Nutrition When Working From Home

Reading Time

Working from home can bring with it new challenges and opportunities. It’s important to build productive and effective routines early that form healthy habits.

This blog will focus on Nutritional Strategies when Working From Home.

An important thing to remind yourself of is that you are in control and to think of the things you CAN do.

Here are 4 things you can control with your nutrition:

Remember just because you may not be training the way you normally would, it isn’t a licence to forget about your nutrition.

It’s more important than ever to stay healthy with a diet focused on Protein and Plants. 

Not caring about your nutrition simply because you can’t train optimally is just like spending all your money because you don’t have an income.

Both a relevant right now.

Don’t write them off.

It’s even more important to take care of your nutrition and your savings.

With working from home or being home more often, there will be new challenges and temptations. 

Try to use this time to develop skills in identifying barriers, problem-solving and coming up with possible solutions to test out. That’s what we all need to do now - identify barriers, test solutions.

Being at home a lot more could lead to these barriers with these potential solutions:

Barrier: More temptation to eat being near the kitchen >

Solution: Creating a supportive environment starts with shopping. Buy foods which support you (protein & plants) and limit purchases of foods which you struggle with appropriate portions. With your indulgences, if you do have them at home, keep them out of sight. 

Barrier: Less routine leading to more snacking > 

Solution: Maintain your meal schedule. How many meals do you usually eat in a day? Continue your usual habits with meal frequency. Me personally, it’s 4 meals around 4 hours apart. That gives me a solid time structure with my meals and if I’m thinking about food in between meals, it’s just a time to test hunger and see that it does come and go.
Solution: Calorie-free liquids. Boredom hunger can often be quenched with a glass of water or a sugar-free soft drink/cordial.

Barrier: Overeating is easier, as there is always something else to eat. Eg. you find yourself going for seconds, adding a dessert to more meals than usual > Mindful eating - eat slowly, taste the food, try to focus on the flavours, try to notice how it makes you feel and when you start feeling full.

Solution: When you portion out your meals put all the leftovers away before you start eating. It’s tempting when the food is still warm in the kitchen to have another plate. 

The next blog in this series will focus on 7 Tips to Build Healthy Habits when Working From Home.

If your circumstances, goals and schedule have changed recently, it might be time to get some more individual guidance to help support your nutritional needs. An FNC Coach can provide you with strategies that suit you and your lifestyle to help you remain in control of your nutrition and stay on track with your health and fitness goals.

Click the button below for more information on our 1 on 1 Coaching service.

The next blog in this working from home series provides you with 7 Healthy Habits.

To read, follow this link

Team FNC Physical Challenge

Reading Time

We are all about progressing and making the most of our ability here at FNC, we thought why not give you a chance to progress with something that good nutrition gives us the ability to do regularly - exercise..

Using spare time as a chance to refine or work towards a skill that may elude you currently is a great way to add some progression into your daily/weekly routine.

How to use this

Step 1- SELECT THE SKILL 

Step 2- SELECT THE APPROPRIATE SCALING

PISTOL: 

1. Squat - with feet flat, about shoulder width apart, sit down as if you were going to sit in a chair. When you can’t squat any further, rise up to the starting point. 

2. Close footed squat - with feet flat, bring your feet as close as you can together to perform an air-squat with a close stance.

3. Single leg box squat - Stand on one foot with a stable box positioned just behind you, your free foot should be bent and raised a few inches off the floor. Hold your hands out in front of you, using them for balance as necessary. This will be your starting position. Keeping your hips as square as possible, descend into a deep knee bend and momentarily sit on the box.

Stand back up by extending at the hip and knee and repeat for reps before switching to the opposite side.

1. Ballerina squat - with one foot flat and the other on the point of the toe (to be used for balance) start with feet in a shoulder width stance and progress down into an assisted pistol, then stand to full extension. 

2. Elevated single leg squat - using a small book, or an elevated ledge place one heel on the elevated surface. Using your arms for balance sit down into a full squat on one leg with the heel raised as an assistance method for maintaining a neutral spine and balance. 

SIT-UP: 

1. Crunch - Hands behind your head, gently lift your head and shoulders, hold briefly and relax back down.

2. Roll up - with feet slide your hands up to your knees, then lower back down. 

3. Top down - start at the top of the sit up and slowly lower yourself down to the floor. 

4. Fixed foot - keeping the feet flat to the floor, anchor them under a bench or around a pole, hands behind your head lift the shoulders from the floor up to the knees and back down. 

PUSH-UP

1. Wall - Face a wall, standing a little farther than arm’s length away, feet shoulder-width apart. Lean your body forward and put your palms flat against the wall at shoulder height and shoulder-width apart, bending the elbows and moving your chest towards the wall, then locking the arms back out to finish the rep.

2. Incline - Bend your elbows to slowly lower your chest to the edge of a table/bench/desk. Keep a straight body throughout the movement. Push your body away from the bench until your elbows are extended.

3. Knee - Begin in a hands and knees position. Place your hands on the ground on either side of your shoulders. Your knees should be at a comfortable distance apart. Slowly lower your elbows to bring your chest toward the ground. Touch the chest to the ground in the lowered position. Push up from the ground to your starting position.

4. Elevated floor push-up- using a pillow or something of a similar size under the chest, perform a pushup to the pillow as the target, this decreases the deficit in which we need to descend for the pushup to be completed.

5. Wide feet - start in a plank position with feet at shoulder width or wider distance, descend chest down towards the floor and then lock the arms back out to complete the rep.

Step 3- INCORPORATE 2-3 TIMES WEEKLY

Using progressions to help you work towards or work on a skill that interests you is a great way to build your skill repertoire, and the ability to incorporate a small portion of exercise a few times a week.

This article was based on our weekly Webinar in the TeamFNC Community. We are a growing community of like minded people with an interest in improving nutrition for fat loss, muscle gain, athletic performance and overall health. We often compare nutrition to learning a new skill. It’s often easier to look at skill progression with physical activity. Look again at these progressions to skill - think about areas of nutrition you want to improve. The skill is your end goal but don’t expect to nail it straight away, just like physical skills, it takes time and progressions are a great way to get you to the end point. 

To access our online community that is full of education and support for anyone with any goal, follow the link. PLUS it’s only $5 per week

---

Pre-Exercise Nutrition Tip

Reading Time

If your guts are often upset during exercise, take a look at your pre-exercise meal.

For obvious reasons, discomfort can and will impact your ability to perform in sport and exercise training.

One of the most common causes of discomfort for athletes during exercise is gastrointestinal stress. [1]

If you feel 'heavy', bloated, gassy, and maybe feel like you're going to throw up, there can be a number of potential causes. It's certainly worth an audit of any foods/meals you typically consume in the hours prior to exercise. Your guts ability to deal with food is impaired during hard exercise.

In laymans terms, when you're exercising hard, the body is preoccupied with providing fuel and resources to the working muscles. Digestion isn't a big priority, so gut function is 'put to the side' and therefore becomes impaired. Your guts can't deal with much of a workload so in the hours before exercise it's a good idea to only burden it with nutrients that will actually provide fuel for the upcoming work.

Anything that isn't that, or 'fluff' that'll get in the way, should be eliminated.

Fats, fibre and solid protein-dense foods provide the gut with a pretty big burden to deal with, and if it's in an exercise-induced impaired state, it simply might not be able to deal with it.

So what can you do about it?

Reduce and even eliminate fibre, fats and solid proteins from any meals consumed in the hours prior to exercise [2].

Fibre, micronutrients and all that 'health stuff' can wait. The primary role of pre-exercise nutrition is to fuel the machine and nothing else.

It's worth mentioning that the above is only really a consideration, and cause for potential concern for athletes who have really high fueling needs, who do a lot of very hard exercise.

For more information and nutritional strategies to improve your exercise performance, we have an online community that you can access for $5 per week. In our Team FNC Online Community, you’ll have access to our video lesson library that includes athlete and exercise specific videos. You’ll also have a chance to ask questions to our team, be inspired by nearly 100 meals that have been shared and tune in to a weekly webinar.

For more information on how you can sign up to improve your knowledge and understanding of nutrition for the price of 1 coffee a week, follow this link

[1]Training the Gut for Athletes

[2] ‘I think I’m gonna hurl’: A Narrative Review of the Causes of Nausea and Vomiting in Sport

Fat Loss Troubleshooting

Reading Time

Working out why you're not losing weight.   

Have you ever started a new 'diet', gotten results initially, but soon after plateaued and failed to progress further? Or have you observed the success of a particular 'diet' only to fail to obtain progress when trying it yourself?  

It is this dilemma where people feel a lot of confusion and develop 'diet desperation'. All of a sudden there is a gap for fads and nutrition BS to be marketed and successfully sold for financial gain. 

Rather than reaching for 'that next thing', this article will give you a step by step list of questions, and things to think about when it comes to fat loss troubleshooting.

Question 1: Are you sure you aren’t progressing?

1. Are your expectations of rates of progress not feasible, therefore leading you to think you're not progressing? Often people just don't realise how slow fat loss happens over time. 

-If you're looking at scale weight alone (full of limitations) the upper limit of whats generally feasible is 1% body weight drop per week. 

2. Are you controlling, considering and accounting for confounding variables when assessing progress?-Limitations & inaccuracies of DXA and other assessments of body fat%. 
-Acute influencing factors of scale weight

-Have you potentially gained muscle mass? (body recomp)
-Influence of thoughts and feelings on a subjective sense of progress?

-Is fat loss occurring in the absence of weight loss?

3. Do you realise fat loss is not linear, especially when considering the ways we may assess fat loss?

4. Have you given 'the diet intervention' enough time to see if it's working?

You're 100% sure you're not progressing. It's now time to fat loss troubleshoot. 

Weight change over time is not method driven, it's principle-driven. Before you start troubleshooting, you need to reframe the question from 'why is the diet not working', to 'why is an energy (Calorie) deficit, not present consistently over time'. 

Question 2. Are you actually eating as little as you think?
This is almost always the reason for lack of weight loss. Diet under-reporting, even for those who track Calories has been demonstrated well. In fact, a study by Lichtman and colleagues showed obese subjects who claimed to eat less than 1200 Calories a day, under-reported their intake by a whopping 47%, meaning that ate over 1000 Calories more than they thought. 

Play devil's advocate on your diet adherence (and/or tracking if that's the way you're choosing to control your Calories). Consider gaps in tracking/dieting practices and see if you can identify why there may be a difference between the Calories you think you're eating versus the Calories you're actually eating. Consider weekends, eating and drinking, sauces, cooking oils, things you 'forgot', etc. Because it's all the little things that can add up and cancel out a deficit. 

You know you're not progressing and you're 100% sure you're controlling variables sufficiently, yet still not achieving fat loss results?

Question 3. Have you overestimated your weight maintenance Calories?

If you've overestimated the number of Calories you need to maintain weight, then you've likely overestimated an appropriate intake of Calories to lose weight. 

Usually, we use predictive equations to estimate total daily energy expenditure but at the end of the day, these equations are just estimations based on averages, that honestly only form a rough starting point to monitor and adjust from. 

The activity factor you used in your predictive equation might have been a little optimistic. It's worth considering the fact that you might just burn less energy than you think. It might be worth trying lowering your intake by ~10% to see what happens. 

However, sometimes you're already eating so little, and eating even less doesn't quite add up, you need to consider the possibility of adaptive thermogenesis. 

You know you're not progressing, you're 100% sure you're controlling variables sufficiently and the idea of you overestimating your maintenance Calories is unlikely, yet still not achieving fat loss results?  

You might think you're in a deficit, not seeing progress and therefore beginning to question the Calories in versus Calories out model. Here is the thing... you're not in a deficit. In fact, you might even be 'energy-deficient' but still not in a deficit.  But, it's not really your fault...

Question 4: Is your lack of fat loss results due to increased energy efficiency?

This is where the following terms or phrases come in. 
-'A slow metabolism". 
-'Metabolic damage'. 
-'Metabolic adaptation
-'Adaptive thermogenesis. 

What do these terms all sort of essentially mean?
A reduction in 'metabolism'. 

What is metabolism?
It's simply just the summation of chemical reactions that occur with in the body... It's a unit of 'fuel', or 'energy burn'. It's how many Calories your body uses.

So with that in mind the aforementioned 4 phrases, relate to a reduction in the amount of energy your body burns. 

The good news is; These reductions are not forever,... they're acute. Meaning permanent slow-down or 'metabolic damage' can basically be deleted from the periphery of thought. You're not broken, but you may just be acutely adapted. 

Your metabolism (or the components of your daily energy usage/needs) can be broken up into two main categories. 

1. Resting energy expenditure - Human function at rest, and the energy cost of digesting and absorbing food. 
2. Non-resting energy expenditure - All spontaneous, planned and unplanned physical movement, activity, and exercise. 

Both of the above components of energy usage can change over time, both will impact your ability to create an energy deficit, but it's increased 'resting energy efficiency' that can impact your health and wellbeing.

Weight maintenance Calories required at 'full human functional capacity' versus weight maintenance Calories at any given time which could potentially be in a suppressed state are not the same thing. What was once an energy deficit Calorie intake, might now have become weight maintenance Calorie requirements. The body is smart and really adaptable in the name of survival. In the event of a famine or a food shortage. The body can learn to function with less energy, it can become more efficient with its usage and thus can function and survive on fewer Calories. This is great for the human race if a famine was actually present. This efficiency-seeking 'is what we're talking about when we say 'metabolic slowdown or adaptation. 

However, while the body is smart, it doesn't actually know if there is a famine. It can only get an idea based on energy availability. The outcomes of 'metabolic slow-down' might not be wanted or needed. Functioning well enough to survive versus thrive is different. The 'survival mechanism' of metabolic adaption doesn't come 'free of charge'. When the body has limited energy available it needs to prioritise the things that really matter. The means the 'other stuff' that doesn't matter so much, gets put aside. These impairments are not desirable (unless a famine is actually present). Not only do they make fat loss harder, but they may also severely impact health and wellbeing. 

'Energy deficiency' or 'low energy availability' can affect health and wellbeing in many ways. Shifting hormonal markers can result in a cascade of negative effects ranging from low bone mineral density, impaired cognition, muscle and strength loss, low testosterone (males), loss of the menstrual cycle (females), suppressed immunity, and more, all leading to performance loss, increased risk of illness, injury, poor health and poor self-image. 
So in short, the reason why you might not be in a state of negative energy balance (not losing fat) is because you may be experiencing a reduction in the number of Calories you expend over time due to 'metabolic slow-down'. 

The likely solution to 'metabolic slow-down'. 
Well, we can just 'do more, and/or eat less' but there is a limit to this because you can't just keep 'doing more and eating less', to stay ahead of metabolic adaptation. 

The solution might blow your mind. If I went straight to the solution without explaining metabolic adaption it would only add to the confusion, which would only result in you, the reader questioning 'Calories in versus Calories out' even more. 

Eat more. Increase your Calories for a period of time. Give the body the confidence to revert back to energy 'inefficiency', and therefore function at its full ideal working capacity which will, therefore, mean Calorie usage skyrockets back up. After you're in full functional health, only then can you start to consider recreating an energy deficit. 

At this point, your body will be far better primed for successful and 'healthier' fat loss results. 

Often a concern among people trying to lose weight when being told to eat more is the fear of gaining weight. As previously stated metabolism is dynamic and any adaptions are acute. As you increase energy availability (eat more) the body will just start doing the things it really wants to do, and therefore, as a result, will only just churn through the additional Calories up to the point where 'a true' surplus of Calories is created. 

Do you need to do a slow reverse diet? Probably not. Almost always it's not only fine to go straight up to 'ideal weight maintenance Calories', but it's also going to help up-regulate any suppressed factors of metabolism the fastest. 

Summary

To recap, if you’re having trouble with fat loss reflect on the following?

Are you sure you aren’t progressing?

Are you sure you’re adhering to a deficit?

Are you miscalculating your energy requirements?

Finally, are you perhaps in a state of increased energy efficiency?

If you currently aren’t seeing that fat loss results you’re after, it might be time to reach out to us for some more guidance, education and support to help you move towards that goal.

For more information on our 1 on 1 service, contact us today.

Find The FN'Sweet Spot: Goals, Values & Convenience

Shocking Facts:

• You can eat a healthy meal that tastes good

• You can eat a healthy meal that is cheap

• You can eat a healthy meal that doesn’t take much time to prepare

• You can eat a healthy meal that doesn’t require high levels of cooking skills

• You can eat a healthy meal that aligns with your culture

• You can eat a healthy meal when you go out or are with friends

• You can eat a healthy meal that you enjoy, that tastes good, is aligned with your goals, aligns with your values and is convenient.

Can you consistently consume meals that tick the 3 boxes of Goals, Values and Convenience?

Now termed the FN’Sweet Spot.

A new term and strategy to help promote adherence and sustainability for your way of eating.

This is a truly vital component of healthy eating because “Healthy eating is an important determinant of health, but adherence to dietary guidelines remains a public health concern.” [1]

*NOTE: We are using the term healthy eating to mean eating for your goals.

In the research, common influences on healthy eating are:

• Social and cultural factors

• knowledge

• social media

• the relevance of information

• peers, taste

• convenience [4, 5, 6]

Alongside those are common barriers to healthy eating such as:

• Social

• heritage (perceived to lose heritage/cultural component of meals)

• poor taste

• expense

• lack of information

• cooking skills

• confidence

• time

• effort

• convenience

• cost

• support

• availability

• competing priorities

• ease of access to unhealthy foods [2, 3, 7, 8]

One study had expense and taste coming in the top 3, just after willpower. [2]

One study even showed a common reason being eating healthy is not a masculine/bloke thing to do. [3] (Clearly an Aussie study).

From this list, we’ve placed them in 3 categories:

Goals, Values and Convenience.

We can try to improve our adherence and consistency with our diet by ticking all 3 boxes.

Under each category we have:

Goals - Education, Informed Decisions, Legit Knowledge, Goal Aligned

Values - Taste, Culture, Social, Physical Health, Emotional, Personality, Enjoyment

Convenience -  Time, Effort, Energy, Money, Cooking Skills

Why is important to tick all 3 boxes?

If we just tick the goals and values box eg. they are healthy and taste good - they might not be convenient, it might be expensive, take too long to make, have too many ingredients.

If we just tick the values and convenience box eg they are tasty, enjoyable, cheap and easy - they might not be goal aligned.

Then if we just tick the goals and convenience box eg they are goal aligned, cheap and easy - they might not be very tasty or enjoyable.

We know that taste certainly goes a long way when it comes to rewarding. From previous webinars and blogs, we know that the reward is an important final part of the habit-building sequence. We are more likely to continue the behaviour that provides us with immediate rewards.

How do we put the FN’Sweet Spot into practice?

If you feel like struggling to adhere to your diet, do a check-in with yourself. 

Use the FN’Sweet Spot graphic as a guide. Do most of your meals tick all these boxes?
If there is a constant theme of a certain box not being fulfilled, look at some strategies to try and improve that area.

Here are some examples for each:

Goals: Improve your knowledge and understanding of nutrition such as food selection, portion control, energy balance, calories per bite. Make sure this is legit information too, not guru health. Make sure it is information that is aligned with your goals

Values: Can you improve the taste of your meals by using low calories sauces, herbs and seasons? Can you bring your culture and heritage into the meal creation? Can you invite friends over for healthy dinners or learn how to read menus and pick goal aligned foods? Can you still enjoy foods and flavours that resonate with your personality?

Convenience: Can you find easy/no prep protein and plant options? Can you shop smarter to keep costs down? Can you find recipes that are within your skill level and don’t have 10+ ingredients? 

So to reinforce the point from earlier, you can eat healthy meals that are tasty and convenient.

Take the time to find ways to make the experience and process of healthy eating a little sweeter by using the FN’Sweet Spot.

At FNC we can help you improve the consistency of each category by improving your knowledge and understanding of nutrition, providing you with convenient and enjoyable ways to create your meals.

Contact us today to learn more from our team

[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13679-016-0192-0

[2] https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/39/2/330/3002965

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5675273/

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15702586

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15570680

[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29892990

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276670/

[8] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309314854_The_barriers_and_enablers_of_healthy_eating_among_young_adults_a_missing_piece_of_the_obesity_puzzle_A_scoping_review

Nutrition for PCOS

Reading Time

The purpose of this blog is to provide you with an insight into PCOS. The purpose is not to treat PCOS. The purpose is awareness rather than any kind of prescription and this should not be used as medical advice in any way. If you believe you have PCOS, we encourage you to speak to your trusted health professional and seek guidance from them. 

The female reproductive system is highly sensitive to physiological stress, and exercise-induced menstrual dysfunction occurs in a wide range of female athletes and across a wide spectrum of sport activities.

PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) is a common problem among female athletes caused by a multitude of reasons. These being high testosterone levels, lack of quality nutrition and sleep, hormonal dysfunction caused by malnutrition and incredibly high levels of insulin sensitivity. 

This can lead to the following menstrual cycle disruptions.

• Amenorrhea (lack of 3 consecutive menstrual cycles or more) 

• Oligomenorrhea (irregular periods at intervals of more than 6 weeks) has been found to be more prevalent among athletes than in the general population and is primarily due to hypothalamic amenorrhea.

How can PCOS sufferers meet their nutritional needs?

Due to their unique nutritional needs, each athlete with PCOS could think about meeting with a consulting with a dietician that has experience in sports nutrition and with PCOS to develop an individualised plan of attack to continue to optimise their performance while managing their overall health.

The main nutritional concerns for PCOS sufferers are: 

• Should I still be having carbs? The answer is yes, if you are a female and participate in regular physical activity and hope to maintain/regain a regular, healthy period then yes, you need carbs in your daily intake. What you need to be doing is looking into what kinds of carbs are suitable for PCOS sufferer. In most cases they are low GI (sweet potato, quinoa and buckwheat) are atop their shopping lists. 

• A diet that is high in processed and refined carbohydrates such as white bread, sugary cereals, crackers, lollies, cakes, and cookies can increase insulin levels and worsen insulin resistance which can cause more pain and inflammation to the cysts caused by PCOS.

• Whole, unprocessed carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables, rolled oats, quinoa, brown/wild rice and sprouted grain bread tend to have more fibre and a slower impact on insulin levels.

• Why low GI? Eating lower GI has proven greater effects in an attempt for weight loss for PCOS sufferers, improved menstrual regularity, reduced insulin resistance which means lowered levels of inflammation (important for regular exercisers as inflammation = joint/body pain), quality of life and reduced depression levels/increased self-esteem. 

PCOS sufferers tend to experience more cravings for carb-rich foods, often due to problems regulating blood sugar levels due to exercise. To reduce these cravings they can focus on spreading carbohydrates evenly throughout the day, and combining carbohydrate foods with protein and fat-containing foods can help to manage cravings and blood sugar levels. 

What about supplements to avoid deficiencies? Sure, why not. PCOS can cause females to become deficient in both omega 3 fatty acids, B12 and vitamin D. 

• Omega 3s can help with the lowering of testosterone levels which when high in the female body can cause things like hyperandrogenism which reduces the likelihood of a regular period. 

• B12 supplementation can help with it’s absorption as birth control and medication for PCOS interfere with B12 absorption.

• Vitamin D can help with bone formation as it is often low in females with PCOS, low levels of vitamin D can decrease physical performance and increase the incidence of stress fractures. 

In conclusion, we can't stress the benefit of recording and experimenting with your nutrition around your signs and symptoms in PCOS to see what works best for YOU!

To learn more about women’s specific nutrition, contact us today.

How To Pick Your Protein Powder: Step by Step

Reading Time

Why would you even need a Protein Powder?

The reasons to use a protein supplement can be three-fold. 

1. Not obtaining a sufficient intake of protein from whole foods. Utilising supplemental protein can provide a convenient way to 'top-up' total intake to sufficient levels. 

2. Providing a protein bolus at appropriate times where convenience due to scheduling may make consuming a protein-dense whole food meal, not feasible. For example; post morning exercise, rushing to work and won't get a chance to eat for a few hours. 

3. A convenient source of protein that goes well with certain meals that needs a 'protein boost'. Certain meals are not well suited to the inclusion of protein-dense whole foods. For example; You're not going to put a chicken breast in your morning PB oats w fruit. Protein powder can provide the solution here. 

What to pick - Step by Step

Whey protein. The cheapest, most common and most effective with the 'most powerful' amino acid profile. Whey protein concentrate (WPC) is the cheapest and does the job just as good/better than more expensive alternatives. If you have problems mild digesting lactose, opting for the slightly more expensive, further proceeded whey protein isolate (WPI) is a good idea. Hydrolysed whey protein powders are not worth it.

Vegan / no dairy. 
If you're vegan or avoid dairy for preferences or digestive issues, a rice and pea vegan protein blend is your best bet. The blend of these two plant-based proteins provides an amino acid profile closest to the 'more powerful' protein source being dairy. Find the right one and it's still relatively inexpensive.

Probably not worth it:
Collagen protein: Collagen protein rates poorly in it's the ability to spike muscle protein synthesis to promote a net positive protein balance, which fundamentally dictates whether muscle is gained, lost or maintained. This is due to it's lacking leucine content. Research on the utility of collagen protein on joint health is mixed and not robust. Combined with the fact collagen protein is expensive, it's a gamble at best to say it's worthwhile. 

Weight gainers or 'post-workout blends'
If you're an athlete who does a lot of exercises who needs to eat well beyond hunger, if you're someone looking to gain muscle requiring you to eat beyond your hunger, and/or if you're an athlete who does very frequent bouts of exercise and needs to replenish glycogen rapidly (carbohydrate/glucose 'storage tank's). 'Weight gainer shakes' or 'post-workout protein blends' have some utility. However, they're really just (most of the time) a regular whey protein mixed with carbohydrate powder, commonly in the form of 'a powdered sugar'. They're overhyped and you're probably better off buying whey protein and adding you own carbs from whatever appropriate source you prefer. Not only is this potentially a tastier way to get in additional carbs (if needed), it also gives you the ability to adjust protein to carbohydrate ratios as per needed. When consuming ample amounts of carbohydrates, taste and palatability play a role in how easy and comfortable it is for these high intakes to be achieved.   

BCAA's: Branched-chain amino acids are just 3 of the 9 essential amino acids. They're the 3 most 'powerful ones' that spike muscle protein synthesis the most, but without the rest they're not useful. There is nothing a BCAA supplement can do that a regular protein powder can't and they're very expensive. Save your money.

Fluffy 'health' protein powders. These are the wildly expensive 'health food store' kind that your favourite naturopath or 'woo-woo wellness expert' recommended. The additional ingredients can do a few things.

• Add no additional needed benefit, vitamins and minerals to a diet that is already well rounded, whole food-centric with sufficient plant matter.

• Potentially blunt adaptations to the training stimulus that you're after through the needless inclusion of 'extra' antioxidants.

• Reduce the protein content per serve/100g of the protein supplements.

• Drain your bank account. Save your money. 

'Lean protein'. 
Basically take regular protein powder, add some fancy fluff that does nothing notable if anything to change your energy expenditure and/or Calorie intake, stick a different label on it and you have 'lean protein'. Energy balance over time underpins weight change, and the 'fat loss fairy dust' they add to 'lean proteins' is not going to change any part of that. 

Side note: Athletes & athletes in tested sports. 
As mentioned, weight gainers may have their utility in those with high exercise loads who are required to eat a dose of carbohydrates well beyond their hunger and/or have planned exercise bouts at frequent time intervals. But for the prior mentioned reasons you're likely better off using regular protein powder and adding any additional carbohydrates as per preference, the dose required, comfort and speed of digestibility and absorption. 

Safety of supplements for tested sports. 
The following applies to any supplement for use in sports that are subject to performance-enhancing drug/banned substance testing. No supplements are completely safe from banned substances. When considering the use of a supplement a risk versus reward evaluation should be conducted. To minimise risk, choosing supplements that are certified by Informed-Sport is a really good idea. Check the Informed-Sport website for certified products and proceed with caution. 

We want to make sure our clients and community are making informed choices when it comes to where they spend their time, effort and money to make sure they are getting a worthwhile return on investment. We review products based on their effectiveness and based on what the research says.

To learn how about how our team of coaches and nutritionists can help you make informed decisions by improving your knowledge and understanding of nutrition, contact us today.

What is Inflammation?

Reading Time

How do I reduce inflammation?

• Are you sure you actually have an issue with inflammation?

• If you are overweight, take steps to reduce body fat.

• If you are a healthy weight, maintain your healthy weight.

• Exercise regularly.

• Eat a varied diet including whole grains, vegetables, beans/legumes, fruits, nuts and fish, including oily fish like salmon and sardines.

Inflammation, like gut health, is a hot topic in nutrition. Both are areas of developing research in which the experts say more research and time is needed before making specific recommendations. 

Both are also areas in which ‘gurus’ are trying to make money from the hysteria and noise. Be very careful of anyone who claims to be sure about inflammation, dietary causes and dietary treatments. If you are considering spending any money on “inflammation reduction” from anyone who is not your doctor or medical professional, be sure to ask them which measures of inflammation they’re concerned about and exactly how their proposed treatment works for the particular inflammatory processes they believe you have. Then take that information to your medical professional before giving any of your hard earned money to a guru.

Now that the rant is done, let’s try to explain things as simply as possible.

What is inflammation

• A complex biological immune response of body tissues to cellular injury

• The purpose of inflammation is to eliminate toxic agents and repair damaged tissue

• We want inflammation to happen, however we also want inflammation to go away when its job is done.

• The resolution (removal) of inflammation once the job is done is also important. 

  • eg. switching off inflammatory processes when the injury has been repaired.

Inflammation is a ‘friend’. However we can have issues if our friend overstays its welcome. 

Acute inflammation

• A great friend. Goes in and gets the job done. As soon as the job is done, leaves you in peace.

• You get a splinter, the area becomes red and swollen as the inflammatory response heals you. The area goes back to normal as the inflammatory response is turned off after healing.

• Exercise produces an acute inflammatory response and contributes to lower chronic disease risk. Not all inflammation is bad.

Chronic inflammation and auto-immune diseases

• A foe. Overstays welcome, won’t leave and becomes damaging.

Eg: Celiac disease, Inflammatory bowel disease

Chronic low grade inflammation

• The ‘hot topic’ inflammation people are telling you to reduce.

• Widely observed in obesity.

• There is an association between chronic low grade inflammation and: 

  • metabolic syndrome

  • non-alcoholic fatty liver disease 

  • type 2 diabetes 

  • CVD (1)(2)(3)

Gut health

• There is a link between gut health and low grade chronic inflammation 

• Interactions between the GI tract and gut bacteria influence immune function and inflammation

How to maintain a healthy gut to help with inflammation

• Research is still developing and recommendations are tentative, however:

  • Eat a varied diet including whole grains, vegetables and fruits, nuts, and fish. This ensures you are eating fibre, particularly fermentable fibre (prebiotic), antioxidants and Omega-3 fatty acids.  (1)(4)(5)

How do we test for inflammation?

• We know that inflammation occurs in the body tissue, however we generally look at blood to find biomarkers and signs of inflammation. (6)

To give you an example of how many markers of inflammation show up, here is a chart from a review of research on dairy and biomarkers of inflammation. 

Here is the key for the graph if you can see the bars:

• significant anti-inflammatory change (black bars)

• no significant change (grey bar)

• significant pro-inflammatory change (white bars) (7)

The main purpose of the image above is to show how many markers of inflammation show up during these tests. Top researchers are unclear as to which markers are necessary to focus on. In fact it could actually be a combination of markers which determine if there is a level of risk or issue which needs to be addressed. 

An expert group, organised by the Nutrition and Immunity Task Force of the International Life Sciences Institute European Branch, stated -  

“Currently, there is no consensus as to which markers of inflammation best represent low-grade inflammation or differentiate between acute and chronic inflammation or between the various phases of inflammatory responses.”  (6)

Despite this, there are ‘inflammation gurus’ out there claiming that they somehow know you have inflammation and obviously know how to fix it.

Foods with anti-inflammatory properties?

• Rather than focusing on individual foods, it’s better to focus on eating a varied diet including whole grains, vegetables and fruits, nuts and fish. Focusing on one particular food and particular markers of inflammation may be too reductionist at this point.

• Some studies indicate that Omega-3 supplementation (fish oils) appear to reduce markers of inflammation however not all positive results have been replicated in further studies. It could help reduce these markers but we are probably talking about a neutral to slight positive effect. (4)

Best way to reduce chronic low grade inflammation?

• It appears that fat gain causes inflammation, not the other way around. 

• An increase in body fat is associated with an increase in inflammatory material. 

• Flip that and a reduction in body fat is associated with a reduction in inflammatory material. 

• Reducing body fat may have the greatest effect on lowering markers for low grade chronic inflammation.  (8)(9)(10)(11)

This is an attempt to simplify chronic low grade inflammation and help you stay informed. To read a more in-depth review, check out the paper from the British Journal of Nutrition entitled “Low-grade inflammation, diet composition and health: current research evidence and its translation.” (1)

To learn more about how to lose and maintain your weight, contact us today.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4579563/

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4612317/

3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4243532/

4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S156816371730003X?via%3Dihub

5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3575932/

6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23343744

7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26287637

8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC296995/

9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19238154

10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12714437

11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3342840/

Beyond Meat Review

Reading Time

Whether you are vegan, vegetarian, recently watched game-changers plant-based, pescatarian, primal, paleo, meat-only, meat-less, keto or intermittent fasting the world of fake meats is now more than ever a successfully growing industry. The largest food chains in the world are now endorsing the plant-based alternatives to meat on their menus and it is creating a trend in the meat-less industry as to who can create the closest to meat meat-less product possible.

Beyond meat co. are a company from the United States who pride themselves on having the world's first burger that "looks, cooks and satisfies like beef without GMOs, soy, or gluten".

They are found in the meat aisle, so no smidgen of convenience is missed for you the buyer. 

Beyond burger patties (they also make a few other products which I will mention in a little bit) are kosher (meaning the way the food is made/prepared to satisfy the requirements of Jewish law) so they cater for a particular crowd and have 20g of protein per burger.

The protein in the beyond meat co. is burger is derived from that of pea and rice protein. The ingredients list is interesting, the first thing you can notice is that the burger is predominantly water-based, the second ingredient is pea protein and the third is canola oil. Of those three main ingredients, the level of oil is quite a concern as canola is the lowest of the low on the list of the ideal oil because of its high levels of trans-fats and it also brings up the total fat content to 18g per serve, this is almost on par with the burgers protein level itself making digestibility a slight issue as fats slow the digestive process down, making the meal feel heavier on the stomach.

Taste and cooking

The burger for taste test purposes was cooked in a pan, no oil was used as the burger itself has plenty. The smell of getting the burger out of the packet was a strange one. It was hard to describe but I can best put it down to a plastic smell, maybe due to the manufacturing process? The burger cooks and looks like a regular burger, and has a fluid that comes out in cooking that resembles blood (probably the pomegranate powder). The taste test came after the burger was cooked completely through (as suggested on the box), it wasn’t exactly what I expected and still had that plastic/artificial taste, was also quite greasy after the first few mouthfuls. 

When looking for a plant-based alternative to have as a protein substitute in a meal what should we look for? 

• a start would be at the actual protein content per 100g of the product itself. Most proteins (chicken, beef, fish) are of equal protein value at 100g, this is about 20g. Beyond meat, co have nailed this portion of the product, with exactly 20g in a single-serve. 

• But where they are off-track is having a nearly equal portion of fat in the product. The product includes the use of two oils, coconut and canola.

• As an alternative to the oils being included in such high quantities, the alternative binding agent used cannot be the typical egg which is used in many burgers as the binder, some alternatives that would be suitable for the crowd and also satisfy a lower fat content would be flax meal, bread crumbs or ground chia. 

Comparison 

Beyond meat co burgers retail at $10.60 for two burgers, in comparison to other vegan burgers, these are quite expensive. Not the most expensive but still on the pricier side.

The other competitors 

• Quorn do a vegan range of burgers with multiple flavours for $7.56 with a protein content of 20.5g per burger, and fat content of 13.3g.

• Unreal co do $5.60 for a 2 pack of Italian beef burgers with a protein content of 12.6g, and fat content of 12.3g.

• Veef Plant-Based Burger Patties are 2 for $6.50 at 15.9g protein and 20.9g fat per burger.

• Next Gen2 Plant-Based Burger retails at $8.00 for 2 patties and contains 14.9g protein and 19.2g fat per burger. 

• Harvest Gourmet Plant-Based Incredible Vegan Burger retails at a more expensive $12.00 for a 2 pack, 17g protein and 9g fat per burger. 

• Vegie Delights Not Burger at $4.50 for a 2 pack has 13.5g protein and 10.2g fat per burger.

• Unreal Co Chicken Sliders $7.00 per 2 pack, has 15.5g protein and 10g fat per burger. 

• Naturli 100% Plant-based Minced $9.00 18g protein and 10g fat. 

I thought I would throw in a comparison to a regular beef burger, Grasslands Beef Burgers which retail at 9$ for 4 beef patties and have 21.9g of protein and 7g of fat per serve (125g). The flavour of these are great, they taste like any good beef burger should, just the right amount of fat throughout the burger without leaving a greasy coating an aftertaste. 

Overall rating of Beyond meat co burger pattie 5/10. Good (enough) for what it is supposed to be but there are better, more flavoursome and nutritious burgers out there that don’t moo. 

If you’d like to learn more about plant based nutrition for your individual preferences and goals, contact us today.

3 Pillars of FNC: Education, Choice & Community

Reading Time

The 3 pillars of Fortitude Nutrition Coaching.

This has been our methodology and our ethos in helping people create long term sustainable change within their health and fitness journey. 

One of our mission statements is that we help you “FIND YOUR WAY” of eating.

Just like any character on their own heroes journey, they need to find their own way. On their way, they do have guides though.

When you think of guides you probably think of Mr Miyagi, Gandalf, Dumbledore, Mickey Goldman (Rocky), Coach Carter, Coach Bombay of the Mighty Ducks, Charles Xavier, Master Splinter, Patches O’Houlihan, I’d say Yoda but I’ve never seen Star Wars.….

Now you think FNC.

We are like your nutritional guides. 

Health researchers have described the process of health behaviour change as entailing the dual tasks of initiating and maintaining change. [1]. The keyword here being maintaining. There are many methods and approaches out there that help initiate change. They can help you get started or even help you get to your goals. Our main focus is to provide you with the tools to not only get started or get there, but stay there. We want to help you understand how you got there and how you can maintain that or return to it if needed.

We do this by incorporating the 3 basic psychological needs according to the Self-Determination Theory [2].

• Competence 

• Autonomy 

• Relatedness

These needs form the basis for self-motivation and personal integrity (being true and honest to yourself). Self-determined forms of motivation are associated with positive consequences and outcomes. 

The first pillar: Competence. We do this through Education. We do this by aiming to Simplify Nutrition. 

Competence is the need to control an outcome and achieve mastery. 

We improve your knowledge and understanding of nutrition, whilst providing you with tools and strategies to help you find your way of eating. We help you make informed decisions around eating and your goals. You understand the principles and methods of health, nutrition and fitness. You know what, why and how things work so you can move towards a goal and maintain that (or at least return to that destination again). You learn the roles and sources of each macronutrient, how to build meals, social eating strategies, meal prep ideas, etc. Through education, you are competent and confident. 

The second is Autonomy, or as we call it Choice. This is the FIND YOU WAY component. 

You are in control of your own life and of your own choices. You make your own decisions in regards to food selection, however, they are now informed choices based on your new level of competence (knowledge of nutrition). You set your own goals, time frames, check-in days and even methods of check-ins or measures of progress. You aren’t completely independent, we are still there to guide you when needed. You choices are aligned with your values, your inner harmony and self-integrity. Your choices are respected by your guide and by your close support network. 

A study was done on 128 patients in a 6-month, very-low-calorie weight-loss program with a 23-month follow-up. The findings confirmed the predictions that those who were more autonomous attended the program more regularly, lost more weight during the program, and maintained greater weight loss in the follow-up. [3] 

The theme of autonomy is supported by a consistent body of research indicating that long-term adoption of exercise and physical activity is also predicted by autonomous forms of motivation, such as intrinsic motivation (e.g. exercising because it is enjoyable or because it is consistent with other goals and values, such as a goal for improved health). [4]  Eg. You are choosing to eat something or do something because it is aligned with who you are as a person and what you value. 

Just like you choose the type of exercise you do, you keep going back because you enjoy it. Whether it is CrossFit, BJJ, F45, running, etc. 

Maintenance is linked to autonomy and intrinsic motivation. 

Together, competence and autonomy are likely to enhance adherence and health outcomes [1]

Thirdly and finally we have Relatedness which we call Community. The Team FNC Community. This is believed to be equally as important as Competence and Autonomy. 

This is the need for relationships, for connectedness, and for interaction with like-minded people. This is built through both the coach and client experience but also with our large Fortitude Family in our online community. Our community is a form of social support where people share ideas, meals and ask questions in a safe environment.  People are more likely to adopt values and behaviours promoted by those to whom they feel connected and in whom they trust.

Hence why we have built and place a large emphasis and pride in our Team FNC Community. 

A study stated, “Online social support interactions play a prominent role in the weight loss efforts of members of a large, public Internet weight loss community”. [5] 

Major points of this study and things we try to include in our Team FNC Community are: 

• Providing information on nutrition and a healthy lifestyle

• Personalised advice (Friday Question Time)

• Encouragement and Motivation

• Shared Experiences

• Accountability 

• Judgement free zone

• Anonymity if requested 

• And humour. 

In the book “Join The Club” by Tina Rosenberg, it suggests that “our personal identity is in part defined by identification with a group or separation from other groups”. Probably why keto, fasting, Crossfit and any other “health-cults” are so powerfully ingrained in peoples behaviour. Their sense of belonging to a group reinforces their behaviours. Peer pressure can be a wonderful tool when used for good rather than evil. 

Encompassing the 3 pillars and linking them to the values of FNC, we help you initiate and maintain behaviour change by:

• Helping you know what to do, why it’s important for your goals and how to implement it into your life

• Giving you the freedom to make your own choices

• Share the experience with others on a similar journey and be supported by the coaches and community

We don’t tell you which way to go, we equip you with the knowledge and tools to help you FIND YOUR WAY. 

To FIND YOUR WAY of eating, contact us today.

[1] http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.460.1417&rep=rep1&type=pdf

[2] https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5868-9-24

[3] https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1996-01707-009

[4] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228622849_Self-determination_Theory_and_the_psychology_of_exercise

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3060773/

Weight Maintenance

Reading Time

Most people can lose weight. Most people who try to lose weight, do so. However, most people who lose weight put it back on within a few years (1). 

Maintaining weight loss is a challenge. The body can actually encourage weight regain by lowering the amount of energy burned at rest, impacting hormones relating to hunger and fullness (2)(3)(4). 

Weight maintenance does not have to signify the exact same weight every day . Long term maintenance of weight is defined as consistently being within 3% of weight (5).

Successful weight loss maintainers typically combine diet and exercise and may rely more on exercise to maintain body composition compared to the initial weight loss period (2).

The key to weight loss is a Calorie deficit, easiest through a reduction in energy intake. However to maintain weight loss, physical activity likely becomes more useful in conjunction with a sustained lower energy intake (2).

• Weight loss - reduce intake > perform some physical activity

• Maintenance - increase physical activity > maintain reduced intake

Community support can aid self regulation of diet and flexible restraint rather than strict restraint is likely to be more successful. 

• Eg: Have a community of like-minded people for ongoing support and learn to manage overall nutrition with flexibility, rather than following a meal plan. (6)(7)(8)

Weight maintenance is something that is not defined regularly and there is really only one main research article which is cited when defining weight maintenance as within 3% of body weight (5). 

Just because one day the scales show a slightly higher number does not mean you are not maintaining your weight. It does not mean you have “regressed” or “failed”. It’s expected. Normal. Part of the fluctuations of life. 

Weight maintenance does not mean the exact same weight every day. 

There will be times in the year where your weight is slightly higher:

• Holidays, the festive season, travels where food choices are harder to control, winter when we might be less active and seek some stodgy comforts. 

These times will be offset by:

• Times of high motivation for home cooking and meal prep, summer when the days are longer and we are typically more active, breaks from work when we have more control over food choices. 

It will be different for everyone but the point is that life isn’t the same every day, every week or every season. We can’t expect to eat the same thing every day and burn the same amount of energy every day. Things change, life is varied and so is our food intake, choices and movement. 

So what’s the point? 

Give yourself some flexibility with body measurements over time but also set yourself some parameters (3%) which will signify a time to focus more on nutrition and activity. Don’t worry if there are small variations to your body and weight during the year. Recognise if the slight change corresponds to your current situation, then plan for when and how things will be balanced. It might be committing to a mini-cut after a holiday, setting a date to return to meal prep and morning gym sessions after New Years or finding a new active hobby when motivation drops. 

Check in with yourself. If you notice your body changing away from what you want, take some measurements and averages. Don’t consider a daily weight fluctuation as part of weight maintenance (5). Take at least 3-4 measurements over the week and average them out. If the number on average has crept up to your 3% parameter, it’s just a reminder to make some little reductions in Calorie intake and/or make an increase in Calories burned.

Plan some steps (not just physical ones), some real steps with times, dates and locations, to ride the wave of maintenance back away from the little weight increase. “I will meal prep on Sunday in my kitchen at 2pm and I will cook Spaghetti Bolognese with zoodles and half a serve of pasta.” Make it specific, make it actionable.

Make sure you are confident in how you lost weight. Not just that it happened, but how and why and record what you did. Write down what works for you. Write it out in enough detail so that someone else could pick it up and understand without the need for clarification. You might need this refresher one day. 

If you lost weight but you don’t understand how it corresponded to energy balance (Calories in / Calories out) please take steps to have this explained. There is no nutrition magic - all weight loss strategies relate to energy balance. Understanding your “how” could help with long term maintenance. 

Social, community support may be a very helpful tool in creating nutritional awareness, habit/behaviour change and maintaining weight loss (7)(8).

At FNC, we’ve created an online community where all of our members belong to a community of like-minded people. The community offers educational videos and articles, meal inspiration and recipes as well as weekly opportunities to ask questions (even anonymously). It’s an opportunity to be part of an online group of like minded people, develop knowledge and ask about your “how” if unsure.

With the maintenance of weight loss being difficult, we give all of our 1-1 clients a full 12 months access to the community.

Reach out to us if there is something we can help you with in 2020!

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16002825

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30801984

3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/

4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18842775

5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16302013

6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23265405

7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3221350/

8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18020940

Calorie Targets for Athletes

Reading Time

Working out how many Calories to eat can be a tricky task as an athlete. Your situation is not normal, you don't do 'normal' amounts of physical activity and there is also such a large variation in energy requirements within different sports. A marathon runner is going to churn through more fuel than a jockey.

Not eating enough can not only be detrimental to your sports performance but also your health. Low energy availability or 'not eating enough Calories and suffering the health consequences of that' can occur more often in sport than you might think. This is because Calorie requirements to fuel energy demands can often far exceed auto-regulated hunger levels especially when a dedicated athlete adopts a 'clean food only' mindset.

If sufficient energy and fuel for the work required are not available, poor health, illness and injury can result, taking time away from productive training weeks and impairing best performance in competition. If training takes place with limited energy available, work capacity can be impaired and so can the adaptations from training (getting better from training).

Having anything outside of 'an abundance of fuel for the body' as an athlete is sort of like putting your car in 'eco mode'. Sure it’ll drive, and it's more efficient, but it'll never perform as well as 'sport mode'. If you want to perform your best, don't seek efficiency.

You're not a Toyota Prius. Instead, give the body all the fuel it can handle and be a Formula 1 car.

Athlete: Tim Good - Torian Pro 2019

Image: Jess Chia of Essence Images
www.essenceimages.com.au

How do you actually come to a number of Calories to eat?

There are predictive equations out there that will provide you with a ball-park starting point to monitor and adjust from. They're never really going to be anything more than that, so using a complicated formula probably isn't warranted, and you'll find they all end up giving you just about the same answer.

The issue with this is that equations are based on norms or averages. Putting the fact athletes are not normal, even within 'the general population' large variations within individuals needs to be considered.

To work it out, use a simple baseline Calorie formula to make things easier. From there use an 'activity factor multiple', that gives a reasonable starting number. The process would be the same for anyone only as an athlete your activity multiples will be hugely elevated compared to the average.

Step 1: Predict resting energy expenditure.
- This is where you aim to obtain a rough resting energy requirement per day.

23 x BW (in kilos)
23 x 75 = 1725

Step 2: Multiply by activity level
- As mentioned this is the same for everyone, only as an athlete likely with higher energy demands the multiple will therefore often be higher. For most people with general activity levels, a multiple of 1.3-1.4 normally provides an 'about right starting Calorie amount'. 1.6-2.2 can be an appropriate range for an athlete depending on their sport and training load. It takes a bit of 'time in the trenches' as a nutritionist to assess the situation and select an appropriate multiple.

Either way, it's only going to be a start point so don't stress too much about this.

1725 x 1.8 = 3105

Step 3: Monitor and adjust until you find the 'sweet spot'.
In many sports gaining weight that carries no additional strength and disadvantages 'power to weight' is not desirable. The aim is to have as much fuel available without sending weight in an undesirable direction. This means continuing to slowly bump up Calories by ~5-10% each fortnight when your average weekly scale weight stays the same or drops. Of course, if weight loss or weight gain is required you'd factor that in, but essentially the more you can eat and maintain weight the better. Keep bumping it up until notable weight gain occurs. By that point, you've found 'the max Calories you can eat and maintain weight'. Having ample energy available will give the body 'the green light' to do whatever it wants as best as it wants. There will be no 'eco mode', there will be no 'conserving energy by 'half-assing' functions that continue to health and performance. The fuel is there, it's always going to be there, so the body turns up 'full boost', to crank out that peak performance.

An example of how this 'monitor and adjust period might look, is below.

Week 1-2
Calorie target: 3100
Average weekly scale weight: 75.5kg

Week 3-4
Calorie target: 3250
Average weekly scale weight: 75.4kg

Week 5-6
Calorie target: 3400
Average weekly scale weight: 76.8kg

Week 7-8
Calorie target: 3250
Average weekly scale weight: 75.6kg

From the above 8 week 'monitor and adjust phase', with a reasonable level of confidence, 'optimal weight maintenance Calories', or 'max weight maintenance Calories' probably sits somewhere around 3250 Calories per day.

It's finally worth mentioning that the monitor and adjust thing continues. Situations change, training volume and goals change. It'll get easier over time and the required level of reliance on accurate tracking will often reduce as the athlete finds their 'eating routine groove', and gets familiar with eating to their targets.

To learn more about sport and athlete-specific nutritional requirements, contact us today to start working with a sports nutritionist.