CALORIE DEFICITS
Let’s face it - when it comes to weight loss the only thing we know for sure is that if you eat fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight. Fact.
Yes, people try to massively overcomplicate it with myths and legends, sales tactics and unnecessary products, plans and fairy dust. There are some really great online PTs and Gymfluencers shouting this from the rooftops (James Smith I’m looking at you!) and they are SO right. I personally also agree that calorie counting is a good thing when done with the right mindset and I also agree that most weight loss apps and programmes are looking to push you into the big loss so they can receive the accolades and before and after pics, you rave about how absolutely amazing said app, programme, trainer is and then……… you struggle… you struggle to maintain the weight loss long term, you struggle with your mental health when it comes to finding the correct maintenance level and ultimately either quickly or slowly the weight edges back on and the amazing effects are reversed. James Smith suggests a 15 - 20% calorie deficit - which I absolutely agree with - check out his free calculator (you don’t even need to sign up and no, I’m not afraid of sending potential clients his way - if you were going to do his thing we weren’t the right fit in the first place). Not only is this absolutely achievable long-term this level of deficit is also suggested to improve the markers in DNA and RNA which indicate reduced levels of oxidative stress in overweight people¹. Reviews of the limited studies available also point towards long-term calorie deficits being beneficial for cardiovascular health and protective against cardiovascular disease ². What does this mean? It means losing weight at this rate is good for you.
So while I am completely, 100% pro the idea of “Just Eat Less Calories” I don’t think this in and of itself is entirely sustainable without accepting there is another side to health.
When someone studies to become a Personal Trainer a large part of their education is about food - about nutrients. Most people think a PT learns a bunch of exercises and muscles and programme building and off they go. It isn’t like that. You need to learn about what our food is made up of. What it means to eat lots of some things are not enough of others. Most of a PT’s job is to understand you and your barriers. Why don’t you sleep enough? Why don’t you workout as much as you could/should do? Why don’t you eat the way you should? And from there the PT’s goal is to help lead you to ways to fix those issues yourself. It’s great to give you a programme and say off you go… and that works IN THE GYM. But there is the rest of your life to talk about…. This is the difference between online programmes for the masses and small boutique brands that work with YOU. I look after clients who work shifts - often in highly stressful jobs. They come to me overweight or underweight, unhappy and sometimes even tracking calories. They sleep five hours when they can, snack on the go or grab something from the canteen and barely ever see the sun! They feel slow, depressed, their skin is bad, their mind is foggy, they wade through the day like someone wearing galoshes in mud up to their armpits. For someone like this who can’t just change their hours or sleep more or find extra time to cook we really need to look at nourishment. This isn’t just a calorie thing.
You can reach your caloric and protein goals by eating chips and chocolates and drinking protein shakes - but that won’t mean you are healthy. Yes, losing weight by meeting your caloric goals has a whole host of health benefits irrespective of what you actually eat. You will be able to move around more easily, be less tired, there is less pressure on your vital and not so vital organs, hormone levels will start to normalise, libido will come back. Your mental health will generally improve too along with confidence, motivation etc. However, this does not mean that eating 1600 calories of fried potatoes, pukka pies, milkshakes and some protein bars will give you what your body actually needs to function.
Like it or not, in order to be healthy, for things to work properly, for your skin to glow, your brain to be less foggy you NEED vitamins and minerals. And where are you going to find these? In good old fruit ‘n’ veg, legumes (beans and lentils and such), fish, meat. And the better quality, fresher they are the more high quality nutrients are available to you.
And I have been told on more than one occasion - “well I’ll just take a multivitamin instead”. But you see, even these are problematic. Those NRV numbers you religiously follow? They are more or less arbitrary (“based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system” OED) - they don’t really mean anything to you or me. The simple fact is that a supplement can never replace your body taking in the nutrients from whole food sources. For one, the bioavailability (the ability for the body to breakdown and use) of the nutrients is far superior when say the iron or zinc is delivered via a food source. This is often to do with things like the interactions between the nutrients you are taking in. For example vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat soluble. This means that in order to get the greatest bioavailability of these vitamins it is advised they are taken with food that contains fats. A great example of this is Vitamin A - Both milk and eggs are excellent sources of vitamin A. Both also - in their whole forms are good sources of fats. If you were to take a vitamin A supplement it would be unlikely to contain the required amount of fat to create the right environment for a high level of absorption. This interaction may not just happen within an individual food but perhaps during a meal. Take leafy greens - also high in vitamin A. You might eat this in a salad with an olive oil dressing and feta cheese.
This type of interaction is often important for absorption, but simply the process of digesting makes the intake of nutrients through food far more beneficial than eating a gummy, swallowing a tablet with water or drinking some type of beefed up shake. Of course, many people take their supplements with a meal so doesn’t that negate all I have written so far? Nope.
The isolation process of the vitamins and minerals is essentially rendering them synthetic. Without all the other naturally co-occurring enzymes and nutrients within a particular food source the expression of an individual nutrient can be majorly inhibited. Vitamin E is a great example of this. Several studies have found significant differences in the bioavailability of synthetic and natural vitamin E - Vitamin E being a very commonly used supplement. One study found that vitamin E supplementation had only 50% of the bioavailability as a natural source³. Wouldn’t it be better to grab a handful of almonds with all their additional health benefits that to take something manufactured in a lab?
Another really MAJOR factor to consider is fibre. Most junk foods, fast foods and on the go snacks have little fibre. Fibre is so vital and so so often overlooked. So let’s just address the big C first. Diets low in fibre have time after time been shown to have a huge impact on the risk of a number of cancers - most notably bowel and colorectal cancer. Bowel cancer is the 4th (3rd if you are woman) most prevalent cancer in the UK and 28% of bowel cancer cases are attributable to insufficient fibre in the diet. (As an aside 13% are related to eating processed meats and 11% to being overweight and obese)⁴. So fibre is pretty pretty pretty important. Fibre? Where are you going to get it? Fruit ‘n’ veg and legumes are an excellent place to start. And if you don’t want to be in quite such a dark place when thinking about the benefits fibre can simply just make going for a number two that little bit more pleasant (your poops generally smells less from spending less time fermenting in your gut; it is easier to go, leading to lower incidence of haemorrhoids and less time on the toilet and more time for more enjoyable things, and generally you feel less bloated and sluggish). Fibre can help you feel fuller for longer and assist with keeping cholesterol in the healthy range.
Food, whether you cook or just use an air-fryer ( yeah I’m looking at you James Smith again :-D), is more than just the number of calories or the amount of protein written on the back of the pack. It is the responsibility of a PT to teach and guide their client about all matters of health and most importantly food. What they should be eating, what a healthy balanced diet looks like, what substitutions can work in a vegan, vegetarian diet; what the diet for an athlete looks like compared to an average Joe or Josephine. The PT can help guide the client to simple recipes and resources to ensure their clients are getting the most out of their sessions. A great tool to use for motivation are food trial challenges. A lot of clients haven’t take themselves out of their comfort zone. A challenge backed up with photos to try two or three new vegetables/fruits before the next session is a fun way to introduce someone to a wider range of possibilities. A PT also shouldn’t expect their client to be able to cook seven nights a week and prepare seven lunches ahead of time. They have kids and families and work and commitments. It is our duty to be considerate of your time and your world and to make your life a better one.
Love,
Amanda xx
¹ Hofer T, Fontana L, Anton SD, Weiss EP, Villareal D, Malayappan B, Leeuwenburgh C. Long-term effects of caloric restriction or exercise on DNA and RNA oxidation levels in white blood cells and urine in humans. Rejuvenation Res. 2008 Aug;11(4):793-9. doi: 10.1089/rej.2008.0712. PMID: 18729811; PMCID: PMC2724865.
² Bales CW, Kraus WE. Caloric restriction: implications for human cardiometabolic health. J Cardiopulm Rehabil Prev. 2013 Jul-Aug;33(4):201-8. doi: 10.1097/HCR.0b013e318295019e. PMID: 23748374; PMCID: PMC3696577.
³ Burton GW, Traber MG, Acuff RV, Walters DN, Kayden H, Hughes L, Ingold KU. Human plasma and tissue alpha-tocopherol concentrations in response to supplementation with deuterated natural and synthetic vitamin E. Am J Clin Nutr. 1998 Apr;67(4):669-84. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/67.4.669. PMID: 9537614.
⁴ https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-b
