Your food is so much more than just fuel. It can also massively affect all of the following:
* Energy levels
* Weight gain
* Concentration
* Libido
* Sleep
* Mood swings
* Motivation
* Immune system
* Cravings
* Hunger levels
If you’ve got issues with any of the above, it is almost certainly a sign that you’re not getting it right. Maybe you’re being too extreme or unrealistic in your approach. All of these things are feedback mechanisms from your metabolism, telling you that it needs help!
If you’re always physically hungry, you’re just not eating enough food.
If you have constant sugar cravings, you’re not eating enough of the right kinds of foods and/or not getting enough quality sleep.
If your diet consists largely of convenience foods, nutrient-poor carbs like bread, crisps, crackers, cereal etc you probably have low energy levels, a poor digestive system, feel sluggish and bloated all the time, yet constantly hungry.
Getting it right
Firstly and foremost, no matter how much weight you have to lose or where you want to get to, a “diet” is 100 per cent NOT the right approach.
The word “diet” is synonymous with a strict, miserable, restrictive regime that you follow for a short period of time. Then either you lose a little weight, pretend you’re happy with this and abandon it and go back to your old unhealthy ways. The other common scenario is that your starving metabolism overpowers you, your willpower goes out the window you and you go on an all out binge. Either way, you end up back where you started at the bottom of the mountain.
Sound familiar?
The best nutritional approach for you is the one that fits your lifestyle and that you can and will stick to, consistently. What works for me might not work for you and vice-versa.
Sometimes, with the best will in the world, life will throw a curve ball at you and knock you off course. When that happens, ride it out, do the best with what you have and don’t be too hard on yourself.
How fast your results come will largely depend on where you’re starting from, where you’ve been, how much and how quickly you are willing to change.
Like I said earlier, your diet consists of mainly nutrient-poor choices of carbohydrates like crackers, bread, breakfast cereal, pasta, highly-processed food, just cutting that stuff out and switching to more real wholefoods, good sources of protein and vegetables is going to have a massive effect on you. You’ll be taking in a lot less calories as a result, for a start. And the truth is if you’ve gained weight, unless you have a major hormonal disfunction, you’ve been taking in more calories than you been using.
Do Calories Matter?
Yes they do. If you are consuming more calories than you are using, you will gain weight. And, let’s be honest, even though it is possible to overeat anything, you’re probably not hacking your way through an Everest-sized calorie surplus of chicken and broccoli. It’s more likely to be processed carbs which are calorie-dense and nutrient poor.
You don’t need me or anyone else to tell you that eating that way will cause weight gain.
Should I count them?
Yes, but not in isolation. By that I mean, you are not on a calorie-controlled diet – there’s that horrid word again – on this programme. You almost certainly know by now that this kind of restriction doesn’t work in the longterm, is less effective every time you try and isn’t sustainable because your super-smart metabolism will always be one step ahead of you. If you massively restrict calories, your metabolism will slow you down so you burn less and make you hungrier to make you eat more. This is why any weight you have lost this way in the past will go back on with interest. It’s called The Law of Metabolic Compensation.
What you should start to be aware of is what your meal choices and calories are made up of in terms of your macro-nutrients or proteins, fats and carbohydrates and whether you getting enough or too many of a particular of any or all of them. An app like www.myfitnesspal.com can be a great tool to help with this.
HELP: This macro-counting app does the hard work for you.
So let’s take a quick look at them now.
Protein
Protein is our body’s growth and repair material. Like building blocks. We cannot build or repair muscle without it.
Every meal should include a serving of protein, at least 30g
Overall, you should be looking to eat around 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight every day.
Protein keeps you full longer than any other food and stops cravings, so it’s for this reason that it should be your first consideration when planning a meal. Ask yourself: “What is my protein source here?” If you find you get hungry a lot, you’re almost certainly not eating enough protein.
You’ll find more details on this later on, but animal proteins give you the biggest protein bang for your buck, so things like chicken, fish, eggs, turkey, lean red meat.
Protein is also the most thermogenic macro group.
You have to expend energy to perform every function in your body. By expend energy, I mean use calories.
Digesting protein uses more calories up than digesting any other food. This is called the thermal effect of food. So you are actually burning protein off while you are eating it!
This is why people sometimes break into a sweat eating a massive steak.
Take home points: Protein should be our first consideration when meal planning. Protein keeps us full a long time. Protein helps us get build and repair muscle.
Fat
Fat used to be public enemy number one in weight loss. Now it’s accepted that we need certain types of “good” fat in our diet to be healthy. We need it to make sex hormones. (This is why people on low-fat low cholesterol diets lose their sex drive, because testosterone drops).
We need fats to feed our brain. We need fats to keep our nerves healthy and digest vitamins A, D, E and K.
Good fat sources include olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts, oily fish.
Some people actually do very well on a high fat, ultra low carb diet which forces their bodies to burn stored fat for fuel.
There are still some fats we need to avoid, trans fats, namely. These plastic fats show up, generally in things that are obviously not great for us. Pastries, cakes, cookies, biscuits, crisps can all contain trains fats which can cause redistribution of body-fat to the abdominal area.
One thing to remember about fat is that is has more than double the calories of protein and carbs at 9 calories a gramme so you need to be careful that you monitor your intake to avoid pushing yourself into a calorie surplus.
Take home points: Good fats are essential for certain body functions. Fat has double the calories of proteins and carbs.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrate has one function in the body. That is to give you energy. It does this by converting blood glucose into glycogen and storing it in the liver and muscles until you need it.
The body only has a limited capacity to store carbs.
In a healthy-functioning body, this glycogen is continually turned over – i.e. used and replenished.
Problem that modern society has, is that most of us eat too many carbs – and from terrible sources that don’t offer us any nutrients. We spend the day on a roller coaster, fighting energy peaks and troughs and sweet cravings. This starts when we begin our days with sugary cereal, them progress to sandwiches for lunch and finish with pasta for dinner.
In between that we might snack on a big bunch of fruit in the mistaken belief that we are being healthy.
In reality, all that is happening is that our glycogen stores have long since overflowed into our fat stores. We are also knackered from the fluctuations in blood sugar. In short, we are getting sick, tired and fat. It is an epidemic.
Now, just to be straight, I am not saying that all carbohydrates are bad for you. Far from it, they are an essential part of your diet. But we need to get the energy balance right. Too little carbohydrate and you won’t have the get up and go to train hard, think or go about your daily life. Too much – especially from poor sources – and you will gain weight.
Good carb sources include sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, rice, root vegetables.
Take home points: Carbs give us energy. Wholefood sources of carbs will stabilise our blood sugar and keep us satisfied and energised for longer.
Micronutrients
Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals found in certain food sources. Collectively they keep your brain, thyroid, digestive system and skin functioning properly They also help you use energy efficiently, help your muscles work properly and your immune system effective.
Eating a wide variety of vegetables, some fruit, fresh fish, some nuts, good sources of protein and whole food carbs will help you keep your micronutrient intake high. Your body is an amazing entity and you can either safeguard it with good food or risk making it sick, fat and tired with consistently poor choices. Your body is an amazing entity and you can either safeguard it with good food or risk making it sick, fat and tired with consistently poor choices.
Take home points: Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals found in food. They keep you healthy
Alcohol
I like a drink as much as the next person, in the right circumstances. But it is the first thing to go when I want to get lean. Here’s the truth: If you are trying to shed body fat, then regular consumption of alcohol will be your biggest barrier.
Firstly, it contains 7 calories per gram so almost double that of protein and carbs.
Getting rid of it from the body puts a big stress on the liver, the body’s major fat-burning organ. It’s a nutrient blocker so stops the good stuff from your diet getting into your cells. If you drink regularly, all you are doing with your training is damage-limitation. It’s highly unlikely you will make any major progress, transforming your body. It’s also a gateway to poor, calorie-laden food choices too, since no-one wants to eat chicken and broccoli with a hangover. It should be reserved for special occasions only, not just because it’s the weekend or you’ve had a bad day!
Take home points: If you want to lose fat, stop drinking on a regular basis.
