Tuesday Tip: Preventing weight regain ✋🏻

Preventing weight regain starts from the moment you start trying to lose weight in the first place. Believe it or not the most important aspect of weight loss isn’t actually weight loss – rather it’s maintenance. Most people underestimate the importance of both maintenance and learning to live at your new goal weight (maintenance).

Maintenance is harder than losing the fat in the first place and it’s one of the main skills people ignore. The reality is the habits and behaviours that help you lose weight are the ones that will help you maintain it as well. You can’t expect to keep the weight off if nothing has changed. I often tell my clients they need to behave like the ‘slimmer’ / ‘fitter’ / ‘stronger’ (whatever THEIR goal is) version of themselves . What would that person do? That person probably can’t get away with 3 takeaways a week, or boozy lunches at the weekend etc. It’s about finding things you enjoy (both food and exercise) that fit into your goal/maintenance lifestyle. Swapping behaviours and habits for new ones. For example – not restricting foods you enjoy, but learning to include them as part of your eating plan, trying to be as physically active as possible for you generally and doing exercise you enjoy etc

In addition research shows that for each kg of weight lost there’s an increase in appetite and a drive to consume an extra 100 cals per day that a person that hadn’t lost the weight doesn’t experience. This means you are dealing with not only trying to establish new habits to help you maintain a lower weight, but you’re also experiencing more hunger than a similar weight person who hasn’t lost weight. It’s important to be aware of this – recognise that a little hunger isn’t always a bad thing and be prepared for it.

So don’t waste your money on fads and quick fixes. Instead look at how you’re approaching your fitness and diet goals and ask yourself – is this something I can maintain for the long term? Because if it isn’t, you’re going to struggle to make (and later maintain) progress.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip: Are all calories created equal? 🤔

You may hear that calories from certain foods are ‘better’ for weight loss than others. But is this really the case?

Food is made up of macronutrients – protein, carbohydrates and fats and the energy is contained in the chemical bonds of their molecules. When the bonds are broken, energy is released – measured in calories. We commonly call them calories but they’re actually kilogram calories (kcals- the amount of energy required to heat 1kg water up by 1 degree).

So are all calories equal? Well yes, in theory they are. In absolute terms a calorie is a calorie; it’s a unit of measurement, just like a kg of soil is the same as a kg of feathers.

In reality it’s more complex. All foods contain calories but those foods may be metabolised (digested and absorbed) in different ways e.g. the metabolic pathway for protein is less efficient than carbs and fat. Protein contains 4 calories (kcal) per gram but a large portion of the protein calories are lost as heat when it is metabolized (up to 30%).

Different foods also have different effects on the gut-brain axis meaning differing results on appetite and satiety. The desire to eat (appetite) can change depending on the composition of a meal/food. Protein-rich foods reduce appetite more effectively which may reduce overall intake of food.

Some foods affect satiety (feelings of fullness) more than others. This in turn has an impact on how many calories are consumed. Foods high in protein and fat make you feel fuller for example.

Large amounts of refined carbohydrates can lead to greater spikes in blood sugar which can lead to cravings and increased food intake and reduced feelings of fullness. So you’re likely to overeat.

So whilst all calories are the same, the foods containing calories are very different and this can have an impact when trying to lose weight. This doesn’t mean certain foods are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for weight loss – they just may affect your ability to stick to a calorie deficit in different ways so it’s worth being aware of how they impact you.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx

Tuesday Tip: It isn’t failure 😖

How often do you start on a new weight loss ‘diet’ only to give up because you have a bad meal/day/weekend and think you’ve failed? Is it really failure though? Or could it be reframed?

Lots of things we do are hard to start with – learning a new hobby, learning a musical instrument, starting a new job, learning to drive a car, and so is making changes to your food and lifestyle. And just like you might make mistakes when learning to play the piano etc then you’re quite likely to make mistakes in your nutrition too.

Some people are more likely to be prone to perfectionism then others and may find mistakes harder to manage. When it comes to weight loss years of following diet fads where there are strict ‘rules’ about what you can eat can make you fear these mistakes even more.

Accept that mistakes are a normal part of life and learning. The next time you make a mistake, instead of labelling yourself a failure, ask yourself what you can learn from it instead? Why did you make that mistake? Do you need more support? Were there specific barriers/issues/situations that you need help overcoming? Does the approach you’re taking at the moment need tweaking? Are your goals as important to you as you thought they were? Was it a specific situation that triggered it and how can you change that next time? Etc

Instead of labelling yourself or your ‘diet’ a failure when you make a mistake, ask yourself what you can learn from it, and you’ll be better equipped the next time you face a similar situation.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx

Tuesday Tip: Don’t go too low 📉

It’s tempting when you start trying to lose weight to panic and cut calories drastically – because surely a bigger deficit means quicker results right? To a degree yes but…. It never really works and this is why.

Our bodies are designed and have evolved to essentially make losing weight and fat hard. Fat loss goes entirely against our main drive to survive so conserving energy and maximising fat storage is a good evolutionary strategy. If energy consumption (calories) are reduced drastically the body will adjust processes to ‘fit’ the calories you consume. Now this doesn’t mean you can put on weight if you eat too little – that’s just a myth. What it does mean though is that the body compensates for a lower energy intake by reducing energy expenditure.

It does this in two ways. Firstly it reduces NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), – these are the subconscious incidental movements and processes in your body e.g. your heart rate may slow, body temperature may change, and hormones such as leptin, T3 and T4 adjust to reduce energy expenditure. As a result your BMR may decrease.

In addition you will subconsciously move or fidget less than you usually would. So you may find you don’t stand up or tap your feet etc as much, you may be less inclined to take the stairs and take the lift instead, you may find you drive instead of walking places as much, you might not get up to go get things you’ve left in other rooms (e.g. not going upstairs to get the hoodie you want to wear and grabbing whatever is handy downstairs instead), not getting up to get a glass of water if you’re thirsty, feeling generally low motivation to exercise/walk etc. You probably won’t even notice you’re doing any of this.

So as you’ll be expending fewer calories the deficit you think you have becomes smaller. In addition you’ll feel low, hungry, tired and tend to obsess over food. This means the tendency to binge/overeat either when you have a ‘cheat’ day or when the diet ends is high. This is why you often find any weight you’ve lost will come back quite quickly.

So rather than heading straight in to an aggressive 800-1000 calories a day diet (for the umpteenth time in the past few years) try aiming for a higher number of calories with a smaller deficit. A smaller deficit allows you to thrive and stick to the newly acquired habits you need to stick to, consistently, to move towards your goals. Work more on delayed gratification. Something that takes longer but feels easier is far more likely to work out the way you want it to.

If this resonates but overwhelms you at the same time, that is also completely normal. We are designed to want instant gratification and results so it’s ok if it feels counterintuitive to start with. But trust me, stick with it and you’ll reap the benefits – play the long game!

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx