Weight Management

A healthy body weight is all about balance – balancing the energy you consume in your food and beverage choices with the energy you expend through physical activity.

How much and how often?

Whether kilojoules or exercise, it’s important to think, ‘how much and how often?’

All foods and beverages can be part of a balanced and sensible diet and active lifestyle, when consumed in appropriate amounts. The key is to watch portion sizes and stay within your daily kilojoule needs.

One easy way to limit the number of kilojoules you consume is to look for light, low-kilojoule and no-kilojoule versions of your favourite foods and drinks.

The advice on these pages is not a substitute for seeking advice from and regularly visiting, your doctor or medical practitioner or dietician.

Weight management tips

Read food labels. Look for the number of kilojoules per serving, what the serving size is AND how many servings are provided by the packages you buy. Additionally, The Coca-Cola Company has introduced Front-of Pack % Daily Intake (DI) energy labelling on all its drinks to help you make informed choices for you and your family.
To help control energy intake, consider switching to smaller packages with fewer total portions. Many of your favourite foods and drinks now come in single-serving or smaller portion sizes.
Trick your mind. Research* suggests that serving drinks in tall, skinny glasses or meals on smaller plates may give the appearance of more volume. This might help you to trick yourself into thinking you have had a larger portion.
Write it down. Keeping a food journal increases your awareness of what you are consuming and may uncover habits that lead to excess kilojoules.
Take small steps. Cutting around 500 kilojoules out of your diet each day (for example: changing from a large regular cappuccino to a regular skinny cappuccino, a regular sparkling drink to a diet drink, or doing just 500 extra kilojoules’ worth of exercise a day – 30 minutes of jogging or 40 minutes of skipping) may result in about an Â½ kilogram weight loss per month – that’s six kilograms a year!
Choose wisely. Most foods and drinks contain kilojoules. And all kilojoules count, including those from our beverages. Beverages can also provide important nutrients to your body in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals. To find out, check the nutrition information on the beverage label.
Go slowly. Taking your time to savour your food and drinks means your brain has more time to register that you have eaten and you are more likely to feel satisfied more quickly and ultimately, eat less.

*Wansink, Brian and Koert van Ittersum (2003), “Bottoms Up! The Influence of Elongation and Pouring on consumption Volume, Journal of Consumer Research, 30:3 (December), 455-463.

*Brian Wansink and Koert van Ittersum. The Perils of Plate Size: Waist, Waste, and Wallet (2008). Journal of Marketing (under advanced review).

Calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI)