Energy balance - advice

Find your way – how to make it work

Start with yourself

We all need different numbers of calories. Don't compare how much you can eat with how much others can eat – find your own energy balance!

Enjoy your food

Eat slowly, pay attention to what you're doing and experience all the flavours! If you eat too quickly, you won't have time to enjoy your food and it'll be easier for you to eat too much.

Clear targets

Eat when you're hungry, but not every time you fancy eating something.If you have breakfast, lunch and dinner and maybe a tasty snack between meals, you might find it easier to avoid picking at food.

Your model

Customise your Plate model according to yourself and your lifestyle. If you exercise a lot, you can add a lot of potatoes or pasta, but if you don't exercise much you can increase the vegetables instead.

Party on!

Differentiate between everyday meals and party food. You'll be party-perfect if you do!

Alcohol control

Remember, beer, wines and spirits contain lots of calories. A tin of strong beer contains almost 250 kcal, which is the same as ten meatballs. So two tins of beer is the same as an entire meal.

Try keeping a food diary

You may sometimes find it a good idea to make a note of everything you eat. You could try the Matvanekollen (Eating Habit Check) food diary at www.livsmedelsverket.se. This might help you to keep track of where you're getting your nutrients and calories from.

For your health

Your body needs just enough energy to work well; in other words, you should consume as many calories as you can burn off. Too many calories – and indeed, too few – can lead to serious health problems.

Naturally fibre-rich foods such as vegetables, fruit, wholegrain products, nuts and seeds will help you to maintain your weight, while lots of fizzy drinks and sweets, white varieties of bread, rice and pasta, red and processed meat increase the risk of putting on weight. In Sweden, half of all adults are overweight.

Alcohol contains lots of calories and also affects your health in other ways. Among other things, alcohol increases the risk of cancer. Find out more about alcohol at Folkhälsomyndigheten.

Adults