For decades we have been obsessed by calories. Would-be slimmers have been fed diet after diet with fancy names and fancy formulas, and nearly all with one thing in common - they cut calorie intake down to around 1,000 a day. While for some lucky or highly motivated slimmers, they do the trick, for most of us they seem to work for a while - then the diet is over & the lost weight piles right back on.

Very few of those wonder diet authors ever mention the word "exercise". Only recently are the more enlightened experts beginning to take stock of the slimming business, and realise that there is rather more to it than merely cutting calories to a subsistence level, a struggle that will defeat many a slimmer for very sound biological reasons. We will discuss this further on. Instead, attention has turned to the calories we use both in running the body - in digestion, heat, respiration, and numerous other inner functions which together decide our metabolic rate and our level of activity. Experts are also looking at why fat people get fat. Heredity, allergy and pollution of both food and the environment are all implicated. But also fat people move less.

The in-built inertia
It has been recognised for some time that obese people are highly efficient at "conserving their energies" which is a way of saying they are lazy. "Obese people are sluggish because of their faulty body mechanics and find it difficult to overcome their 'in - built inertia'. This creates a vicious circle, because the quicker they tire the less exercise they want to take, and the less exercise they take the fatter they become...."

This is what happens when a overweight person diets on 1,000 calories a day without exercise:-

There will be an initial loss of carbohydrate - the energy fuel stored in the muscles and liver - and water. Then the body will turn to its lean muscle tissue for fuel - on the basis that if you are not using it, you don't need it - as well as to its fat stores.

The loss of carbohydrate energy leads to feelings of hunger and tiredness, making you even less active.

You begin to burn calories slower because you now have less muscle to fuel, and also because your body sees a diet as starvation and begins to conserve its energies accordingly.

The body's response to starvation may be the reason for those well-known binges and cravings suffered by slimmers.

Eventually you are burning calories so slowly, you may hit a "plateau" and stop losing weight. The body has simply adapted to your restricted calorie intake, and when you stop dieting, and begin to eat normally again, you regain weight very quickly because your body has become used to running on less.

Worse, because you are not exercising the weight you regain will be in the form of fat, not lean tissue - so you could end up with proportionately more fat and less muscle tissue that you had before. But do not panic, there is a way out of this vicious circle.

In one study, a sample of overweight people chose to lose weight either by reducing their calories intake by 500 a day or by using an extra 500 calories of energy a day by walking. At the end of 16 weeks, both groups had lost similar amounts of weight, but tests revealed that the "dieters" had lost more muscle and less fat: while the exercisers had lost more fat and less muscle. The latter group had therefore ended up with a healthier fat to muscle ratio which also increased their calorie burning efficiency.

Yet another recent study revealed that dieters who also exercised lost and kept off an average of 20 lb over a year while another group who dieted without exercise had regained most of their lost weight at the end of the year. Regular exercise prevents that loss of "active" muscle tissue during a diet, and keeps your metabolic machinery (the rate at which you burn calories) on "high" as well. Even after exercise it appears that metabolism may be speeded up by as much as 25% for about 12 hours afterwards, and by 10% for up to two days afterwards. So daily, or every other day, exercise will keep your metabolism revved up.

BOOSTING OXYGEN SUPPLY
Exercise also boosts the supply of oxygen to the body. Cells need oxygen for efficient fat burning. The body's ability to take in and use oxygen declines at the rate of about 1% a year after the age of 30, leading to a lowered metabolic rate and hence a gradual accumulation of excess fat, but exercise can help counteract this decline.

All activity burns calories, of course, but the best activity for fat loss is the kind that raises your heart rate and makes you a bit breathless. That means constant, rhythmic exercises that use the large muscle groups of the body, in other words, aerobic exercise, walking, running, swimming, cycling and many others.

A healthy long-term diet then, must include regular exercise as part of the strategy.

To lose weight slowly but steadily and to boost health and fitness your diet should follows this plan:

1. Cut back food calories to between 1,200 and 1,500 a day  -  less than that and you risk inactivity caused by extreme tiredness and depressed metabolism.
2. Concentrate on healthy foods, as fresh and natural as possible.
3. Cut down on fat, sugar and salt.
4. Avoid processed foods and try to eliminate artificial additives - these and other toxins may encourage the body to make fat.
5. Take some aerobic exercise 4/5 times a week for at least 40 minutes each time. Try not to go more than two consecutive days without exercise. Research shows that slimmers who exercise 4/5 times a week can lose weight up to three times faster than those who exercise only three times a week.
6. Become more active generally. All types of exercise burn calories and contribute to weight loss.

YOU MAY CHOOSE 4 - 5 ITEMS EACH DAY TO FORMULATE YOUR DIET (EACH ITEM APPROX. 200-225 CALORIES)

1. 4 pieces fresh fruit or 1 pint unsweetened fruit juice ( 5floz. fruit juice = 1 piece fruit).
2. 2oz whole grain cereal (unsweetened muesli, bran flakes, All Bran) or porridge oats or 3 Weetabix/shredded wheat. (Use milk from daily allowance, referred to on last page)
3. 1 small carton of natural low fat yoghurt plus 1 piece fresh fruit plus 1 slice wholemeal bread OR 2 pieces fruit chopped with 1 small carton natural yoghurt.
4. 3oz Wholemeal bread/granary/whole grain = 3 medium slices.
5. 2 slices bread (wholemeal) plus an egg poached, scrambled or boiled.
6. 2 slices wholemeal bread/toast with small amount low fat spread and 1oz pure fruit spread or low sugar jam.
7. 1 slice wholemeal bread/toast with 1oz hard cheese.
8. 1 slice wholemeal bread/toast with 2 well grilled lean bacon slices and grilled tomatoes.
9. 1 slice wholemeal bread/toast with Marmite and 4oz cottage cheese.
10. Packet of 'cup a soup' with 1 slice of wholemeal bread/toast and a small amount of low fat spread.
11. 10oz can of "weight watchers" soup with 1 slice of bread.
12. 1 slice of bread (wholemeal) with 2oz of sardines in brine.
13. 1 slice of wholemeal toast with 1oz pate.
14. A wholemeal roll filled with:
    
    • boiled egg with low calorie mayonnaise
    • 1.5oz lean meat
    • 2oz chicken/turkey
    • 1/2oz cheddar cheese
    • 3/4oz brie/Edam/Gouda
    • 1oz sardines in tomato sauce or brine
15. 6oz jacket potato filled with:-
    
    • 1/2oz grated hard cheese plus teaspoon pickle
    • 1.5 oz lean chicken plus tsp low calorie mayonnaise
    • 1oz lean ham plus 1oz sweetcorn
    • 3oz cottage cheese
    • 1/2 small tin tuna (3.5oz) in brine plus tsp low calorie mayonnaise
    • 2oz prawns plus tsp low calorie mayonnaise
    • 3oz baked beans
    • 5oz pot low fat natural yoghurt with mint/chives and cucumber
    • 4oz low calorie coleslaw
16. 3oz lean meat (cooked without fat)
17. 5oz chicken (no skin and without bone)
18. 7oz white fish grilled/steamed/poached
19. 1.5oz lean meat OR 2.5oz chicken OR 3.5oz fish cooked in sauce made from tin tomatoes, small onion and tsp Italian herbs (with no fat or oil) served with 1.5oz (uncooked weight) of pasta or brown rice .
20. 20.  1.5oz (uncooked weight) pasta in a sauce consisting of a small tin of Italian tomatoes, small onion, half a pepper with 1oz grated cheese on top.
21. An omelette made from 2 eggs (size 3) and 1/2 oz hard cheese, filled with 2oz mushrooms, small onion, half a pepper and 2 small tomatoes.
22. Pre-prepared meals i.e. "Lean Cuisine"
23. 1oz hard cheese plus 2 crackers OR 2oz hard cheese on its own.
24. 4oz pot cottage cheese plus 4 crispbreads
25. 1 fruit yoghurt plus 1 piece of fruit OR 2 low calorie yoghurts plus 2 pieces fruit.
26. 5oz boiled or baked potato

JUST A TREAT

1. 1.5oz nuts
2. 3 plain Digestives OR 7 rich tea biscuits
3. 7 large wafer biscuits OR 8 crispbreads
4. 40gm bar of chocolate e.g. Cadburys flake
5. Alcohol  -
   2 glasses of wine or
   2 spirits with low calorie mixer or
   1 pint of beer or cider.

DAILY ALLOWANCE - EACH DAY YOU MAY HAVE

• Green vegetables and salad
• 1/2 oz low fat spread (no more than 4 oz per week)
• Up to 1/2 pint skimmed milk
• Low calorie drinks tea/coffee/Bovril/Marmite/Perrier