No matter what kind of diet you follow, you will have to consume fewer calories than you burn off. Easy to say and more difficult to do, so this book covers the theory, the planning and living with a low-calorie diet, complete with recipes and detailed information on the nutritional values of many foods. Whatever the diet, controlling calories is the key to long-term success. You have to consume fewer calories than you burn off before your body will shed some of its fat stores. Other diets that restrict your intake of carbs or fats, or provide complex equations about the ratio of one food group to another, will only work if you end up consuming fewer calories. The book covers the following topics in that helpful, supporting style that is the hallmark of the Need to Know series, also reflected in the companion volume, Need to Know GI + GL, produced by the same team: · How are calories burned? Burning calories through exercise. Finding your own RMR. The dangers of cutting down too drastically.

· Methods of measuring BMI, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio and so forth. Finding your ideal weight. Working out how many calories you will be able to consume during the weight-loss and maintenance phases of your diet. · Components of a healthy diet - nutrients that you have to include in your diet on a daily and weekly basis. The importance of portion control. · Some sample menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, divided into categories depending on their calorie count. · Becoming calorie-aware: once you understand the basics, you shouldn't have to sit with pen, paper and calculator every evening figuring out if you have 100 spare calories for a glass of wine, but at the beginning you are advised to note everything down. · Some low-cal recipes, including the 'lite' version of certain household favourites.

Including: roasted vegetable lasagne, Thai green chicken curry, teriyaki beef, trout with almonds, wild mushroom risotto, low-cal fish and chips, and some tasty low-cal desserts. · Ways of introducing more activity into your day-to-day life. Exercises for the desk-bound. Motivating yourself to do more sports. · Listings - the nutritional composition of basic, non-branded foods so that you can calculate the calorie counts for your own favourite dishes.