What is energy balance?
Simple. It's when energy intake (food) equals energy used by the body. This balance is vital for weight management. Consume more energy than your body needs and the excess gets stored as fat. Use more energy than is consumed and your body starts to burn these stored reserves and weight starts coming off.
How much energy do we need?
The energy we need depends on many factors but the main ones are body size and daily physical activity. As a general rule, men should consume 2 500 kcal a day, and for women is 2 000 kcal.- Fat provides 9 kcal per gram
- Carbohydrate provides 4 kcal per gram
- Protein provides 4 kcal per gram
- Alcohol provides 7 kcal per gram
The body burns energy from alcohol in preference to energy from fat – so drinking a lot of alcohol leads to a greater amount of fat being stored!
Fill up the right way
The energy density of a food portion is the energy (kcal) it provides, divided by its weight. Generally foods that contain a lot of fat (and sugar) have a higher energy density than low-fat (and low-sugar) foods. One apple (100g) provides approximately 50 kcal. But the same amount of hard cheese provides a whopping 416 kcal. And if you ate just 50 kcal more than you need every day you would gain approximately 1 kg in just six months.
Take regular exercise
Regular physical activity is a cornerstone of good health. It helps provide a number of health benefits such as maintaining a healthy heart, increasing bone density, preventing weight gain and improving mental health.
Divide & run
Most expert bodies recommend that adults take a minimum of 30 minutes a day of moderate-intensity exercise on five or more days of the week. Splitting this into two 15 minutes, or three lots of 10 minutes over the day is just as beneficial for most of the positive health benefits.
Brisk walking in and easy way of hitting your exercise target - why not use the stairs instead of the lift, or walk to the shops instead of using the car? Pedometers are a fun way of counting steps.
