Diets : nothing is out of bounds
Firstly, you need to reduce the total number of calories you consume, mainly by limiting the amount of fat in your diet (30-35% of daily energy intake) and eating large amounts of low-calorie foods.

Next, you should maintain your consumption of carbohydrates at the recommended level (50-55% of your total energy intake, including simple and complex carbohydrates).

Finally, your diet should still be appetizing. If your food is enjoyable to eat, it will be easier to maintain your eating habits in the future, without feeling frustrated. That’s why sweet-tasting carbohydrates (sucrose in particular) do have a role to play in your diet. Consumed in reasonable amounts (three to four sugar lumps or the sugar equivalent per day), sugar makes your diet restrictions much easier to swallow!

In addition to these principles, you should exercise regularly in proportion to your energy intake.

In conclusion, everyone agrees that in order to regulate and prevent weight gain you should eat a balanced diet and exercise on a regular basis.

Sugar and weight

When we talk about obesity – which affects 11.3% of the French population – sugar is often seen as one of the prime suspects. This is not supported by recent scientific studies and food consumption surveys.


The causes of obesity

Excess weight and obesity are due to a combination of factors:
- genetic predisposition,
- lack of exercise,
- excess calorie intake.


If you eat more calories than you burn off (lack of physical exercise), your fat mass increases. Your total calorie intake is much more to blame than the nature of the macronutrients (fats, carbohydrates, proteins) you eat.

See the chart of recommended daily energy requirements for differents groups

Carbohydrates and weight gain: what’s the latest research?

Several food consumption studies performed in France have shown (for both adults and children) that there is no direct link between carbohydrate consumption and weight gain.


In fact, intervention studies (in which a sample group is given a certain food in order to measure its effect on the body) have revealed a small but significant drop in weight when a diet containing an unrestricted number of calories was consumed. The low-fat content (10% of the total calorie intake) was compensated for by a larger intake of complex carbohydrates or simple carbohydrates.


Consuming fats is less likely to lead to a feeling of being full (the state of not being hungry) than consuming carbohydrates. An equal amount of carbohydrates contains fewer calories (4kcal/g) and helps you feel full more quickly. The overall calorie content of the meal is therefore lower.


Like all palatable foods, sugar-sweetened drinks can lead to over-consumption. Given the current state of scientific research, it is still not possible to determine if there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and the risk of obesity.