Tag: cut calories

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Fasted vs non-fasted Exercise

Dr Nancy P

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!

Enjoy 🤗

xxx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

I need to give up sugar… or maybe sugar isn’t the problem?

Dr Nancy P

I need to give up sugar… or maybe sugar isn’t the problem? 🥣

One of the many diet myths I hear a lot is that sugar is bad, and clients will often say they need to give up sugar. Now in reality this usually means they intend to give up things like biscuits, chocolate, cakes, ice cream, doughnuts etc. Very few people are mainling pure sugar! These foods aren’t just “sugar” – they all contain significant amounts of fat too.

As you can see from this comparison – 50g of sugar contains nothing but sugar. It’s 50g of carbs – no fat, no protein etc. All of those carbs are sugar and 100% of the calories it contains are from sugar. The jam doughnut on the other hand contains around 12.4g sugar which accounts for only 17% of the total calories. The majority of the calories come from fat, other carbs and a little protein. The foods that people commonly associate with sugar are a mixture of sugar, fat and salt which make them hyper-palatable. That means they’re designed to taste really good – which encourages you to eat more. Eating 50g of pure sugar in one sitting is actually not a pleasant experience (try it – I dare you lol!) and it isn’t something most people would do. Eating a jam doughnut or 2 though – well thats super easy. To consume the same amount of actual sugar as pure sugar you’d need to eat 4 doughnuts in one go.

So this combo of sugar, fat and salt is what makes doughnuts and other snacks so easy to over eat. That’s not to say doughnuts are bad but they have the potential to derail you from your goals because they’re calorie dense (i.e. more cals in a smaller package) and as I said they taste great so you’re likely to eat more. So it’s not the sugar thats causing this – its the combination of ingredients in these products. So vilifying sugar is pointless and a misunderstanding of where the real issue lies. In fact sugar is actually an important nutrient and the brain’s main fuel source.

In sum, sugar isn’t “bad”, it isn’t causing you to gain fat in itself and you don’t need to give it up. If you have a balanced diet then having the odd “sugary” snack like doughnuts etc is fine – just account for it in your calories.

Enjoy 🤗

xxx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Sometimes the “bad” option isn’t so bad…

Dr Nancy P

Sometimes the “bad” option isn’t so bad… 🌯

So obviously getting a chicken wrap from a takeaway restaurant is always going to be more calories than making one at home and I’m certainly not suggesting a KFC or Nandos are the healthiest meal choices. But fast food is definitely something you can have now and then as part of a balanced diet if you want to.

There seems to be an underlying assumption that compared to somewhere like KFC, Nandos would provide a ‘healthier’ or ‘good’ takeaway option. Certainly their chicken wrap would generally be considered a healthy choice. It’s a grilled chicken breast, in their signature sauce, in a wrap.

In contrast the KFC Flamin’ wrap would probably be considered a ‘bad’ option. It’s deep friend in a batter, and comes with cheese as well! However the reality is it’s actually considerably fewer calories, around 200 fewer in fact! The KFC wrap is 335 cals and the Nandos one is 537 cals. Now I don’t know about you but that surprised me!

Both these restaurants have all their calories on their website so it’s very easy to check before you order. Both are perfectly good lunch or dinner options, but it just does go to show that we need to consider our preconceptions about certain foods and whether the are “bad” or “good” and remember that ultimately it’s the calories that count.

Enjoy 🤗

xxx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday tip: celebrate the small successes

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday tip: celebrate the small successes 🏆

We’re past ‘blue’ Monday – supposedly the most depressing day of the year and into Feb now. This is the time when many people give up on their New Year’s exercise and diet resolutions. It’s easy to get despondent if you’re not seeing the scale shift but just because you’re not losing weight it doesn’t mean your weightloss journey isn’t a success. It’s all about creating sustainable, long lasting habits that help you to live a healthier lifestyle, so we need to celebrate those too!

So today’s tip is all about celebrating the small successes! Here are a few examples:

– Often maintaining your weight is a victory itself. It’s just as hard to maintain as it is to lose so if you’ve maintained then give yourself a high five!

– Doing your belt up a notch tighter, choosing a smaller clothes size, finding the clothes you have are a little looser in certain areas… are all massive successes!

– Maybe you’ve just completed your first run! Or your first online workout, or long walk! That’s amazing!

– You’ve managed to fit exercise regularly in to your weekly schedule – that’s awesome!

– Perhaps you’ve avoided the extra snacks, or said no to the dessert you’d usually have, or passed up on that glass of wine with dinner – huge successes! Be proud!

– Maybe you’ve seen improvements in things like blood pressure or cholesterol etc or you’ve been able to reduce your medication as a result of lifestyle changes you’ve made.

– Getting through that workout without having to stop, managing those burpees or push ups , hitting a higher step goal each day, completing full push ups – these are all things to be proud of.

– Choosing healthier options without even thinking about it. Have your choices changed? Sometimes these changes happen without us even realising it.

– maybe you’ve had a stressful day or week but managed not to turn to chocolate , crisps, cake, wine – whatever your favourite comfort food/drink is. That’s a massive achievement!

So here’s to all those successes that the scales don’t measure! Do you have some to celebrate? (we all do!) – share yours below! 🤗💜

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Reasons to run… or not…

Dr Nancy P

Reasons to run… or not… 🏃🏼‍♂️

Everybody runs…. don’t they? Well it often seems as though they do!

I often hear clients say they ‘really should start running’. There seems to be a bit of unspoken social pressure to run and enjoy it, and that it’s the ‘best’ exercise you can do, especially during lockdown. I thought it might be handy to remind you of a few reasons why you should run, and perhaps why you shouldn’t?

Reasons you should definitely run; first and foremost, because you enjoy it! If you love running and it’s your thing then that’s brilliant! Enjoy it! If you’re training for a specific event, triathlon, half marathon etc then you should definitely be running – you’re going to need to! It is extremely convenient; you can do it anywhere and don’t need anything but a pair of trainers, and you can tailor it to the length of time you have available. If you’re trying to catch a bus, get somewhere faster or escape zombies then yes please definitely run! 🤣

Reasons not to run though… I’m not going to say running is ‘bad’ for you, it isn’t when done properly, in moderation and combined with other strength based exercises (too much of any one thing can always be ‘bad’!). But just because ‘everybody’ is running doesn’t mean you need to, you really don’t need to feel like you ‘should’ run! There are tonnes of other things you can do to keep fit.

Running to lose weight is another bad reason. It’s food that counts not the exercise you do. You can’t out-exercise diet and if you run regularly you will quickly adapt to it, which is why running to ‘burn more calories’ is a common misconception. You can actually burn more cals overall by being generally active and walking etc. Exercise should be for health and well being, not to justify eating, so running to ‘allow’ you to eat more isn’t a good reason. You don’t need to ‘earn’ foods you enjoy. If you’re injured then it’s a definite no! Pounding the streets when you have an injury is a bad idea, seek physio advice instead. The most important reason not to run is if you don’t enjoy it! Exercise should be fun and if you’re going to stick to it then it needs to be. There are SO many fun ways to exercise – find yours!

If you do decide to run and are new to it then try using something like the couch to 5k app that will build up the running safely and gradually, and consider also including some other forms of exercise as well to keep you fit and injury free!

Enjoy!

🤗

Xx