Nutrition – Getting Started
What good sustainable Nutrition is ?
Eating that helps you feel good, think clearly, look your best and allows you to have a social life and enjoy the things you like in moderation.
What good nutrition isn’t ?
Demonising food groups and labelling bad foods and causing disordered eating and bingeing, guilt and shame. It isn’t eating 7 meals a day out of Tupperware that is bland and boring and largely unsustainable.
So what and where do I start ?
Firstly lets look at calories and intake
We need enough calories and macro / micronutrients to sustain health and muscle mass.
Beyond that the goal will dictate the intake ,
** If you are looking at dropping fat we need a calorie / energy deficit
** If you are looking at gaining muscle we need a slight energy surplus everyday
We have set this up so you can work it out easily https://6fitgyms.co.uk/calorie-counter/
Next is Protein
The most important macro nutrient to prioritise is PROTEIN
It retains and grows muscle, helps recovery, increases satiety ( fullness) so reduces hunger and has a higher energy expenditure to digest so pretty much perfect all round.
What is the right amount ??
**Ideally we know the right range is 0.8 -1.2 g per pound of target body weight per day **
This can be split over 2,3,4,5 servings to fit your lifestyle and can be solid foods, protein shakes, bars, greek yoghurt as long as you hit the daily target or within 10%.
The skinny on FATS
They get a bad rap but they are essential and you are in trouble without enough of the correct types
Saturated – butter, ghee, lard
Polyunsaturated – flax , oily fish,
Mono unsatured – olive oil, avocado
Most people get enough mono and saturates and enough of the omega 6 polyunsaturates but we tend to be almost everyone deficient in the most important omega 3 which are needed for brain health and Reducing inflammation and fat loss though complex mechanisms.
Do make sure you have oily fish ( sardine, mackerel, anchovy, salmon ) multiple times per week or supplement 1-10g per day of very high quality fish oils.
Fats ideally should make up 20 – 35% of total daily calories for optimum health
Carbohydrates
Firstly you can eat carbs after 6pm …… its utter non sense some of the stuff you read about carbs
They aren’t good or bad they are a source of fuel and if consumed within overall daily calorie targets will not make you fat
Some people feel and work better on a higher percentage of carbs in the diet and lower fats and others look and feel better on slightly lower carbs and higher fats, PROTEIN ALWAYS STAYS THE SAME !!
Fruits are ranked based on thinness of skin so best options are blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, grapes then apples and are fine to eat even though people keep saying don’t eat fruit ,,
The majority of the carbs in your diet want to come from single ingredient natural sources like potato / sweet potato rather than your favourite bag of sweets or chocolate !! Even though thees can be consumed occasionally within your calorie framework.
FIBRE
Fibre intake is linked to reduced risk of all cause mortality, decreased cardiovascular disease and decreased unhealthy cholesterol profiles.
If you are eating regular salad and veggies on your plate your fibre intake should be just fine and nothing to amend but if you are a sale dodger and you can’t remember the year you last ate a vegetable this are will need some attention !!!
If you for some reason don’t eat veggies and salad in spite of all the benefits you may need to look at some flax seed daily and some psyllum husk daily to help boost fibre intake.
WATER
The things people forget to measure is daily water intake and when asked how much water people consume a shrug of the shoulders usually follows !!
A super simple way to get started here is every morning make sure you have a 2 litre bottle of water filled and by the time you go to bed you have finished it . This way knowing you have consumed a minimum of 2 litres and any other liquids on top of this.
Bodyweight becomes a factor, sweating, activity levels and when these increase water intake should increase in line with it ..
Always check the colour of your urine and s simple way to check hydration in its simplest form is that if your urine isn’t clear you may well be dehydrated ..
Also hunger can be confused with dehydration which leads to over consumption of foods… regularly drink water to avoid this pitfall and have a bottle of water with you at all times as a reminder and to make it front and centre of your attention..
MICRONUTRIENTS
Vitamins, minerals , probiotics is a complex issue in certain circumstances and lets take a look
Firstly you should be consuming a varied diet and as mentioned if you are consuming veggies, salads , fruits daily you should be making good inroads into your daily micronutrient requirements.
However one thing to note due to overarming of the soil over the last 30/40 yrs the nutrient content of foods has diminished so for lots of people this can lead deficiencies when we look at bloodwork and testing.
Based on bloodwork and testing of clients and research dats the most common deficiencies in the vast majority of people are,
Magnesium
Zinc
Vit D3 & K2
Omega 3 ( which I mention above)
Vit C
Now I always say people should look at a regular comprehensive blood panel every 1/2 years to check all markers including hormone levels to check levels but if you are living in the UK its highly probable you are deficient in the above
Another thing of note is that the recommended levels for some of these are based on the average of an unfit & sick population… they are far from the optimal levels for health !!!