Tag: tuesdaytip

Tuesday tip: Alcohol and weight loss 🍸

I never tell clients to give up booze, life would be miserable without that if it’s one of your go to ‘treats’ – I do however suggest it could be one way to ‘easily’ cut calories by reducing the amount they consume. Mainly because it’s a discreet, easily identifiable thing to reduce, but also because alcohol can affect weight loss in other ways.

Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram (vs 4 cals for carbs and protein,and 9 for fat). More alcohol means more calories. Unlike food, alcohol contains little to no nutritional value. Alcohol calories don’t fill you up like food calories do, or provide many micronutrients. This isn’t an issue in a balanced diet but just worth remembering when prioritising what you choose to consume.

Alcohol calories are processed differently too. Alcohol is a toxin so the cals are used immediately to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to detoxify it. This detoxification is a labour intensive process so the liver ‘shuts down’ and stops processing fat, carbohydrates and protein because it needs to deal with alcohol. Hence why you get the munchies, because the detoxification of alcohol inhibits gluconeogensis (breaking down of our internal food stores). So not only does alcohol inhibit fat burning it also encourages over eating. The lack of inhibitions associated with alcohol also make it more likely you’ll ‘stuff the diet’ and eat more than you intended; so it’s a triple whammy!

So if you’re going to drink then just consider:

⁃ Plan ahead -do I have the calories in my budget? Can I bank cals for the night out?

⁃ How will consuming this affect my goals?

⁃ Is there a lower cal alternative that will allow me to stay on track?

⁃ Can I stay in control and only have 1 or 2 (or is it a trigger for binge behaviours?

⁃ Am I prepared for the consequences (hangover, munchies, loss of control, potential feelings of guilt etc)?

Alcohol is something you should enjoy in a

controlled manner. Learning how to work things into your calories teaches you how to be in control.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx

Tuesday Tip: Not quitting is success! 🙌🏼

I’ve noticed recently that many of my clients are beating themselves up about lack of progress or not being able to stick to their workouts or calories over the summer holidays: the overriding theme is that they feel like they’ve failed, that they’re not getting anywhere and that the only solution is to quit.

I think it’s worth reminding everyone that not quitting is in itself progress and success! Even if everything is proving difficult, if life is busy, if you’ve had too many social events to stay on track, etc that just doing anything, not matter how small, and not quitting is better than nothing! Give yourself a break. If you’re tired, lacking motivation, low in energy, fed up of feeling like you’re not getting anywhere – instead of giving up and quitting learn to rest.

Progress in anything in life is rarely linear. If you give up every time you don’t see what you view as progress then you’ll always be starting over again and again. Time will pass anyway and you’ll see even less progress. Recognise that resistance to quitting is progress in itself! Don’t give up! Just rest, regroup and keep going!

Happy Tuesday!🤗

xx

Tuesday Tip: Do I have to ditch carbs? 🥖

Possibly the most pervasive myth in fitness and nutrition if that if you want to lose weight you need to cut out carbs. Even people who, in one breath tell me they know it’s all about creating a calorie deficit, will in the next breath tell me they’re going to cut carbs. So first off, yes if you suddenly cut carbs (which people usually take to mean bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, cakes, biscuits etc) you may lose weight ‘fast’ initially. This is because you’re losing glycogen and water. If your diet is high in those carbs then depending on what you replace them with it may also result in a calorie deficit. But after the initial few weeks it’s only a calorie deficit that will keep you losing weight – whether you include carbs in that or not is irrelevant.

You can definitely lose weight and eat carbs, there is nothing inherently fattening in carbs. In fact carbs are actually really important, especially if you’re active, as they boost performance and fuel your workouts. Your body stores carbs as glycogen in the liver and muscles which is a vital fuel source. If you cut carbs you’ll find your ability to exercise effectively drops and your energy levels decrease. Various carb sources are rich in micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) which are essential for optimal health, energy metabolism and performance. By removing carbs from your

diet, your micronutrient intake might not be sufficient. Importantly many carbs are pleasure foods – foods you enjoy and that make you happy. By cutting them out you’re reducing your own enjoyment when you really don’t need to.

Fat loss ultimately comes down to energy balance. If you’re in a calorie deficit you will burn fat. Many studies support this and show what when calories are controlled how you obtain these calories (be it from carbs or not) has no impact on fat loss. You can lose fat with either a low-carb or high-carb diet.

So carbs aren’t bad, they have loads of benefits. However, if you prefer a low-carb diet, go for it. If your main goal is fat loss, though remember it’s the overall calories that count and if you’re looking to optimize your performance or build muscle, carbs

will definitely help.

Happy Tuesday!🤗

xx

Tuesday Tip: Too much aerobic fitness? 🏃🏼‍♀️

There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years about whether or not too much aerobic fitness and training may actually be bad for you. There’s been a shift away from cardio to a focus on resistance/weight training only. There are claims that high levels of aerobic training (cardio) can damage the heart and reduce longevity.

But is that really the case and if so should be be concerned about doing large amounts of cardio/aerobic fitness training?

A recent study, the largest of its kind, with over 120,000 participants seems to suggest that actually the reverse is true. It tracked people over many years and found that aerobic fitness was indeed, as many hoped, related to disease prevention and overall longevity.

Most importantly, they did not find an upper limit where more aerobic fitness was actually worse for longevity or detrimental to health. This shows that while there are certainly examples of endurance athletes doing extreme things to push their

body that may be unhealthy and cause damage, these are the outliers. It should always be remembered that what people do at the extreme end of sports is almost always done for maximum performance, not health. For the majority of people more aerobic training isn’t harmful.

The study also showed that all levels of aerobic fitness above the lowest levels saw a longevity benefit. You don’t have to get to the highest levels to still add years and health benefits. So if you enjoy it then do it! If you don’t do any then try to add some in. If you are pushing yourself to do more and more at the expense of your enjoyment and it’s leaving you exhausted, and excessively hungry then obviously pull back a bit.

If your primary goal is to use fitness as a tool to live a longer, healthier life, including aerobic training as part of it is absolutely essential. And in this case, more actually is always better.

Happy Tuesday!🤗

xx

Tuesday Tip: Can you boost your metabolism? 🤔

You may have read about various ways to boost your metabolism and burn more calories. But is this really possible?

‘Metabolism’ consists of 3 components:

⁃ 60-70 % basal/resting metabolic rate (bmr) – energy burnt at rest

⁃ 10 % Thermic effect of food (TEF) – energy burnt digesting/storing food.

⁃ 20-30% Activity Energy Expenditure (AEE) – 10-15 % is energy burnt through physical activity (intentional exercise) and the remainder is Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) -all activity that isn’t intentional exercise. NEAT is the most variable component of your metabolism and can account for 15% of total energy expenditure in sedentary individuals and up to 50% in active individuals.

Can you boost these? Short answer not by much sadly!

Your BMR is determined by age, sex, height, muscle mass, genetics which you can’t change much (I’ll come back to the muscle mass).

Eating more protein can increase your metabolic rate as it has the highest Themis effect (takes more cals to digest) BUT TEF only accounts for 10% of total energy expenditure. So this isn’t going to have a significant effect.

Increasing physical activity will increase your metabolic rate BUT, unless you train for several hours per day, the magnitude of this

increase isn’t as much as you think. What about increasing muscle mass? Well yes more muscle increases your BMR so you burn more at rest BUT again the overall impact isn’t as great as you’re led to believe. 1kg muscle burns around 13 cals per day so if you added 5kg muscle (which is a lot!) you’d be burning an extra 65 cals a day.

What about metabolism boosters/fat burners etc? The main ingredient in these “metabolism boosters” is caffeine. And while it’s true that caffeine has a “thermogenic effect” 100mg of caffeine only increases energy expenditure by 3-4% and it diminishes as you build a tolerance.

The one component that can significantly impact metabolic rate is NEAT (e.g. walking, standing, fidgeting, house work, gardening etc ). In studies most of the variability in energy expenditure between individuals is due to differing levels of NEAT which can vary by over 1000 calories per day.

So really the most significant impact on metabolism is to avoid being sedentary and to move more throughout the day like interspersing sitting with standing, taking

breaks to walk and move, using the stairs, etc. So avoid those expensive supplements and fad diets/exercise trends and stick to the basics!

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx