1. Prioritise eating home-cooked meals

If you know exactly what is going into your meals you know exactly what calories you are having.  Buy a salad from a supermarket versus making your own, at least you know exactly what is in your dressing and can ensure there are no hidden calories in your food.

2. Make sure you do plenty of walking

People often ask me what steps they can take to lose weight and I usually tell them do exactly that, start walking more.  The average person in the UK takes three thousand steps a day.  The recommended amount is to walk five thousand steps.  Those additional two thousand steps a day will translate to an extra half kilo of fat loss every six weeks.  If that doesn’t sound like a lot to you that is nine kilos a year, or a stone and half!  All for an extra fifteen minutes of walking per day. 

3. Eat Plenty of fruit and vegetables

If you want to lose weight make fruit and vegetables, and especially vegetables, the core of your diet.  Not only are they full of vitamins and minerals but they taste great and are incredibly filling.  Increasing your consumption of fruit and vegetables are incredibly filling and will help ensure that you do not overeat.  Its very easy to consume three chocolate bars in one afternoon, try eating three whole broccolis.  That’s a calorie intake of 690 for the three chocolate bars versus 90 calories for the three heads of broccoli. 

4. Get seven to eight hours of sleep a night

That’s right, you can sleep your way to weight loss.  Getting adequate sleep ensures that you body is rested and your metabolism fully functions in the day ahead, meaning you burn body fat and have the energy to move as much as you intend too.  Short sleeping tends to lead the body to try to conserve energy for only essential functions.  Not only that but you tend to over eat and over consume caffeine in order to function, which has a big impact on weight loss.

5. Get your calories from whole, identifiable foods

Going back to the first point on this list, make sure your food comes from whole food sources.  Don’t buy anything pre-packaged or pre-made if possible, but try to buy foods you can cook and identify yourself. 

6. Make sure any exercise you do is something you enjoy

People tend to choose to do exercises they think will lose them the maximum amount of weight, rather than choosing to do exercise they actually enjoy.  Whilst in the short term this can benefit weight loss, in the long term it won’t sustain you, as any opportunity to drop your exercise programme will be taken.  It is better long term to attend five yoga classes a week and see a small but consistent weight loss as a result than hate running on the treadmill every day and see a big drop in weight in the first month but a desire to ditch it as soon as the first appointment conflict arises. 

7. Don’t forget the protein!

Eating high protein meals increases your thermic affect, meaning your metabolism burns a little bit more in order to process that protein.  Not only that but protein is vital for both repair and muscle building, helping you retain your muscle mass and keeping your body in working order, and also encouraging your body to spare muscle and burn body fat.