Category: Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Things that make you fat…. 🍟

There are so many myths and there is so much pseudoscience out there around weight and fat loss. Depending on who you follow you may be told that eating carbs is making you fat, or that eating after 8pm is making you fat, or perhaps it’s eating fat that’s making you fat? Or you may have seen people saying that eating too much fruit is the problem, or eating sugar, or perhaps it’s because you snack? Or maybe it’s because you have breakfast… or maybe it’s because you don’t….

This is all rubbish. Eating carbs don’t make you fat, neither does eating fat or sugar – it all comes down to the total calories – you could eat solely carbs and lose fat if you were at a calorie deficit. Eating fruit certainly doesn’t make you fat – yes it’s often ‘full of sugar’ but that’s not a bad thing.. it’s fruit – so it’s full of fructose, and tonnes of other micronutrients that we need to function and of course it all comes down to calories. It’s actually quite hard to be in a calorie surplus just from fruit!

Eating after a certain time, or only eating at certain times also won’t make you fat – as long as you’re within your daily calorie limit.

Eating breakfast (or not eating it) and snacking aren’t issues either – if they help you stick to your daily calorie limits.

Stop focusing on the small stuff and listening to pseudoscience – this is just confusing the issue. Eating too many calories and consuming consistent caloric surplus is what makes you gain weight. Of course that means the reverse is also true – a calorie deficit (however you achieve it) will result in fat loss!

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What you think happens on a super low calorie diets… 🥗

If you’re trying to lose weight/fat it’s very tempting to go in hard and aim for a super low calorie diet – this may be in the form of a ‘juice’ diet/cleanse, or some form of fasting, meal substitutes etc or just a v low calorie diet (under 1200 cals). In doing this you might expect that you’ll lose weight fast, feel super healthy and achieve that dream body! Boom! All your problems solved!

The reality however is that yes you may well lose some weight initially – much of which will be fluid to start with. And you may feel like you’re ‘cleansing’ your system to begin with (of course you’re not – your liver and kidneys do a great job of that every single day anyway!). However with these sorts of low calorie diets you will also find that you’re extremely hungry, tired, lacking in energy, irritable, subject to picking up more infections etc (as the immune system is suppressed ) and less able to do your workouts etc and probably miserable. As these diets inevitably involve cutting out foods you enjoy you’ll also feel deprived, and the chances of not being able to stick to the diet, and binging is extremely high.

All this leads to low adherence and means they’re not sustainable so after a short time you’re likely to return to your normal eating pattern. It doesn’t change any habits and therefore doesn’t result in long term weight loss.

So rather than going for short term fixes and slashing calories instead aim for a small yet sustainable calorie deficit, work on changing your habits and making life long changes so you can lose weight and maintain it!

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Coconut oil is good for weight loss….. 🥥

It’s very common in the media for certain foods to be proclaimed as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for weight loss and health. In reality this is rarely the case – individual foods rarely make a significant impact on weight loss or health – rather it’s the overall balance of these foods within the diet that matter. When it comes to weight loss the calories are actually what matter most.

Coconut oil is one such food that many proclaim as being ‘good’ for weight loss, whereas butter has been vilified as ‘bad’. I often hear clients tell me they’ve swapped to coconut oil and with that comes a presumption that it will aid their weight loss journey. The claims around coconut oil include that it boosts metabolism, regulates blood sugar levels, and increases fat loss. In actual fact there are no reliable studies to support these assertions. Coconut oil is in fact extremely high in saturated fat, and calories. Compared to butter it contains more calories and a higher proportion of saturated fats. Saturated fats aren’t inherently bad and should certainly be included in your diet, but there are multiple studies which demonstrate links to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and high consumption of saturated fats. So if you already have a diet high in saturated fats adding more probably isn’t a great idea!

Coconut oil’s reputation as a ‘super food’ means that many might presume it would be lower calorie than traditional butter and therefore use it without really considering the calories. If goal was to lose weight then blindly using coconut oil in place of butter and other oils/spreads wouldn’t be a good choice. However if you enjoy coconut oil then by all means use it – just be aware of the calories it contains.

As always – knowledge is power! Never assume ‘healthy’ or ‘good’ foods are automatically lower in calories!

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What you should focus on during a workout… 🏋🏻

There’s a common misconception that you can only get a ‘good’ workout if your heart rate peaks at its highest ever, that you are sweating tonnes, or if you are burning as many calories as possible. Many people focus on these as indicators or whether their workout was good or bad.

However none of these correlate with how effective a workout actually is. They also don’t correlate with how much fat you’re burning either. Hitting a higher heart rate doesn’t mean you’re burning more body fat. Sweating doesn’t either – it just means you’re cooling your body down or it could relate to your level of hydration, hormones, etc.

Most importantly your calorie burn doesn’t necessarily reflect the effectiveness of your workout. It’s highly inaccurate – no device can accurately count how many calories you’re burning. It’s also irrelevant. It may take you 45 mins to burn 500 calories but you can consume those calories in 4 mins (or less!). You can never out exercise what you’re eating (and I’ve written about this in other posts). Unless you’re working out for 10 hours a day it’s impossible to use exercise to lose fat (Note – working out for that long is most definitely not a suggestion!). It’s your diet that determines the fat loss.

So exercise should be focused on increasing and improving performance. Separate it from the calorie side of things. Instead focus on lifting more weight, doing more reps, improving your 5k time, improving your range of motion and technique etc. Don’t put your energy and effort into things that ultimately don’t matter and will just cause you more stress. Chasing higher heart rates and higher calorie burns isn’t sustainable or enjoyable. Don’t chase a feeling – chase results – getting stronger, doing more push ups, managing that burpee, lifting more

weight etc.

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