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Keep your Shape

We are encouraged to keep our weight down for reasons of health. I like this recent message that bombards us from the media because it is a great aid to those of us who fight the flab. We can hide our vanity under our halo, tut- tut and dispense advice to our more corpulent friends. You see we are safe in the knowledge that we will be thanked rather than hailed as diet bores, which fundamentally is what I have been for most of my life.

Don’t get me wrong I do not and never have followed fad regimes which offer a miracle cure or short cut. No, my life has been one long calorie count, old fashioned you might say but you know what, it works and it’s certainly not been a boring existence. If you count your calories you can over-indulge whenever you wish just as long as you cut back for a while after. The cutting back time is closely linked to the extent of the indulgence so you soon learn to keep a treat to exactly what the word means and not extend it to an allowance.  

I have been about the same weight for over 40 years and during that time I have picked up many helpful facts and figures. Here are a few that you might find interesting, I can’t vouch for their scientific pedigree but I find them helpful.

· Men need around 3,000 calories and women around 2,000 each day to keep the status quo.

· One pound in weight is about 1500 calories so if you are tempted into eating say, a slice of carrot cake it will probably cost you around 750 calories meaning you are well on your way to gaining a pound.

· A one hour session of fast aerobics uses up around 400 calories so don’t kid yourself that you will walk off the carrot cake on the way back from the bakery.

· It takes your brain at least 5 minutes to register that you are full so take a breather after your main course before reaching for the pudding. Chances are you will not eat such a big desert.

· Sweet items like chocolate are mostly digested on the tongue this takes longer for the brain to understand that you have had enough: hence the propensity to eat one choc after the other. The craving for one more sweet can be quashed by drinking a herbal tea which seems to slow down the sugar craving taste buds.

Getting interested? Now you need to know the calorie content of your food so either buy yourself a good calorie guide or download one from the internet. If nothing else I am pretty sure you will find the contents a revelation.

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It is a fact that humans are designed to eat when food is available in order to build up a fat reserve for when it is not. This is why we see or smell food and want it. This fat reserve was probably very attractive in the Stone Age when we were chosen as mates for our potential to withstand winters without central heating and warm clothes. Further as life expectancy was frequently cut short by sabre tooth tigers and the like our hearts did not have to carry on beating for decades.  Bearing this in mind it is not surprising, once you start to count calories how many are just superfluous.

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There’s no need to put on weight at Christmas - or any other rime of year- says Pippa Price, and here’s how to control it.