Category Archives: Fuel & Food

Diet

Fruit is a Healthy Food but does it make you FAT?

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Hi Welcome back!!

Firstly no matter what the food is if you eat more than your body requires then you’ll eventually slow your metabolism and store the excess calories as fat.

Regular readers will know that certain types of food are more pre-disposed to easier storage as fat than others, but in the main too many calories in = more fat stored in your body.

Fruit is great on a fat loss program!

I have heard some so-called weight loss (notice not fat loss!!) ‘gurus’ say that you should avoid fruit to drop weight.

Their rationale is along the lines of:
Fruit contains fructose. Fructose is a type of sugar. Sugar is bad for weight loss therefore you should eliminate fruit from your diet when you are trying to lose weight (or fat)

Now fructose is a fairly unique sugar – it does not appear to trigger insulin surges, nor does it seem to create the energy ‘slumps’ most sugars do about an hour after ingesting them. Fructose also can only be metabolised in the liver, whereas all other sugars can be metabolised by any cell in the body. This means that during glycogenesis – where your body converts glucose to glycogen for storage in your muscles and liver – glucose tends to by-pass the liver and go directly to the muscles to top up their glycogen stores. Any excess is then shunted into fat storage. So fructose is great for topping up liver glycogen stores, but not so great for muscle stores.

Why does this matter? Well an important part of losing fat & reconditioning your metabolism is exercise. Exercise depletes glycogen stores (primarily) in the muscles and this needs to be topped up. There is a window of about an hour after you finish strenuous exercise where you can direct nutrients directly to your muscles – in other words what you eat during this hour will be preferentially used for muscle repair and glycogen replacement.

Glass of choc milk

Just about the perfect post workout drink!

So the smart folk take in lean protein and make use of this window by taking in simple carbs as well. This window is the only time that you can safely eat simple carbs whilst trying to lose weight. Believe it or not chocolate milk (low fat preferably) has just about the ideal ratio of carbs to protein for this muscle repair.

But having an egg and a piece of fruit will be less effective in repairing your muscles. Fruit remains important in our quest to recondition our metabolism and to lose fat because most fruits are low on the Glycemic Index and contain a reasonable amount of fibre, phytonutrients, vitamins and antioxidants. Fruit tends to be a nutrient dense package with a relatively low calorie count attached. Fruit is a great way to hold off sweet tooth cravings and is handy to carry around with you during your day.

On top of that because fructose is liver specific it will not be stored as fat unless excessive calories are ingested from large amounts of fruit. This last point is important because fructose has a different metabolic path from glucose it does not have the same feedback mechanisms and so excessive eating of fruit can lead to an increase in fat storage. Mind you it takes a lot of fruit…

Fructose from fruit should not be confused with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which is an artificial sweetener that you can find in just about every processed food on the planet. HFCS is made by processing corn syrup to increase the level of fructose to between 42% and 55% of the total sugar, with the balance being glucose. Because of its long shelf life, HFCS can be found in just about anything these days, including sodas, salad dressings, breads, and cookies.

The fact that HFCS is only found in heavily processed foods should probably be your first clue that it’s not likely to be good for us. Critics of this ‘Frankenstein’ mix say that people who eat a HFCS-heavy diet have a greater risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and coronary heart disease. These results may not be 100 percent conclusive, but more and more studies are coming to light that suggest cutting out HFCS can only lead to better health.

Here are some of the types of fruit that are an acceptable part of any fat loss regime.
• Kiwi Fruit
• Berries – Blueberries / Strawberries / Raspberries / Blackberries
• Apples
• Pears
• Avocados
• Stone Fruits – Plums, Mangoes, Cherries
• Paw Paw, Papaya
• Citrus fruits – Grapefruit, Oranges, Mandarins, Lemons, Limes Pomegranate
This is not an exhaustive list – really it is up to you which fruit you eat. The old adage about an ‘apple a day’ does indeed seem to hold up.

Try to concentrate on this fruits with a higher fibre content (remember TEF) but in general unless you are overindulging enormously then fruit will do nothing but good for you in your fat loss quest.

So eat your fruit as a part of your fat loss fuel and don’t forget you low GI veggies as well!

See you soon – don’t forget to comment, Tweet or Face Book us!!

Calories ain’t just calories

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Hi – There is a school of thought that says a calorie is just a calorie and it does not matter where your calories come from. I, like many others do not agree with this viewpoint.

A Calorie is not a calorie

When it comes to losing fat and re-conditioning your metabolism, exercise is important – really important. But the most important part of shifting your body shape is what you put in your mouth. I would say that 80% of your results in terms of fat loss and metabolic reconditioning lies with what you eat and how you fuel your body.

A healthy fat loss program is created from a sound nutritional base and good information.

Calories:

A calorie is nothing more or less than a measure of energy. It is the amount of energy, or heat, required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). One calorie is equal to 4.184 joules, a unit of energy commonly used in many European, Asian & Oceanic countries as well as the physical sciences.

Difference between calories and kilocalories

A single calorie is a tiny amount of energy – so the “calories” referred to on food packaging and in diet plans are in fact “kilocalories” (a thousand calories, often referred to as Calories – with the capital C). With metric measurements, “kilojoules” (1000 joules – kJ) are always used.

Calories matter, as they allow the energy content of different foods to be compared – but they are by not the only factor to consider when developing a successful fat loss program.

One word of warning – do not get too hung up on counting calories. There are plenty of foods that are low-calorie but which have little or no nutritional value. These are the dreaded ‘empty calorie’ foods that impart no benefit to you if you eat them. Likewise there are plenty of ‘Low fat’ foods that are chock full of sugars and just dreadful for you and your fat loss efforts.

The old weight loss (not even considered as a fat loss) approach was to establish how many calories you needed to maintain your Basal Metabolic Rate (the amount of calories needed to survive if you were resting and doing nothing all day), add some more calories to cover off any exercise undertaken and then reduce the figure arrived at by at least 500 calories per day so you created an energy deficit.

The thinking was that all calories were equal, that your body dealt with them irrespective of origin and if you reduced your daily intake by 500 calories you would lose 3500 calories (1 lb, .5 kilo) in a week.

In many medical establishments this is still the way things are done.

It is useful to know how many calories you need to keep functioning each day, but it is the source of the calories that you eat that is important. A calorie is not just a calorie.

How about if you ate your daily requirements (say 2200 calories for a male) as hot dogs? Or if you ate nothing but Pizza, or white bread or Oreo Cookies – how would you look and feel?

Now think about how you would feel if you ate the same amount of calories as lean protein, with fruit and vegetables. Which style of eating would see you putting on the most fat and losing the most muscle mass?? The first one, of course. So a calorie is not just a calorie except as a unit of measurement.

Make no mistake eating too many calories above what your body needs, no matter what their source, will add fat to your body. However certain types of calories, & certain types of foods are predisposed to boosting your metabolism and others are predisposed to turning it off. A calorie is NOT a calorie – your body handles the calories from different types of food sources differently.

The next post will deal with reconditioning your metabolism.

A Quick Metabolism Booster

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Here is a quick way to get your metabolism firing along better than it is at the moment…

Remember a stronger metabolism equals a leaner body and less belly & body fat.

Typically in the Western world we eat like this:

  • Breakfast is the smallest meal of the day, if we eat it at all – far too many get by on Coffee on the go only…
  • Mid-morning high carb, high sugar snack & coffee to pick up energy
  • Lunch is a sandwich and soft drink, or takeaway with a juice – usually a moderate sized meal that is eaten quickly.
  • Afternoon snack – usually high sugar to fight the afternoon energy drop..
  • Dinner, the evening meal is the largest meal of the day, often eaten late at night.
  • Late night snack in front of the TV as we relax – usually processed high GI carbs

There are several problems with this:

1)      Our metabolisms are highest in the morning – skipping breakfast after your body is coming off the equivalent of an 8 hour fast is a sure way to drive your metabolism down when it is at its highest and ablest to handle a hefty influx of calories.

2)      Typically we eat the largest meal at the wrong end of the metabolic spectrum – we eat most at the end of the day when our metabolisms are slowest. A large, carb heavy meal not only slows it further but it has more chance of being stored as fat.

3)      In eating this way there are only really 2 – 3 meals there with some high sugar ‘top ups’ to energy reserves. Eating this way causes a slowing of your metabolism and an increase in fat storage.

4)      Our body goes through its repair programs during sleep readying us for the next day. These repairs generally deplete our glycogen stores and this means that our bodies can handle carbs better in the morning as it strives to replace these stores. Because we don’t top them up with a big breakfast we get the sugar cravings and end up snacking at various times during the day.

5)      At the end of the day though your carb handling is at its lowest ebb – and this means more chance of fat storage if we are piling our plates with lots of carbs – especially the processed high GI kinds…

In other words the typical Westerner has meal timings and sizings that are backwards. Because our metabolism is lowest in the evening we should be eating less then and eating the most in the morning when our body is primed to receive a hefty influx of calories.

The way to increase our metabolism is to make use of this higher ‘calorie tolerance’ by having a large high carb, high calorie (with lean protein of course!!) meal in the morning for breakfast. This way we will be spurring our metabolism on, have more energy throughout the day (and less sugar ‘hit’ cravings) and will burn more calories over the course of the day.

This is how we should eat:

Breakfast – A large sized meal, with lean protein and a higher carb intake – your biggest meal of the day in terms of calorie load.

Lunch – A moderate sized meal with moderate carb intake (ditch the soda though!)

Dinner – The smallest sized meal, with a lower carb intake – and make sure that they are low GI carbs as much as possible.

If you follow these simple recommendations and flip your calorie intake from evening to morning, I guarantee you’ll have more energy, fewer cravings, improve your metabolic rate and lose belly & body fat faster.

8 things to avoid whilst trying to Lose Fat

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The important thing is to focus on fat loss not weight loss – following these 8 tips will help you avoid some common mistakes…

1. Set unrealistic expectations

If you have 40lbs to lose it is unlikely that you will be able to drop this much fat in a month in a way that is sustainable. I mean if all you lived on were shakes and exercised like crazy you might do it, but you went back to your normal eating patterns back will come the weight. Be smart find a program that works and use it. 20lbs in 30 days is doable in a sustainable fashion, so you might have to cycle through a program a few times to reach your goal or better still set to reach your goal over a challenging but achievable time frame. 40lbs – say 3 months.

2. Weigh yourself every day

Your weight can fluctuate up to 6 lbs a day depending upon fluid & food intake, hormones and more besides. Daily weighing can be extremely discouraging. The best measurement is twofold – how you look in the mirror and how your clothes are fitting you. Remember the goal is Fat, NOT weight, loss. If you have to use the scales – use them once a month, same time, same day.

3. Skip meals

Skipping meals isn’t going to help you lose fat, but eating 5 or 6 times a day will!! Skipping meals damages your metabolism and creates issues with a number of hormones all of which combines to keep the fat on you. Our body’s deal with food better in small frequent feedings rather than 2 or 3 large ones. Studies have shown that the same amount of calories when eaten over 3 meals leads to more fat storage than if they were ingested over 6 smaller meals.

4. Completely cut carbs

It is popular to cut carbs these days and certain types of carbs should be reduced or even eliminated from your diet if you are to recondition your metabolism and lose fat.

The truth is though that carbs are our body’s main fuel source and the right types of carbs (think nutrient dense, low calorie low GI & unprocessed) will actually keep your body humming along and assist with fat loss.

The Fibre from unprocessed carbs is an important component for gut health, for regularity, for fat loss and for craving control – eat your carbs – just avoid the processed ones especially the ‘White’ ones (sugar, flour, rice etc).

5. Starve yourself

Not eating activates all sorts of hormone cascades in your body all of which are designed to ‘batten down the hatches’ to hold off what your body perceives as starvation. Your metabolism slows down, fat is preserved and carbs and muscle tissue get burned for fuel. This route of fat loss means you end up a smaller fat person.

6. Workout longer than an hour at a time

Sixty minutes is it, in fact longer workouts are the key – you can work hard or you can work long only a very few rare individuals can do both. Workouts longer than an hour increase cortisol (the belly fat hormone) levels dramatically and cut into recovery time. This is not to say that you can’t work out twice in one day – just make sure that the types of exercise are different – for example weights in the AM and sprints in the PM

7. Expect to lose Fat without exercising

Losing Fat is 80%+ diet, but unless you are reconditioning your metabolism with physical activity as well then you will not achieve all you can and in many cases run the risk of becoming a smaller fat person as lean tissue disappears due to non-use. Remember lean tissue = high metabolism. A high metabolic rate = lower fat.

This doesn’t mean that you have to hit the weight room every day – go for a bike ride, do some Pilates, do some sprints – Move dammit!!

8. Drink Alcohol

Alcohol is a poison and the body cannot store it so it has to process it immediately it is detected. This means that your fat burning comes to dead halt and your good work diet & exercise wise was for nothing.

The amount of alcohol involved is different for everyone – it may a glass of beer or wine, or a bottle – it doesn’t matter – if you are trying to lose fat you must pass on the alcohol until you reach your desired fat loss.

These are just a few tips – please sign up and get your free report to learn more practical tips to help you lose fat and get leaner.

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