Adult Obesity – January 2023 – to Help You to loose weight

Key messages

General

• Over 3 in 5 adults (63% of adult population) are at an increased risk from serious diseases as a result of being overweight or living with obesity 

• The NHS has identified six benefits with losing weight: decreased risk of common cancers, heart disease and developing diabetes, lowered risk of increased blood pressure, less strain from chronic back and joint pain and decreased risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID-19.

• Better Health has a range of tools to help you make changes to improve your health, including the NHS Weight Loss Plan app, to support people on their weight loss journey. 

• The Weight Loss Plan has been proven to help people lose 5.8kg on average over just 12 weeks. 

• Better Health is working in partnership with a number of weight management and physical activity partners who are providing both free and special discounted offers. 

• every day can help people to lose weight and feel healthier. 

Call to action

• Search ‘Better Health’ or visit nhs.uk/BetterHealth for free tools and support to start leading a healthier lifestyle today. 

• If you want to lose weight, eat better or get active, Better Health has lots of free help and support to get you started. Search ‘Better Health’ today. Let’s do this! 

Nutrition

• If you’re trying to lose weight: for a man, aim for a maximum of 400 calories at breakfast and 600 for lunch and dinner (plus drinks and a couple of healthy veg and fruit-based snacks in-between). For women, this is around 300 calories at breakfast and 400 at lunch and dinner.  

• Try to aim for around 1,400 calories a day if you’re a woman and around 1,900kcals if you’re a man.  

• Snack less – no more than twice a day – and go for veg based ones. If you’re having packaged snacks go for those with around 100 calories and stick to two a day max. 

• Check the ‘traffic light’ labels and go for foods and drinks with more greens and ambers and less reds. 

• When it comes to fruit and veg – the more the better! Get your 5 A Day. They’re low in calories.  

Physical Activity

• When it comes to exercise, some is good, but more is better still – the more time you are active, the greater the health benefits. Remember every minute counts! 

• It is never too late to get active to improve your health, so start small and build up starting from 10 minutes of brisk walking a day.