Tuesday Tip: Visual cues 👀

Portion control is one of the biggest issues when it comes to losing weight.We often gauge how much to eat by how much food is placed in front of us; the eat what’s on your plate approach. This holds true even when the plate refills e.g. in one study those eating soup from a bowl that secretly refilled from a hidden tube consumed 73% more than those using a regular bowl.

When it comes to snacks (biscuits, crisps etc) ‘you can’t eat just one,’ right? If we have larger bags we eat more. With the cost of living crisis this may become more of an issue as we buy in bulk to save money. However visual cues to portion size can mean people eat less e.g. in one study on stackable crisps (Pringles) researchers inserted a red crisp to indicate portion size. Participants weren’t told what it meant. Those with the red crisps tended to stop eating sooner. It acted as a sort of “stop sign,” a subconscious indicator you’ve had enough. In another study participants were given unlimited fried chicken wings whilst watching a film. One group had the bones cleared from their plate regularly, one didn’t. Those who kept their bones ate less as they had a visual reminder of what they’d eaten.

Essentially there are 3 reasons we overeat beyond satisfaction in these scenarios:

– We lose track of how much we have eaten.

– We perceive a ‘normal amount’ of food to be whatever the serving size happens to be.

– Eating becomes a semiautomated habit, continuing until interrupted e.g. you’re focused on the TV instead.

Visual cues help regulate how much you eat by showing appropriate serving sizes, helping you track what you’ve eaten and interrupting habitual eating. How can we do this?

• Smaller plates or bowls = smaller portions. You’ll often eat less.

• Buy pre-portioned snacks or measure snacks into a bowl and leave the packet in the cupboard.

• Leave wrappers, drinks cans etc on the table so you can see how much you’ve eaten/drunk.

• Pay attention to what you’re eating and avoid prolonged mindless eating.

These small changes can lead to big calorie savings over time!

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip: Pump(kin) it up! 🎃

Well it is almost Hallowe’en so I wanted to focus on the most famous of hallowe’en vegetables! The pumpkin! They’re not just great for carving, their nutritional benefits are so good – they’re scary!

Not only is pumpkin really low calorie (26kcals/ 100g), it also contains no saturated fats or cholesterol, and is rich in fibre, anti-oxidants and B vitamins. They are super high in vitamin A, a single serving giving you over 4 times your daily recommended amount. It’s great for eye health and for essential immune function; great to ward off those seasonal colds.

It’s particularly good for helping you recover from workouts. Pumpkins are high in vitamin C, which as well as boosting your immune system also helps the body produce collagen. This is vital for maintaining the structure of your bones and keeping them strong! It’s full of beta-carotene which is a fantastic natural anti-inflammatory, to reduce your post-workout recovery time. It’s also rich in potassium (it has more potassium than bananas). This helps to restore the body’s electrolyte balance after a heavy workout which means you will recover faster and keep those muscles functioning properly.

It doesn’t end with the flesh, the seeds are also brilliant too. They are full of anti-inflammatory compounds and healthy fats, protein and fibre and recent evidence suggests they can help with pelvic floor issues. So sprinkle them over your brekkie or grab a handful for an on the go snack!

It’s such a versatile veg, you can use it in casseroles or stews, make a yummy soup, oven roast it, throw it in a curry, and you can use it in baking too; it makes a great egg or butter replacer in muffins and loaf cakes, and you can even make a pumpkin butter!🤗

The pumpkins sold for carving aren’t the best for cooking as they’re grown to have less ‘meat’. So if you’re buying purely to eat it’s worth going for other pumpkins or squashes, but the carving ones are still perfectly edible. So as you’re carving those pumpkins today save a bit of the flesh and try roasting it or throwing it in a casserole etc.

Happy Hallowe’en guys!

🎃👻

Xx

Tuesday Tip: Beat the Autumn Blues 🍂

So Autumn is certainly in the air; cooler, darker evenings and mornings. For me, and many of my clients and class members this is a tough transition. It’s hard to find motivation to continue regular exercise, and we crave warming, comfort foods. I’ve posted this before but it’s always a useful reminder at this time of year.

Low energy, low mood and low motivation makes us want to hibernate rather than work out. So how can you keep that summer mojo going? Focus on shorter workouts if you’re struggling to find motivation for long sessions. In an ideal world you’d aim for 30-45 mins of high intensity exercise 3 x week: a class, a home hiit workout, or a cycle or run. But anything is better than nothing so if you can only do 10-15 mins then that’s fine! Don’t forget all the other ways you can exercise too like gardening, walking, swimming etc

Find a gym buddy; it’s harder to skip that workout when you’re doing it with someone else. Join a colleague for a lunchtime run, or meet up with a friend at the gym or at a class. The social side of fitness plays a massive role in keeping you on track.

Try to sneak exercise in whenever you can: park further away, take the stairs, walk over to speak to colleagues in the office rather than phoning or try a walking meeting with colleagues. If you’re watching the kids play sport then walk the sideline instead of standing still.

Exercise isn’t about losing weight, it’s great for stress relief and at this time of year when things can be a bit manic it’s a great release. The endorphins will lift your mood and help energise you. Make the most of those bright autumnal days and go for a walk outside.

Focus on warming, filling foods like soups and casseroles. I also like to stew up a load of fruit (apples, pears, plums, berries – whatever!) and use it as a snack or pud. Warm it up, sprinkle some oats or a little cereal on it and a dollop of Greek yoghurt – a great comforting dish!

Oh and just because it’s not hot you still need to be drinking plenty of water. It’s even more important to ensure you’re properly hydrated at this time of year as it’s when most of us forget – so get sipping while you workout!

Don’t let the changing seasons get you down – embrace it – enjoy it and have some fun this Autumn 🍁

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip: Common Tracking Errors 😳

Tracking calories is a tool we can use strategically at certain times to accomplish specific goals, whether that’s improved health, sports performance, fat loss, or muscle gain. It can teach us quite a bit about food and nutrition as well, such as learning the energy and macronutrient composition of various foods.

Tracking accurately is a skill though and it’s very common for people to unintentionally and unknowingly under-report or under-track their food intake in general. Small mistakes with tracking can really add up over the days and weeks and can mean the difference between you losing fat or maintaining your weight.

Here are some common mistakes:

Eyeballing portions

Estimating and eyeballing portion sizes can be the difference between being in a calorie deficit or not. Weighing with a food scale in grams or ounces is the most accurate method you can use.

Grazing and mindless bites

Untracked grazing, bites, snacks, sips, and licks still count towards your calories and can really add up. Often , we’re not even aware we’re doing this, so increasing your mindfulness and awareness can be key. Plan out your snacks ahead of time and consider portioning things out in advance into serving containers or buy your snacks prepackaged.

Raw vs Cooked

Food loses and gains water weight when we cook it. For example, rice and pasta “gain” water weight while potatoes, protein sources, and vegetables “lose” water weight when they are cooked. Cooking methods and times affect how much water is gained or lost. The most accurate method is to weigh your food raw – or before you cook it. But what matters the most is that you are consistent with the method you chose and you choose the right calories to log – so check whether the cals listed are “cooked” or”raw” entries.

Generic meal entries

Your homemade spaghetti bolognese will have vastly different calories than many of the generic entries available in your tracking app. Track your meals by either entering each ingredient or (a more efficient way) use the recipe function in the app.

Oils, dressings, condiments etc

Cooking oils, mayonnaise , mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, butter, milk in coffee, sauces, preserves and salad dressings are easy to forget. However, they can quickly add up to be a few extra hundred calories. Don’t forget to track the oil you cook with (or swap to a 1 cal oil spray), condiments, milk, and dressings etc.

Not checking the accuracy of entries

Certain tracking apps (like MFP) are notorious for having inaccurate or misleading entries. Sometimes the serving size is incorrect, sometimes the actual calories are out, so if you can double check the entry against the label then do. Also, make sure your serving sizes are accurate in bought items and in your own pre-loaded meals or recipes (we tend to change servings over time so worth revisiting now and then).

Forgetting to log

It’s so easy to forget what we’ve consumed – studies all support this and even trained nutritionists don’t recall everything. The best way to prevent this is to track in advance or as you go along. Before something goes in your mouth just open the app and log it. Don’t wait until the end of the day to log things. Aside from forgetting what you’ve had it’s also too late to make any changes once you’ve eaten it.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx

Tuesday Tip: Are Seed oils bad? 🛢️

Apparently seed oils are the latest food to demonise. Rapeseed/canola, sunflower, sesame oil etc are apparently toxic, inflammatory and the worst thing you can eat. But does the evidence actually support this?

Some of the fear has a fairly logical origin. For decades, partially hydrogenated oils containing trans fats were widely used in margarines, processed foods and commercial frying. Trans fats genuinely are harmful, particularly for cardiovascular health. However at some point hydrogenated oils = bad morphed into seed oils = bad, but they’re not the same thing.

In addition lots of ‘junk’ foods such as chips, doughnuts, fried fast food, crisps, biscuits and other ultra-processed foods also contain seed oils. People who eat a lot of junk food may have poorer health , junk food often contains seed oils so it must be the seed oils that are bad. In reality these foods are just energy-dense combinations of refined flour, sugar and fat that’s very easy to overeat.

The major scientific warnings against seed oils come from studies tracking commercial fryer oil that has been heated for hours or days at a time (which causes it to breakdown producing potentially toxic by products) . Critics online took these findings and misapplied them to ordinary home cooking. In reality, using fresh seed oil at home for standard cooking, baking, or light frying produces negligible breakdown products and is entirely safe. Regularly eating deep-fried takeaway food is rather different from using some rapeseed oil to cook your stir fry .

There’s also the myth that omega-6 causes inflammation. Human research doesn’t support this; normal consumption of linoleic acid, the main omega-6 in many seed oils, doesn’t increase inflammatory markers. In fact, when unsaturated vegetable oils replace saturated fats, LDL cholesterol generally drops which helps cardiovascular health.

So don’t panic over a teaspoon of seed oil in your dinner or as an ingredient in the food you enjoy. As usual, the boring stuff matters far more: overall diet, fibre, fruit and veg, protein, calorie balance, exercise and sleep.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx