Our expert nutritionist, Rachael Anne Hill shares her 5 top tips to help you shed pounds and save cash.…
Did you know that a pound of body fat is equal to 3,500 calories? Therefore, to lose a pound of body fat you need to either eat 3,500 calories less or burn 3,500 calories more. Sounds like hard work? It needn’t be. Just follow these super simple, calorie and cost cutting tips and you could be a stone lighter and £220 better off in just eight weeks!
1. Cook up a curry
An average Indian takeaway meal with rice, naan and poppadoms contains approximately 1,500 calories and costs around £10 per person. Switching to a home cooked version instead is far kinder to your wallet and your waistline.
For a delicious, super fast, low calorie chicken curry simply sauté 1 chopped onion in a non-stick pan with little water and a tablespoon of Worcester sauce until soft. Add 400g of diced chicken, sauté for 5 minutes until browned on all sides then pour over a jar of Tesco’s Light Living Tikka Sauce, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with 100g of boiled rice. Serves 4.
Money and calories saved
345 Kcals per person
Total cost p/p: £1.25
£’s saved over 8 weeks: £10 - £1.25 = £8.75 x 8 weeks = £70
Kcals saved over 8 weeks: 1500kcal – 345 kcal = 1,155 kcal x 8 weeks = 9,240 Kcal* (Over 2 1/2 pounds!)
(*Based on swapping 1 takeaway a week for home cooked version)
2. Make a souper saving!
According to the British Sandwich Association we buy approximately 1.8 billion sandwiches every year. The average sandwich costs £1.66 and contains approximately 400 calories. However, a recent report by the National Consumer Council has found that many leading chains are selling sandwiches that contain more calories, salt and fat than a Big Mac with some containing well over 700 calories per pack. Eaten every working day for a week, both the cost and the calories can mount up.
For a far cheaper, healthier option make a large pan of your own healthy, veggie based soups such as carrot and coriander, leek and potato or tomato and fresh basil. Freeze individual portions then simply remove from the freezer before you go to bed, heat in the microwave the next morning and pop in a flask to take with you to work. It’s a great way to get your five-a-day and with most home-made, low fat vegetable soups containing no more than 140 calories per serving and costing less than 50p per you’re your waistline and your wallet will be much better off.
Money and calories saved
£’s saved over 8 weeks: £1.66 – 50p = £1.06 x 5 = 5.30 per week x 8 weeks = £42.40
Kcals saved over 8 weeks: 400 kcal – 140 kcal = 260 kcal x 5 = 1,300 Kcals x 8 weeks = 10,400 Kcal* (almost 3 pounds!)
(*Based on swapping shop bought sandwiches for home-made soup 5 days a week for 8 weeks)
3. Save wine for the weekends
Winding down each evening with a glass or two of wine may seem harmless enough but apart from the extra calories (approximately 140 Kcals per glass) and the health dangers associated with regular drinking, alcohol actually increases your appetite which can lead to an even greater calorie intake. The financial cost of relying on a glass of wine to relax can soon mount up too as even a relatively cheap wine consumed at home costs approximately £1.50 per glass.
Money and calories saved
£’s saved over 8 weeks*: £1.50 x 5 = 7.50 per week x 8 weeks = £60.00
Kcals saved over 8 weeks: 140 kcal x 5 = 700 Kcals per week x 8 weeks = 5,600 Kcal* (over 1 and a half pounds!)
(*Based on consuming one glass of wine a night, five nights a week.)
4. Ditch the sugary drinks
If you’re partial to quenching your thirst with sugary drinks you could be doing more harm than good to your budget and your body. Just one small bottle of lemonade, cola or Ribena can contain over 200 calories and cost up to £1. Save cash and calories by switching to drinking water instead.
Money and calories saved
£’s saved over 8 weeks*: £1 x 4 per week = £4 x 8 weeks = £32.00
Kcals saved over 8 weeks: 200 Kcals per bottle x 4 = 800 Kcals per week x 8 weeks = 6,400Kcal* (almost 2 pounds!)
(* Based on swapping 4 bottles or cans of soft drinks a week for tap water.)
5. Sack the snacks
We are a nation of snack lovers munching our way through 6,000 million bags of crisps, 4,400 million packs of savoury snacks and spending a whopping £6 billion on sweets and chocolate every year. Cutting back on just some of your favourite high fat, high sugar snacks is a great way to save cash and cut calories. Just eating 1 packet of biscuits, a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar less a week can save £2 and reduce your weekly calorie intake by approximately 2,400 calories!
Money and calories saved
£’s saved over 8 weeks: £2 per week x 8 weeks = £16.00
Kcals saved over 8 weeks: 2,400 kcal per week x 8 weeks = 19,200 Kcal (almost 5 ½ pounds!)
Total Kcals saved = 50,840 - just over a stone in body fat!
Total cash saved = £220
