Weight Management
Calorie Deficit Explained
Energy balance in plain English: estimate your energy needs, plan a gradual deficit you can live with and track your week, in line with Irish guidance.
€17.99Buy
Weight management courses for steady, realistic change
Practical courses on energy balance, meal planning, cravings and keeping weight steady, built on the Food Pyramid and Ireland's activity guidelines.
- 6 courses
- Tools in every course
- Certificate included
There is no special food or single trick that manages weight. Lasting change usually comes from small adjustments to what, when and how much you eat and drink, and from moving more, kept up over months rather than days. The Food Pyramid gives a sound base: plenty of vegetables, salad and fruit, wholemeal cereals and potatoes, lean protein and reduced-fat dairy, with top shelf foods and drinks kept to very small amounts, no more than once or twice a week.
Pace matters. Advertising rules in Ireland treat promises of weight loss greater than 1kg a week as incompatible with good medical or nutritional practice, and our courses never promise a result. Instead they help you understand your energy needs, plan filling meals, notice cravings and emotional eating, and build the activity set out in Every Move Counts, Ireland's physical activity guidelines: 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week for adults, with muscle-strengthening on at least 2 days.
Alcohol is worth a look too. The HSE low-risk weekly guidelines are no more than 11 standard drinks for women and 17 for men, spread across the week with at least 2 to 3 alcohol-free days, and the HSE is clear that no level of drinking is safe for health. Every course is written by Dr Aqsa Mukhtiar, PhD in Nutrition, and is general education, not a medical weight programme.
All weight management courses
Weight Management
Meal Planning for Weight Loss
A steady, Food Pyramid-based way to plan filling meals, with a calorie-aware 7-day planner, a portion plate, a shopping list and snack swaps.
€19.99Buy
Weight Management
Emotional Eating and Weight Loss
Notice what drives eating when you are not hungry, ride out urges and try other ways to cope, with a trigger journal and Bodywhys signposting.
€19.99Buy
Weight Management
Understanding Food Cravings
Why cravings happen and calm ways to handle them, with a craving log, a craving type checker, 10-minute delay cards and swaps.
€11.99Buy
Weight Management
Healthy Midlife Weight Management
For men and women in midlife: food, muscle, movement, sleep and fewer standard drinks, with waist and protein trackers and a 7-day meal plan.
€19.99Buy
Weight Management
Preventing Weight Regain
Life after weight loss: work out maintenance energy, check in weekly, plan for high-risk situations and get back on track after a slip.
€17.99Buy
Where to start
- Want to understand the basics? Calorie Deficit Explained covers estimating your energy needs, what a sensible deficit looks like and tracking progress without becoming fixated on numbers.
- Need a weekly routine? Meal Planning for Weight Loss gives you a 7-day planner, a portion plate template and batch-cook plans.
- Cravings getting in the way? Understanding Food Cravings is a short course on handling cravings without guilt.
- Eating when stressed, bored or upset? Emotional Eating and Weight Loss helps you spot triggers and try other ways to cope.
- In your forties or fifties? Healthy Midlife Weight Management brings in protein, strength activity, sleep and stress.
- Already lost weight? Preventing Weight Regain focuses on maintenance and getting back on track after a setback.
Your waist measurement adds information that weight alone misses, so the trackers let you record both once a week and look at the trend rather than any single day.
What the weight management tools do
- Energy needs and maintenance calculators: a general estimate of the energy you use each day from your age, height, weight and activity level. It is a starting point for planning, not a prescription, and it is not meant for anyone who is pregnant, under 18 or has a history of an eating disorder.
- Deficit and meal planners: lay out small swaps across meals, snacks and drinks so you can see where a change comes from.
- Weekly progress tracker: records weight and waist once a week and charts the trend.
- Craving log and emotion-eating journal: note what happened before an urge to eat and what helped.
When to get support
Check with your GP before you start if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have diabetes, kidney disease or another long-term condition, take regular medicines, or have a very high BMI. Pause the course and speak to your GP if:
- you are losing weight without trying
- you find yourself skipping meals, making yourself sick, using laxatives or exercising to make up for eating
- thoughts about food, weight or your body take up most of your day
- you feel dizzy, faint or shaky when you eat less, especially if you take medicine for diabetes
Bodywhys, the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, runs a helpline on (01) 2107906 and email support at alex@bodywhys.ie. If you are in crisis, call 112 or 999, or Samaritans free on 116 123 at any time.
Weight management courses: your questions
Is this a diet plan?
No. The courses teach how energy balance, food choices and habits work, and give you planners to build your own routine. Nobody sets you a personal target, and nothing in them is a medical weight-loss programme.
Why don't you promise a set amount of weight loss?
Because results vary from person to person and depend on many things outside a course. Irish advertising rules also say weight loss of more than 1kg a week is not compatible with good medical or nutritional practice, and that claims must not rest on untypical results.
Who should not take a weight management course?
Anyone who is pregnant, under 18, or has or has had an eating disorder should not follow a weight-loss plan without their GP or care team. If you have diabetes, kidney disease or another condition, or take medicines, speak to your GP first.
Do I have to count calories?
No. Calorie Deficit Explained teaches how counting works if you want to use it, but the other courses use portion guides, the Food Pyramid shelves and planners instead.
How does alcohol fit in?
Drinks add energy without filling you up. An Irish standard drink contains 10g of pure alcohol, such as half a pint of beer or a small 100ml glass of wine. The HSE weekly low-risk guidelines are up to 11 standard drinks for women and 17 for men, with at least 2 to 3 alcohol-free days.
Will I need to buy special foods?
No. The planners use everyday foods from Irish supermarkets, such as porridge, brown bread, potatoes, eggs, beans, frozen vegetables and fish.
Official sources
Swap the quick fix for a plan
Start with Calorie Deficit Explained and fill in the energy needs calculator; it takes a few minutes and gives you a starting point.