I like to think I have learned a lot within the past year about nutrition, through my Personal Trainer qualification, my own research and personal trial and error. I looked extensively into nutrition when trying to fix my acne, and the subject just fascinates me - I am am massive foodie, a big believer in balance, treating yourself, whilst respecting your body and eating to reach your personal goals. So I wanted to note down a few things that I have found helpful, just the basics, easy to understand, and hopefully helpful tips that you can take away to better your understanding of food groups, nutrition and how to better your life through what you eat.
Firstly - a mantra to live by. You cannot out-train a bad diet. Just because you go to the gym a few times a week, and burn a lot of calories on a spin bike for example, does not give you the allowance to eat more that day, when for majority of the rest of the day you are sitting down at a desk, staring at a computer.
Try and have a balance of each major food group for each meal. E.g. some form of carb, protein, source, healthy fat on top of a bed of micronutrients.
Consume the majority of your starchy carbohydrates e.g. potatoes, rice, oats, before and after your training sessions.
Protein: made up of branch chain amino acids, essential for muscle growth and repair
Carbohydrate: the bodies primal energy source
Fat: a source of energy, as well as essential for efficient hormone functioning
Vitamins and minerals (from micronutrients): contribute to just about everything in the body – essential for immune functioning, gut health, skin health, energy, mood, cell reproduction and repair etc etc.
Food is energy – what is used is burned (calories), what is not used is stored as fat. Therefore, to lose fat, you simply need to be burning more than you are eating (a calorie deficit). If you want to gain muscle, you need to be eating more than you are burning (a calorie surplus).
In order to gain lean muscle, the best thing to do is start in a 10% deficit from your maintenance calories (burning the same amount as you are eating), and gradually increase your calories once you have dropped a certain amount of body fat until you reach a 10% surplus. Ensure you are eating wholesome, nutritional whole foods as this food is the best for the gut and will ensure lean muscle gains without too much fat storage.
Try and stay away from anything out of a packet or processed as the artificial ingredients are very bad for our gut health which can lead to stubborn fat.
If you can keep eating out to a minimum, this is your best option as there are a lot of hidden calories in food, and you cannot control this.
Track everything – this is the only way to be sure you will lose the fat; you need to be in control of your calories. I use Lifesum, myfitnesspal is another good one to use. Just make sure you do not have your activity connected to the apps, as it is better to work out your own BMR (basal metabolic rate – what you burn by simply existing) and TDEE (total daily energy expenditure – the amount burned taking into account your daily activity) beforehand and set your own calories to an average per day.
Drinks: stick to water. Liquid calories are empty calories, they cause you to store fat and do not fill you up. Try and stay away from alcohol if you can if you are really serious about getting into shape – alcohol is highly calorific, and because of its effect on our perception, it also causes us to eat more unhealthy food in large quantities.
We are all human, and it is normal to want a treat every now and again, whether this be a night out, a dessert, a fancy meal. This is fine, and encouraged, but just be smart with it. You need to burn off the energy in other ways, or intake less energy. For example, if you are going to have a big meal on Saturday night, including alcohol and dessert which may end up being a 2,000 calorie meal – just reduce your calories by about 200-300 less per day a couple of days before, and a couple of days after this, or reduce them to 100 less per day, and increase your daily activity so you are burning an extra 150-200 calories per day. As long as you are still averaging at your TDEE goal, it is fine to indulge every now and again, just be smart with it, and be aware of the extra work needed to compensate for this.
What should be on your plate:
Macronutrients – you need to have a source of protein, carbohydrate and healthy fat in every meal, as well as a variety of micronutrients per meal.
Good protein sources:
- Chicken
- Fish
- Lean turkey mince
- Grass fed beef
- Protein powders (try and find a natural one without a lot of artificial ingredients)
- Eggs
Good Carbohydrate sources:
- Sweet potato
- Pumpkin
- carrots
- Brown rice
- Quinoa
- Lentils
- Beans & pulses
- Apples
- Bananas
- Berries
- Rolled oats
- Wholegrain bread (sourdough or rye – in moderation)
- Mushrooms
- eggplant
Good fat sources:
- Avocado
- Eggs
- Organic nut butters (check ingredients – should be 100% nuts)
- Almonds
- Cashews
- Macadamia nuts
- Chia seeds
- Flax seeds
- Pumpkin seeds
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Hemp seed oil
- Avocado oil
- Coconut oil
- Ghee
- Edamame beans
Micronutrients (your veggies)
- Spinach
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Bell peppers
- Alfalfa sprouts
- Asparagus
- Green beans
- Cauliflower
- Cabbage
- Peas
- Onion
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Zucchini
- Herbs and spices
I hope you found this helpful, and if you implement any of these tips let me know:) Thank you so much to those of you who are reading my blog it really means a lot!
