The balance between calorie intake and expenditure is crucial in gaining, losing or maintaining weight. Slimming plans work by creating a negative balance, or energy deficit, between the calories we take in as food, and the energy we expend in everyday living.

Creating a diet plan
Controlling our energy intake by counting the calories in everything we eat and drink Is an extremely logical way to approach the business of losing weight and, moreover, this type of diet is based on sound science.

Calorie counting is also a way of creating a personalized diet plan that is tailored to how much weight you have to lose and how fast you want to lose It. You can do this by calculating your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and working out how many calories you need each day to lose around 1 lb to alb a week.

Because calorie counting is flexible, you can also ensure that you include your favourite foods in your plan, and It is suitable for people with specific dietary requirements, such as vegetarians. Shopping for a calorie-counting diet is easy as nearly all packaged foods have calorie values on the label and reduced-calorie versions of many branded foods are available.

Problems with calorie counting
Nonetheless, many people find it difficult to stick to calorie-counting diets. One reason is that it is essential to know the calorie value of everything that is eaten or drunk throughout the day, but this can involve a lot of weighing and measuring, which is both time-consuming and difficult to fit in with everyday life. It is also important to plan carefully in order to ensure that the daily calorie allowance includes all the nutrients that are needed for a balanced diet, and that there are enough low-calorie, filling foods to prevent you getting hungry through the day. It would be perfectly possible to lose weight by eating only 1,200 calories' worth of chocolate digestives every day (about 13 biscuits), but this would obviously be nutritionally unwise and very difficult to sustain.

Calorie counting can also become oppressive and can lead to unhelpful feelings about food, such as categorizing certain foods as 'good' or 'bad' depending on their calorie content, feeling guilty about exceeding the daily permissible calorie allowance, or craving high-calorie foods that are limited on the diet plan. Based on sound science, Diets can be personalized to individual tastes. No foods are banned or are compulsory.

Learning calorie values helps to build awareness of serving sizes and nutrition. Diets are not automatically nutritionally balanced. Requires planning and organization, Can feel restrictive.

Sample diet plan:

Breakfast
8^ 28 g bran flakes (go cals) 100 ml skimmed milk (35 cals);   Medium banana (no cals)

Lunch
 50 % lean roast beef (75 cals)
 Lettuce and tomato slices £»- 1 tsp low-fat spread (35 cals)
 2 slices wholemeal bread from 400 g loaf (160 cals)
 25 g packet low-fat crisps (120 cals)
 Medium apple (45 cals) Supper
 100 g poached salmon fillet (200 cals)
 200 gjacket potato (160 cals)
 1 tbsp reduced-calorie mayonnaise (50 cals)
 225 g steamed broccoli and carrots (80 cals) P- Fruit salad: 1 apple (45 cals), 50 g strawberries (20 cals), 28 g grapes (17 cals)
125 g pot virtually fat free toffee yogurt (65 cals)

Drinks
Water, diet cola, tea and coffee with 500 ml skimmed milk (175 cals)

Snack
2 Rich Tea biscuits (90 cals) Total calories per day: 1,572

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