HEALTHY EATING

A normal adult requires approximately 2,000 calories a day depending on your age, sex, size, metabolism, and activity. If you are consuming less than this you need to eat more.

Eating complex carbohydrates is the healthiest way to gain weight.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid, from the Harvard School of Public Health (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Successful weight loss requires you to change your eating habits and exercise more. The body uses twice as many calories to convert carbohydrates into body fat than it does to convert dietary fat. It is also much easier to over eat when you are eating fats, because they are not so fulfilling as eating carbohydrates and high fibre foods.

Fats also contain a high calorie value and are quickly consumed making it easy to put on weight when eating fatty or fried foods.

When you are dieting you should not loose more than 0.5 kg (1-2 pounds) of weight per week.

Avoid low calorie diets as these reduce your body metabolism. You also loose muscle tissue and strength.
Exercise may be aerobic or anaerobic both of which increase your metabolism. (the rate at which your body burns up calories and energy).

Aerobic exercise increases the heart beat and the amount of oxygen in the blood. This leads to an increase in energy and stamina. Anaerobic exercise such as weight lifting builds muscle bulk.

The more muscle you have relative to fat the faster your body burns energy. Anaerobic exercise also strengthens the bones.