The final push

The last few pounds are always the most difficult to shift. Ask yourself if you really need to lose them. Not every one is born to be superslim, we all have a natural weight that suits our body and as long as your Body Mass Index (BMI) is within the normal range of 20-25, obsessing over a few pounds that you probably don't even need to lose will just make you miserable.

If you are trying to lose a few pounds to achieve a BMI within the healthy range, rather than cut back on food, step up your exercise. Reducing your diet too much can mean you miss out on important nutrients vital to good health.

While this might not be drastic enough to cause a deficiency, poor intakes of a nutrient can affect health in the long-term and increase your risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer or osteoporosis. In the short-term, poor intakes of nutrients can affect your well-being, making you feel tired, lethargic and ‘out of sorts'.

Shopping and cooking tips 

Once you have lost weight, follow these simple shopping and cooking tips to help keep you on track and stop you putting it back on again.

Look for some of the following when shopping:

• Wholegrain, wholemeal and granary breads for sandwiches and toast.
• Speciality uncut breads (such as those with poppy seeds, olives or sundried tomatoes) to make lunches more interesting.
• Crispbreads, matzos and low fat crackers.
• Bagels, teacakes, crumpets, pikelets raisin bread and English muffins instead of croissants and American muffins.
• Scones, fruit buns, fruit breads and malt loafs instead of cakes and biscuits.
• Wholegrain, unsugared breakfast cereals, unsweetened muesli.
• Low fat oven chips.
• Large varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables, including salad vegetables (with lower fat dressings).
• Wide variety of frozen fruit (such as berries) and frozen vegetables (single or mixed, for stir-frys and casseroles).
• Fruit canned in natural juice or vacuum packed rather than canned in syrup or sweetened with sugar.
• Pure fruit juices with no added sugar.
• Dried fruits, e.g. sultanas, apricots, prunes, raisins, dates, figs.
• Canned vegetables e.g. green beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn.
• Dried vegetables, e.g. sundried tomatoes.
• Lower fat cheeses for sandwiches e.g. cottage cheese, low fat soft cheese, Edam, Feta, Camembert, St Paulin, Petit Suisse, mozzarella, reduced and half fat hard cheese and spreads.
• Reduced fat crème fraîche or very low fat fromage frais.
• Reduced calorie mayonnaise or dressings based on low fat yoghurt or fromage frais, instead of cream.
• Plain low fat yoghurts, quark or fromage frais as alternatives to double cream.
• Low fat plain yoghurt for cooking or low fat fruited yoghurt for desserts.
• Low fat Greek yoghurt in place of sour cream, e.g. for dips.
• Plain yoghurt or lower fat fromage frais for dips, dressings and dessert toppings.
• Lower fat milk (e.g. skimmed or semi-skimmed).
• Leaner cuts of red meat (e.g. beef, pork, lamb, venison).
• Low fat, reduced salt processed meats (e.g. ham, bacon).
• Skinless poultry (e.g. chicken, turkey).
• Fresh and frozen fish and seafood.
• Oily fish (e.g. herring, mackerel, salmon, fresh tuna, trout, sardines)
• Fish (e.g. tuna, salmon, sardines, pilchards) canned in water, tomato sauce or brine, rather than oil.
• Meat substitutes - tofu, textured vegetable protein and mycoprotein.
• Dried or canned peas or beans (e.g. red kidney beans, black-eyed beans, butter beans, haricot beans, flageolet beans, split peas, chick peas) canned in tomato sauce or water.
• Lentils.

When cooking and preparing food, try the following:

• Trim visible fat from meat
• Remove the skin and fat from poultry before cooking or serving.
• Prepare lower fat vinaigrette dressing using 3 parts wine vinegar, orange juice or lemon juice to 1 part olive oil.
• Grill, steam, stir-fry or oven bake rather than fry or roast with added fat.
• Use a non-stick frying pan whenever possible.
• Use spray oils.
• Dry fry or dry roast spices.
• Skim fat from the surfaces of liquids, including gravy, before serving.
• Sweat onions in cling film in a microwave instead of sautéing in oil.
• Avoid letting food sit in fat when roasting or oven cooking by roasting on a rack or trivet and grilling on a rack, rather than a flat oven tray (keep basting to a minimum).
• Create soups and sauces from pureed vegetables or reductions, instead of roux thickening.
• Use a whisked sponge method or mix for puddings, instead of the creamed method.
• Do not toss food in butter, e.g. pasta (use a small amount of oil to prevent sticking for bulk quantities.
• Use fromage frais, quark or plain yoghurt in dishes in place of part or all of cream (take care not to alter the taste or appearance of the dish by experimenting first, e.g. adding cornflour or riceflour to yoghurt will help prevent the mixture from separating on cooling).
• Use reduced calorie mayonnaise in dressings or dilute with yoghurt.
• Use a smaller amount of strong tasting cheese, such as strong Cheddar or parmesan, in cooking (e.g. in sauces).
• Use reduced fat cheeses in sandwiches.
• Grate cheese for use in salads, sandwiches and fillings so that less is required.
• Use reduced sugar recipes where suitable.
• Use dried fruit and fresh fruit to sweeten dishes.
• Poach fruits in unsweetened fruit juice.
• Use low fat spreads for spreading and/or margarines rich in unsaturates for spreading and cooking.
• Use coconut milk in place of creamed coconut for flavouring in curries.
• Use reduced fat mayonnaise and dressings.