your daily food choices and maybe your exercises too. I use an App called FitBit to record my daily food intake and weight. I also input my exercise but I don't think it records calories burned
very accurately so I like to use MapMyFitness to record my exercises and then manually enter the information onto my FitBit App. Doing this means that calories burned is recorded as allowing you more calories to eat. However I do not recommend eating more calories. This function may be more useful once you reach
the stage of maintaining your weight.
Below are some links you might find interesting to read through!