Fad Diets

Carbs and Ketosis

innovationalfitness@hotmail.co.uk (darren lackey) — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 11:48:42 GMT

Is no carb really the way forward for fat loss?

Carbohydrates

I feel that this particular food group takes a bashing, especially when it comes to those wishing to losing fat. It seems to be the ‘go to method’ for those who wish to do so.

Wanna lose fat? Cool, cut all your carbs

Except it isn’t a simple as that...

If you’re training consistently and purposefully, carbs are your friends - they’ll fuel your muscles and help you perform at your best in the gym. Cutting them entirely from your diet long term when you’re living an active lifestyle can lead to hormone imbalances - this can translate to feeling

- Slow, demotivated and sluggish
- Having higher anxiety levels
- Depression
- Lower testosterone and higher cortisol levels (not good, fellas)
- More body fat!
- Loss of bone density
- Interrupted menstrual cycle (not good, ladies)
- Plus more problems

Why?

Because our brain and central nervous systems preferred source of energy, is glucose - which we get from those dreaded carbs. Starving your body of carbs in order to lose weight is to also starve your bodies physiological functions of its preferred energy source, for things like hormone production.

Of course, our bodies have a back up system - we’re not going to keel over and die due to a lack of carbs.

Enter Ketosis.

In short, ketosis happens when our bodies recognise a lack of sugar. It therefore mobilises our fat stores to use for energy - sounds great, doesn’t it? For some, quite possibly. But it comes at a cost that may not be worth it when adopting this diet long term.

For starters, you’ll need to be consuming less than 30 grams of carbs a day in order to keep your body in this state, so

- Forget bread
- Forget pasta
- Forget rice
- Forgot drinking at social events
- Forgot eating regular meals with friends and family
-Forget cakes, biscuits and chocolate!

One day of carb indulgence and you’re out of ketosis. Hardly sustainable and hardly worth the effort IMO. In addition to this, the initial weight that you lose when going Keto probably isn’t even fat. You see, our body breaks carbs down into glucose, this glucose is then neatly packed together to form a substance called Glycogen.

Glycogen is then shipped off to the muscles and liver for storage, ready to be called upon when needed.

Glycogen is heavy and our body doesn’t like to carry too much of this substance around. You also have to bare in mind that for every gram of glycogen stored, you store around 3 grams of water, too.

Do you see where I’m going with this? The rapid weight loss you lose initially is water and glycogen, not fat!

The keto diet has been known to help children with epilepsy and diabetics who struggle with their blood sugars levels, so yes, there are certainly benefits to eating this way when it calls. But using this diet long term simply to lose weight when you’re healthy and active?

Something to think about.........

Now, do a lot of people consume too much of this particular food group?

Probably

Could most do with cutting the amount of carbs in their diet?

Again, probably

But do try and get out of this notion that carbs are bad, they’re not, they’re healthy and much needed in moderation by the vast majority of you in order to fuel your body adequately.

And remember

You don’t have to eliminate a particular food group in order to lose weight. Healthy weight loss comes from a consistent and sustainable calorie deficit and you can do that eating protein, fats and even.......

Carbohydrates :)

Coach Daz.

Some Facts about Fats

innovationalfitness@hotmail.co.uk (darren lackey) — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 13:28:25 GMT

And why you shouldn't fear them

Fats and cholesterol have had a bad reputation over the years and unjustifiably so. In this article, I'd like to try and redeem their reputation a little by telling you why they're important to our diet - why eating fats won't exactly be bad for your cholesterol levels and how eating these fats daily can help you with your fat loss goals.

What are "Healthy fats" and how many are there?

The three types of fat are; saturated fat, monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat - we also have the omega fats which are monounsaturated fats.

They all have six major roles in our body

They provide us with a source of energy (fat is the most energy dense macro-nutrient)
They help manufacture our hormones
They help form our cell membranes
They form our brain and nervous system
They help transfer fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K; and
As mentioned above, they provide us with the essential omega fats that our bodies cannot make - omega 3 and 6 (more on these soon)

Great! So I can eat all the fat that I want and not have to worry?

Well, no, not exactly - every food should be eaten in moderation and there is a villain in the fat community that you should only eat occasionally; these are trans fats.

Trans fats are man made and are contained within most fast food/processed and packaged foods. They are made to have a lasting shelf life to maximize profit - they're not exactly made with our health in mind. This type of manufactured fat is linked to Alzheimer's, cancer and heart disease.

Yea - not good.

Not to put you off your naughty foods that you like to eat occasionally, just be mindful of how much of this junk that you're consuming.

Got it. But won't eating healthy fats make me fat?

It's true that fat contains the most calories (9cal per gram) compared to that of protein (4cal per gram) and carbohydrates (4cal per gram) but no, its not necessarily true that fat will make you fat. You'll gain weight if you put your body into a calorie surplus and you can do that with any food type, not just fat.

In fact, I would say the vast majority of people needn't worry about the healthy fats they eat daily - most people probably aren't eating enough! In my humble opinion, most people go wrong on weekends, where they use the excuse of "having a good week" only to round off the weekend binge eating/drinking on empty calories.

Healthy fats can actually help you with fat loss by keeping you fuller for longer (therefore keeping your overall daily calorie intake down) while providing you with lots of energy! (recall that fat is the most energy dense macro nutrient)

So, what about Cholesterol? Is it good or bad for us?

Dietary cholesterol is good for us and an important component to our diets. It serves the following roles within our body

It helps us with cell membrane function
It helps us absorb dietary fat
It helps us make new steroid hormones (such as vitamin D)
It helps us make bile salts (made in the liver to break down foods)

Interestingly, our bodies are very clever machines when it comes to regulating overall cholesterol intake - it does so similarly to a thermostat regulating the temperature in our homes. If our home drops below a certain temperature, the thermostat kicks in and turns the heating on - the same can be said for our bodies monitoring cholesterol levels.

As dietary cholesterol increases, our bodies make less of it; and vice versa (as dietary cholesterol decreases, our bodies begin to make more. This means that blood cholesterol levels are genetically dictated and why some people naturally have high blood cholesterol.

Ah, so dietary cholesterol isn't as bad as everyone would have me believe?

No, its not. And to understand further why that's the case, lets look at the two protein types that carry cholesterol around the body.

High Density Lipoprotein (HDL - known as the "good" cholesterol. Primarily responsible for carrying cholesterol from our cells to the liver for excretion)
Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL - known as the "bad" cholesterol. Primarily responsible for carrying cholesterol from the liver to our cells)

As needed as LDLs are to transport cholesterol, they can drop or deposit the cholesterol they're carrying into our bloodstream, which is what contributes to having high LDL cholesterol and heart disease. However, there is a savior in all of this - enter HDLs.

HDLs role is cardio protective. HDLs come and scoop up the cholesterol that has been deposited in our bloodstream by LDLS. This is why higher levels of HDLs are encouraged in conjunction with lower amounts of LDL cholesterol.

This is why eating natural foods that are high in mono/polyunsaturated fats won't exactly raise your "bad" cholesterol levels.

And what foods do I need to eat in order to get this omega 3?

Omega 3 is contained within oily fish , eggs, hemp, chia and flaxseeds - but the most popular I believe is from a good fish oil supplement. The problem with trying to get efficient amounts of omega 3 by eating enough of the foods that contain it is the concentrations are often quite low.

For instance, if the salmon that you buy has been fed an unnatural diet before being sold, concentrations of omega 3 found in their meat will be low.

It's for this reason that recommend supplementing a good fish/algae oil into your diet.

So whats the bottom line then?

Avoid processed foods and you'll do well to stay away from unnecessary fat gain, empty calories and harmful fats.

Naturally occurring fats from whole foods should be enjoyed in moderation, they're good for you and much needed by the body - have no fear.

Good sources of fat include; lean meats, nuts and seeds, cooking oils such as olive and coconut, eggs and oily fish such as mackerel, sardines or salmon and avocados.

I hope this clears a few things up for you about fats.

Thanks for reading,

Coach Daz.

6 Nutritional Habits to keep you on track with your fat loss goals

innovationalfitness@hotmail.co.uk (darren lackey) — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 15:30:01 GMT

Build these into your lifestyle and you're onto a winner

What I'd like to do is outline 6 basic nutritional habits that I teach my clients to adopt on a daily basis. If you can manage to do these too, it will lead to a healthier mind and leaner body. You'll already be aware of some of them, they're that simple. But if there is one thing that I have learned working in the health and fitness industry for over 10 years, its this -

There is a big difference between knowing what to do and implementing that knowledge on a daily basis in order to get yourself some significant and sustainable results.

So here they are.

Habit 1: Eat slowly and stop when you're 80% full.

The majority of us eat far too quickly, this presents a problem when it comes to fat loss because we tend to consume more calories than we actually need come meal time. The reason? Slow communication between our gut and our brain! You see, it takes around 20 minutes for our gut to acknowledge the amount of food we've taken in and send a signal to our brain saying "OK, I'm full".

With that being the case, if you're prone to guzzling down your food like a vulture (which was definitely me) you can easily eat more calories than your body actually needs. This will obviously contribute to weight gain, no matter what type of food that you're eating - not something that we want when fat loss is our goal!

You'll also notice that this habit has nothing to do with what you eat, but rather HOW you eat; which is why it may be the most important rule of all. You see, its irrelevant whether you have a McDonald's in front of you or chicken and broccoli - if you take in more calories than you're burning off, you're going to put on weight. If you burn more calories than you take in, you'll lose weight - its a simple as that.

You can prevent this by slowing your eating down - a good time to aim for is around 20 minutes per meal. If that's not realistic for you because you're a food guzzler, start slow and build up your meal time! You can use a stop watch to time yourself which acts as a good visual reminder. Just try and add another minute onto your meal time until you hit the magic number.

In terms of stopping when you're 80% full, we can define that further as eating until you're no longer hungry, rather than eating until you're full up and bloated! It involves tuning into your hunger and satiety cues and learning to listen to your body more. It takes a little time to master (2 weeks to a month if you're paying attention to it everyday) but trust me, it works.

Habit 2: Eat protein dense food with every meal.

Protein is one of the most important nutrients that we consume. It makes our structure, our hormones, immune system, enzymes and more. Without an adequate amount of protein, we cease to exist! Protein is also responsible for building and maintaining our muscle mass.

With that being the case, its not only important that we're eating enough protein on the daily to support the bodily functions above - but to go above and beyond that to support the growth of lean muscle tissue also. You wan to be lean? Then eat lean protein! The minimum amount that most should be consuming is around 0.8 grams of protein per KG of body weight. If you're training frequently, go with around 1.0/1.2 grams per KG of body weight.

Good sources of protein include red and white meat, fish, eggs, lentils, legumes and whey protein powder.

Habit 3: Eat vegetables with every meal.

I won't patronise you by telling you how important veggies are to your diet. I'm sure your grandparents harped on about them enough when you were a child. What I will do, however, is tell you how they can aid in your quest for fat loss.

You see, for all of the vitamins and minerals that veggies contain, they're actually very low in calories so they contribute towards your overall food intake significantly without raising your daily calorie intake much - this makes them a very nutrient dense food. Veggies are also high in fibre, which will help you to feel fuller for longer and will therefore stop you from snacking and consuming more calories.

Veggies also contain Phytonutrients, which help to protect you against diseases such as cancer. Not fat loss related, but arguably more important? Yea, I think so.

Habit 4: Eat healthy fats daily.

Yes, its true that fat contains the most calories but no, its not true that all fats are equal. The only fats that you should be limiting from your diet are Trans fats and you can do this by staying clear of any foods that are processed and packaged, foods that contain long ingredient lists and long shelf life's.

Other types of fat (saturated, Mono-unsaturated and Poly-unsaturated fats) are healthy for you! They help balance our hormones, forms the membranes of our cells, brain and nervous system along with much more. With all that taken into account, you should be consuming these healthy fats daily and in a ratio of around a third each.

You can easily achieve this by snacking on a variety of nuts and seeds throughout the day, cooking in healthy oils such as olive and coconut oil and eating a variety of lean meats and diary.

For more on healthy fats, see my other article ' Some Facts about Fats '

Habit 5: Eat your starchy carbohydrates after exercise

Do you enjoy eating foods like pasta, rice and bread? Well you can continue enjoying them - but if fat loss is your primary goal, you must focus on eating them after exercise and also try to stick to unrefined carbs as much as you can. I wont bore you with all of the science jargon as to why, just know that your body prefers to use carbs as its main source of fuel for high demand activity (such as a demanding gym session or physically active job)

With that being the case, it makes sense to consume your carbs after such activities have been completed to refuel your muscles with energy. Furthermore, your body becomes a lot more nutrient sensitive after exercise and its best to eat them in this 2/3 hour window.

The general rule of thumb is to increase your healthy fats and lower your carbohydrate intake before exercise, while increasing your carbs and dropping your healthy fat intake after exercise.

Catch my drift?

Habit 6: Drink more water

I said that I wasn't going to patronise you, didn't I? My apologies, but far too many people go about their day not drinking enough and are not even aware of the fact either. It'll have a significant impact on your fitness goals but most importantly, your health!

Our cells are what make up our metabolism and our metabolic rate - each and every single one of those cells (trillions) needs water in order to do its job efficiently so if we don't drink enough, our metabolism slows down. You know who else slows down? You. Not drinking enough water makes us lethargic, demotivated, tired and effects our performance in the gym.

Oh, its also roughly 60% of your body weight - which should really tell you something. Have I convinced you to get drinking yet? I hope so - aim for around 2 litres a day and you're golden.

So there you go, I've reinvented the health and fitness wheel! Well, not really, but I have given you some simple habits that will indeed change you body over time. Take your time with them, focus on building all of them into you lifestyle daily and most importantly, please be patient! These things take time. Remember my statement from my previous post -

'Lasting changes to your body are the result of healthy habit and behaviour changes that are built up over time'.

Thanks for reading,

Coach Daz.