Diet and Lifestyle

The first stage of managing a customer’s weight is to encourage them to make key lifestyle changes. This needs to be a combination of:

• A healthy and balanced diet with appropriate calorie intake. The NHS Eatwell guide can help customers here.
• Increased physical activity.

Keeping track of calorie intake will help, but it is important that those calories come from a healthy balanced diet. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. Some simple steps to help start a healthy weight loss plan include:

Adults should do some form of physical activity every day including at least 2 days of muscle strengthening exercises each week. Any activity is better than none and exercise can be achieved in a variety of different ways. Encourage customers to undertake exercise that that they enjoy, as this will help them to achieve their goals.

If at this point customers are struggling to manage their weight, despite implementing a healthier diet, lifestyle, and increased levels of exercise, considering a pharmacological intervention may be appropriate.