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Around two-thirds (63%) of adults are above a healthy weight, and of these, half are living with obesity. Obesity puts us at risk of a range of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, at least 12 kinds of cancer, liver and respiratory disease, COVID-19 and can impact mental health.
Obesity also puts pressure on our health service. It is estimated that overweight and obesity-related conditions across the UK cost the NHS £6.1 billion each year and there were nearly 900,000 obesity related hospital admissions from 2018 to 2019.
Better Health offers free evidence-based support and guidance to those working towards a healthier weight. There are a variety of free NHS endorsed apps which will help people introduce simple changes to help them eat better and get active, including the NHS Weight Loss Plan.
Better Health support tools and apps
The Better Health website (nhs.uk/BetterHealth) provides tools to help adults improve their health and lose weight including:
Weight Loss:
• NHS Weight Loss Plan app
Get more active:
• NHS Couch to 5K app
• NHS Active 10 app
Reduce alcohol intake:
• NHS Drink Free Days app
All the above apps are free and can be downloaded via the App Store or Google Play.
• 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.
• 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.