Tag: healthy eating

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Reasons you think you can’t lose weight…

Dr Nancy P

Reasons you think you can’t lose weight.. 🤔

We are all used to reading or hearing about reasons why we can’t lose weight/ fat. Commonly people will blame the fact that they’re eating too many carbs, or that they need to cut out sugar. Sometimes the blame is laid at fat in the diet and that’s what supposedly needs to be cut out. Perhaps it’s those ‘toxins’ in your diet?

As well as food groups we like to blame things like our hormones (particularly towards and after the menopause), or perhaps it’s the fault of a slow metabolism or lack of exercise? You’ll also hear people blaming the fact that they eat too late at night.. or even that they don’t eat enough (and are therefore storing fat).

The reality is the only reason you aren’t losing weight is because you’re eating a calorie surplus. It is physiologically impossible to gain weight without a calorie surplus so if you’re putting fat on then I’m afraid you are eating more than you need.

Now that’s not to say these things don’t have an impact. Whilst individual food groups don’t inherently cause you to gain or not lose weight, some foods will affect your ability to stick to you calories. It is far easier to overeat if you’re having lots of fat and carb heavy foods – by which I mean things like cakes, biscuits, pizza etc etc. Despite what people tell you we don’t need to detox to lose weight – our kidneys and livers do that just fine! The only thing we consume regularly which is a genuine toxin is alcohol but even that is fine if you’re accounting for the calories.

Hormones and your natural resting metabolic rate (and how it changes as you age) will have an impact too. They affect the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight – so all that means is you have to adjust your goal down a bit to lose. The time of day you eat has zero impact except in terms of your own behaviour and likelihood to over or under eat. And no, you definitely aren’t eating too little – if you were you’d be losing weight!

No matter what the underlying cause, a calorie surplus is always the reason for lack of weight loss.

🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Attentive Eating

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Attentive Eating 😋

Although calories are the overall determinant of weight loss/gain there are many factors which influence how likely you are to stick to your calories. One such issue is distracted eating. Distracted eating is becoming increasingly common due to today’s increasing reliance on electronic devices etc. Attentive eating is essentially removing distractions whilst eating, and monitoring the true amount of food being consumed. This allows you to more accurately remember how much you’ve already eaten which can help reduce over eating for the rest of the day. It helps you to focus on what you actually need food-wise , rather than relying on external cues like plate size, packet size etc.

A recent review of 10 studies showed a significant increase in the amount of food consumed when distracted e.g. by TV, mobile phones etc. I’m sure we’re all aware of times when we’ve been focused on our phones or the TV and not even noticed the plate of food we’ve just inhaled! The studies also showed that there was also an impact on meals later in the day. So those who were distracted would then go on to eat more in subsequent meals. This is related to the working memory of what you’ve eaten. If you’re distracted then the memory of what you’ve eaten is distorted (you remember eating less than you did which results in eating more later). A simple study tested this by asking participants to recall what they’d eaten in their last meal before eating an afternoon snack. Recalling previous meals led to participants eating less, compared to those that recalled non-food related memories.

So what does this mean for us? Distraction definitely increases the amount of food consumed both at that time, and later on in the day, and impacts on your memory of what you’ve already eaten that day. So removing visual distractions and eating attentively will help reduce the chance of over eating. Actively considering what you’ve already eaten that day before you eat the next snack/meal also helps. In terms of the practicalities of doing this this is yet another reason why tracking your food can really help you to stick to your calorie goal.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx

Recipes

Veggie ‘feta’ roasted veg pasta

Dr Nancy P

I’m sure many of you have seen the posts on social media of the feta and tomato pasta hack. This is my version of it – using a dairy free (vegan) feta! I wanted to see if it would work and it does! Obviously you can use a normal feta if you prefer. I also pimped it up a bit with mixed peppers, mushrooms, spinach and basil.

This serves 5-6 and comes in at around 380 cals per portion.

You will need:

500g pasta

1 200g block ‘feta’ (I used Violife Greek white cheese)

600g cherry tomatoes (1 punnet)

2 small peppers

5 mushrooms

100g baby spinach

Fresh basil

Salt, pepper, mixed herbs

1 cal oil spray (I used the olive oil version)

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Chop the peppers and mushrooms into chunks. Spray a roasting dish with oil spray and pop the block of cheese in the centre, and throw the cherry tomatoes and peppers around it. Season and spray with oil.

Pop in the oven for 10-15 mins to start with.

While it’s in the oven cook the pasta to your taste. Drain and pop to one side.

Check the oven after 10-15 minsand if the tomatoes are just starting to split a little then add the mushrooms and pop back in the oven for 10 mins or so. Timing will depend a little on how ripe your tomatoes are so check and see if they are soft and that the juices have run into the dish. The feta will have melted too.

Using a wooden spoon stir the veg and feta together and gentle squish the tomatoes.

Add the spinach a little at a time, stirring in each time. Pop back in the oven for 3-5 mins.

Remove from oven Once the spinach has wilted and stir in a handful of fresh basil leaves.

Stir in the pasta

Then serve with a little sprig of basil!

Enjoy! 🙂

Xx

Nutrition and Calorie Tips

Reasons to lose weight… and why I talk about calories so much…

Dr Nancy P

Reasons to lose weight… and why I talk about calories so much… 🍔

Many of my posts talk about calories, tracking and fat loss , so you could be forgiven for thinking that my main goal for myself and clients is weight or fat loss. It’s true that for a large proportion of my

Clients fat loss is a goal, but it’s not everyone’s goal. I have clients for whom building strength, increasing fitness, improving mental health and well being etc are their goals.

Knowledge is power and whatever your goal is it is important to be aware of the caloric values in various foods. For many that could involve tracking calories , as it’s almost always the most successful method of long term, sustainable fat loss. But the beauty of tracking is that you don’t have to do it forever because by the very act of tracking you become aware of the calories in foods and can then adjust your diet, should you want to. And that’s what it comes down to. Do you WANT to lose weight/fat? If the answer is yes then the knowledge of calorie content will help that.

However, it’s worth considering what your reasons are for wanting to losing fat. If it’s because someone’s told you to, or commented on your body shape, or because you think you need to because ‘everyone’ is a size X then consider whether they’re really important enough reasons? If losing weight becomes so all consuming that you can’t possibly maintain the weight without being super restrictive with your food, or cutting food groups, if you’re irritable and miserable all the time, if you’re skipping social events, if you’re female and your periods have stopped, then maybe, just maybe losing more isn’t such a good idea?

Medical conditions aside, at the end of the day, YOU need to weigh up the pros and cons. Does the pursuit of weight loss outweigh the pleasure you get from food? Does being a size X make you happy enough to overcome the necessary restrictions in calories?

How can you do any of this without knowledge of calories? So please remember that, whilst my posts often focus on calories, knowledge is the main goal of these posts – not a never ending pursuit of fat loss at all costs.

🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Protein isn’t magic

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Protein isn’t magic 🔮

I talked about carbs last week – the devil food 😉 so now I thought I’d touch on the supposed super star – protein. Eat more protein and you’ll lose weight – right? That’s the rhetoric out there isn’t it? Well I’m sorry but protein isn’t magic – I wish it was, but it just isn’t!

The idea that eating more protein will magically alter the laws of thermodynamics and make you lose weight regardless of how much you eat is just silly. There is a basic law of physics at play here – to lower fat content of the body (i.e. to lose weight), you have to reduce the calories consumed, or increase the calories burned – where these calories come from makes no actual difference. In fact it’s been clearly disproved in many studies. In one study from Columbia University they fed participants liquid meals of fixed calories, some with vastly more protein, some with more carbs, some with more fat – but all contained the exact calories required for the participants to maintain their weight. Guess what – they all maintained their weight… even those eating more protein…

Now that’s not to say protein isn’t super important and a useful factor to consider though. There’s no denying that higher protein foods tend to keep you fuller and more satisfied for longer (especially when combined with fats), and as I’ve mentioned before there is a small increase in the calories used to digest protein (very small and not enough to really influence overall weight loss), it’s also full of vital amino acids for muscle repair and building. If you’re a body builder and looking to put on large quantities of muscle in a short time then yes def prioritise protein (but you’ll be over eating anyway as your goal is muscle gain… not weight loss). If you struggle to stick to your calories because you’re always hungry then yes definitely consider upping your protein and fats a bit in your meals – but not at the complete sacrifice of carbs (otherwise you will crash and burn).

So there it is – yes protein is great, but no it isn’t magic! So no need to fret over it too much!

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx