Short and sweet (literally) today as it’s nearly Christmas! And I thought it might be good to offer a little reminder that it doesn’t always have to be about the nutritional value of the food you’re eating. Food serves a purpose beyond pure fuel – it’s also an emotional activity. We enjoy eating and we enjoy food, and we enjoy the associations we make with food.
So you could wake up on Christmas morning and have a nutritious breakfast of poached eggs and avocado on toast, and a small cappuccino. It will undoubtedly taste delicious and set you up for your day. Or, because it’s Christmas, you could decide you’d rather enjoy the perfectly acceptable breakfast of 5 celebrations, 6 Terry’s chocolate orange segments and 6 gold
coins! It’s only a day, and unless you’re eating chocolate for breakfast everyday you’ll be fine. And as you can see from the comparison – if calories are what’s important to you – there’s not much in it anyway! lol!
At this time of year all the coffee shops bring out their range of festive coffees and hot chocolates. You’re out Christmas shopping, or meeting up with friends and family, so you just grab a quick festive drink to enjoy and get you in the festive spirit. You’ll drink it in minutes, and possibly have a snack with it, without really thinking or noticing. But that’s ok, because it’s just a festive hot choc, and it’s Christmas….
These drinks do vary but are all pretty high calorie. This particular example is a Cafe Nero salted caramel brownie hot chocolate and comes in at 476 cals and 42.6g sugar.
On the other hand that selection box contains 5 chocolate bars, with less calories and sugar. Now whilst I’m sure you could eat a selection box in one sitting (I certainly could) most people probably wouldn’t . You’d probably spread it over a few hours or possibly days, rather than eating it all in one go and certainly wouldn’t have any extra snacks with it (unlike the hot choc).
Christmas is definitely a time to relax a bit on calories and certainly a time to focus more on sharing memories and happy times with people you care about. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of the calories in some of the treats you are having.
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 festive drink – have it and enjoy it. If you want to eat your way through a selection box in one go then go for it. Just be aware of the calories so you’re making an educated choice!
At this time of year it’s quite likely you’ll end up overeating/drinking at some point. You hop on the scales in the morning and to your horror you’ve put on several kg seemingly overnight! Like most of us the first reaction is probably to feel demoralised and demotivated, think all your weight loss efforts have been wasted and assume you’ve put however many kg of fat on overnight.
However the scales are not a very accurate measure when it comes to changes in bodyfat levels. Short term, significant, fluctuations in scale weight are normal and natural – especially large ones that seem to happen overnight. These do not mean changes in body composition, so you haven’t suddenly put on X kg of fat. Rather they tend to be related to water levels – intra and extracellular hydration.
Even if you did eat an extra 20000 calories in one day then you STILL couldn’t store that all as fat. Some would be expended in physical activity and metabolic processes, including the cost of digestion itself etc. The extra weight you see on the scales in short term fluctuations is water retention and food volume.
The reasons for it may include – a really big meal the night before, especially one that might be high in fibre, or red meat (which takes longer to digest). It could be due to your workout routine recently which can lead to short term fluid retention in the muscles. General hydration levels and salt levels will also impact it – especially if you had high levels of salt in your diet the day before. Hormones play a massive role – particularly for women and can cause fluctuations of up to 5kg due to water retention. Lack of sleep or high levels of stress will also cause you to retain fluids. Carb heavy meals and alcohol do exactly the same thing too – you retain fluid – short term. Now that is NOT to say you need to avoid any of these things – you should be working out, you should be eating carbs etc but it may help to explain any fluctuations you see.
So if you overate on one day and your scale weight is up, then before you let it get you down, just stop and think about all the reasons it is probably fluctuating. Focus on being consistent with your calories over the long term instead, and use things like the way your clothes fit, or longer term trends in weight gauge progress (i.e. if you want to weigh yourself daily then take an average each week and use the trend of that average to gauge if you’re making progress). Remember it’s the average calories consumed over weeks or months that matter – not days!
Popcorn can be a great snack – it’s high volume and often lower calorie than say crisps or sweets/chocolate. But yet again manufacturers try to tap into the power of the weight loss industry to promote their products to market their products. The natural assumption is that the skinny popcorn be a lower calorie option and perhaps a ‘healthier’ choice.
In reality the ‘gourmet’ brand in this example is actually lower in calories. The skinny popcorn comes in at 481 cals per 100g.
The ‘gourmet’ brand is only 430 cals per 100g! It’s also worth noting that the skinny popcorn gives a smaller serving size of 20g whereas the other brand gives a serving size of 30g so if you were to do a quick comparison you may not spot that.
So as always don’t automatically assume these weight loss branded foods are always the better option.
Read the labels and look at the calories and then make your choice. If you’re trying to lose weight then go for the lowest calorie option, that you actually want to eat!
How often do you eat something and label it as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and by extension consider that you’ve been ‘good’ or ‘bad’? Grab a bag of jelly tots as a snack and you telL yourself you’ve been ‘bad’ and you’re a ‘bad’ person. In contrast if you snacked on a pot of edamame beans you’d be feeling very virtuous and like a ‘good’ person.
It’s really time we stop labelling foods and good or bad. And it’s definitely time we stop attributing some form of morality to snacks etc. What you eat or don’t eat has absolutely no bearing on your worth as a person. You’re not a bad person for snacking on some sweets. You’re also not a good person for choosing edamame beans.
Yes edamame beans have more fibre and protein and micronutrients, whilst the jelly tots have fewer nutritional benefits. The jelly tots will provide you with some quick release energy, the edamame will keep you fuller for longer. If you were trying to hit a certain number of calories then the jelly tots may even be a better choice as they’re fewer calories but neither is inherently good or bad. They both have a place in a balanced diet. The only reason to describe either as good or bad is in terms of how you think they actually taste! And personally I think they both taste good!
Every Step Fitness 