Tony Ferguson's 12 Week Program FAQs

Feeling hungry is normal when you cut your calories down to lose weight. To help get you through, try these tips:

• Avoid skipping any of the meals and snacks on your meal plan
• Drink plenty of water during the day, 2L is a good aim
• Snack on additional low calorie snacks such as veggie sticks (e.g. carrot, celery, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, Aeroplane Jelly Lite)
• Have a cup of tea
• Go for a walk or do some exercise
• Or simply keep busy, being distracted is a great way to kill time until the next meal or snack

While we've listed a variety of recipes on our meal plans, you can easily choose another recipe instead. Visit the Recipes section of our website and choose a recipe that you prefer.

While we've listed a variety of recipes on your meal plan, you can easily choose another recipe instead. We have a selection of both vegetarian and vegan recipes on our website that you can use instead. Alternatively you may be able to substitute the meal for a vegetarian protein such as tofu, tempeh or veggie mince. Visit the Recipes section of our website and choose another recipe from the vegetarian or vegan recipe section.

Keeping hydrated is important and water is the best drink as it's calorie free. If you struggle, make it a goal to start getting used to drinking plain water, even if its 2-3 glasses a day at first. You can add lemon or lime slices or no added sugar cordial to the rest. Aim for around 2L of fluids each day.

While exercise isn't compulsory, exercise is important for a healthy body and it helps burn calories. It's something that everyone needs to do. If you aren't sure where to start, try these tips:

• Go for a 30 minute walk most days
• Join a bootcamp or fitness class
• Kick around the ball with the kids
• Increase your daily steps - use a step counter to challenge yourself
• Increase your incidental activity e.g. park the car further and walk, take the stairs instead of the life, tackle active house work such as vacuuming, scrubbing floors and windows.

If you're not an exerciser, start small and build slowly. If you have any existing medical conditions, be sure to speak to your doctor before you start an exercise regime.

These things happen! Don't feel like you've failed. Simply get back on it for the next meal.

Eating out when on a weight loss plan isn't impossible. Have your non-shake meal out and try these suggestions:

• Grilled meat/chicken/fish with salad or steamed vegetables
• Stir-fried meat/chicken/fish/tofu and vegetables in a non-creamy sauce e.g. soy based ones. Skip the rice /noodles or keep portion small.
• Poached eggs and salad or sautéed vegetables e.g. mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes etc
• Salad topped with chicken or boiled eggs

Simply using shakes with no specific meal plan, recipes or support makes it difficult to be successful. The Tony Ferguson plan is not just shakes, it's a weight loss plan which includes shakes, meals, snacks and a database of recipes to choose from. The Tony Ferguson 12 Week program provides 12 weeks of support with a new meal plan each week and tips to keep you motivated and on track while you work towards your weight loss goal.

Nuts, seeds and avocado do contain fat but are healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. We need to include some healthy fats in our diet for vitamin absorption and healthy skin. We've tried to do this in your meal plan.

But what if you feel your will power waning sometimes? Try these tips:

• Revisit your goals and why you began this journey
• Look at how far you've come
• Speak to supportive friends and family
• If hungry, make sure:
  • You are not skipping any meals or snacks on your meal plan
  • You are drinking plenty of water and keeping hydrated
  • You snack on any of the low calorie options discussed in week 5 (click here)
• If bored, try:
  • Calling or catching up with a friend
  • Going to bed earlier
  • Doing some exercise

Losing weight involves making dietary changes to lower your calorie intake. When you finish losing weight and want to maintain weight, you need to adapt some of these healthy changes into your new lifestyle. Going back to what you ate prior to your weight loss plan will result in weight gain. The Tony Ferguson 12 Week Program provides you will healthy meal and snack ideas and recipes as well as tips on making lifestyle changes. Once you finish losing weight, try and maintain some of the suggested changes including portion sizes, increasing vegetables and salads, healthy snacks, exercise routine etc. These are all good changes to help you maintain weight after weight loss.

Any low fat / no fat plain natural unsweetened unflavoured yoghurt (1/2-3/4 cup)

• • Yoplait Zero 175g tub
  • Nestle Soliel 150g tub -Danone YoPro 170g tub or 140g drinking pack
  • Chobani Fit 170g tub or 140g drinking pack
  • Tamar Valley No Added Sugar Greek Style yoghurt (1 tub from 6 pack or 1/2 cup serve)
  • Aldi's: Dairy Dream No Added Sugar Deli Yoghurt (1 tub from 6 pack or 1/2 cup serve)

This depends on how motivated you are. You will lose a bit more weight on the plan incorporating 2 shakes per day as the calorie intake is less so this may be a good place to start. If you find you are struggling then you may want to enquire about the 1 shake per day plan.

Keep a food diary to track what you are eating and drinking each day. Even a few extra snacks, alcohol or a few meals out can affect weekly weight loss. If you are only replacing one meal per day with our shakes, try replacing 2 meals per day. It should be noted that if you are losing between 0.5-1kg a week then this is a good rate of weight loss.Yyou may find some weeks you don't lose weight and other weeks you lose more. Avoid weighing yourself more than once per week. Other things that can affect weight loss include irregular bowels, time of the month for women, fluid retention, lack of exercise or sometimes certain health conditions. If you're sticking to the program strictly and still not losing weight, speak to your doctor regarding why this may be the case.