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Calculate your daily energy and nutrient composition

Our Kilojoule and Nutrient Calculator has options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Choose one or more options from the list of meals/snacks/beverages below that best represent your daily consumption to find out the total kilojoules and nutrient composition of that diet for the day.

Healthy Weight

Restrictive dieting is not recommended for children and adolescents, as they have high nutritional needs. For adults with a body weight above that suggested in the healthy weight category (Body Mass Index greater than 25), food and energy intake can be reduced to lose weight, in conjunction with increasing physical activity.

Tips for healthy eating

For adults with a body weight above that suggested in the healthy weight category (that is, a Body Mass Index greater than 25), reducing your food and energy intake, in conjunction with increasing your physical activity levels, can help reduce your weight. Restrictive dieting is not recommended for children and adolescents, as they have high nutritional needs.

Here are some healthy eating tips for maintaining a healthy weight:

• Eat breakfast and don’t skip meals
  • eat a wide variety of foods each day
  • keep ‘extra’ foods, such as biscuits, cakes, chocolate and chips to a minimum
• Reduce the amount of fat you eat
  • limit saturated fat - saturated fats are usually solid at room temperature and are the main fats in milk, cream, butter, cheese and some meats
  • choose reduced fat dairy products
  • limit the amount of ‘take away’ food
  • select lean meat and remove visible fat before cooking
  • choose low fat cooking methods, for example - stir fry, grill, microwave, non stick cooking pans
• Eat more low kilojoule foods such as wholegrains, fruits and vegetables
  • 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables each day
• Drink more water – instead of soft drink and fruit juice
  • limit your alcohol intake if you choose to drink
• Read food labels – especially for fat, sugar and energy (kilojoule/calorie) levels
• Eat smaller portions, eat slowly, don’t fill your plate, try a smaller plate, don’t feel that you need to finish every meal.

Note: This information has come from the Australian Dietary Guidelines; Understanding Nutrition, E. Whitney & S Rolfes, Minneapolis, 1993 and HealthInsite.

Tips for including more physical activity in your day

Increases in daily activity can come from small changes made throughout your day – they all add up. You can accumulate your 30 minutes (or more) of physical activity for health throughout the day by combining a few shorter sessions of activity of around 10 to 15 minutes each.

To make a habit out of increasing activity in your day, you can:

• Take the stairs instead of the lift.
• Park further away from your destination and walk the rest of the way.
• Walk or cycle instead of using the car for short trips.
• Take your dog (or a neighbour’s dog) for a walk.
• Walk rather than rest on escalators or travelators.
• Get off the bus/train/tram one or two stops earlier and walk the rest of the way.
• Work in the garden.
• Play with children in an active way.
• Catch up with friends by walking together rather than going for coffee.
• Try a new sport or go back to one you have played before.
• Do some simple exercises (eg jog on the spot) while waiting for the kettle to boil or for food to cook in the microwave.

To achieve extra health benefits, or to increase fitness, you will also need to add regular vigorous activity to your routine on three or four days a week, for a minimum of around 30 minutes. Vigorous activity will make you “huff and puff” (eg where talking in full sentences between breaths is difficult), and includes activities such as squash, football, aerobics, circuit training, speed walking, jogging, fast cycling or brisk rowing. This type of activity will also help to maintain a healthy weight.

page last updated: 19 July, 2006
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