Mikey Moon's health and fitness column: Making lighter work of losing weight

Getting your head around nutrition can be quite tough sometimes.

Ultimately your nutrition plans will be completely tailored to what you want to achieve from them.

If losing weight is your goal you need to be in a calorie deficit.

Dress this up however you like, but if you want to lose weight you need to eat less.

However, this is where the difference comes in.

Eating less is quite easy but your food choices are quite important here.

When designing a meal plan, you want to be able to eat as much food as possible.

This will increase your satisfaction, your performance and your mood.

So while you can eat a takeaway and still be in a deficit, you need to think about the volume of food you are getting in that.

The easiest way is to get 95 per cent of your weekly food from single-ingredient foods, such as lean cuts of protein, vegetables, carbohydrates etc.

Then you have five per cent of your weekly food to play your adult card.

This is where you can have a little bit of what you like now and then.

This helps you to stay motivated and also makes the process a little more enjoyable.

Following this method will get you beach lean quite easily.

Let’s say you have 35 meals per week, that’s five per day including snacks.

It means that for two of these meals you can have a little bit of what you fancy, such as swapping a snack for a chocolate bar.

If you follow this method for six to eight weeks you will lose weight and get in shape, no question.

Give it a try from now until the gyms open in seven weeks and see if it works for you.

Fortitude Fitness is on the Poulton Industrial Estate, Beacon Road. Visit www.fortitudefit.co.uk for more details