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.

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Xx

Supplement marketing tricks… 💊

The supplement industry is very good at convincing us that we have a problem and that their product is the solution. Good marketing isn’t the same as scientific evidence.

Here are some common tricks:

1. Appeal to false authority: A celebrity, influencer or even a medical professional isn’t automatically an expert in nutrition. Check whether their qualifications are relevant and whether they’re being paid.

2. The anecdotal fallacy: ‘It worked for me!’ is a personal story, not scientific proof. Testimonials may be genuine, exaggerated or completely fabricated. Even when they’re true, one person’s experience cannot tell us whether something works generally.

3. Straw man arguments: Deliberately misinterpreting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack. E.g if I said ‘most people don’t need supplement X’ that doesn’t mean nobody needs it. People may say ‘well I have a specific medical condition that requires it therefore you’re wrong’ and use that to debunk your argument. People with particular medical needs are not ‘most people.’

4. Attacking the person: ‘Don’t listen to her, she isn’t in shape.’ Someone’s appearance doesn’t determine their knowledge. Equally, a six-pack, white coat or enormous following doesn’t make someone credible. Look at the evidence, not the person.

5. False cause, correlation vs causation: ‘I started taking collagen and my skin improved.’ One happening after the other doesn’t prove it caused it. Perhaps they also changed their diet, skincare, sleep, stress levels or exercise habits.

6. Appeal to emotion: ‘If you cared about your health, you’d buy this.’ This uses fear, guilt or shame to make you buy. Not purchasing an expensive supplement doesn’t mean you don’t care about your health.

Supplements are useful when there’s a genuine need, but ‘natural,’ popular and heavily promoted doesn’t mean it’s necessarily effective or safe. Ask what the claim is based on. Is there good-quality evidence? Is the person qualified? Are they selling something? Could something else explain the result?

Once you recognise these tricks, you’ll see them everywhere. Your health and your bank balance may thank you!

🤗

Xx

“Calories can’t tell the time…. “ ⏰

It’s really easy to fall into the trap that eating your meals/snacks etc at certain times of day (or not eating at certain times of day) will help you lose weight (fat) more quickly.

One common idea is that you should fast for a certain number of hours during the day and only eat within a certain window of time. This varies but is usually an 8hr window or so. Proponents of this method suggest that by only eating during certain hours you can forget “complicated” diets etc and lose weight without doing anything more. You’ll hear lots of people saying they’ve achieved great fat loss using this method and they undoubtedly have. So surely it works then? Well yes it works – but only because those people have ended up eating fewer calories and therefore been in a calorie deficit, and lost fat/weight.

The problem with this method is that it doesn’t account for individual’s daily caloric requirements. So if someone started this method, but was eating more than their daily calorie requirement within that 8hr window, then they wouldn’t make any progress. Studies have shown that this method ONLY results in fat /weight loss when participants eat fewer calories than they are expending, and are therefore in a calorie deficit. Meal timing is irrelevant in terms of fat loss, it’s energy in vs out that matters.

Having said that, for some people, it’s easier to eat fewer calories if they restrict the hours in which they are “allowed” to eat. So if skipping breakfast, or not allowing yourself to eat after 8pm works for you then go for it! BUT you still need to be eating in a calorie deficit. For some people though, fasting for long periods of time, or skipping meals, isn’t a sustainable strategy long term. It can result in reduced energy levels, and excessive hunger, leading to periods of “binge” eating and therefore eating more than their daily calorie target. It can also lead to less activity (and therefore fewer calories burned) due to low energy levels.

So basically – do what works for you, but remember it’s the total calories that count – not when you eat them

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Xx