Feature

One thing that really gets me is how millions of people spend billions of pounds on something that doesn’t work. Would you ever buy a car that could only get you halfway to work? So why do we spend loads of money on dieting?

Conventional and fad diets do not work long term and when you embark on one of these be it the Atkins, the G.I. or the South Beach Diet, they starve your body of essential nutrients which is damaging to the body. 60% of your Health and Fitness is accountable to your Nutrition.

The reason that most people embark on a diet is to lose weight. So first of all you need to understand whether you are already overweight or not. A better way to do this than just standing on a set of scales is to work out your BMI (Body Mass Index). Ideally you should be looking at a figure between 20 – 24.9.

In an ideal life we would graze on food throughout the day but due to our lifestyles and the society that we live in most people tend to eat 3 meals a day. Breakfast (the most important – skip this and your asking for trouble), lunch and dinner. If you feel hungry in between these the best thing you can do is eat fruit, nuts and drink water. Sometimes your body is not actually craving food but is dehydrated. If you are somebody that is always feeling hungry then you should try drinking a glass of water and waiting 10mins – you may find the hunger subsides which saves you piling on those unnecessary calories! You should aim to consume 2.5 litres of water a day if you are male and 2.0 if your female. If you do not currently do this, increasing your water intake by just 1 pint can actually increase your energy by 20%.

During your daily food intake you should be aiming to include foods from five food groups in order to meet your nutrient requirements.

• Bread, Cereals and potatoes.
• Fruits and vegetables.
• Milk and diary foods.
• Meat, fish and alternatives.
• Foods containing sugar and fat. (Only one!)
  

You can download a copy of the healthy eating food pyramid from www.team220fitness.com. If you can start to get the basics of your diet right then you are more than halfway along the road to looking and feeling great!