Tag: fitnessmotivation

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Fat Burners – Fact or Fallacy?

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Fat Burners – Fact or Fallacy? 💊

Fat burners – you’ve seen them on social media, you know people taking them, you may even have taken them yourself. But do they work and are they worth the money? I’ve talked about this before but with gyms still closed and people looking online for quick fixes I’ve seen an increase in these things for sale.

Fat burners are combinations of food based natural or chemical products which claim to burn fat/increase metabolism. Common ingredients include caffeine, green tea extract, green coffee extract, ginseng, pepper, capsicum etc. More dangerous ingredients include bitter orange, yohimbine, garcinia etc (linked to risk of stroke, heart attack). They claim to increase fat oxidation, induce thermogenesis, affect fat burning hormones/enzymes, etc. In reality they do none of that.

They increase metabolism slightly, in the short term (increasing heart rate) but in terms of increasing BMR i.e. calorie burn at rest, which is what is needed to burn more calories (and hence fat), the effect is negligible. A 2017 study found an increase of 65 cals in BMR. This is a tiny increase over the day and won’t lead to increased fat loss. Green tea extract has been shown to increase fat oxidation (i.e. fat burnt by the body) BUT this only leads to fat loss IF you are in a calorie deficit, as fat stores are simply restored the moment you eat. Another study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found no difference over 6 weeks between fat burners and a placebo in fat loss (or muscle mass).

There is limited evidence that SOME fat burners MAY reduce hunger, but they’re linked to gastrointestinal distress so not a great option and again a study in the journal “PLoS one” found that coffee has exactly the same effect on exercise performance and endurance (i.e. an instant coffee an hour before you workout).

Bottom line – if someone is selling you fat burners stop, think and reconsider. Aside from the potential health risks, you’re throwing money down the drain. Make yourself a coffee or green tea and enjoy the same effects with less risk for less money.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Recipes

Frozen Grapes

Dr Nancy P

This is the perfect snack for a warm day!

It’s so easy – too easy to be called a ‘recipe’! All you need are some nice grapes – green or red – your choice.

Pop them in the freezer for a couple of hours (I just throw them in wherever I have space but obvs you could put them inside a Tupperware or plastic bag if you prefer).

Then enjoy!

Brilliant to quench thirst, and help with sugar cravings – low cal, healthy, tasty! And so easy!

🙂

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Feeling down, need ice cream…

Dr Nancy P

Feeling down, need ice cream… 🍦

It’s normal to feel emotional from time to time and many of us eat our way through it when it happens. At the moment chances are you may be feeling anything from stress, feeling low, bored, fed up, to anxious and worried etc or it may just be yet another ‘lockdown movie night’. So you may feel the need to work your way through an entire tub of ice cream – it’s natural, it’s human and it’s also damn tasty!

So how about making a simple swap? Rather than working your way through 1,300 calories of Ben and Jerry’s (or other standard ice cream equivalent) , you could instead have 620 calories of Ben and Jerry’s… just their lighter version! (or one of the any other equivalent low cal ice creams – I’m also an Oppo and Halo top fan).

But isn’t low calorie stuff loaded with sugar? No – it’s not actually, it’s lower sugar and fat than the ‘real stuff’ and it tastes amazing! 🍦

It’s ok to want to treat yourself when you’re feeling rubbish (or anytime

I’m fact!) and we don’t need to deny ourselves nice tasting stuff just because we’re watching our calories – try making some swaps instead. Check out the wide range of lower calorie options available now.

So you really can have your cake (*ice cream) and eat it! 🤗

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Diet Drinks

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Diet Drinks 🥤

Are diet drinks bad? This is something I hear a lot and there seems to be a lot of concern out there over drinking zero or low calorie soft drinks. So I thought I’d address them today.

Proponents of the “diet drinks are bad” message often claim that the sweetener in them, aspartame, causes cancer. In fact there is no scientific evidence that aspartame causes cancer (or any disease). One study, on rats, found a possible link to blood cancers, but the largest study on humans found no link at all.

Others claim that diet drinks cause obesity. Obesity is caused by consuming excess calories, but diet drinks contain no calories so they can’t possibly cause obesity. They can’t work against the laws of thermodynamics!

Then there’s the people that say it must be bad because you can clean a coin/ silver etc with Diet coke…erm.. well what it does to your body is not the same as what it does to a coin. You can clean a coin with lemon juice/vinegar etc yet people consume those without question. Some argue that it negatively affects gut health but as the gut doesn’t have much involvement (there is nothing to be absorbed) this isn’t the case. Studies have only shown an impact with extreme consumption (we’re talking over 8 litres per day every day).

Finally the most recent claim is that the diet drinks “trick” your brain into thinking you’ve had sugar and therefore causes an insulin response (which then causes you to eat more sugar). This simply isn’t true – insulin isn’t released unless sugar is present, no calories, no sugar – no insulin response.

Some people are sensitive to aspartame (just as some people are sensitive to a range of foods) and obviously if it doesn’t agree with you then clearly don’t have these drinks. But zero calorie drinks can be a really helpful way to replace a calorie dense soft drink with something of similar taste but no calories, so can really help aid fat loss. In addition (as per last week) they contribute to the volume of things being consumed and help to keep you fuller longer.

So consuming diet drinks in moderation (a few cans a day or so) is perfectly ok!

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Just a drink….

Dr Nancy P

Just a drink…. 🍷🍫

I think it’s fairly safe to say that for many people during lockdown consumption of alcohol and chocolate (and other snacks etc) has increased. Perhaps in the case of alcohol without even really realising it – certainly that’s what many of my clients have been telling me.

You might easily get through a bottle of white wine during an evening – a glass when you finish work, a glass while you’re preparing dinner, and then a couple during… and before you know it that’s a whole bottle gone. But it’s just a little drink… right?

In contrast if you sat down and ate 4 chocolate bars whilst preparing and eating your dinner you’d probably consider it to be a “bad” thing, and you may even refer to it as a “binge”. You’d almost certainly consider your “diet ruined” if you were trying to watch the calories, but you may not view the wine in the same way,

Liquid calories are much easier to consume, and when they become habitual – like a glass of wine with dinner, it’s even easier to consume them without really registering them. Everyone has their vices and those things they view as “treats” – it may be booze, it may be chocolate or ice cream or crisps etc, but if you are drinking more than you were before lockdown and you are trying to maintain or lose bodyfat then you may just want to think about factoring those booze cals into your daily amount, rather than viewing them as “just a little drink:”

🤗

Xx