We are almost one month into the New Year – how are your New Year Resolutions holding up?

If you made solemn promises to eat healthier and lose weight this year you may be intrigued by the recent Horizon series on BBC2 entitled “What’s The Right Diet For You?” The programme identified 3 types of over eaters and explored their different approaches to sustainable weight loss.

As a nutritional therapist I specialise in personalised nutrition plans so this programme really caught my eye and it made a welcome change to the usual ‘one size fits all’ diet advice usually handed out on TV!

With 64% of the UK adult population either overweight or obese there is no escaping the fact that weight balance is a great concern. Being overweight creates the right environment in your body for many serious conditions to develop – diabetes, heart disease, stroke and arthritis to name but a few.

The programme classified the participants as constant cravers, comfort eaters or feasters. Comfort eaters responded to stress and difficult situations by turning to food and brain scans showed how their nervous systems were triggering this response. To aid weight loss they were advised to engage with talking therapies and support groups that enabled them to deal with stress in a more positive way.

Feasters were found to have low levels of a certain chemical messenger in their digestive systems which tells the brain when the stomach is full. Constant cravers on the other hand were discovered to be genetically programmed to feel hunger more keenly.

What was particularly interesting about the research and advice in this series was the emphasis on lifestyle habits and personal choices – issues that go beyond simply knowing which foods are good or bad for us. These factors are a key part of personalised nutrition and can make the difference between being able to stick with a healthy eating plan and abandoning it altogether.

With a genetic disposition towards constant hunger, or low levels of satiety hormones, you have to work a little harder and a bit smarter to achieve better weight balance. We all inherit a vast array of genetic dispositions but it’s our lifestyles, habits and environments that shape which genes are expressed.

For each of the groups in the programme developing correct eating habits was crucial to their success. This meant sitting down to eat, chewing food thoroughly and focusing solely on the meal – not watching TV or eating on the go!

A simple experiment revealed striking differences between eating hurriedly whilst standing up and eating sitting down in a relaxed fashion: the same amount of calories were eaten each time yet after the seated meal, participants felt fuller and had higher levels of satiety hormones meaning their brains had registered they were full!

If you’re struggling with your resolutions to lose weight, try getting back to basics, focusing on how and when you are eating as well as what foods you are choosing.

- Sally Duffin is a nutritional therapist and writer based in Holgate, York.