Go to Work on an Egg!

Eggs score high on a scale called the ‘satiety index’ which measures the ability of foods to induce feelings of fullness and reduce subsequent calorie intake thanks to their richness in both protein and fat.

Fiona Kirk

Fiona Kirk

Top Tip: boil, scramble, poach or fry a couple in butter or coconut oil and have them with a deliciously-chewy thick slice of toasted and buttered sprouted grain bread before you head out the door.

Play Mighty Clever with Starch!

If it’s white, it’s generally not right! When grains are heavily-processed they are robbed of the bulk of their nutrients and fibre, making their starch (which is basically just bundled up sugars) quickly digested and absorbed causing rapid blood sugar highs which are all too speedily followed by blood sugar lows, leading to us becoming hungry again and looking for more food which is absolutely not what we want or need when we are trying to lose weight.

Top Tip: eat starchy carbohydrates in as natural a state as possible, but don’t allow them to dominate any meal or snack - treat them as a ‘side’ and have no more than 2 small portions per day. And steer clear of foods made with white flour (bread, rolls, bagels, wraps, pasta, cakes, pastries, biscuits etc) plus processed breakfast cereals, crisps and other salty snacks.

Drink Water Before Meals and Snacks

Getting into the habit of drinking a glassful of water before we eat helps to ensure we stay well-hydrated throughout the day and generally means we eat less food at one sitting. Try it!

Top Tip: have a glass or small bottle of water around 10 minutes before you dig in to your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

Step Away from the Fizz!

Current findings indicate that whilst all sugars trigger enhanced activity within the brain’s pleasure centres, artificial sugars provide less satisfaction so we tend to crave more of them and more sugar in general.

Top Tip: get both full sugar and diet drinks out of your life and if you are looking for a ‘bit of fizz’, stick to sparkling water with added fresh fruits, vegetables and/or herbs, top up freshly-made then chilled teas or fresh juices and smoothies with sparkling water and perhaps have an occasional glass of natural brut or extra brut champagne, prosecco or cava after a long day (there is only around a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar in a glass!)

Lunch on Lentils and Beans

When it comes to successful fat loss, non-digestible (or resistant) starch is a real winner and the easiest foods rich in this variety of starch to fit into a straightforward and easy-to-manage diet are legumes - beans, lentils, split peas and chickpeas. They encourage a fabulous phenomenon known as second meal effect where the insulin response is controlled for hours afterwards resulting in us eating less at our next meal.

Top Tip: have lentil and bean soups and/or salads for lunch and snack on hummus or dhal with raw vegetable sticks.

Love Your Curries!

The regular inclusion of pungent herbs and hot spices in our meals and snacks provides us with a neat little advantage on the fat burning front courtesy of their ability to turn our metabolic rate up a notch or two so if you ‘like it hot’, go for it! Chillies and their extracts are particularly noted.

Top Tip: add herbs and spices to your dishes when cooking, get familiar with the dry and spicy options at your favourite takeaway place, have plenty of vegetable dishes on the side and body swerve the rice, noodles, naans, chapatis and parathas.

Pack in the Protein

The debate about how much, how often and best sources rages on when it comes to protein but an increasing number of studies indicate that a higher protein intake (between 1.8g and 2.4g per kg of desired bodyweight) coupled with a balanced and healthy weight loss diet and relatively strenuous exercise most days results in both a greater increase in lean body mass and the loss of more fat than similar programmes providing less protein (0.8g - 1.2g per kg of desired bodyweight).

Top Tip: work out the maths to determine how much protein you should aim for in a day, have protein with every meal and snack and if you suspect you may be short some days, add a good quality protein powder to a juice or smoothie.

Feel Fuller Faster with Fats

Stop fearing them and start loving them - they don’t make us sick and fat! Both naturally-occurring saturated and unsaturated fats boost our energy levels, balance our hormones, keep our skin, hair and nails healthy, reduce our risk of mental decline, derail hunger and cravings, aid liver detoxification, strengthen bones and muscles, boost our immunity against disease and enhance mood and concentration. And… because they are filling and encourage the action of certain fat burning enzymes, current findings indicate that they play a meaningful role in accelerating fat loss!

Top Tip: have a little butter on your vegetables, a little cheese as part of a snack, a dash of cream in your coffee, natural yoghurt on your fruit, snack on avocados, add nuts and seeds and their oils and butters to salads, dressings and smoothies, eat oily fish 3 times a week and use coconut, olive and avocado oil in cooking. Important: avoid cheap oils in large, clear plastic bottles plus processed, fast and junk foods made with these health-threatening hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils.

Have a Soup and Juice Day

Give your digestion a bit of time out and hike the fat burning up a little by concentrating on nourishing broths and juices a couple days each week. This tactic also presents your liver with an opportunity to crack on with processing and eliminating the toxic waste that may have built up over time and enable it to spend a little more time on its metabolism-boosting and fat-burning chores!

Top Tip: prepare ahead, have your soups made and portioned, have the ingredients for your juices to hand and don’t pick a day when your timetable is crazy-busy.

The Hot Topic of Vitamin D

There is increasing evidence that one of the many reasons rather too many of us in the northern hemisphere are piling on the pounds is because we are deficient in vitamin D, a pro-hormone that we make within the body in the presence of sunlight. It’s not easy to get sufficient levels of this vitamin through our diet but getting outdoors for as long as time allows between the hours of 11am and 2pm, bearing as much flesh as is respectable can make a meaningful difference.

Top Tip: don’t ‘lunch at the desk’ - get out there, have a brisk walk and lunch on a bench!

For more details on how to make further invaluable changes to your eating, shopping, cooking and sleeping habits and lose up to 10 pounds in just 14 days, see nutritionist and fat loss mentor Fiona Kirk’s New 2 Weeks in the Fast Lane Diet. See www.fionakirk.com for stockists.