Things you think will boost your metabolism….. 💊

You often hear people claiming various foods/diets/workouts etc will ‘boost your metabolism’ but sadly there’s actually very little scientific evidence many do.

Despite many claims that intermittent fasting, or 24 hour (and longer) fasts will boost your metabolism the reality is they don’t. Research suggests that fasting has the same or negative effects on metabolism compared to a calorie deficit from other ‘diets’. When you severely limit calories, your body slows down basic functions to conserve energy. Instead of boosting your metabolism, you may experience a reeducation of to 20% your BMR.

Supplements don’t boost your metabolism – some containing stimulants may temporarily increase metabolism (3-4%) but this diminishes with time and use. Avoiding carbs, eating multiple small meals, drinking lemon water/coconut oil or a detox/juice cleanse have little to no impact and no studies support their claims to increase metabolism. I’ve discussed fasted cardio/exercise before as it’s often touted to burn more fat/boost metabolism. It does neither – but from a workout perspective if you haven’t eaten then you may fatigue faster and be unable to work as hard, therefore burning fewer calories.

Things that are scientifically proven to increase your metabolism include regular exercise and building lean muscle. Eating enough protein, which has a thermic effect when digested (though only accounts for 10% of total energy expenditure). Eating a high fibre diet which requires energy to digest and can help regulate blood sugar. Staying hydrated – being dehydrated reduces BMR. Getting enough sleep to avoid a drop in metabolism and managing stress. Increasing NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity

Thermogenesis) which accounts for 15% – 50% of total energy expenditure through everyday activities such as, standing, walking, cleaning, moving around etc.

Most of these have only a minimal impact (as discussed before), so really the most significant impact on metabolism is to avoid being sedentary and to move more throughout the day. So avoid those expensive supplements and fad diets/exercise trends and stick to the basics!

Enjoy 🤗

xxx

What to do when you overeat? 🍔

You have a meal/day/weekend of overeating and you think you’ve stuffed up. It’s tempting to react by writing yourself off, feeling guilty, or starving yourself or to try to exercise it off. But none of this actually works, so what should you do?

Don’t starve yourself but listen to your hunger and fullness signals. One day of overeating doesn’t mean you should starve yourself; this has negative emotional and physical impacts and leads to binge-restrict-binge eating. Listen to your body; you may not feel like breakfast or you may feel fuller on less food. This is your your body auto-regulating.

Rate your hunger and if you’re hungry then eat. Don’t deliberately skip meals or cut out food groups. Rate your hunger from 1-10 and try waiting until you’re around 7/10 to eat. Start to identify physical and emotional cues of true hunger such as feeling weak, dizzy, light-headed, moody, HANGRY – you don’t want to get that far.

Don’t try to earn/burn off the food you ate. It’s a vicious cycle and an unhealthy, ultimately fruitless path to follow by “earning or burning” food e.g “I’m going to workout extra hard so I can eat a Pizza”. Food is linked to social and emotional health and trying to ‘earn’ it creates an unhealthy relationship. You can’t out exercise food; it’s easy to overeat by 1000s cals but very hard to work that off! Just stay active and move as you usually would.

Don’t write yourself off or feel guilty. You can’t change the past, there’s no point dwelling on it. What you can do is reflect on it. Firstly what were the positives from overeating- emotional benefits, social benefits, taste, satisfaction etc. What could you learn from it and do differently? Could you eat more slowly? Could you have chosen a lower cal option that still gave you the enjoyment? Etc.

In the grand scheme of things overeating for a whole week is only 2% of your potential yearly meals. So don’t write yourself off for the next few weeks/months because of it.

Have a plan to get back on track with the habits you were building. Set a date, write out a plan, find someone to keep you accountable. We all deviate from the plan sometimes but it’s how you react to it that matters and determines whether it’s just a temporary lapse or a total relapse.

Enjoy 🤗

Xx

‘Healthy’ brekkie on the go vs ‘naughty’ brekkie…. 🥐

If you’re rushing in the mornings you may need to grab something to eat on the go. You may really enjoy a pain au chocolat but avoid it because you feel it’s ‘naughty’ and instead go for a ‘healthy’ nut bar.

You may view the pain au chocolat as bad as you don’t feel it’s packed with protein or ‘good’ fats, or vitamins or all those things we know we should be eating. It’s an ‘all butter’ pain au chocolat (omg!) so it is definitely evil and must be avoided at all costs…..So you avoid it. But nuts are healthy right so you can have a nut bar and feel virtuous.

Maybe you didn’t really fancy a nut bar or maybe you think it’s ok cos at least you’ve made a good decision in terms of your weight loss goals…. Or have you ?

A pain au chocolat from a supermarket multipack is 210 cals and actually has less fat and sugar than the 218 calorie nut bar (and only a little less protein). So you haven’t actually saved yourself anything by going for the nut bar.

So, if you are a fan of the pain au chocolat or need to grab something from home to eat on the go then go for it! And if you’re having the nut bar just because you think it’s ‘heathy’ and by extension lower calorie then maybe rethink that. I would add though that a pain au chocolat from a cafe is likely to be somewhat larger (eg Starbucks is 314 cals) so just be mindful to check the cals! As always knowledge is power!

Enjoy 🤗

Xx

Ways you could be subconsciously over eating… 😋

When it comes to losing weight /fat it really is true that you get out what you put in. So often we subconsciously consume more than we realise. Sometimes it’s due to lack of time, sometimes it’s because our focus is elsewhere e.g. being distracted by work and absentmindedly grabbing a snack, sometimes it’s because we perceive things to be fewer calories than they are, and sometimes it’s denial – we don’t want to admit to what we’ve eaten or it feels too overwhelming to try to track it all.

So if you’re not seeing progress maybe it’s worth just having a think and seeing if you’re perhaps subconsciously consuming more than you think. Common ways this happen include:

• Estimating rather than measuring. Are you actually weighing things or are you using estimated weights? Eyeballing things and saying that’s probably about 30g? Or you using inaccurate measures like ‘cups’ or ‘medium banana’ – how big is ‘medium’?
• Are you honestly tracking everything you’re actually eating – what about the odd bite/ spoonful here and there? The odd chocolate/crisp etc? They can really add up!
• Are you including liquid calories? If you drink a lot of coffee/tea are you including the milk?
• Alcohol – are you underestimating the calories from alcohol? It’s easy to rack up a couple of thousand calories over a weekend in booze.
• Sauces / dressings / condiments – again it’s easy to overlook these but over a week they can easily add up to several hundred/thousands of calories.
• Oil in cooking – a drizzle /slug of oil is at least 100-200 cals! Swap to a 1 cal oil spray – 30 sprays is only 30 cals so you’re still saving!
• Secret snacking / picking – are you actually snacking more than you realise? That biscuit with coffee, the sweet you grab when you pop to the kitchen to make a cuppa etc.

We all do this. You’re not a ‘bad’ person if you’re not tracking everything, but you will only make progress if you can be really truthful and honest with yourself about what you’re consuming. At the end of the day it’s your body, your goals and your decision.

🤗
Xx

Reverse lent! 😇

Today is the first day of Lent! Regardless of your beliefs or faith Lent has traditionally become a time when people give up various things they consider ‘bad’. Now whilst there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that at all sometimes it can become more of a negative rather than positive experience.

So how about instead of giving up things, you turned it around and tried taking something up or giving something to others?
You could do some voluntary work, or you could give things to charity. For example, try setting up a box and popping one item of clothing or something you don’t want anymore in it every day for each day of lent, then donate to charity at the end!
You could give your time to someone – it could be something simple like helping a friend or neighbour, or calling someone for a chat. Or you could take up a new hobby or challenge during Lent – try something new like gardening, knitting, drawing, or perhaps a fitness based challenge – trying new classes, walking every day, working out 3 times a week etc.

What do you say? 🤗
How about a reverse lent?
Xx