Is there more to the old adage that to lose weight you must simply eat more and do less writes Dublin Personal Trainer, John Lark. In this article we explain how a simple strategy could literally knock pounds off you without doing anything dramatic to your current nutritional habits
Well, yes and no.
Consume fewer calories than you expend by performing activities and exercise is a great place to start.
In fact if you are embarking on any fat loss project, I strongly recommend that you verify your calorific intake for 4-5 days.
The best way to do this is to grab a pen and paper and write down everything that you drink and eat (and I mean everything) for 4-5 days.
If you are more computer savvy then use a free online resource such as www.fitday.com where you can gain more information and see exactly how many calories you are consuming.
To lose weight effectively and find your ball park figure reduce your daily average that you have found by 10-20 per cent.
Then do the following – nip and tuck. Take your food and apply the nip and tuck. Don’t eat the whole meal. Eat one slice of bread with your sandwich rather than two. Eat half a chicken breast rather than the whole thing.
To begin with this is an excellent place to start if you are looking at making a change as painless as possible. Notice there is no counting calories.
Why I am so against counting calories, points, records and stars? Because a calorie is not just a calorie.
There is so much more to take into account once we eat the foods that we do or drink the drink that we do.
Hormonally, some foods will have a vastly different effect on the body than other foods.
Take for instance an orange and a Jaffa cake. Both are low in calories and fat and rich in energy or ‘carbohydrate’. However, one is full of fibre, vitamins and will not spike your insulin levels the other is full of nothing but air, zero fibre and will send your insulin levels through the roof.
For an individual who does not tolerate carbohydrate or sugars very well ( witnessed by the spilling over of fat from our jeans) then they would be best to avoid certain foods that have a negative effect on our sugar hormone – insulin. These include bread, pasta, rice, spuds and cereals.
And what about the thermic effect of foods? Simply put this is what is takes in energy to digest, absorb and assimilate your food.
It explains why those individuals despite consuming the same amount of calories lose more fat on a high protein, high fat diet than those on a carbohydrate diet.
Think about it – how easily do you think that your stomach reacts to digesting a bowl of cereal compared to an eight-ounce rib-eye steak?
One will require much more energy than the other.
Then we take into consideration the whole acid-alkaline load that foods placed on our bodies. Many people in the health and well-being profession are now pointing to the fact that health can be maintained IF we maintain an optimum ‘pH’ within our bodies.
Simply put ‘pH’ is a measure of how acid vs. our alkaline we are. Acidosis prompts a cascade of ailments because our body’s cells are designed to operate within a nice and cosy pH of 7.3. When this drops – trouble occurs.
So what drives us into a state of acidosis? Well aside from the obvious culprits such as stress, lack of sleep, alcohol and smoking, scientists have identified certain foods that create an acid load on our bodies.
These include amongst many grains, diary, sugar and meat. Meanwhile fruits and vegetables are great for driving us into the vibrant and healthy alkaline state.
So think twice before consuming that low-fat ham and cheese sandwich and look for the veggies to balance your intake out.
It is not anyone fault that our attention is on the calorie.
For years the food pyramid has dominated our thinking in terms of weight loss alongside making sure we don’t eat over our calorie budget.
But there is far more to this than meets the eye. Besides if you want to count your calories and turn into a neurotic lunatic with a eye for crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘I’ then fine.
Instead I urge you to focus on forging good habits one at a time. Get in the habit of hitting the gym three times a week or shopping twice a week instead of once.
What about upping your intake of lean protein and making sure you balance your dietary acids with some alkaline forming vegetables and fruits?
There is far more to the fat loss conundrum than just ‘stepping away from the table’.
For your Free Personal Trainer’s Guide to Fat Loss then visit
