I watched a great documentary last night by the BBC (10 things you need to know about losing weight) . The show looked at some of the latest research into weight loss and why so many people in the UK still struggle with maintaining a healthy weight.

What I really loved was that everything they talked about in the documentary fitted into our Smart Fatloss programme. Members of Smart Fitness here in Newcastle have been enjoying the benefits of our training and nutritional advice since we first opened our doors and now the types of advice we give are on the tv! Here are some of my favourite tips from the show:

1. Soup - proven to keep you full up for longer than the equivelant solid meal, get blending!

2. Protein - lean proteins will help you feel fuller for longer - eating more lean proteins is one of the six pillars of the Smart Fatloss nutrition programme.

3. EPOC - this is something we are always explaining to our clients, it doesn't matter so much what you do during the training session, the amazing thing is that you continue to burn calories at a higher rate for hours after you have stopped.

4.  Don't skip meals - they programme showed that when you skip a meal your brain is hard wired to pick high fat, high sugar foods and genrally make poor choices. Keep yourself full up by eating more frequently and you will make better choices.

5. Make your plate smaller - switching to a 10" plate from a 12" plate will result in you eating 22% less! How simple is that!

6. Avoid buffets - you tend to eat 30% more at a buffet, our brain loves choice (which is good) but not when you are at a buffet as you will load your plate with a bit of everything.

7. Small day to day changes in your lifestyle (taking the stairs, walking to work etc) can build up to a significant amount of extra calories that are burned.

The final thing - they followed one person who ate a really healthy diet and got lots of exercise and was still overweight. They just couldn't work it out and felt they had a 'slow metabolism'. What they actually showed was that whilst they were eating healthy food they were tucking in to way too much food (more than 3000kcal a day). Remember you can still eat well and be over weight so think about portion size, it's unlikely you have a slow metabolsim!

Summer is here, if you want to lose weight and keep it off call on 07828 162 022 now to sign up for our SMART FATLOSS programme.