Best Way to Stay Slim without Starving

Wouldn’t you love to be able to eat large, appetising plates of food without piling on the pounds? Here’s how to stay svelte the healthy way.

Food is fuel, so deprivation ultimately means starvation. When you diet, not only are you starving your stomach of food, but you are also depriving every living cell in your body of nutrients; so forget about strict diets and obsessive calorie-counting. According to consultant dietician and health columnist Lyndel Costain, the best way to in which to stay slim or lose weight is to eat a healthy well-balanced diet rather than resorting to dieting: ‘If you tell yourself you’re on a diet, psychologically you will feel deprived and are more likely to crave bad foods and end up bingeing.’

Successful slimmers are usually those who develop their own strategies. Here are my strategies for success, together with key steps towards losing weight.

• Weight-loss strategies include: viewing weight-control as a long-term commitment and setting realistic goals; realising that there will be inevitable ups and downs; keeping a food diary to monitor your eating habits; building some extra activity into your schedule that you can keep up; avoiding using food for comfort and finding other ways with which to cope with stressful problems; eating more fruit and vegetables and lower-fat foods; and praising yourself for any successes.
• The basis for all these weight-loss strategies is that you, the individual, are in charge, so tailor them to suit yourself.
• Think long term and be realistic about how much weight to lose and how quickly. Use your food diary before making any lifestyle changes and then take them one at a time.

• If your weight starts creeping up, don’t panic: use the strategies listed in my first point to help you get back on track.
• Don’t think that you have to do it alone: success is more likely if you have support that suits you, for example, from a health professional, a responsible slimming group or publication, or a good friend or partner (people who are severely obese are always advised to seek medical advice).