Whether you have a few pounds to lose; are looking to shift that last half a stone; or have other weight loss aspirations – then we can help.

At The Body Retreat, while everyone who attends our bootcamps will experience weight loss, our focus is more than that – we want to empower you, so you feel and look your best with our combination of exercise; eating nutritionally balanced meals; and changing behaviours.

Here we share some of our top weight loss tips for women …

1. Food cravings and hunger
One issue that women on a diet normally experience is feelings of hunger and cravings for food they feel are “off limits”. Eating a nutritionally balanced diet, however, that contains foods that help you feel fuller for longer as well as keeping your blood sugars stabilised (so no lapses in energy that see you reach for a chocolate bar), is the solution.

It will stop those cravings and mean you won’t feel hungry in between meals, because you are giving your body what it needs and removing the dramatic peaks and troughs in energy levels that things like caffeine and sugars give you.

All our menus are based around these principles and are tasty, nutritious and help make it easier to lose weight as well as giving you the foundation for a healthy way of eating for life.

2. The importance of exercise
It’s simple – if you want to lose weight, you need to eat better and move smarter. You may have seen celebrities in glossy magazines showing off an amazing weight loss saying that they “didn’t exercise” they simply “ate less”!

While you can achieve weight loss without exercise, you may be disappointed with the end results. It’s all very well losing fat, but if your skin isn’t toned or, in the case of extreme weight loss, you are left with excess skin, you may well still be unhappy with how you look.

It is also worth bearing in mind that the more frequently you exercise, the more calories you’ll burn – meaning you will lose weight quicker. The short term benefits also don’t end once you stop exercising – you’ll burn off calories faster for a few hours after, as well as benefitting from lots of health boosting benefits such as strengthening your bones, keeping your heart healthy, etc

And if you think that exercising is all about spending hours down the gym (with a very expensive gym membership to add to the pain!) then you need to come on one our Bootcamps.

Run at venues, ranging from day to weekend courses to week long retreats, across England (and in Spain), we show you that you don’t need a gym or lots of expensive equipment in order to get fit. It’s all about eating better and moving smarter.

3. Getting on the scales
Don’t get hung up on the weighing scales. While getting on the scales once a week or so to monitor just how well your weight loss is going can be a positive experience, there will be occasions when, although you’ve exercised frequently and eaten properly, the scales will not show any weight loss.

When this happens, you may feel “what’s the point of continuing?” and decide to give up and go back to your old habits. While it is understandable to feel like this, too much emphasis shouldn’t be put on what you weigh, as it could be misleading.

There could be many reasons why the scales don’t show a weight loss. For example, you are close to your period (most women gain a few pounds – which is typically just water – before their period). Or it could be that while you have lost fat, your have actually built up muscle due to exercise. As muscle weighs more than fat, the results on the scales could be deceptive. Weight can be lost gradually, as it is more useful and safer for the skin and for the general condition of the body, but then it doesn’t come back. I feel good and lost 3 kg in 2 weeks, but I guess it happens so cause I don’t eat after 6 p.m.

Focus more on how you feel and look – only you know what you weigh. Other people will see a healthier, slimmer and more toned you.

4. Our Bootcamp Retreats

The Body retreat believe in providing a holistic approach to health and weight loss, with an equal balance of exercise, nutrition and behaviour on all our events. All these combined activities will help you achieve your goals. And, rather than faddy diets where you put weight back on as soon as you have lost it, they will give you the foundation to incorporate them in to your lifestyle – meaning you will achieve and maintain the body and fitness you have always wanted – and any excess weight lost will stay off.