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Week 9

Welcome to the ninth week of the BTF weight loss and wellbeing programme.

To read the advice, tips and suggestions from our experts please follow the links to this week’s articles below. The other resources you can use are:

  • Expert advice - learn more about thyroid disease and weight management from our medical experts
  • Patient stories – find out about how other thyroid patients have managed to successfully lose weight and improve their wellbeing
  • Community - share your weight loss journey with other people who are taking part in this programme by joining our closed Facebook group

Takeaway meals

You hear the knock at the door. It’s the takeaway you’ve ordered. Smells emanate from the box as the delivery driver passes it to you. It’s Friday night and a good way to start the weekend. But as you unpack it you start to question yourself. Should I be having this? I am trying to lose weight. Did I make the right choice? Oh never mind, you think, I’ll start the diet again on Monday.

On the whole takeaways are often viewed as ‘bad’ or ‘unhealthy’ foods. But are they really a ‘bad’ food? Is it true that we should not have them? We often have these fixed beliefs and by assigning labels to foods, the decisions we make about continuing to make healthy lifestyle changes or not, can be impacted. So let’s explore takeaways in relation to a healthy balanced diet and weight loss.

According to a 2021 YouGov poll the UK’s most popular takeaway meals are Chinese, Indian, fish & chips and pizza, in that order. Let’s look at the most popular. The average order per person would probably consist of a starter (spring rolls), a main dish (sweet and sour chicken), a side (egg fried rice) and prawn crackers.

Have a think about what you would order, whether that would be Chinese or another option, and take some time to reflect on your choices. Forget that it’s a takeaway and look at the meal from a dietetic and weight loss perspective.

A balanced plate would be around half vegetables, a quarter carbohydrate and a quarter protein. This meal would exceed the portion size guides we have discussed e.g. rice which would fill almost the whole plate along with the sweet and sour chicken which may or may not have a few vegetables, and in addition there is the spring roll starter and prawn crackers.

If you’re aiming to lose weight, do you think you can still have a takeaway? Well actually, having a takeaway as part of a healthy balanced diet is fine now and again. But you will probably need to adjust the portion sizes and think about how often you have one.

Tips for having a healthier takeaway include:

  • sharing with someone
  • save some for the next day if safe to do so
  • boil your own rice and vegetables
  • have oven cooked spring rolls or chips
  • go to the takeaway restaurant and collect it rather than having a delivery

When making healthier choices think of a scale with the healthiest option at one end and not as healthy at the other end. If we put a takeaway at the latter end we could then make steps towards making it healthier. Here is an example:



In this example, as you go along the scale the options for a fish and chip meal become healthier. It demonstrates what choices we have and that we don’t necessarily have to remove meals like fish and chips from our diet when trying to lose weight. And yes, a homemade fish and chips meal is probably not as tempting as a takeaway version, but we can add herbs, spices and seasonings, save money and be in control of what we add to it. Besides why not save the takeaway fish and chips for that occasion when we can have the authentic culinary experience of sitting by the British seaside, in the freezing cold whilst fighting off the seagulls?!

Eating out

When we are out with friends, and in environments where there are a lot of food around us, peer pressure can make it difficult to maintain our healthy changes. However, by applying similar principles to those we have discussed for takeaways there are lots of ways you can keep on track.

"I fancy a dessert, but I’ll only have one if you do."


When a good friend says this to you, what will you say if you really don’t want a dessert? Many of us will put the needs of others before ourselves in this situation but it’s important to think about your needs too.

The restaurant menu will offer plenty of choices, potential deals, like 2 courses for £20 or three for £22 (it is a better deal financially to go for the 3 courses but health wise is it the best option for you?) And what choices will you make about alcohol? (See the week 5 article.)

Much of what we have learned over the last few weeks during this BTF programme can be adapted and applied to make healthy choices when we are eating out. Planning where you will go (if that’s an option), the timing of the meal, looking at a restaurant menu in advance (to get an idea of food choices) and how will this fit with the meals you have or will have at home.

Some restaurants are now required to include the calorie count of meals on the menu. While there is an ongoing debate as to whether this is helpful, they can be used as a guide. But even without calories listed you can make an educated guess, e.g. a tomato-based sauce is likely to be a healthier choice than a cream-based sauce. You can ask your server for recommendations of healthier choices, what portion sizes are like, how it is cooked (fried/grilled) or if you could have sauces/dressings on the side. And if there are leftovers, and you don’t want to waste them, request to take them home for the next day.

And remember, when thinking about takeaways or eating out, you can choose healthier options if you want to, but sometimes you might just want to enjoy the occasion. What you choose depends on what your goals are and what you want to achieve.

Do we have to go to the gym to be physically active?

Going to the gym is a very good way to become physically active. Gyms offer many ways to exercise, either independently, by joining classes such as Yoga, Pilates or spinning, or with a personal trainer. They will also will have resistance training equipment (weight, bands, cables, machines etc) available on the gym floor.

Gyms also offer other ways to improve fitness, such as space to train flexibly and equipment to improve balance. The gym is also a place where we can socialise and meet new friends, with some offering healthy food and snacks to enjoy after sessions. Many gyms also offer spaces to relax and recover, such as spas, sauna and steam rooms, Any gyms can offer a very enjoyable way of helping us to reach the recommended 150 minutes+ physical activity per week and can help us gain a well-rounded approach to fitness. This flexibility is one of the reasons why gyms appeal to so many people.

However, not all of us enjoy going to a gym. Sometimes this may be because of previous experiences or simply that the idea of them is off-putting to us. There may be many perfectly valid reasons for feeling uncomfortable in a gym environment. You may feel intimidated by the gym environment or perhaps uncomfortable exercising alongside the opposite sex. And of course going to a gym can be expensive and not everyone has money to spare to pay for membership costs.

Unfortunately some gyms seem to promote a certain ‘this is how you should look’ body image which is unhelpful and can stop us from wanting to join and feeling welcome at a gym. Some people may just find being inside unappealing, especially those of us who spend a lot of the rest of our time working indoors. It is understandable that we would therefore just prefer to spend free time outdoors being active, which of course has its own, further health benefits.

You don’t need a gym to get fit!

Of course, a gym or leisure centre is not the only place where we can reach the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity each week. For example, some of us love walking and being in a green space or in the woods. Others get a real buzz from participating in team sports.

There are plenty of fun ways that we can exercise or be physically active while living with thyroid disease. The most important thing is that we choose something that we enjoy and are interested in. Very simply, if we enjoy something, we will continue doing it. If we don’t, we not only do not enjoy the experience, but it will also become a chore and eventually we will stop doing it which means we will no longer enjoy the benefits to our physical and emotional wellbeing that those of us living with thyroid disorders deserve to be getting.

Watch

Jonathan Hayes talks about the importance of reviewing your goals and recognising what you have achieved, including:

  • it’s OK to tweak your goals to make them more achievable/realistic
  • setting goals, start off small and build on them
  • fruit and vegetables
  • takeaways: it’s all about portion control and choices
Week 8 info Week 10 info