1.Be psychologically ready to make the changes required – My research indicates that unless you are psychologically in the ‘Action’ stage of change then your attempts will be futile. Sit down and compose a list of compelling reasons why you need to change. Set realistic goals and visualize how you will look and feel when you lose the weight. You really need to get a sense of this feeling and be able to return to it whenever you are tempted to stray.
2.Eating Breakfast – has been shown in a number of studies to be a key element of a successful weight loss programme. What is more important is that it is also a key element of weight maintenance. We are very good at losing weight, but we are useless at keeping it off. Breakfast kick starts your metabolism for the day and lifts your energy levels. Breakfast cereal is also a really important source of B vitamins, vital for energy turnover.
3.Eating regularly – This may sound counter intuitive, but in fact it is very important. Three meals a day was born out of necessity but in fact the research evidence indicates that five to six smaller meals a day is actually better for weight management. Nutritionists refer to this as grazing (eating little portions –regularly). This type of meal profile, using the correct types of foods (predominately low glycaemic index), gives a better blood sugar profile. This dampens down the appetite drive and is more sustainable. This way of eating is also beneficial from a health perspective. Everything eaten has to come within your overall energy intake requirements though (you have been warned!!). See point five below regarding energy balance.
4.Try to include a source of protein with each meal – this has a high satiety value (makes you feel full) and clearly that is beneficial. Try to select low fat protein options or the fat content in the diet can get out of hand. The other big benefit of protein is its high thermogenic effect. Twenty-five percent (or more) of the kcal from protein are utilised in the act of ingesting, digesting and metabolising protein. So you are ahead of the game before you start.
5.Try to get a negative balance between kcal eaten with energy expended – this should be the foundation of any weight management program. If you haven’t got a negative energy balance, in other words more energy going out, than is coming in then you will never reduce your fat stores. Ideally you should achieve this deficit by increasing your output (get more active) and slightly decreasing your input (eat less). There are a number of factors that influence both sides of the equation, but they are too complex to cover in this article.

A segment that aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday features comments from a few experts who think sugar could contribute to the development of many serious health problems, including heart disease and cancer.

The primary source for the segment—Dr. Robert Lustig, a California endocrinologist—points out that sugar consumption has been on the rise since the 1970s, when the public was advised to cut down on fatty foods. “Take the fat out of food, it tastes like cardboard,” Lustig says. “And the food industry knew that. So they replaced it with sugar.” Since then, rates of heart disease and diabetes have steadily increased.

A study that’s currently taking place, led by Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, may tell us why: Excessive sugar consumption seems to cause a chain reaction that elevates levels of small dense LDL—the worst kind of cholesterol—in the bloodstream. This type of cholesterol binds to vessel walls and can cause blockages.

Sugar may affect a person’s cancer risk, too. Lewis Cantley, a Harvard professor and the head of the Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, says the insulin spikes caused by sugar ingestion could cause certain types of cancerous tumors to grow. Nearly one third of common cancers—among them, breast and colon cancers—have insulin receptors, and when they’re hit with insulin, the tumor is stimulated to consume glucose.

So what does this mean? The experts in the 60 Minutes segment recommend cutting back drastically on sugar, or even avoiding it altogether. The second option may not be practical for long-distance runners, who need to replenish energy stores to complete their workouts.

If you’re in need of immediate energy (i.e., in the middle of a long run) when you consume sugar, your body will convert it into energy instead of beginning the chain reaction that elevates bad cholesterol levels.

But when you’re just lounging around, it is likely best to follow the experts’ advice. Check out these tips from our nutrition editor, Joanna Golub, on how to determine whether what you’re about to eat is loaded with potentially hazardous added sugars.