A day of snacks… ☕️ 🍫

There are lots of strategies you can use when trying to stick to your calorie deficit to lose weight/fat. Being aware of the calories in the foods you choose to consume and swapping to lower calorie foods which you also enjoy is an obvious option. As well as the calories though it’s worth considering the quantity and volume of the food you’re choosing.

Snacking is a common problem and an easy way to extra calories to sneak in. It’s not hard to accumulate over 1000 cals of snacks in a day. A coffee when you get to work with a couple of biscuits (medium semi skimmed latte and chocolate digestives), a ‘healthy’ snack mid morning of 30g cashews and an apple, a Mars bar to give you a bit of an energy boost in the afternoon, and a small bag of kettle chips when you’re waiting for dinner. None of that will seem excessive at the time, in fact you may not even notice much if it. You can see, however, how easily it could take you over your calories for the day.

There are some easy swaps you could make that won’t impact too much on your satisfaction, still allow you to follow your preferred pattern of eating but save 500 cals. In this example you could swap the coffee to a flat white and the digestives to a couple of lotus biscuits. You could just have the apple for your ‘healthy’ snack, swap to a curly wurly to give you an afternoon boost and some pop chips pre dinner and you’ll save over 500 cals, and it’s still a lot of snacks so you won’t feel deprived.

Obviously you may decide instead to cut a few of the snacks and have the higher calorie options, but that’s where knowing the calorie content comes in! You can have whatever you want, if you can fit it into your calories, this is just another strategy to add to your toolkit to help you stick to those calories.

Enjoy 🤗
Xx

What happens when you eat carbs at night?🥔

Some people have suggested that eating carbs at night, before you sleep should be avoided because you are more likely to store fat since you are sleeping shortly after the last meal, so you won’t have a chance to ‘burn it off.’ Is there any truth to this?

Nope. This isn’t how your metabolism works. Your metabolism doesn’t shut off just because you’re asleep, you’re still metabolising nutrients and creating fuel while you sleep. It’s also not how body fat is gained or lost – it doesn’t occur at specific times of the day. When you eat it’s likely that you will store some fatty acids in adipose tissue. But they can be mobilized again as we go through periods of ‘fasting’ and ‘feeding’ during the day. For example, if you only ate one really large meal per day, you would store a significant amount of fatty acids in adipose tissue, since the meal would likely be quite calorie-dense. However, after several hours, you would likely begin mobilizing much of that energy during the long ‘fasting’ window since you only ate a single meal. If on the other hand you ate 8 meals per day (totalling the same number of calories overall) you would store fewer fatty acids after each meal, but you also have a much shorter fasting window. The overall result though would be the same – you’d end up storing / metabolising the same amount of fatty acids.

Now people tend to focus on carbs as they’re often seen as the devil and also tend to be more calorie dense (especially when you include things like cakes, biscuits, pizza, etc that technically are a combination of carbs and fat) but studies show that it makes no difference to fat storage whether your calories are from carbs or other macros. So regardless of the content of the meal if you eat a big meal at night, then yes you will probably store more fatty acids overnight as it is a high calorie meal. But as you then have a long ‘fasting’ window while you sleep you will metabolise some of them. And as long as the meals you have earlier in the day don’t take you over your calorie goal it won’t result in actual body fat gains.

So, eating (anything) at night is not going to make you store more fat, and this is supported by research. At the end of the day, the most important factor for success is hitting your calorie target consistently. Eat in a pattern that allows you to be most consistent at hitting your calories.

🤗

Xx

Good snack?….. 🍫

I often talk about this idea of foods being described as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and I often hear people telling me they need to choose “better”snacks, or that they’ve swapped their usual chocolate for “good” snacks. So something like this caramel chocolate peanut KIND bar is often perceived to be a “good” snack, whilst Snickers is considered to be a “bad” snack.

The key to being in control of your weight management is really understanding that there is no such thing as a “bad” or “good” snack – they’re just different. There are nutritional differences between the chocolate and the KIND bar of course but not quite as many as we think ,and of course we don’t just choose food on the basis of its nutritional breakdown.

The 40g KIND bar is a great option for a snack – it’s got a bit more protein (though still not ‘high’ protein per se) and other micronutrients and less sugar (not that sugar is bad!). The combo of slightly more protein and fat may keep you fuller for longer.

The 41g Snickers bar however actually has fewer overall calories, a reasonable amount of protein and less fat. It provides you with energy, mainly in the form of sugar. For many people the chocolate can give an emotional boost as well as an energy one.

Overall the calorie difference between the two is only 20 cals but the Snickers is lower. So if you’re choosing the KIND bar in an effort to lose weight, then think again. If you’re choosing it because you like them then brilliant – keep having it. If you fancy some chocolate, then have that! Don’t be swayed by “healthy” marketing tactics. Just because a product is labeled as better for you or comes with a higher price tag, doesn’t guarantee it’s truly beneficial!

There are no good or bad foods – all foods can be accommodated within a balanced diet. Being aware of the calories in different foods empowers you to make that choice.

🤗

Xx

Just a salad…. 🍔

Big Mac lovers prayers have been answered in the form of a new M&S cheeseburger pasta salad (with a Big Mac style burger sauce)! You would probably assume that as it’s a salad it’s a better option calorie wise than an actual Big Mac…. You would however be wrong!

It’s very easy to get sucked into the idea that certain foods are inherently “good” and others are “bad”. Salad is usually viewed as being “good”, even a pasta salad, and it’s certainly viewed as a better option than a Big Mac from McDonald’s. Having the pasta salad for lunch might leave you feeling like you’d been “good” whilst if you went and grabbed a Big Mac you may feel like you’ve blown everything!

Now I’m not suggesting a Mcdonalds is a “healthy” option, but to be honest neither is the pasta salad. The pasta salad is a whopping 755 calories (33g fat)! Whilst the Big Mac is a mere 493 cals (24g fat). If you are trying to lose fat or weight then you might naturally assume that the McDonald’s is a terrible option and that by having it you’ve ruined your day (diet -wise). Whereas the salad may leave you feeling like you’ve made a lower calorie / healthier and therefore “better” choice, and feeling guilt-free and virtuous and on track.

In reality you could have just had the Big Mac if that’s what you wanted and saved from calories. And if you are grabbing some of these pre prepared salads then definitely check the calories before you make any assumptions about their nutritional value!

🤗

Xx