GP Sessions: Healthy Eating and Exercise

Dr Lisa Anderson explains how to ensure those New Year’s resolutions begin well and last well into 2012.

Many of us will overindulge over the festive season and been making promises about diets starting 1 January. Some of us will choose to join slimming clubs, or try one of the diets in the press and others will simply try on their own. Below are the essential facts you need to know.

• The best way to reduce weight is to eat sensibly and ensure adequate exercise. Weight loss is achieved by reducing calorie intake and burning off more calories than you eat.

• It is important to understand the nutritional composition of food –what has high carbohydrate, what are low GI and high GI foods, what has a high fat content and what is healthy to eat, and not forgetting of course, your five a day fruit and vegetables.

• Exercise should be regular and the advice is three to five 20-30 minute periods of exercise per week. For those unable to use a gym, a fast walk is a great start. In the gym it is perfectly OK for the intensity to be in the fat–burning range, rather than the cardio range.

• Alcohol intake is increasingly important as not only is alcohol high in calories but continued overuse leads to liver disease.

• Be aware of your body mass index (BMI); it is calculated by dividing your weight in kg by your height in metres
squared. A healthy adult’s BMI will range between 20 – 25.

If you have overindulged, or simply want to get into shape for the New Year, there is plenty of help at hand.