Healty Monday: What's The Best Way To Lose Weight In The New Year.

Avoid fads: eat healthily and exercise

Health experts answer your questions. This week: shedding that festive weight and choosing the best type of yoga.

Q: I have put on some weight over Christmas. What is the best way to lose it? I am wary of 'crash diets’, especially as the Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson has criticised the 'lose weight fast’ diets suggested by some women’s magazines in January.

C Hughes, London

A: Sara Stanner writes:


You are right to be wary. Although these diets can lead to weight loss initially, much of this will be water loss and weight is quickly regained. To lose a pound of body fat you need to eat 3,500 calories less than normal . As “normal” daily calorie intake is typically between 2,000 and 3,000 calories, claims about quick fat loss lead only to disappointment. Crash dieters tend to get into a cycle of “yo-yo” dieting and lose confidence in their ability to lose weight. If you just want to lose the extra Christmas pounds, you might try it for a couple of weeks, but it is not an option for long-term weight loss.p


We lose weight when we consume fewer calories than we burn, no matter what diet we’re on. Controlling your appetite is important: many people report feeling hungry to be one of the main reasons for abandoning a diet. The best way to do this is with foods that are low in fat, low in energy density, high in fibre and with high water content. This means lower-fat dairy products, leaner meats, wholegrain breads and cereals and plenty of fruit and veg. Protein keeps you feeling fuller for longer, and can help curb your appetite. Water or diet drinks are better than sugary or alcoholic beverages; eat breakfast, as well as regular meals.

Tony Gallagher writes:

Controlling weight in the long term should be tackled in an attainable and medically sound way. Physical activity has its part to play in this approach. It will probably be a big ask for you to both diet and initiate an exercise regime, but the two together are very effective.


Exercise will help you lose weight by raising your metabolism so that you burn more calories for several hours after you finish. Generally, vigorous exercise that increases your body temperature, and makes you sweat, will be most efficient. Some exercises with weights will help maintain muscle mass, thereby encouraging calories expenditure even more.

Online calculators for calorie expenditure, and exercise machines with calorie counters that take into account age, gender and weight, will help you be more accurate, though they may not be 100 per cent reliable.

Dan Rutherford writes:

Crash diets are very different to most people’s usual eating habits. By the end of the first week, boredom, hunger and ketosis often tempt you to abandon your New Year’s resolution. Some fast weight-loss programmes are little more than starvation diets, and although a short period of marked calorie restriction is unlikely to harm someone with no existing health issues, they are not safe for everyone. People with diabetes should be particularly careful as crash diets may lead to hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose) attacks. Headaches, nausea, fatigue and constipation are common early side effects of very low calorie diets. Inadequate protein, mineral and vitamin intake may also lead to muscle, bone and nerve problems as the weeks go by.

There are no ultra-fast ways to lose weight that are reliably safe for anyone to try, and many of the wilder claims are pure hokum. It’s much better to set realistic goals and timescales at the start and make small adjustments to your usual eating and activity patterns that you can live with. Reduced portion sizes, more “filling” food types and a modest but regular increase in activity levels can be surprisingly effective and do not need to be radical departures from your present lifestyle.

You are doing well if you can sustain a weight loss of one pound (0.5kg) per week, so look at the amount of weight you’d like to lose and do a bit of arithmetic to see how long this is likely to take if you want to give yourself the best chance of success.