Tuesday Tip: Average Calories 📊

You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight but that doesn’t mean you need to be in a calorie deficit every single day. This is where people often get confused and struggle. It’s averages over weeks and months that count.

If you’ve determined that you need to eat 1700 cals per day to give you a deficit to lose weight most people assume that means they have to have 1700 every single day to get results. But of course it doesn’t work like that – in reality you just need to average 1700 cals per day. Some days you could eat more calories, and some days you could eat fewer, but if you’re averaging 1700 cals by the end of the week, you’ll be on track.
E.g.
Monday – 1700 calories
Tuesday – 2200 calories
Wednesday – 1400 calories
Thursday – 1700 calories
Friday – 1500 calories
Saturday – 2000 calories
Sunday – 1500 calories

Weekly Average – 1714 cals (basically on target)

Now, let’s say that you hit 1700 cals every day for a week, but then you have a day where you have a bit of a blow out at the weekend.
Monday – 1700 calories
Tuesday – 1700 calories
Wednesday – 1700 calories
Thursday – 1700 calories
Friday – 1700 calories
Saturday – 2600 calories
Sunday – 1700 calories

Weekly Average – 1828 calories.

So yes in that second example you’ve gone over but your weekly average is still not far off the deficit goal and long term that small amount of extra cals won’t stop progress. So many people will have a bad day and think they destroyed their progress for an entire week, but that’s not the case. You’d have to have that blow out Friday, Saturday and Sunday to have any meaningful impact.

You will have days where you go over your calories – intentionally or unintentionally. When that happens, don’t panic and think f*ck it and then ruin the next few days. Just put it behind you and, most importantly, get back on track the next day. Do that, and you’ll still be moving in the right direction.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx

Tuesday Tip: Watch the weekends 🥂

If you’re trying to lose bodyfat then consistency is key; a consistent calorie deficit over weeks/months to see a sustainable change.

Often we are great at achieving a calorie deficit during the week but weekends signal downtime, changes in routine and relaxation – which means relaxing on the food side of things too; allowing yourself what you want, or just not being mindful about tracking.

It’s very easy to blow your calorie deficit in one night, even when you think you’re being good. You’re out to dinner, but you’re going to be ‘good’; you have a small healthy starter, for main you go for the fish, with veg and you only have a little potato – fine right? But you have a few of your friend’s chips, and a few mouthfuls of your other friend’s dish.. oh and a few olives (but you didn’t have the garlic bread so that’s good)… and only one glass of prosecco… so that’s good? There is NOTHING wrong with any of that. BUT if you’re convincing yourself that you’re only a little over your cals and you’re not bothering to even try to track it because you don’t know where to start then you’re in for a bit of a surprise. In reality you’ve just clocked up over 1300 cals on a ‘good’ meal and BOOM you’ve just eaten or drunk away your deficit from the whole week.

The choice is yours, but the only way you can make that choice is by acknowledging what you’re consuming over the weekends and by continuing to log. You want to aim for an average deficit over the entire week so you need to know what you’re doing at the weekends.

So here are a few tips to help.

– Check the menu in advance and decide what you want

– Estimate the cals in your meal (using similar foods and then add a little extra for oil/butter etc)

– Don’t dip in to others’ plates

– Have slightly smaller breakfasts/lunches the day before and after to buffer the meal out

– Remember those foods will all be there once you reach your goal so decide what matters most to you now – if it’s the meal then just have what you want and enjoy it, but log it so you can see where the extra calories are coming in. If it’s reaching your goal then consider pulling back a bit.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip: Lack of Energy and Nutrition 🏃🏼‍♀️

Very often people will tell me that they’re concerned about their lack of energy/fatigue and want to address their nutrition to fix it. First of all, your tiredness/fatigue is most likely NOT RELATED to nutrition in the majority of cases, but more likely due to lack of sleep or poor sleep, a stressful, busy or very active social lifestyle, and/or your mental health. BUT if you’ve removed these as potential causes, nutrition may be the last piece of the puzzle.

Here are some nutrition factors which may explain a lack of energy.

# Low-carb

Cutting carbs in order to lose weight is an excellent way to feel lacking in energy. Carbs are crucial for optimal human physical and mental performance. So start eating more carbs. If you need to remove some calories elsewhere to fit them in then try reducing some dietary fat/alcohol calories to do this.

# Poor hydration

Maybe you carry your water bottle around all day but do you actually drink from it? One of the side effects of inadequate hydration is fatigue and increased perceived difficulty of tasks. Set water reminders, have iced drinks (even coffee/tea) (cubes will melt), infuse your water, start a habit of having a glass of water with your cup of coffee, etc.

# Eating erratically

You’re no doubt busy and don’t have the luxury of set meal times every day. This can result in skipped meals, and long hours without eating. Obviously as long as you’re getting the right calories in the timing isn’t important from a weight loss perspective but if you’re going 5/6 hrs without eating, you’re likely to experience hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and hence low energy.

# Too few nutrients

Micronutrients like vitamins and minerals are also essential for optimal functioning, and one of their main roles is to act as cofactors in energy-producing reactions within the body. Not getting enough of these, through a variety of foods can contribute to deficiencies, which can directly induce fatigue. Don’t get too focused on the details just try and add as much variety to your diet as possible, take a multi-vitamin, have fruit or veg with most meals, and choose wholefoods when possible.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx

Tuesday tip: Get back on track 🚂

One of the most important things about trying to lose weight/fat is to accept that you’re not always going to be perfect. There will always be days when you end up eating more, when you can’t control your choices easily, when you just crave a takeaway or chocolate or whatever it is. If you go over your calories it doesn’t mean your whole progress is lost, it doesn’t make you a bad person, it doesn’t ‘ruin your diet’. Just get back on track. Draw a line under it, and get back on it the next day. One day of over eating won’t ruin weeks or months of work.

However on the flip side, if you really want to make progress you can’t do it every week. If you find you’re in the habit of letting it all go out the window over the weekend, but thinking it’s ok because you’ll get back on track on Monday then it might be worth stepping back and thinking about what you’re doing. Yes it’s vital to get back on track but it’s also important to maintain some consistency. You can’t use every weekend, every social situation, every bad day as an excuse to over eat on the basis that you’ll get back on track on Monday. If you’re doing that 2 or 3 days a week you won’t make progress. At the end of the day there has to be some sacrifice. Yes you can enjoy whatever you want to eat or drink, but it does have to be in moderation, if you want to lose weight/fat. You’re going to have to make some changes somewhere.

So just be careful – yes, be kind to yourself and if you have a blip then you definitely can and should just get back on track. But if you’re doing it every weekend and using it as an excuse then you may need to rethink your approach to those days. You definitely don’t need to be perfect, but you do need to aim for some level of consistency. Or perhaps you need to accept that now isn’t the time to be trying to reduce your calories to lose weight and make peace with that. Which is also totally ok too!

Happy Tuesday 🤗
Xx

Tuesday Tip: Will that day of overeating make you fat? 🍔

With the Easter weekend on the horizon I’m sure there will be lots of chocolate eggs and family roasted etc. We can all relate to that feeling of eating way too much and worrying we will instantly gain fat. But is this really a cause for concern? Can one ‘binge’ really make you gain fat overnight? In the main – no!

It takes approximately 3500kcal extra calories to gain 1 lb of fat. That’s about 500kcal extra per day over the week. Even if you did that for a week that still wouldn’t guarantee that you’d gain 1lb of fat immediately because your energy expenditure is never the same each day.

But what about if you eat it in one day?When we overeat, we think that all that extra food is going to turn into fat, but that’s not necessarily true. But then why do the scales go up the next day? And why isn’t it stored as fat?

Some of the calories are used for digestion and absorption of food itself. When you’ve overeaten your body temperature also rises and you get more ‘fidgety’ as your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) inceases (all the subconscious movements increase e.g. respiration, blinking, etc ). Some of the extra food will be used to replenish glycogen stores in the liver and muscles. For each 1g of glycogen 3g of water is retained. Even if the glycogen stores are full the body still doesn’t prioritise converting carbs into fat. This only happens if you’re consistently eating more cals than you burn. Storing carbs as fat is the body’s least preferred method of using excess carbs. Sodium also increases water retention so if part of what you overate was carb and salt heavy then there’ll be significant water retention – not fat! In addition you have the weight of the actual food in your digestive system.

So one single day/meal probably won’t lead to too much fat gain. The weight gain you see is mostly fluid and glycogen stores. It’s longer term overeating that leads to fat gain. If you get right back on track you’ll be ok! If however your average daily cals are consistently over your calorie requirement over the course of days/ weeks then that will lead to fat gain.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx