Fasted vs non-fasted Exercise… 🏃🏼‍♂️

There’s a fair amount of confusion out there about whether you’re better off exercising fasted (on an empty stomach) or after you’ve eaten something (non-fasted) and whether one is better or worse for fat loss.

The confusion arises because people often talk about how exercising on an empty stomach increases fat oxidation. This then gets conflated with fat loss. Fat oxidation is the process of using fat for energy in the body. When you eat something the body secretes insulin to aid in the processing and metabolism of the food for energy and storage. Insulin reduces fat oxidation, so less fat is used for energy. So the argument is that if you haven’t eaten anything yet that day then you won’t have secreted any insulin and therefore fat will be oxidised and used for energy.

Whilst this is true – you will have more fat oxidation, it doesn’t actually mean more fat loss. Fat loss is dependant on overall calories consumed, on average, over the day/week/month etc. Even if you exercise before eating, you still need to have a calorie deficit for that day otherwise any excess calories will still be stored as fat. So It makes NO difference to fat loss whether you choose to eat before or after exercise.

For some people they prefer to exercise on an empty stomach, but for others they need some food in their system to workout. From a workout perspective if you haven’t eaten yet then you may find you fatigue faster and aren’t able to work as hard, so you may end up burning fewer calories. So it’s very much personal preference!

However bear in mind that doing too much intense fasted cardio does impact hormone production. Firstly, it causes stress hormones like cortisol to rise, thyroid activity to be depressed, and in women decreases the production of kisspeptin (disrupting the release of estrogen and progesterone) which isn’t great!

🤗

xxx

‘Healthy’ snacks… 🤔

So todays post has come about after recent chats with a few of my clients. Our perceptions of what is ‘healthy’ and therefore equated to being low calorie in many cases is heavily influenced by marketing and social media. Often what we expect to be the healthy or low calorie option isn’t actually as low as we think.

This particular comparison is an interesting one. Both these snacks (banana bread and a flapjack) have been described to me as a ‘healthy’ or low calorie option when grabbing a sweet treat at a cafe. Now some of those people have said they would choose the banana bread as the only other option was a flapjack which was ‘bad’ and others have said the opposite. In reality as you can see there’s really not much in it. Both these snacks are close to 350 cals, both are high fat and sugar and both contain a variety of micronutrients. So both of these are actually a hefty snack and should both be treated as such. They’re essentially just the same as a small slice of cake. There’s nothing wrong with that at all but it’s just worth remembering when choosing to have them.

In some cases other choices may even be fewer calories so no matter how ‘sure’ you are about which option you think is lower in calories it’s always worth checking (assuming weight loss / controlling calorie intake is your goal of course). As I always say – knowledge is power so being aware of the calorie content of things, and also of our own perceptions of the things we consume is always a good thing. Make an educated choice!
🤗

Xx

‘Just a seasonal coffee and snack…’ ☕️ 🎃

At this time of year all the coffee shops bring out their range of seasonal coffees and snacks. Costa has a range of Maple Hazelnut coffees so if you’re out and about you may well decide to grab a quick seasonal drink and a snack to go with it.

This particular example is a medium Maple Hazelnut Latte (with semi skimmed milk) and a small iced ginger biscuit. You’d probably think this was a reasonable thing to have as a snack and you might realise it’s a few hundred calories but it can’t be that bad… It’s just a coffee and a biscuit right?

On the other hand if you grabbed a sausage roll from Greggs you may be berating yourself for ‘being bad’.

In reality that seasonal coffee comes in at around 320 cals, and the biscuit is 188 cals. That’s a total of 508 cals. In comparison the sausage roll is a mere 329 cals! Whilst there’s absolutely nothing wrong with spending over 500 cals on coffee and a snack you may find that if you’re trying to watch your calories that you can’t accommodate that many cals for a snack. In addition if you don’t realise how many cals they are you are likely to go over calorie budget that day.

Knowledge is power so being aware of the calorie content of things, and also of our own perceptions of the things we consume is always a good thing. If you want the seasonal drink and snack – have it and enjoy it. If you wants sausage roll then go for it. Just be aware of the calories so you’re making an educated choice!
🤗

Xx

You still need to eat… even if…. 💜

If the weekend, a holiday or yesterday or whenever didn’t go as planned you don’t need to beat yourself up. You do not need to punish yourself by starving yourself or over exercising. You still need to eat and your body still needs nourishment regardless.

The feelings of guilt, shame, disappointment, anger, frustration etc aren’t going to help. In fact if you do overly restrict your food you’ll probably find that you’ll end up overeating again when the next weekend hits.

Even if you over ate by thousands of calories it’s ok! You haven’t ‘ruined’ everything. The only way to truly ruin it is if you give up or quit. Otherwise, it’s ok – as long as you get back to things, you’re going to keep making progress.

So even if the scale is up, you missed a workout, ate or drank more than you expected to, ate too many desserts or snacks or if you’re feeling fat/bloated – just go back to normal, non restrictive eating.

Remember: no matter what, you are not a failure. It’s a journey and there will be times

It doesn’t go to plan but when does life ever? The key is to keep going and keep things sustainable and manageable and you will succeed!

Enjoy

🤗

Xx