Foods that make you fat… 🍕

Remember no one food makes you fat, and no one food makes you lose fat. Every day I hear people freaking out because they’ve eaten something that isn’t ‘healthy’. Usually they mean they’ve eaten something that isn’t a whole food (fruit, vegetables, whole
grains) or foods that are perceived as ‘good’
E.g. nuts, avocados, salads, hummus etc.

So yes the majority of your diet should ideally come from ‘healthy’ foods e.g. fruits, vegetables, lean protein, good quality carbohydrates, fibre etc. Ideally around 80% of your diet should be from these food, but that still leaves room for all the other foods you enjoy.

You can and should include foods you perceive as ‘bad’ like cookies, cakes, take aways, alcohol, ‘bad’ carbs etc in your diet in moderation. It doesn’t mean you’ve ‘fallen off the wagon’, or gone off your diet, that you’re a failure, or ‘can’t stick to anything’, or need to ‘start over’. No one can stick to a diet that excludes everything they love all the time – it’s not sustainable. So try to forget this all or nothing attitude, as it’s only setting you up for failure and it’s really not being very nice to yourself!

So don’t freak out if you have some chocolate or a glass of wine. It won’t make you fat, it won’t ‘ruin’ your diet. Quitting because you think you’ve failed will though. So just accommodate the fun foods into your calories. Try to aim for no more than 20 percent ‘fun’ foods (just to ensure you’re getting the right vitamins and minerals etc) but equally don’t over think it – and remember its your diet over time that matters – over months and years, not hours and days. So if you’re over calories today, just be under for the next few days to accommodate it!

Enjoy 🤗
xx

Carbs make you fat…. 🥔 🍞

I actually lose count of the number of times people tell me it’s carbs that are making them fat, or stopping them losing weight, or that they just need to cut carbs and they’ll lose weight….

The rhetoric is usually something along the lines of – to lose fat/weight you need to cut or reduce carbs and focus on more protein and fat based foods (nuts are a prime example). Many new clients I meet have either tried eliminating carbs from their diet or that they intend to, by which they usually mean cutting out potatoes, bread, pasta etc. Many social media ‘experts’ have suggested that carbs are ‘bad’ and to be avoided – but this is based on very little actual evidence. In fact many studies have supported the fact that eliminating carbs has no significant impact when it comes to weight loss – it’s the total calories that have the impact.

No food or macro is inherently fattening. It all comes down to calories. Carbs do not make you fat – as you can see in this example – those high carb foods are actually far lower in calories per 100g than those high fat foods. Now eating fat-heavy foods won’t make you fat either – but this just illustrates the point re carbs quite nicely.
From a fat loss standpoint, fats are more calorie dense than carbs or protein. Fats contain 9 calories per gram, carbs contain 4 calories per gram and so does protein. Therefore, fat as a macronutrient is more than TWICE the amount of calories compared to carbohydrates or protein. This doesn’t mean fat is ‘bad’ it just means foods that are high in fat are also high in calories, so be mindful mindful of your portions! Often it’s what you’re putting on the carbs that make them higher in calorie – like cheese, butter, nut butter etc.

You CAN eat carbs and still lose weight when you are able to achieve a energy deficit. So stop believing that carbs are responsible for your weight gain. They’re not – whether intentional or not you were just eating more calories than you needed.

🤗
Xx