Lack of sleep can bump up stress levels and make it harder to make good choices. Poor sleep plays havoc with weight loss as it also affects our hormones. 

Studies show that those who sleep less than 6 hours per night are more likely to be overweight and find it harder to lose weight. So how well are you sleeping? 

Our hormones, which are chemical messengers, can help us to understand how sleep could be the missing part of your weight loss puzzle. 

Leptin and ghrelin 

Ghrelin is a hormone that tells you when you need to eat. The less you sleep, the more ghrelin you produce. Leptin does the opposite of ghrelin; it sends a signal to the brain to let you know you’ve eaten enough. 

The less you sleep, the less leptin you produce. Lack of sleep and these two hormones makes you more susceptible to overeating and less likely to feel satisfied afterwards. 

Cortisol 

This is a stress hormone that breaks protein down into glucose. If there’s too much glucose, it gets stored as fat. Excess cortisol makes the body use soft tissue like muscle for its energy needs instead of fat. 

Your cortisol levels increase the less you sleep at night. It also triggers a hunger response in the brain, causing you to think you’re hungry. Sneaky. 

Melatonin 

Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that manages our circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle). It’s released at the onset of darkness to prepare your body for sleep. Studies have linked melatonin to increased metabolism. 

Insulin 

Insulin helps your body to absorb glucose from the bloodstream. Not enough sleep can lead to too much blood sugar, and that can lead to insulin resistance. 

This means the body will produce more and more in order to function and could eventually lead to diseases like diabetes. The dreaded D word. 

Growth hormone 

Your body creates more growth hormone while you’re asleep. It stimulates cell reproduction, regeneration and growth. More growth hormone means a higher metabolism, meaning you burn up energy more rapidly. This gives us the potential to lose weight faster. 

Value your sleep and prioritise it just as much as you prioritise your diet and exercise. Your body needs time to rest, recover and rejuvenate and sleep plays a vital part in this. So, sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite. 

You know you want to lose weight, but do you know how much you want to lose and why it matters? Grab a pen and let’s make a plan. 

Sweeping statements like ‘I want to be healthy’ and ‘I want to feel confident’ are well meant, but they do little to spur us into action.  
 
Setting yourself some healthy ambitions, goals and targets, on the other hand, can be really motivating. Finding out why you want to lose weight, really digging into the reasons behind it, can mean the difference between plodding along as you are and dropping the pounds. 

Finding a healthy weight 

The body mass index (BMI) calculator can tell you what your healthy weight range is. It’s imperfect as it’s not accurate for everyone, including athletes who have a very high muscle mass. Many experts consider the waist-to-height ratio a more accurate way to measure things. 

A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 25, so picking a goal weight between these two numbers is a great place to start. Or aim to lose 5% of your body weight as studies have found this to be a point where you’ll see great health improvements. 

Track your progress in different ways 

This is so important as weight loss isn’t always linear. Hormonal changes, what we’ve eaten and even the time we weigh can all affect the numbers on the scales.  

Even if you’re doing all the right things, sometimes the numbers don’t head straight down. We’ve all been there and know how disheartening that is, so try taking photos to see your progress instead of relying solely on the scales. 

Sometimes losing a few pounds might seem insignificant but you’ll be able to spot the difference in a photo. Taking measurements weekly and seeing the inches melt away can also be extremely satisfying. 

Set mini goals

It can feel daunting if you’ve got a lot of weight to lose. It might be some time before you’ll get to your goal weight but break it down into manageable chunks so you can celebrate each step. 

Ticking off every 7lbs lost and every stone is very encouraging, with each mini goal bringing you closer to your ultimate goal. You can also add in a celebration when you lose 5% and 10% of your body weight. Don’t forget, every loss brings health benefits as well as goal points for your team too.  

Set SMART goals 

Set yourself some SMART goals to help you reach your weight loss targets. Don’t forget, weight loss isn’t all about the numbers on a scale, it’s how you feel, how your clothes fit etc., so factor this in too. Your goals should be:  

• Specific 
  • Be clear about what you’d like to achieve. “I’d like to lose 16lbs, which is 5% of my starting weight” is better than “I’d like to lose weight”. 

• Measurable 
  • “I’d like to be able to wear my favourite jeans again” is better than “I’d like to fit into smaller sizes” because it’s something you can easily measure. 

• Achievable 
  • Be realistic. As much as we’d like it to, 5 stone won’t come off in a week, nor will you be able to run a marathon in a month if you’ve never run before. But committing to tracking what you eat every day for a week, or sticking to the couch to 5k running plan is achievable and something you can keep building on. 

• Relevant 
  • Not everyone who wants to lose weight will have the same goals. If you’re not interested in going to the gym, that’s fine, instead focus your attention elsewhere. Don’t give yourself the goal of going to the gym 3 times a week because you think that’s what you should be doing. Make your goals as personal to you as you can. If, for example, you enjoy cooking, make it your goal to cook more healthy meals as a way of eating better. 

• Time-limited 
  • Give yourself a realistic timeframe for achieving your goal. If you don’t, you could find excuses can sneak in and you’ll easily justify putting things off for another day. 

Try writing down your SMART goals to give yourself a real goal that you can visualise and are more likely to achieve. 

Setting rewards 

It’s important to mark your achievements, you’re working very hard to get them. Try and reward yourself with things that’ll help you reach your goal. Treat yourself to a new workout shirt or a sports massage for those newly worked muscles.  

Other ideas include activities like a trip to the cinema or a gig, something active like bowling or ice skating or even just a PS5 game you’ve had your eye on.  

Another motivating way of marking special achievements is adding a pound coin to an empty jar for every pound you lose. This is a great visual representation of your weight loss and can be built on until you reach your goal weight. You can then treat yourself with the proceeds – since you’ll probably need it to buy new clothes in smaller sizes. 

Bit by bit, you can lose all the weight you need to. By setting SMART goals, you won’t feel overwhelmed by the challenge, and you’ll enjoy achieving each milestone.  

Found yourself reaching into a family bag of crisps when feeling down, stressed, or bored? You’re probably an emotional eater.

Many of us turn to food for comfort when things get tough, and you probably don’t even realise you’re doing it. It’s a common and completely normal response to difficult feelings like anger, sadness, loneliness, and boredom, but it’s a pain in the arse when you’re trying to lose weight.

Why do we comfort eat? 

Sometimes eating just feels good, especially when we’re feeling far from happy. Eating triggers a release of dopamine (aka the pleasure hormone) in the brain, so we’re hardwired to seek out these pleasurable foods. 

But while it feels like it’s helping in the moment, eating doesn’t fix the underlying issue, so we end up still wrestling with our emotions but with the added complication of feeling ashamed or guilty about overeating.  

How can I stop emotional eating? 

It’s a tough one, because when we’re in that cycle of turning to food when we feel down (or angry, or stressed, or lonely), nothing else feels like it’ll help, and the more you do something the harder it is to change.  

Here are some ways you can begin to break the habit: 

• Feel your feelings. Get into the habit of asking yourself ‘how am I really feeling?’ because all too often we try to bury unwanted feelings. Acknowledging that you feel angry, low, or lonely is the first step to figuring out what to do about it that doesn’t involve food.
• Learn to question why you want to eat. Sometimes you’ll be genuinely hungry, and that’s fine! But we tend to know the difference between emotional urges to eat and actual hunger, so if you think you want to splurge on snacks because you need a pick me up, stop and think about whether it’ll help. Most of the time it won’t.
• Have an action plan. Ok, so you’ve figured out that you want to eat because you want to cheer yourself up. What can you do to lift your mood that doesn’t involve food? Perhaps you could go for a walk, watch a few episodes of your favourite sitcom, play a video game or meet up with a friend. It always helps to have a few things you can turn to.
• Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry or stressed. Honestly, if you go shopping when you’re hungry or you’re looking for comfort food, you’ll buy the whole shop. Save the food shop for when you’ve eaten and have written a meal plan and a shopping list.
• Avoid buying foods you’ll overeat. Some people can have loads of snacks in the kitchen for weeks and not bother with them, but others can and do eat them all at once. If you know you’re likely to overeat when you’ve got tempting foods in the house, stop buying them, at least for now. 
• Plan your menu and weekly shop. Getting into a routine with what you eat can help cut back on those moments of uncertainty where you end up calling for a comforting takeaway because you’ve got nothing in. Make a meal plan and shop for it, and then you’ll know exactly what the plan is for food.
• Look after yourself. If you’re really struggling with how you’re feeling, it’s time to take a good look at how you can improve things. Work, relationships, money problems…our headspace gets battered when things aren’t going well, so taking steps to improve your situation can help you feel more in control.  

Above all, be kind to yourself – emotional eating is a hard habit to break, but it is possible. Take it slow, and don’t beat yourself up if despite your best efforts you end up sprawled on the sofa with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s after a hard day. 

Planning a nutritious, balanced diet is one thing, but consuming the recommended amount of food is another. 

What is a portion and why does it matter?

How much food you consume will affect your calorie intake and therefore weight loss or gain. The two words used to describe amounts of food are: 

• Serving size or serving is the amount of food listed on a food label. It’s generally a pretty good indicator of a recommended amount to consume.
• Portion size is the amount of a given food you choose to eat. This can be more, less or the same as a serving.  

The government recommends a daily calorie intake of 2,500 calories for men to maintain weight. We should note though that this is generalised and will vary according to the individual. A more accurate reflection of your personal energy requirements can come from your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). This considers your height, weight, age and activity level to calculate your own personal recommendation. Illness and taking certain medicines can also change your energy needs. 

Making positive changes to your diet, like prioritising fruit and vegetables, will mean you boost the fibre, vitamins and minerals in your diet, and it can reduce the overall number of calories you consume. But it can be easy to over-consume calories if your portion sizes are too big. 

So that means everything in moderation, right? 

Not strictly, at least not in equal amounts. What is a moderate amount for one type of food, isn’t for another. The Eatwell Guide by the NHS shows you how to balance food groups to ensure you get all the nutrients you need. The overall balance of food groups should remain the same when adjusting portion control. 

What does a portion look like? 

If you want to see if you’re eating more than the suggested serving size, then you can invest in some inexpensive digital kitchen scales. That’s the most accurate way to measure serving sizes recommended by manufacturers. You won’t always have to use the scales, but they’ll give you a good understanding and you’ll get familiar with how the amounts look on your plate. 

We know it can get confusing. If you aim for the following portions in your day, you won’t go wrong: 

• Fruit and vegetables (berries, salads, leafy greens, root veg): 5+ portions per day 

• Dairy/alternatives (milk, yoghurt): 2-3 portions per day 

• Starchy carbohydrates (rice, pasta, potatoes): 3-4 portions per day 

• Beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins: 2-3 portions per day 

Top tips for getting to grips with portions 

• Get to know the meaning of food labels and the traffic light system. 

• Think about what you’re eating and don’t snack while you cook. Be mindful as you serve up and while you eat. 

• Use scales and/or measuring cups to ensure accuracy. 

• Avoid doubling up on carbs, like bread and rice with curry, choose one or have a half portion or both. 

• Use a smaller plate. A smaller dish piled high is psychologically appealing and doesn’t leave you feeling short changed, plus it’s much harder to plate up an oversized portion. 

• When dining out, avoid the buffet if you find it hard to gauge what you consume. 

• Avoid second helpings by getting to know when you feel full. 

• Try dishing up all the servings whether you’re eating alone or with company. That way any extra servings can be put into containers and kept for a later meal. 

Heard of a calorie deficit but not sure if that’s good, bad, or just another fad? It’s actually the fundamental of weight loss, so let’s see what it means.

No wonder weight loss feels like a minefield when there are so many different approaches and so much jargon to wade through. But this one is different, and it’s worth taking the time to understand it.

You’ve probably heard of a ‘calorie deficit’, but if you’re not a PT or someone with extensive experience of weight loss, you might not know what it means.

What is a calorie deficit?

To lose weight, you need to eat and drink fewer calories than you burn. When you do that, you’re creating a calorie deficit – where the number of calories from food and drink is smaller than the number of calories you’ve burned through activity and body processes.

But how do I know if I’m eating fewer calories than I burn?

There are two ways you burn calories – through the activity you do every day (which includes exercise and other movement like walking around) and through the necessary things your body does to stay alive (which includes things like breathing, your heart beating, cell production, etc.).

The number of calories your body uses is known as your basal metabolic rate (BMR). It’s influenced by a lot of things, like your age, height, weight, gender, and even the temperature of your environment.

As well as your BMR, for weight loss you need to figure out your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) – yep, another bit of lingo for you.

While your BMR is how many calories your body needs to stay alive and kicking, your TDEE also includes the activity you do (both exercise sessions and general activity). It’s an estimate of how many calories you burn in a day in total, which includes your BMR.

Confused? It’s a lot to take in, but once you figure your own BMR and TDEE numbers out it gives you a great start for counting calories, which will lead to weight loss.

The most accurate way to get your BMR is to be monitored in a lab, fasting beforehand and breathing into a special mask for an entire day and night to see how many calories you burn when resting.

Since we’re guessing you don’t have access to a lab and a team of scientists, you can use a widely accepted equation that has been found to be pretty spot on. It’s called the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and will give you your individual number based on all the variables we mentioned above.

Don’t fret about the maths! This free online calculator will work it out for you.

Your TDEE is how many calories you’d need to eat to maintain your weight. For weight loss, you need to eat fewer calories than your TDEE. It’s usually recommended that you subtract 500 from your TDEE to lose weight at a safe pace.

If you’re thinking the number seems higher than what MyFitnessPal gives you, remember that MyFitnessPal tends to give everyone a 1,200 calorie goal based on sedentary, smaller people. Your TDEE and subsequent calorie goal is personalised to you.

An example

Let’s take Bob as an example. He’s 36, weighs 280lbs (that’s bang on 20st) and is 5ft 10. He does little to no exercise.

Using the calculator mentioned above, his TDEE is 2648. To lose weight, he should subtract 500 and start off by eating 2148 calories a day.

How to eat in a calorie deficit

The number you end up with after subtracting 500 from your TDEE is how many calories you should aim to eat every day. You can track calories using an app like MyFitnessPal (free with a paid premium version) or NutraCheck (paid), or you can do it the old school way and use pen and paper, although apps make it way easier.

How to eat for weight loss is personal preference, but in general you should aim to increase your fruit and veg intake, cut down on processed foods and booze, and eat plenty of foods high in protein and fibre.

Your calorie needs will change as you lose weight, so it’s a good idea to recalculate after you’ve lost a chunk of weight or if you feel your weight loss has stalled.

The thought of cooking meals from scratch is daunting, especially when you’ve got to worry about them being healthy too. But it’s really not all you’ve built it up to be in your head: it can be as simple as you want.

But I don’t know what I’m doing!

Lower your expectations. Ok, so you’re not pulling off a full-on banquet or serving up a Michelin-starred meal, but you don’t need to. Find a simple recipe and take it one step at a time. You can read, you can follow instructions, there’s not much more to it than that.

But I might get it wrong!

There will be times when you forget to add a vital ingredient, or something doesn’t rise in the oven, or you burn the house down. Well, hopefully you won’t burn the house down, but mistakes are part and parcel of learning something new.

It’s all a learning curve, the trick is to actually learn from your mistakes. Use a timer, read the recipe thoroughly, and keep an eye on your food while it’s cooking, and you can’t go far wrong.

But I could give people food poisoning!

You could. But if you follow the recipe and practice good kitchen hygiene, it’s highly unlikely. Wash your hands regularly, clean surfaces, cook things thoroughly and you’ll be fine.

But I don’t have the time!

Bollocks you don’t. You really don’t need to spend hours slaving over a hot stove to make something nutritious, delicious, and satisfying. Sure, it might take a bit of planning and sacrifice to fit it into your day, but how long do you spend scrolling on social media? Mmmhmm.

• Make a meal plan. Writing down what you’re going to make and when helps you know what’s what, and you can plan around any busy days you’ve got in the week.

• Try doing some batch cooking. That sounds daunting, but it just means making more of what you’re making anyway, like making a bolognese for 6 when there’s only 3 of you eating – that’s 3 extra portions you can squirrel away in the freezer, ready to reheat when you need it.

• Use a slow cooker. You can pick them up cheaply, and they’re really easy to use. Just bung in a load of veg, stock, and a joint of meat in the morning and you’ll come home to a hearty stew ready for serving up. They’re also great for making sauces, soups, casserole, and even baked potatoes.
• Take shortcuts. There’s nothing wrong with taking the easy option. Buy your veg pre-chopped and frozen, use ‘lazy’ pureed garlic instead of fresh, bottled lemon juice instead of juicing fresh lemons, etc.

Tips for the novice cook

1. Invest in a couple of sharp knives. They’ll make chopping and slicing so much easier and safer.

1. Read the recipe and method thoroughly, from start to finish, before you begin. You don’t want to come across any surprises halfway through.

1. Taste it as you go (apart from raw meat and fish of course). It’s much easier to add more flavour than to remove it.

1. Clean as you go. This’ll help you avoid being swamped by pots, pans, and messy worktops when you’re finished.

1. Start simple. Think about healthy meals you enjoy and go from there. A basic tomato sauce is a good one to master: chopped onion, garlic, tinned tomatoes or passata, seasoned with black pepper and salt. Add basil for Italian dishes (Bolognese, lasagne, etc.) or paprika for Moroccan-style dishes.

1. Buy a spray oil to minimise the use of oil in your cooking. A tablespoon of olive oil has 119 calories, so it soon adds up. Frylight is 1 cal per spray and widely available.

1. Get to know your flavours. Lots of cuisines have classic combinations of herbs and spices that can really elevate your dishes, so it’s worth buying a few to keep in:

• Italian: Onions, oregano, garlic

• Mexican: Cumin, chilli, coriander

• Indian: Turmeric, coriander, cumin, cardamom

• English: Bay leaf, sage, parsley

1. Get online: YouTube and food websites are your friend when you’re looking for healthy recipes and explainer videos to show you methods. BBC Good Food, for example, has this fantastic piece to show you 25 basic skills every cook should know

Weight loss feels a lot easier when you know you can cook whatever, whenever. Stick a few tunes on, relax, and get stuck in – you’ll soon find that it’s not as hard as you’re expecting, and you might even enjoy it.

Sometimes, the scales are not our friend. It’s all too easy to get hung up on what they say each week, and it can be distressing when things aren’t going the way you’d hoped. When that happens, try not to take it to heart – there’s a whole lot more to weight loss than just the reading you get at one specific time.

Weight loss isn’t linear, which can be a hard thing to wrap your head around. That’s why you should focus on your non-scale victories as well as keeping a log of your weight. Keep a list on your phone or in a notebook and make a note of them when you notice them, so you can go back for a hit of motivation when you need it.

What are non-scale victories?

Non-scale victories (NSVs) are anything positive you notice about your weight loss – but as the name suggests, we’re not talking the number on the scales. Here are some examples of NSVs:

Measurements

A soft tape measure is a handy bit of kit for checking your weight loss progress. Take regular measurements of the same parts of your body: hips, waist, chest, thighs. You’ll soon see the inches falling away as you lose weight.

Photos

Take regular, full-length photos. You’re probably not going to feel comfortable taking them or looking at them, but no one has to see them but you, and sometimes we only see how much we’ve changed when looking back at photos.

Clothing

Pick a non-stretchy, structured item of clothing like jeans or a shirt and try it on once a month. As your body shape changes, you’ll notice how it feels (and looks) different on you.

Mood and energy

Eating better often leads to an increase in energy, as you’re fuelling your body with what it needs to flourish. Losing weight can also help with your sleep quality too, especially if you snore or have sleep apnoea.

Your mood may improve too, thanks to the feel-good hormones released when you get active, plus the sense of accomplishment when you start hitting your weight loss goals.

Fitness

Your strength, flexibility and endurance will get better and better the more you move. Make a note of your workouts, and you’ll soon see how something you found difficult in week 1 is a breeze by week 12.

Ease of movement

Losing weight is good news for your joints, which will start to move more freely and won’t ache as much. This is often a big one for guys losing weight, so if you notice your knees aren’t aching at the end of a long day as much as they were before, that’s a huge deal!

Everyday tasks

As you lose weight and your fitness improves, you’ll find that doing things like housework, climbing the stairs, and carrying shopping all become easier.

Comfortable digestion

Gone are the days of seemingly never-ending bloating and gas. Good food moves through your body better, and you’ll feel much better because of it.

Improved medical markers

Losing even a small amount of weight can help improve many medical markers, like your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and glucose levels. Each step you take towards losing weight is a positive step towards lowering your risk of developing serious health conditions.

All these improvements to your health and wellbeing are something to celebrate but try not to fall into the trap of rewarding yourself with food. Instead, reward yourself with:

• Playing your favourite video game, or treating yourself to a new one you’ve had your eye on
• Binge-watching your favourite show
• Meeting up with a friend for a coffee
• Reading a good new book
• Meditating
• Listening to your favourite music
• Going to the cinema

Whatever you choose is up to you. Have fun but remember not to go too nuts – you’ve still got weight to lose, after all!

A common misconception is that you’ve got to give up all the foods you love when you’re trying to lose weight. It’s easy to see where this has come from: it probably doesn’t seem possible that you can still enjoy your favourite takeaways and still lose weight, for example.

But the best way to lose weight and not completely lose your mind while doing so is to keep a little of what you love, using simple swaps to cut calories and make things healthier. Here’s how you can do that in the kitchen, so you don’t have to give up your favourite dishes.

Swap refined grains for whole grains

Replace white flour with whole wheat flour, white rice with brown rice, and white bread with whole grain bread. Whole grains are rich in fibre which helps to keep you fuller for longer.

Make it veggie

An easy way to increase the number of vegetables you eat is to make your recipe vegetarian or vegan. Take your usual chilli and swap the mince for kidney beans or black, or bulk up your favourite recipe by adding chopped courgette, peppers or aubergine. Vegetables are low in calories, so you’ll be boosting the volume of your meal (good for feeling fuller) without adding unnecessary extra calories.

Use healthier fats

When cooking, use healthier oils like olive oil, avocado oil or sesame oil. These oils are better for you because they contain monounsaturated fatty acids, which can help to increase levels of ‘good’ cholesterol (HDL) and lower ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL) levels.

Oil is high in calories, so be sure to measure how much you’re using. For example, 1 tbsp of olive oil is 119 calories, so don’t pour freely from the bottle! Get a set of cheap measuring spoons so you know exactly how much you’re using.

To further cut calories, consider using spray oil like Frylight cooking spray. You can get different varieties, so keep an eye out for olive or coconut spray oil options. One spray of Frylight is 1 calorie, and a short spray of oil is going to very drastically cut down on calories.

Choose lean proteins

Lean proteins like chicken, turkey, and fish, are lower in fat and calories than red meat like beef, pork, and lamb. Try switching beef mince for turkey mince or even chicken mince (which you can find in Aldi) when making burgers, and switch steak tacos for pulled chicken, turkey mince, or even prawns.

Beans, lentils, tofu, and eggs are also examples of lean protein. Try swapping red and processed meats when making things like chilli, spaghetti dishes, and stir-fries.

As the season progresses, it’s important to take a step back and consider how things are going. Are you making good progress towards those goals you set back in week 1? Or do you need to adjust them now that you’ve got a few weeks under your belt?

Reflect on your progress

This is a good time to take stock of what you’ve achieved in the last few weeks. Have you lost weight? Has your fitness improved? Are you enjoying yourself out on the pitch?

These are all important things to think about, and if you’re happy with the progress you’ve made that’s cause for celebration!

• Celebrate your achievements. This isn’t a time to be modest: be proud about what you’ve done.
• Think about what went right. What went into your success? What really helped? Knowing these answers will make it easier to replicate your achievements as you work towards your next goals.
• Set new challenges. Take what you’ve learned in the past few weeks and use your knowledge to challenge yourself further. What will get you even closer to your overall goal? Can you challenge yourself to cook more, or to try a new workout?
• Continue to track your progress. You’ve made a great start, but don’t lose momentum! Keep going, and check in with yourself every few weeks to see how you’re doing.

Adjusting your goals

Things might not have gone exactly as you’d hoped, and that’s ok. Maybe life got in the way, or you had a few false starts with getting to grips with changing your eating habits. Maybe your initial goals were a bit too ambitious. It happens. If this sounds familiar, think about what you can change and how, and make a pledge to work on it.

• Are your goals realistic? We’d all love to lose a huge amount of weight in a short space of time, but that’s not how it works. Make sure your goal is something you’ve got a fair shot at achieving, otherwise you’ll just end up frustrated and demotivated.
• Can you try something new? If you’ve not quite achieved what you’d hoped to, consider a new approach. Switch things up and try something different, whether that’s a new workout, a way to increase your daily activity, or a new approach to eating better.
• Seek support. Confide in friends and family and you might find they’re a treasure trove of support and encouragement. If you’re not comfortable turning to people you know, don’t forget about your MAN v FAT Rugby teammates! They’ll know better than anyone what it’s like to be working towards weight loss goals.
• Speak to your coach. Your coach is also someone you should be leaning on when times get tough, it’s what they’re there for! Arrange to have a chat with them and they’ll be more than happy to help, whether it’s looking over your food diary to spot opportunities for change, or for a pep talk when things feel tough, your coach is there for you.

Check in regularly

It’s important to check in with yourself regularly as you’re working towards your weight loss goals. People who are successful at losing weight (and keeping it off long-term) are the ones who are fully in tune with their body and mind, continually asking themselves if there’s anything they can do to better work towards their goals.

Thinking about your goals and evaluating your progress will help to keep you accountable and on track, but it’s also incredibly motivating to see the progress you’re making. Enjoy the process and make sure you take a moment to celebrate your success along the way.

If you’re keen for success and are eyeing up the top spot, you’ll need to know how the MAN v FAT Rugby scoring system works. Let’s get into it. On the pitch, the rules for MAN v FAT Rugby are pretty similar to the rules for any small-sided touch rugby league, however we will be following a new version of the game called T1 Rugby. The thing that makes MAN v FAT Rugby special? There are opportunities to score bonus tries based on your weight loss and healthy habits. That’s what’s going to help you lose weight, and what’s going to help you and your team sail to the top of the league.

Players can score bonus tries in four ways:

1. Team bonus. Each week we add up the number of players on your team that have either lost weight versus the previous week or maintained their healthy BMI*. We award a bonus try for each pair, up to a maximum of 5 tries per team – so that’s 1 bonus try per every 2 player that loses weight, with half tries rounded up.*All players must have a BMI of at least 27.5 to join MAN v FAT Rugby. Once a player reaches a healthy BMI, we no longer encourage them to keep losing weight, so the rules switch up for them and they get bonuses for maintaining a healthy BMI, whether they gain or lose weight. Players who record a weight that is both heavier than the previous week and heavier than they were at the start of the current season will score an own goal.

2. Hat tricks. Any time an individual player records three losses within their club’s league season, they score 1 full bonus try. These losses don’t need to be consecutive, but they don’t overlap seasons, so one player can get a maximum of 4 hat tricks for his team each season.

3. 5% loss bonuses. When a player reaches an incremental milestone loss of 5% of his body weight, he gets 3 full bonus tries for his team, a maximum of twice per season. This is always based off your weight when you first join us, so you’ll get a bonus for losing 5%, 10%, 15% of that starting weight, and so on, until you reach a healthy BMI for your height.If you manage to lose 15% of your starting weight in just one season, first of all, hats off to you, and second of all, don’t worry about missing out on those sweet, sweet bonuses – they’ll carry over to the first week of the following season so you can hit the ground running.

4. Food diary tracking. Teams will score 1 additional bonus try for every 1-3 players who complete their weekly food diaries. This encourages mindfulness about your eating habits and a supportive team, since you’ll all need to work together and stay accountable to one another if you want to score the maximum number of points.

Losing weight is the key to success with your team in MAN v FAT Rugby, so don’t forget to focus on building your healthy habits as well as your performance on the pitch.