The best diet… .. 🥗

There are lots of diets out there that claim to be better than any other. But what do ALL these diets have in common? And why do they work?

It’s nothing to do with any special properties of specific diets. For ANY diet to work it has to result in a calorie deficit. For some people certain diets will enable them to achieve this more easily and therefore that diet will work for them. But behind these diets are the simple maths of calories in vs out. However the issue with many diets is that they don’t educate you on the mechanism behind them and are therefore short term fixes.

Keto / low carb : omits or reduces carbs, which may reduce calories.

5:2 : limits calorie intake for 2 days a week, which may create a calorie deficit on average.

Intermittent fasting/ 16:8 : restricts the window of time you can eat in, which MAY reduce calories.

Diet clubs : assign points or values to certain foods and restrict food types, so MAY reduce calories

Shakes / Supplements : replaces meals or promotes excessive bowel movements etc which result in water loss, and a possible calorie deficit from meal replacement.

Juice cleanse/ detox : replaces whole foods with juices, resulting in fewer calories and rapid initial water loss.

Body type/blood type diet : restricts foods based on blood or body type, which may result in a calorie deficit

Spot the similarities? Many involve omitting food groups which will result in a calorie deficit. Calories can’t tell the time so methods involving not eating on certain days/times only work if you don’t overeat on others. Diet clubs help with accountability (regular weigh ins and rewards) but hide calories behind points or labels which lock you in to their method.

All of these diets can result in fat loss, but how many of them are sustainable long term, educate you on managing energy intake or build new habits? Some are actually damaging; laxative supplements and fasting can cause bowel damage, kidney damage and development of silent acid reflux etc, as well as promoting disordered eating. The best ‘diet’ in my opinion , is one that requires the least amount of restriction and “rules” as possible.That’s why I like tracking calories.

It’s focused less on restriction and more on having restraint.

But it doesn’t matter which ‘diet’ you choose, as long as it works for you – but make sure you understand WHY it works 🙂

xx

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!

However bear in mind that doing too much intense fasted cardio does impact hormone production. Firstly, it causes stress hormones like cortisol to rise, thyroid activity to be depressed, and in women decreases the production of kisspeptin (disrupting the release of estrogen and progesterone) which isn’t great!

🤗

xxx

‘Healthy’ snacks… 🤔

So todays post has come about after recent chats with a few of my clients. Our perceptions of what is ‘healthy’ and therefore equated to being low calorie in many cases is heavily influenced by marketing and social media. Often what we expect to be the healthy or low calorie option isn’t actually as low as we think.

This particular comparison is an interesting one. Both these snacks (banana bread and a flapjack) have been described to me as a ‘healthy’ or low calorie option when grabbing a sweet treat at a cafe. Now some of those people have said they would choose the banana bread as the only other option was a flapjack which was ‘bad’ and others have said the opposite. In reality as you can see there’s really not much in it. Both these snacks are close to 350 cals, both are high fat and sugar and both contain a variety of micronutrients. So both of these are actually a hefty snack and should both be treated as such. They’re essentially just the same as a small slice of cake. There’s nothing wrong with that at all but it’s just worth remembering when choosing to have them.

In some cases other choices may even be fewer calories so no matter how ‘sure’ you are about which option you think is lower in calories it’s always worth checking (assuming weight loss / controlling calorie intake is your goal of course). As I always say – knowledge is power so being aware of the calorie content of things, and also of our own perceptions of the things we consume is always a good thing. Make an educated choice!
🤗

Xx