Facts & myths about… healthy weight

Vitamins and minerals can support achieving and maintaining a healthy weight

Fact

Although you do not lose weight by ‘consuming’ vitamins and minerals, but you do need the right nutrients every day to activate your natural energy. Because any form of exercise requires energy, more energy can be important in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.

If you feel good with your current weight, you are at a healthy weight

fable

How you feel is not a reliable indicator of weight. Your Body Mass Index gives a better indication of whether your weight is healthy. With a BMI between 20 and 25 you are in the right place.

A healthy weight is not only achieved by exercising a lot

Fact

If you need more calories you consume with food than you consume with exercise, you will not lose weight, on the contrary: the surplus of calories is stored in the body as fat. The only way to lose weight is to consume more calories than you take in. The best way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight is to eat less and exercise more.

Exercise only costs energy

fable

Of course you use energy through exercise and you are tired if you have exercised intensively. But if you exercise regularly, you will eventually get more energy. Regular exercise increases lung capacity and therefore you get more oxygen. Also the heart function can improve blood flow through the body and transport oxygen more effectively to all parts of the body.

For a healthy weight, 30 minutes of exercise per day is sufficient

fable

With a healthy diet and a healthy weight, 30 minutes a day of vigorous exercise, five days a week, is enough to maintain your weight. But if you are overweight, you should exercise for 60 minutes a day at least five days a week. If you simultaneously exchange unhealthy food habits for healthy ones – and thus get all the essential nutrients – you will reach a healthy weight even faster.