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Why The Keto Diet Is Not A Good Idea For Beginners Like You
Ahhh,
The Ketogenic Diet. Or should I call it “The latest ball ache of Fat Loss Personal Trainers for the last 4 years diet”
I much prefer my name.
I hope you do too.
So let’s get straight into it.
Table of Contents for “Why The Keto Diet Is Not A Good Idea For Beginners Like You”:
1. What is the Ketogenic Diet?
2. How Does the Ketogenic Diet help with fat loss?
3. What Can You Eat On A Keto Diet?
4. Why The Ketogenic Diet is not a good idea for beginners
5. Conclusion
If you want to watch my YouTube Video on this Article then click below:
Why The Keto Diet Is Not A Good Idea For Beginners Like You
What is the Ketogenic Diet?
The Ketogenic Diet is defined thus:
“The ketogenic diet (or keto diet, for short) is a low-carb, high-fat diet that offers many health benefits.”
And that is misleading for a start.
The Standard Ketogenic Diet dictates you eat 5% Carbohydrates each day, 75% Fat, and 20% Protein each day.
So in truth;
“The ketogenic diet is an ultra-low-carb, extremely high fat diet that might create many health benefits”
It is similar to the Atkins Diet, which became popular in the 90s when people were asked to reduce their Carbohydrate levels very low as well.
In terms of “Health” Benefits:
The studies on this are endless. They really are, and sadly I’m not that clever to know them all.
From what I can see the 20 studies referenced on the Healthline Article, which is the top hit on Google when you search “The Keto Diet” [1] only relate to a “Low-Carb” Diet being compared to a “High-Fat Diet”.
These studies comprehensively come out in favor of a Low Carb Keto-like Diet:
These 20 Studies that are cited for these “Health” Benefits are skewed as the comparison fails to look into the third option of an overall balanced diet.
There is one Study that takes people onto a Mediterranean Diet as a third option and in that study, the Low Carb Group did lose more weight than the Mediterranean Diet, and although the Low Carbohydrate Group did lose more weight, they also regained weight over 2 years more quickly. All three groups stayed under their starting weight. [2]
Only one of these studies ran for longer than 12 months, with the majority of them falling between 12 weeks and 6 months, that particular study by Gulbrand, et al 2012 concluded the following:
“There was no difference in weight loss or common risk factors between groups. There was a significant improvement in glycemic control at 6 months for the low carb group. However, compliance was poor, and the effects diminished at 24 months as people started to consume more carbs.” [3]
It is also the only study out of the 23 where the Low-Fat group lost more weight than the Low Carb Group.
This is not a coincidence. The longer the study…the less magical the Keto Diet would appear to be.
Weight loss is where we see the “Health” Markers improve particularly when it relates to Blood Pressure, Heart Disease, PCOS, and Acne. Combined with how the Diet helps those with Diabetes and Pre Diabetes in terms of improving Insulin Sensitivity. You can achieve weight loss without a Ketogenic Diet.
There is one area of study and health the Ketogenic Diet can be used effectively and I will not argue a point against that, and that is in its use with people who are Epileptic. I would say this, however, if you want to work on Epilepsy with the Ketogenic Diet then speak to your doctor first about this and do not just take my word on the matter. I’m not a physician.
The Ketogenic Diet is, therefore, a very restrictive diet that has a lot of evidence to support its abilities in improving health and weight loss for many individuals.
Over a short space of time.
It works upon the science whereby taking Carbohydrates out of your Diet you “switch” the energy source of the body from burning Carbohydrates and Glycogen which is stored in your Muscles and Liver to burning Fat via something your body now produces called a Ketone.
When your body has no Glycogen left to fuel your body it starts producing Ketones which are then used as energy as your body must run on something.
It's like a Hybrid Car changing from Electric Power, as there is no charge left, to Petrol as you have a tank in reserve.
Do you remember that scene in Men In Black in the tunnel when the car stops being just a car…
This is what people who are “Keto” will tell you its like.
You hit the red button and become a fat-burning machine.
You have probably read this section and thought;
“Adam, you’re meant to be telling me why I shouldn’t do this diet…right now it sounds almost too good to be true”
When things sound too good to be true…guess what…
Why The Keto Diet Is Not A Good Idea For Beginners Like You
How Does The Ketogenic Diet Help With Fat Loss?
In two words: Calorie Deficit.
Now the Keto Bots will be out in their droves telling me it’s so much more than a Calorie Deficit because you are changing the way your body burns energy and you get this, that, and the other.
To be honest…I switch off when I hear Keto Bots bigging up the Diet because it is a Calorie Deficit at work…and if they are willing to deny that then they clearly know nothing about how energy balance works.
It would also be pertinent right now to point out that Carbohydrates store water. For every one gram of Carbohydrate, the body will store 2–3g of water. Therefore it stands to reason that if you reduce your Carbohydrate level you will of course lose scale weight. This is not body fat that you are losing on the scale…it is simply water weight.
It is also a big reason weight loss happens so sharply in the early stages of a Keto Diet. But becomes wholly unsustainable when the scale stops going down and your motivation to keep avoiding the biscuit tin is starting to wain.
Why The Keto Diet Is Not A Good Idea For Beginners Like You
What Can You Eat On A Keto Diet?
Here is a list of foods you cannot eat on a Keto Diet:
Sugary foods: Soda, fruit juice, smoothies, cake, ice cream, candy, etc.
Grains or starches: Wheat-based products, rice, pasta, cereal, etc.
Fruit: All fruit, except small portions of berries like strawberries.
Beans or legumes: Peas, kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.
Root vegetables and tubers: Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc.
Low-fat or diet products: These are highly processed and often high in carbs.
Some condiments or sauces: These often contain sugar and unhealthy fat.
Unhealthy fats: Limit your intake of processed vegetable oils, mayonnaise, etc.
Alcohol: Due to their carb content, many alcoholic beverages can throw you out of ketosis.
Sugar-free diet foods: These are often high in sugar alcohols, which can affect ketone levels in some cases. These foods also tend to be highly processed. [1]
Before I continue…can I just refer you to this: “Fruit: All fruit, except small portions of berries like strawberries.”
Keto is very often referred to as a “Healthy Diet”. At what point is removing fruit from your diet going to improve your health? Especially when we call into question how you are going to get enough Fibre into your Diet on this plan.
One article upon researching this piece for you said this:
“A poorly planned keto diet is at risk of being deficient in fiber,” says Dana Elia, RDN, an integrative and functional medicine dietitian in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. [7]
I mean, sure you can supplement it in…spending more money on this “healthy” diet. Or you could just pick up an Apple. I’m not here to tell you what to do…I’m just presenting the facts.
Now I hope you are thinking about the following in terms of what is forbidden:
Here's a list of foods you can eat:
Meat: Red meat, steak, ham, sausage, bacon, chicken and turkey.
Fatty fish: Such as salmon, trout, tuna and mackerel.
Eggs: Look for pastured or omega-3 whole eggs.
Butter and cream: Look for grass-fed when possible.
Cheese: Unprocessed cheese (cheddar, goat, cream, blue or mozzarella).
Nuts and seeds: Almonds, walnuts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, etc.
Healthy oils: Primarily extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil.
Avocados: Whole avocados or freshly made guacamole.
Low-carb veggies: Most green veggies, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc.
Condiments: You can use salt, pepper, and various healthy herbs and spices. [1]
When you compare the two lists, it should come as no surprise to you that you will be in a Caloric Deficit.
It’s not rocket science. You are being expected to almost cut out one entire food group: Carbohydrates.
By cutting out a Macronutrient you are going to be reducing your overall caloric intake.
You have literally cut the food you can eat down by a third.
We also need to address the Caloric Content of the food you are eating.
For your information:
Protein = 4kcal per gram, Carbohydrate= 4kcal per gram, Fat = 9kcal per gram
So by cutting your Carbohydrate intake so low over the course of your diet you are eliminating 4kcal for every gram of that food you eat.
And because Keto is a “High” Fat Diet you are replacing that with foods that are 9kcal per gram. Except that you aren’t. You will not be able to eat anywhere as much Dietary Fat as you can Carbohydrates in a balanced diet. It's just not possible. Even with a 5kcal advantage.
So how can I sit here and advocate it actually is a Calorie Deficit at work?
Well for starters you have very definite Bright Lines at work here. The Diet dictates that you can’t eat: Sugary Foods, Fruit, Mayonaise, and Alcohol. As an example.
There are really simple, really straightforward rules at play here.
Let’s say in a week you were to eat: 2 Mars Bars (460kcal), 7 Bananas (735kcal), have 4tbsp of Mayonnaise (360kcal) with your dinners, and 3 glasses of 175ml Red Wine (480kcal), 3 bags of crisps (552kcal), 1 can of Coke(138kcal).
I think that’s a very fair assessment of some of your “extras” you have each week.
You are therefore cutting away 2,725kcal each week.
To make that back up in the food that is Keto Friendly you would need to eat:
100g of Cheddar Cheese (402kcal), 2 Chicken Breasts (568kcal), 4 Large Eggs (312kcal), 200g of Turkey Breast (294kcal), 2 Avocados (320kcal), 4 Red Peppers (148kcal), 300g of Salmon (618kcal)
This is 2,662kcal.
That is EXTRA to what you would “normally” eat. This isn't what you would normally eat. This is on top of your Keto Meal Plan you have been given.
So without even trying. From just “cutting” away Carbohydrate from your Diet you are saving 2,725kcal a week.
That is a Caloric Deficit of 389kcal a day.
You will lose weight if you have a deficit of 389kcal a day. Especially as your Water Weight drops off as well.
And because what you can and cannot eat is so strictly defined, then it seems easier to adhere to in the early phases of starting your diet.
Remember those 23 studies? They all proved that this is a Diet you can adhere to for results for up to 3 months very effectively.
But what about the Ketones burning your fat away?
Look, as much as I would adore having a car that had a red button in it that made it fly, the truth is it doesn’t exist outside of Alien Films starring Will Smith.
I am not denying the scientific proof of Ketosis occurring. Clearly it does exist [4]. And I am not denying that when your body uses Ketones for fuel, it doesn’t burn fat from the body.
What I am denying is that the Ketones are the full picture. They are not the holy grail of Fat Loss that Keto Warriors would have you believe because, in order to get to that point, you will be in a Caloric Deficit first.
A Caloric Deficit will and always is the number one place for Fat Loss to happen in the body.
A huge argument in favor of the Keto Diet is that you are eating more satiating food. A diet higher in protein is always going to make you feel fuller for longer…and therefore you are going to be less hungry throughout the day. [5].
Which therefore means you are going to be consuming fewer calories throughout the day.
The Healthline article I have cited [1] previously states this:
“What’s more, the diet is so filling that you can lose weight without counting calories or tracking your food intake” [16]
Then when you click on the [16] you find a study that concludes the following:
“In the short term, high-protein, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets reduce hunger and lower food intake significantly more than do high-protein, medium-carbohydrate non-ketogenic diets”
In. The. Short. Term. [6].
Like any diet, in the short term, it will lead to weight loss.
For a number of reasons but mainly due to the fact you are excited, fully motivated and you currently have no cravings for the foods you are not allowed to eat.
Why The Keto Diet Is Not A Good Idea For Beginners Like You
Why The Ketogenic Diet is not a good idea for beginners
By now, I am hoping you have a great idea of what the Keto Diet is.
Diet Culture
A restrictive diet that is sold to you on the premise of not telling you the full truth of how fat loss works.
It's like all diets in that sense. Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Atkins, those MLM Diets.
They keep you at arm's length of the truth, and that is what makes you part with your money. You aren’t clear on the process, and someone comes along with a “magic solution” you will happily pay to find out what that is.
Throughout this article, I have referred to the Short Term effect of the diet, and its evident success in that field.
You need to remember that long term, Fat Loss doesn’t happen quickly.
As my friend Jared Hamilton says:
“Fat Loss is like pregnancy, it takes 9 months for anything incredible to happen and you can’t speed it up”
I’m going to take a punt here and say that you are reading this because you are wanting to figure out how to lose weight, and you have heard the Keto Diet might be a good idea for you.
So you are doing some research.
Now if you have never lost weight before, then please understand this.
Weight Loss takes a long time. Much much longer than you ever thought it did.
Instagram and Personal Trainers don’t tell you this, because it's not a sexy sell. If I told you to lose the 2 stones you so desperately want to lose it is going to take you a year…you are going to very quickly reconsider your financial commitment to that project.
And your belief that you can do it over such a long period of time.
So all the “good news” about Keto and most other diets in truth…although Weight Watchers generally comes out on top more often in these circumstances…is focussed around those magic 12 weeks.
The 12 weeks you could sustain it for.
The 12 weeks you could avoid eating a Mars Bar or drinking an Espresso Martini.
The 12 weeks that you might just about be able to avoid a social situation that is going to compromise your adherence to your diet.
You see,
This is the issue.
Abstinence is a wonderful, truly joyous principle.
But it is an incredibly hard thing to adhere too.
Willpower is finite. And life will throw things at you that challenge you willpower for your Diet, every day.
You will be able to find the energy to not eat bread, for about 3 months.
But you won’t be able to do that for a year….especially if you are just starting out.
In my experience, people who are new to fitness and fat loss often have behaviors that need figuring out first. Before being able to enter into a very restrictive diet, they need to work on their behaviors around food so much more.
In my time spent as a trainer, I have dealt with behaviors that have led to weight gain in clients such as, Binge Eating, refusal to eat vegetables, emotional eating, overcoming PTSD, overcoming stress-induced depressions, anxiety, depression, disordered eating and very low self-esteem.
I perfectly understand that not all people have these behaviors in their lives, but if you have just one of them then moving to a very restrictive diet is not going to help you overcome the root causes of why you have come to fitness and dieting in the first place.
We must always address the root cause.
Not the symptom of the root cause.
Sticking a Keto plaster/band-aid on the wound that is left by disordered eating is only going to heal a small part of the issue.
With so many people who follow a diet, they are a cause and product of eternal failure.
Social Situations
Let's use the Keto Diet as our example here:
Step 1: You get invited out for a meal out with friends on a Friday night.
Step 2: You are now faced with two choices:
a) Cheat on your diet at the restaurant
b) Stick to your diet but not enjoy yourself with your friends as they want a bottle of wine to share
It doesn’t matter what choice you make the result is negative:
a) You have now failed at your diet.
b) You didn’t enjoy yourself with your friends socially.
The options you are left with are aways failure and unhappiness.
You might be able to stomach a social situation like this once, twice, possibly three times in a space of two months. But sooner or later it will catch up with you.
My Experience
In my life, there has been three types of people who peddle the Keto Diet.
Type 1 — The Financially Invested.
Most people who I come across who advocate the Keto Diet have a financially invested reason to do so. They have either built their brand on the Keto theme, are part of a pyramid scheme to sell Ketones, or they have some other thing to gain by selling you a quick solution for weight loss without telling you how Fat Loss truly occurs.
Type 2 — The Quick Fix Client
This is the person who has started the Keto Diet. They are fully sold on what it is and are completely unaware of the issues they are about to walk into. They have usually paid a Type 1 person for the Keto Meal Plan that they are on. They have also had bad previous experiences with dieting, have tried a few diets that didn’t work all for the same reasons that the Keto diet won’t work long term for them. They may be week 2 or 3 in, and it’s all going very well for them.
If you talk to them again in 8–9 weeks, it’s soon become another diet that was too unsustainable for them to follow.
Type 3 — The Anomaly
To every diet, there is someone who it has worked for…the issue is when this person sells it as the ultimate truth that will work for everyone. In my experience, The Anomaly has had previously very good results with very restrictive diets, maybe they have an athletic background or no known behavior issues with food previously.
If you look back on your experience with this diet, the sources that you have used to find this article…do any of them fit those three profiles?
If so…then please…just start with a Calorie Deficit as outlined in this video…and when you know you can do that…you can consider moving into something more extreme like a Keto Diet.
Why The Keto Diet Is Not A Good Idea For Beginners Like You
Conclusion
Aside from telling you to stop eating Fruits, which to me is just crazy talk. How can a diet promote health and tell you to avoid eating “All Fruit except for some berries”?
The biggest reason that I do not think beginners should use a Keto Diet is that you aren’t knowledgeable enough about the topic. You don’t know how hard restriction like this truly is, or how Fat Loss truly works.
All of the studies that advocate a Keto Diet for Fat Loss are all based on very small time frames in terms of lasting, sustainable fat loss.
If you are a beginner in Fitness and Fat Loss it is my duty to give you the best chance of long term success.
I know it might not be what you want to hear, but it is this message that must be shouted the loudest because it is this message that will protect you from the cycle of yo-yo dieting and constant failure around food and your bodyweight.
The Keto Diet locks you into a prison. One that is based on results before sustainability and at some point will compromise whether or not you want to stick to your diet or enjoy yourself.
It is possible to lose weight, stick to a diet, and enjoy yourself.
But in order to do that, you must give yourself more time, and take the pressure off of your shoulders.
Stop thinking 12 weeks.
Start thinking 12 months.
And you will be able to lose weight with a Caloric Deficit, enjoy your favorite foods, and no longer fail at your goals.
And that should be all you want from your diet.
Shouldn’t it?
Did You Find This Useful?
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References:
Healthline. 2020. The Ketogenic Diet: A Detailed Beginner’s Guide To Keto. [online] Available at: <https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ketogenic-diet-101> [Accessed 31 August 2020].
New England Journal of Medicine. 2020. Weight Loss With A Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, Or Low-Fat Diet | NEJM. [online] Available at: <https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0708681> [Accessed 31 August 2020].
Guldbrand, H., Dizdar, B., Bunjaku, B. et al. In type 2 diabetes, randomisation to advice to follow a low-carbohydrate diet transiently improves glycaemic control compared with advice to follow a low-fat diet producing a similar weight loss. Diabetologia 55, 2118–2127 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-012-2567-4
En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Ketosis. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis#:~:text=Trace%20levels%20of%20ketones%20are,carbohydrates%20to%20metabolizing%20fatty%20acids.> [Accessed 31 August 2020].
Westerterp-Plantenga MS, Nieuwenhuizen A, Tomé D, Soenen S, Westerterp KR. Dietary protein, weight loss, and weight maintenance. Annu Rev Nutr. 2009;29:21–41. doi:10.1146/annurev-nutr-080508–141056
Johnstone AM, Horgan GW, Murison SD, Bremner DM, Lobley GE. Effects of a high-protein ketogenic diet on hunger, appetite, and weight loss in obese men feeding ad libitum. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008;87(1):44–55. doi:10.1093/ajcn/87.1.44
Migala, J. and Kelly Kennedy, R., 2020. The 10 Best Sources Of Fiber On The Keto Diet | Everyday Health. [online] EverydayHealth.com. Available at: <https://www.everydayhealth.com/ketogenic-diet/diet/best-sources-fiber-on-keto-diet/> [Accessed 1 September 2020].
Is Emotional Eating Your Biggest Problem For Fat Loss?
I normally start an Article like this with a funny meme.
You know, a picture of Joey from Friends eating Pizza with a humorous caption to the effect of: “It's not my fault I can’t lose weight…it's my emotions”
But actually I was quite surprised by what I saw when I typed into Google:
“Emotional Eating Memes” because what actually showed up was “Stress Eating Memes”
And I think that is really what is going on with a lot of Emotional Eating.
In this article we will discuss the following:
Is emotional eating something that affects only me?
What is emotional eating and why does it occur?
How do you begin to change your behaviour with emotional eating?
Can I lose weight whilst working on my emotional eating?
Conclusion
Before we go any further I need to run a few disclaimers. I’m a very experienced Personal Trainer in the field of Female Fat Loss.
I am not a Psychotherapist, Eating Disorder Clinician or Doctor of any kind. If you are currently suffering from an Eating Disorder or feel like you might have an Eating Disorder akin to anything like Bullemia, Purging, Anorexia Nervosa or any other kind of Disordered Eating then please contact your GP immediately, or contact the fantastic Charity BEAT: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/
Is Emotional Eating something that affects only me?
Many of my clients think that their emotional eating is significant to them, that they are the only person who turns to a Glass of Wine or a Bar of Chocolate to help them feel better about themselves.
And I’m sure you think that about yourself too.
But here's a thought…what if it is more normal than you originally thought? What if more women than you knew were actually emotional eaters…it's comforting right? That you're not alone. That you're not broken. That it's not something that is only wrong with you.
People find a lot more comfort in the knowledge that there is a sense of “normality in numbers”. When a client first comes to my Gym and starts working with me, they are normally nervous as hell…until I tell them that actually everyone is nervous. Everyone in this building is nervous, which is why they are here in the first place. All my clients are scared their first time, but they got through it…and you will too. They then relax, they calm down. It's now not “just them”. They are now not singled out in their minds. Social Psychologist Robert Cialdini in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion says the following:
“Whether the question is what to do with an empty popcorn box in a movie theater, how fast to drive on a certain stretch of highway, or how to eat the chicken at a dinner party, the actions of those around us will be important in defining the answer.”
We find great comfort in following the crowd. But we must always know that the crowd exists first. When you type “Emotional Eating” into Google you get About 397,000,000 results (0.44 seconds).
It's a popular topic. You aren’t alone and it's certainly not the case that you are broken.
In short, …it is a normal behaviour pattern [1].
What is emotional eating and why does it occur?
I couldn’t write a whole article without a meme now, could I?
Emotional Eating is closely related to Binge Eating, however, Binge Eating is classed as an Eating Disorder, and Emotional Eating is not classed as an Eating Disorder due to the fact that as discussed above, we all do it.
I’ve eaten chocolate to feel better, I’ve got horribly drunk after I split up with an Ex and I have also eaten Pizza until my heart is content because something wasn’t feeling right inside of me.
You are jumping straight to the “Eating”And not looking at the “Emotional” with enough scrutiny.
The Pizza didn’t help. Nor did the Alcohol. Nor did the Chocolate.
The reason? The eating wasn’t the reason I needed comfort. The emotion was.
You will go through an emotional moment and then move towards an item of highly palatable, calorific food or drink. We all do it.
How Do You Define Binge Eating? <<< Read my article on how to understand if you are Binge Eating…
What we don’t all do however is look at the reason why we went to the food. You jump straight to the food being the problem because it doesn't align with the physical goals you have set for ourself.
You are jumping straight to the “Eating”, and not looking at the “Emotional” with enough scrutiny.
As a Coach I’m guilty of this as well. In the past, I have only focussed on the “Eating”. Clients tell me that they want to lose weight, and I will jump straight to the calories, without thinking about their Emotional state soon enough, or putting in enough measures to help them make sure that they are working on their emotional environment and behaviour as much as their physical one.
According to HelpGuide.org [2], these are the triggers that cause Emotional Eating:
Stress
Stuffing emotions
Boredom or feelings of emptiness
Childhood habits
Social influences
Then these triggers work themselves into the following cycle:
Its a continuum. It's a cycle that you cannot work yourself away from because you keep returning to the places that the triggers exist, and then you reach out for the food that comforts you.
Emotional Eating also presents very differently physiologically. You get hungry far quicker than normal, it is associated with specific cravings, you then eat quite mindlessly (watching television or a film, flicking through Social Media etc), you are never satisfied once the moment is over, and you experience feelings of guilt, shame and powerlessness when you experience it.
These are all very different to the feeling of physical hunger, which you can be satiated from, it is controlled by hormones (Grehlin and Leptin), it can be held off, you will eat a wider variety of food and you don’t experience such intense or any self-loathing after a meal that is regulated and makes sense to you in the traditional sense.
Its not all negative either. We can also eat emotionally to reward ourselves. Ever gone out for a Cocktail because you got a promotion at work? Or landed a bonus and celebrated with a bottle of bubbly?
These are behaviours that also constitute Emotional Eating.
How do you begin to change your behaviour with emotional eating?
With emotional eating, you must start focussing more on the “Emotional”. You need to develop your ability and practice your ability to manage your Emotional Wellbeing and state.
The reason you Emotionally Eat is not because of your genetics, your physiology or the fact there is something wrong or unfixable about you.
Its because you are stressed and fearful of what is happening to you.
“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” — Bertrand Russell
Now there are times that Emotional Eating is totally understandable and you should treat yourself with empathy when it happens. Those moments will be subjective to you.
But you must also develop two other things to get a handle on it.
Emotional Resilience and better coping strategies for when you are stressed.
We can do this by [3]:
Selecting self-efficacy: take ownership of the problem that is causing disbalance in your life, don’t run from it, as you are likely to run towards a less favoured behaviour.
2. Emphasise Empathy: allow yourself to understand what is happening to you and treat yourself with compassion
3. Practising Patience: you can teach yourself to be mindful in difficult situations, and chose to move away from the stressful moment. Give yourself time and space to comprehend what you are going through.
4. Create Capacity: we can choose these moments to work upon our discipline and desired behaviours rather than turn to the destructive behaviour you are trying to move away from
5. Perceiving Possibilities: from all moments of stress and emotional upheaval, there is always an outcome that can be positive. It might be hard to find, but if you can visualise it, and think upon the positive then you will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
How Do You Deal with Stress?
There are many positive behaviours you can implement to help you cope with stress in a much more positive way…rather than returning to what you want to conquer.
There are many different types of stress, and each one and each person will need a different response to the stress they are feeling.
But we know the following will help you immensely:
Eat in a more nutritious manner
I’m not saying “eat better” or “eat good foods” or “avoid good foods”. I am saying eat nutritiously. Sometimes that will mean eat a Cookie, a Donut or have an Espresso Martini. But it also means building your plates with protein and vegetables, drinking 3 litres of water a day, make positive choices that align with your goals both physically, emotionally and mentally.
2. Exercise
Exercise is one very important aspect of dealing with stress. Whether that is hit the gym and follow a good Resistance Programme (Grab a Free Month of Workouts right here: Free Month of the Be Confident, Be Strong Programme) or go for a Swim, Jog, Yoga or even just a 10 minute walk. Exercise reduces levels of the body’s stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators. [4]
Find out why Resistance Training is great for Fat Loss right here: What is the most important thing for Fat Loss…Resistance Training or a Calorie Deficit?
3. Sleep
Sleep is the most powerful tool in your ability to control stress. You need to be getting 7–8 hours a night. When we sleep we allow our brain to process the day you have just experienced and it will give you much better willpower for the day ahead. Think of sleep not just as a restful time to recover from the day, but time to prepare yourself for the day ahead — like warming up before you exercise. Also, make sure you are creating a good sleep environment for yourself. For example, you should limit caffeine at least 8 hours before you sleep, you should reduce screen time as much as possible, and if you have to be on your phone then use your Night Shift Filter to limit your Blue Light exposure (I have mine on all day every day — and its great!)
If you need help sleeping try listening to one of my Sleep Stories:
4. Meditation
Meditation and deep breathing is also an extremely powerful way to manage your stress. A lot of people give up on Meditation as they believe that they should magically be able to quieten their mind naturally. But it takes practice and is something just like fitness that needs to be worked upon. Also by engaging in Deep Breathing you connect with your Parasympathetic Nervous system which produces a relaxing effect [5]. You can also Meditate anywhere in the world, at any time in your life. it doesn’t have to be at Sunrise on a Beach or listening to Birdsong. Although being in Nature is one of the most relaxing things as humans we can do. You can do it on the Tube, or as you are walking. Try some of my 10-minute walking meditations and see how you get on:
5. Connect with others
By connecting with others and talking things through with your friends will help you solve problems and find the answers you need to figure out what is stressing you out. Plus its comforting to talk to those you are close to. Don’t text them. Speak to them or see them in person. Texting is not an appropriate human connection to help with your stress levels.
6. Give to Charity
There are few things higher up that we can do to improve our sense of self-worth than give to charity. When you help someone else, it makes you feel good, really good, and it helps put your problems into perspective a little more.
Can I Lose Weight Whilst Working on my Emotional Eating?
Let me be clear from the off; anyone can lose weight — all you need is Calorie Deficit:
However, if you are aware that you struggle immensely with Emotional Eating, then a calorie deficit will be an extremely hard thing for you to stick to, as you will constantly be stressing yourself out.
Lets run this through an example:
You have started a new diet and exercise programme and are feeling good for the first few days. You have a little bit of a busy day at work, and feel a bit let down by your colleagues. They haven’t done anything wrong per se, but they just didn’t feel supported. Your boss has hit you with a deadline, and although achievable…in truth its the last thing you want to do right now.
You get home and try to talk to your husband or boyfriend about it. He's only half interested, can’t wrap his head around your point of view and just says something like:
“Well just work hard and you will get it all done. Don’t worry about it”
(Men? Am I rite?)
It brings back all the feelings from your day, from your Boss and your colleagues and you then think about dinner. Feeling a bit low, you notice the Pizza in the freezer rather than the Meal Prep you made.
Pizza it is. You indulge in it. You begin to realise what you did and how that behaviour doesn’t match your new “healthy” regime. However, its ok because you know you are allowed flexibility in what you eat — no ones should be that strict on their diet.
However, you still seem hungry after the pizza. It's not quite done its job. You're not satisfied because you need emotional satisfaction, not physical satisfaction.
There’s Ben and Jerry’s in the fridge…
You get to bed. Sleep not as well as you would like, due to the stress from work, and as you wake in the morning you realise the calories you ate last night exceeded your deficit for the whole week. You now start to feel down on yourself again, and despite knowing all you have to do is follow the Four Step F*** It Philosophy as detailed thus:
STEP 1: Acknowledge you went off plan and why.
STEP 2: Say F*** It.
STEP 3: Draw a line under it.
STEP 4: Move on.
You can’t shake the feeling that you have now let yourself down. You feel your stress levels rising again. Work is just as stressful as before and it's now Karens Birthday. There's Krispy Kremes in the office. One or two won’t hurt, and you need it. You’re feeling low again.
And then the stress increases again because you aren’t matching your Diet to your desired behaviours.
And it goes on and on and on. Until you eventually give up on your diet, give up on your exercise and your goals seem further away than ever.
My point here is that you can’t build a house on a foundation of sand and with three walls. A Calorie Deficit is really simple. But it doesn’t mean it is easy, and to attempt to achieve one in order to lose weight and get a bit “healthier” is going to be extremely hard if you aren’t willing to work first on improving your relationship with food.
You can’t build a house on a foundation of sand and with three walls. Your relationship with food must be postivie before attmepting a Calorie Deficit.
You need to first learn to be able to draw a line right under it and truly move on. When you can achieve that as a habit, without guilt attachment and without you feeling like you are a failure, then you will find being in a Calorie Deficit so much easier.
In the midst of all of this to you will have to learn how to balance your hormones to your expectations. I find that my clients eat a little more during certain times of their cycle and that they need more flexibility in those moments. This is another part of your diet you will need to fully comprehend and understand to help you manage your stress a lot better, and therefore your relationship with food.
How Does Your Menstrual Cycle Effect Fitness and Fat Loss? <<< Read my article on this topic right here
Conclusion
Emotional Eating is a normal, human thing to do. We all Eat Emotionally and this can be both in negative moments of our life and positive moments of our life. Understanding this is crucial because it shows that your behaviour of emotional eating is standard practice and that you aren’t “broken” or “need fixing”
A lot of negative Emotional Eating comes from being in as Stressed state. When the hormone Cortisol and Adrenaline are running rampant in your body, you are much more likely to indulge in foods that do not match the behaviours you want to have in order to reach your goals.
If Emotional Eating is a particularly prevalent behaviour in your relationship with food you need to focus your efforts in the Emotional part of the equation. Not the Eating part of the equation.
Look at the things in your life that are causing you high stress and learn better ways to manage that. Through better nutrition, Exercise, Meditation, Connection with others, giving to Charity and getting out into nature.
It is possible to lose weight whilst being an emotional eater. But it is making your journey a hell of a lot harder. Try and work on your relationship with food before you engage with a Calorie Deficit as fixing your relationship with food will make the weight loss journey more successful and more sustainable.
Above all remember the following: You are not alone, and although this all seems quite daunting, you can totally do it. I know you can. And I believe in you more than you probably believe in yourself. If you got this far through the article, this is clearly something you want to understand more and work upon…and you are already ahead of 90% of the people who have read this.
Stop worrying about the food. Start fixing your stress levels and you’ll do just fine.
Did you find this useful?
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And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam
References:
Medainc.org. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.medainc.org/binge-eating-vs-emotional-eating-whats-the-difference/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
HelpGuide.org. 2020. Emotional Eating And How To Stop It. [online] Available at: <https://www.helpguide.org/articles/diets/emotional-eating.htm> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
Bogdanos, M., 2020. 5 Steps To Help Build Emotional Resilience. [online] World of Psychology. Available at: <https://psychcentral.com/blog/5-steps-to-help-build-emotional-resilience/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
Publishing, H., 2020. Exercising To Relax — Harvard Health. [online] Harvard Health. Available at: <https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
André, C., 2020. Proper Breathing Brings Better Health. [online] Scientific American. Available at: <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/proper-breathing-brings-better-health/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
We all hate that view, right? Well hopefully not anymore.
This week I spent a long time writing a book called Your Scale Strategy for my Online Clients on The Strong and Confident Program, and it got me to thinking that this information needs to be more “out there”.
Too many people are losing their desire, goals, and success because of two massive issues with the Scale.
They do not know how it works
They do not know how to make it work
My book is called Your Scale Strategy, and I wanted to share my strategy from it, to hopefully help you understand how to make the Scale work in a much better way for you.
Table of Contents for: Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
My aim is to give you a strategy for the Scale. This is what we will cover:
We will discuss your perspective of the scale
We will discuss the science of the scale
We will discuss A Workable Plan for you to move forward
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
Before we get into it though let show you what effect this Strategy has had on my client. Case Studies are great because they demonstrate to you that this works for people like you. People who are struggling, people who need real answers to real results, and people who are figuring it out. Slowly by surely.
Let’s take my client, Beverley. Beverley has had limiting beliefs about her weight all her life. She is aware it makes her feel very unhappy, and actively avoids being in photos or videos with friends and family. Bev made a commitment to me to implement this Strategy as it is laid out in my book for at least 30 days. She went from not knowing what her weight was for over 2 years to adopt this plan and is now being consistent in both her behaviors and her fitness regime.
She's incredible. I’m so damn proud of her. But more importantly, she is proud of herself.
Here is what she found in 14 days in terms of her scale weight:
DAY 1 (15 stone 6lbs) and DAY 14 (15 stone 4lbs)
Beverley said the following two weeks in:
“To go from never knowing my weight because of what I thought it meant to me, the judgement that was wrapped up in the number and the ideas of self-disappointment, lack of confidence and constantly feeling like a failure…to now not caring what the scale says. Literally accepting it is just a number, and one that will mess with your head if you let it has been such a huge weight off my shoulders. For years knowing there was something about me I couldn’t confront because of the shame attached to it, meant I wasn’t willing to admit I was ashamed of myself. The scale represented that. But now…after implementing this strategy, it's all gone. All the worry and the angst. The number is just that, a number. Of course, I have goals I want to reach, but knowing I am doing the work each day to ensure that one day in the future it will take care of itself and that I have to be patient, respectful and understand truly how it works is life-changing. I’m no longer scared of the scale. I’m no longer ashamed”
I also made a video all about Beverly’s journey. There are two parts, and in it I discuss the ups and downs of this strategy and what she went through when trying to heal her relationship with the scale.
You can watch that here:
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
Your Perspective of the Scale
I love this meme. Perspective is everything. Is the cup half-full or half-empty? I’m sure you know the “correct” answer to that but this can be so hard to implement in terms of weight loss.
Let's look at your previous unsuccessful journey in terms of weight loss.
You decided to take action — gym, slimming club, eating “clean”
You lost a few lbs
You had a social event you couldn’t avoid
Stepped on the scale again
Gained a few lbs
Thought this will never work
Gave up
Felt awful
Realized this “healthy” ‘thing was never for you
You might do this a few times over…in the course of a month or two…but eventually steps 7, 8, and 9 are the winners. Sound familiar?
Before you shoot me just hear me out. Please.
I am not stalking you. I promise. I’m not a fortune teller (although I did used to be a Magician at the biggest Toy Store in the World — Hamleys) but I promise you I am not reading your mind.
Want to know how I know you have done this time and time again?
Because you are normal. Because I have seen it happen with 99.99999% of the population.
But you think its just you. You think you are the slightly broken one…when you are not. When you are just perfectly normal. Its all about perspective. When you realise that everyone is going through the same struggle as you, when everyone is not actually losing 60lbs every three months, and they are in truth trading lbs day in and day out, up and down every day until over a long period of time they reach a goal (a much smaller goal than they initially thought) then you realise that you aren’t the problem.
The system might be.
Here is a thought:
Maybe the Diet failed you, you didn’t fail at the diet.
Know how I know this? Traditional restrictive diets fail everyone.
And see that shift in perspective, when you start seeing it change thus…you can begin to see that actually what you want is out there. Your goals are achievable.
SUMMARY: Perspective is really important when it comes to the scale. You need perspective with what is relaistic with yourself compared to what you see on Social Media, and you need perspective with the journey as well.
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
The Self Perspective: Empathy
In terms of your perspective, you also need to embrace this word. You need to give yourself a hug a lot more often. In your story of previous unsuccessful attempts, between 6 and 7
6. Thought this will never work
7. Gave up
You need a 6.5: Empathy.
In your 10 point story, you never gave yourself a moment to reflect. The 10 point story happens over a period of time. A one-off example might not be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, but this is a big picture example.
However, I am willing to bet you are doing the same thing not only every time a new diet fails you…but:
Every time you have “bad” food.
Every time you drink some wine.
Every time you chose to go out as opposed to the Gym.
Every time you step on and off the scale.
And over time it all accumulates to you stopping, losing motivation and just wishing it was all a hell of a lot easier.
That number you see, without empathy and love, is a judgement. It's your High School bully laughing at you, it's your greatest fears about how you look and how sexy you feel. It’s a reminder of you being a “loser”, not a winner. It’s a judgement on the food you ate, the wine you had, and the fact you slept in as oppose to work out.
It’s a judgement of your own self-talk saying: “You are useless. Why are you even trying”
And that is all you hear in yourself. You don’t take into account all the other factors that are at play in your ability to adhere to a Calorie Deficit. Things like:
How much sleep you are able to get?
Your personal Finances?
The support of your friends and family?
Your accessibility to be able to exercise?
How stressed you are?
How your mood is?
These few factors alone will have a huge impact on your Calorie Deficit and therefore the number you see staring back at you.
Your whole perspective on the scale is imaginative. And that's not your fault. It’s the fault of the Fitness Industry, The Media, I’m sure you are even thinking that it could be your Mum’s fault or your Partners.
But looking for fault isn’t going to help anyone. You need to change your entire outlook. And when you do, you will be able to treat yourself with the empathy you deserve.
SUMMARY: Empathy is your number one priority when it comes to healing your relationship with the scale. You need to realsie your factors in your life that will impact how adherent to a Calorie Deficit you can actually be, and allow the results you track from that Calorie Deficit to allow for these factors.
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
The Outside Perspective: Comparison
One of my favourite quotes is:
“Comparison is the death of joy”
And it is quite simply because we can’t compare evenly. You spend your life comparing people instantly on Social Media, but the issue with these platforms is they pander to your confirmation bias.
You only see people who have:
Been Succesful
You don’t notice all the people struggling, all the other people not making it…all your brain sees is the successful ones.
My best example of this from my life is what I call “London Underground is Ruining My Life”.
It’s storytime.
Now when I was a young buck at Drama School I got my own flat in London in my third year. Until that point, I didn’t need to spread my wings and fly. But in Third Year enough was enough. And my parents and I managed to afford a flatshare for myself. Of course, this came with the usual expectation of a 21-year-old living in London wanting to live the high life as an “up and coming actor” So obviously I wanted to seduce the women. Luckily I had one who actually said “Yes”.
We had an enjoyable evening. And then I had to spend the next two weeks riding on the tube. And the tube had changed. I promise you. For those not familiar with the London Underground…there is a LOT and I mean a LOT of billboard adverts on the tube.
And I promise you, hand on heart, every single advert, that evening henceforth, was for some sort of Pregnancy thing.
Whether it was Well Woman Vitabiotics, Clear Blue Pregnancy Testing, or even an advert for a West End Show…every advert was about pregnancy.
All 16,000+ of them.
This is a prime example of Confirmation Bias. My world ie: my brain was showing me my fear. All I was looking for was things to back up my own silly hypothesis that I was about to become a Dad.
…
And when you are on Social Media this is what your brain is doing. It is only finding things you want it to find…to confirm your preexisting thoughts about yourself.
To conquer the scale, you must realize that you are normal. You are like 99.9% of the world out there. That is why you have got this far into this article because it resonates with you…and you are not alone.
For example, we are in the midst of an “obesity crisis”. This literally tells you that more people in the world are struggling with this than are succeeding.
So embrace your normality. Understand everyone is in the same boat and the minority is what you believe to be the majority. From there…you can begin to see the wins you are achieving, as opposed to only Stop comparing your Chapter 1 to someone else’s Chapter 14.
Just focus on your journey, your progress, and how far you are coming.
SUMMARY: When we look at ourselves through the prism of comparison we will only ever compare to someone who is doing better than us. We never look down, only up. The more you compare the more your brain will be conditioned to only seeing who is doing better than you, not the reality of society at large.
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
The Science of the Scale
So you have spent the majority of your life being all consumed by this little square block on your bathroom floor, and in truth…you know very very little about what makes up that number.
Which when you think about it…it's crazy.
You don’t really know what it represents, you don’t know what makes up that number and you don’t know all the factors involved in what it says and why it says it.
So let me break it down for you:
The human body as weight is made up of Bone, Organs, Muscle and Fat, and averagely this is split thus:
Bone: Men: 15%; Women: 10%
Muscle: Men: 45%; Women: 37%
Organs: Men and Women: 25%
Fat: Men 15%; Women 28%
These are estimates as its really hard to know the true figures, and we will never know our actual Body Fat Percentage unless we have an Autopsy…which is really inconvenient. Your Body Fat Percentage may well be higher than the average…but its never 100% of what you are.
That's really important to remember.
This is what should strike you the most from those figures:
Your body really isn't made up of much Fat at all…With the Body Fat Percentage figure, you must remember you cannot get to 0% Body Fat as you will die, and it is extremely unlikely you will ever get to >8% Body Fat (Men) and >21% Body Fat (Women) unless you become an Athlete. So what we can realistically effect in terms of Body Fat Percentage is about 8% Body Fat (Female) and 7% Body Fat (Male) based on the above averages. If you carry more Body Fat, this figure will be increased but can be affected more easily.
Your Muscle is Heavy…you have more muscle than you think you do. And Muscle is really hard to lose and really hard to gain. We lose about 3–5% of our Muscle Mass per decade over the age of 30 unless we train to keep it. We can gain muscle at a rate of 0.5lb per week. But even that is rare and takes extreme dedication.
Your weight gain over time isn't likely to be muscle gain. You might have heard that muscle weighs less than fat, which isn’t true.
What weighs more? A tonne of feathers? Or a tonne of bricks?
They are exactly the same weight, and the same is true for 1lb of fat and 1lb of muscle. They both weigh one pound.
Muscle takes up less space over a bone and therefore you can fit more of it onto the space you have available.
Muscle is incredibly hard to build - it's a little easier if you are newer to training but the longer you have been strength training, the longer it takes to build.
In the early days, some of your weight gains might be due to the muscle being built, but if your weight is increasing, and you are in a Calorie Deficit, past the three-month mark as a new gym goer, then it will be due to a caloric surplus and is likely to be fat gain, not muscle gain.
Time for a little PSA.
If you have a Trainer that is telling you, past these parameters, that your weight gain is because you are getting stronger and that it's not due to your Caloric Intake, then you need to get rid of your trainer and hire a better Coach.
I'm sure you have heard that scale weight is affected by a number of factors...and it is. These are:
Water retention from Salt in your diet
Water retention from lifting weights
You need to poop
You ate more yesterday than usual
You had more Carbohydrates than normal in your diet yesterday
Your Menstrual Cycle
This means that the Scale will go up and down like a rollercoaster - even if you are in a deficit.
But it is only water - I promise you. For example, if you eat 1g of Carbohydrates your body absorbs 3g of Water. This si why when you go on a “Low Carb” Diet you lose Scale Weight very quickly. You are indeed losing water - not actual Body Fat.
I recently did a 60 Day weight loss challenge. I lost 4.1kgs in about 60 days and I decided to weigh myself every day for the last 30 days so I could show you what it really looks like:
What a rollercoaster!
Looking at that you can see just how much scale weight fluctuates. There are peaks and whooshes everywhere, and in fact, I don’t think it whooshed on repetitive days once.
Added to that, I wasn’t in a deficit every day either, and the peaks were a lot harder to stomach on the days after I knew I wasn’t in a Deficit.
Even though I knew I wasn’t actually gaining weight, I had more than likely eaten more carbohydrates, it still felt incongruent to my goal, to lose weight.
I knew deep down the result would come provided I was in a Calorie Deficit for a consistent (25/30 days) period of time. I also only managed to make this a success, because I gave it enough time to succeed.
Even after consecutive days of the scale going up, I didn’t give up and therefore allowed myself to see the success I deserved from the work I was putting into it.
I also adopted the following mantra, which I highly recommend you follow:
“All you have to do is get back on track, and you haven’t failed”
I have spent the first half of this article educating you on the Scale - so that you can take all of this knowledge into implementing a plan to help you heal your relationship with the scale.
How Does My Menstural Cycle Effect my Fitness and Weight Loss? <<< Read My Article that has already helped over 100 women understand their Cycle and the effect it is having.
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
So What Is Your Plan for the Scale?
This is your plan. Your schedule is really important, and it has to be easy to follow, otherwise, you won’t continue to do it.
You are going to weigh yourself daily. Every single day.
This study tells you why: HOW WEIGHING YOURSELF MORE REGUARLY WILL KEEP YOUR WEIGHT OFF
But allow me to pull out one key conclusion of the study:
“Findings from the registry suggest six key strategies for long-term success at weight loss: 1) engaging in high levels of physical activity; 2) eating a diet that is low in calories and fat; 3) eating breakfast; 4) self-monitoring weight on a regular basis; 5) maintaining a consistent eating pattern; and 6) catching “slips” before they turn into larger regains”
All of these points are really very important. Although it can be argued you do not need to eat breakfast in order to lose weight as all you need is a caloric deficit, although in this study when they refer to breakfast they refer to cereal (which surprised me!), it doesn’t define what kind at all — cereal is a very broad term, and fruit. It would be my suspicion that it’s due to an increase in Fibre in their diet which is helping here.
Added to that this Study took a cohort of people, and got them to weigh themselves over a 51 week period reducing the frequency of weighing as time went on. The three groups were split thus:
High/Consistent equalling 6 days/week of weighing over 51 weeks
Moderate/Declined equalling 4-5 days/week of weighing and then a gradual decline to 2 days/week over time.
Minimal/Declined equalling 5-6 days/week until Week 33 and then 0 days/week thereafter.
The results were:
“The high/consistent group achieved greater weight loss than either the moderate/declined and minimal/declined groups at 6 months and 12 months, respectively. The high/consistent group had a greater mean number days per week of adherence to calorie intake goal or step goal but not higher than the moderate/declined group.”
And they concluded:
“This is the first study to reveal distinct temporal patterns of self-weighing behavior. The majority of participants were able to sustain a habit of daily self-weighing with regular self-weighing leading to weight loss and maintenance as well as adherence to energy intake and step goals”
The key takeaway here is that weighing yourself every day leads to better adherence to the behaviors that create weight loss: Calorie Deficit and Step Targets to name a couple.
I need to interject here, also. You can lose weight as well if you only weigh yourself once a day. But you need to think of weighing yourself daily as Data collection - not a judgement on what you are doing each day.
The more data you collect, the more informed a decision you can make about what is happening.
You also need to control the variance that can effect the scale reading as much as possible.
So. in order to do that this is your schedule
Wake Up
Go to the toilet
Weigh yourself
Then eat your breakfast / Drink your Tea or Coffee
Always try and weigh yourself in this manner each and every morning.
Before we go any further please read the following:
Don’t get me wrong, there is a cost to every behavior we partake in as humans, and although I am in favor of weighing ourselves daily, I am not blind to the fact it can have negative repercussions too. If you have ever suffered from an Eating Disorder, and/or Mental Health Issues then using the scale in this way should be discussed with your Doctor and your Medical Team.
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
Stop Playing The Scale Lottery
Weighing yourself once a week, once a month or less than this is like playing the lottery.
You will lose.
You are shooting in the dark. You aren’t collecting enough data.
Blindly hoping you get a down day…as opposed to an up day with your weight fluctuations. Even if you hit a down day 50% of the time…the other 50% will be the percentage you focus on…the percentage you remember and essentially the one that will stop you in your tracks.
You need regularity by weighing yourself daily. Weighing yourself daily does mean that you will have to see the number go up - but that’s okay - because you aren’t gaining body fat.
This study took 29 men and made them eat 40% above their Maintenance Calories, which was about 1200-1500kcals extra a day. Over the 8 week period, they gained 9lbs of fat, equivalent to 0.16lbs a day.
Added to that another study took participants and made them eat 1000kcal/day above their maintenance for one week, which lead to a scale weight gain of 1kg for the whole week. This kilogram was then split up into two sections - half of it was muscle glycogen, and the other half was body fat - which means they gained 71g of body weight a day.
This is why we must be very careful about how you look at and analyse the scale data you collect.
With my clients I implement this:
We compare every two weeks. Not every 2 days. Not every 7 days. Not every 10 days.
14 Days. And it’s a lot longer than you think it is.
There is a reason the studies I have spoken about in this article track people for 51 weeks - because weight loss takes time.
Or if you are overly concerned with your Menstrual Cycle and you know that affects your adherence to a Calorie Deficit you can use this model:
And again, we work on a 14-day schedule of comparison.
If you aren’t seeing the results you are happy with you will then need to analyze what you have been doing and amend one of these factors:
Track your Calories more accurately
Increase your NEAT
Increase your Sleep
Increase your Hydration
Increase your adherence to the Five Awesome Rules For Life:
Increase your Caloric Deficit
The Five Awesome Rules for Fat Loss Life <<< Watch my Video on how to nail your Fat Loss every day
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
Metabolic Adaptation
One last thing we need to be aware of in the plan for your progress is Metabolic Adaptation. As you lose weight your Caloric needs will change.
Smaller bodies need fewer calories.
Therefore make sure you go back to the Calorie Calculator every two months and if you have made progress re-evaluate your numbers and see what it says. The change might not be huge, but it will be good to make sure that you are keeping a check on what your body needs and that changes over time.
You can mitigate the effects of metabolic adaption by making sure when you lose weight you continue to strength train with the goal of preserving muscle mass - and eating enough Protein each day.
Grab My Calorie Calculator Right Here <<< I will email it straight to you
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
And That’s It…
It is my belief that you shouldn’t use scale weight as a determinate of who you are unless you know everything there is to know about the Scale. I hope this book has opened your eyes to what goes into the Scale and why it can be a very flippant and testing thing to use to mark your progress and who you are.
So remember these Take-Aways:
You have to gain a better perspective on what the scale is and how weight works otherwise you will lose motivation really quickly.
99.99999% of people find this really hard and struggle to maintain motivation because of how their perspective is.
Give yourself more time - don’t give up before you see your success from your consistency.
One day of a spike isn’t actually fat gain
Get away from the Prison of Time — allow yourself the time this needs and deserves, so you can empathize with your humanity and the stresses of normal life whilst losing weight
Set a sensible Goal Weight and remember that is based around being active as well - and download my Calorie Calculator to make sure you do that.
Weigh yourself Daily this will keep you accountable.
Stop playing the Scale Lottery.
Track your progress every two weeks and be disciplined in this as it will tell you the real picture.
Do You Have Scale Anxiety? Improve Your Relationship With The Scale
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Why You Don’t Have To Earn Your Calories In The Gym…
I chose this photo for this blog post for many reasons. Number one its what the world is doing…or at least its what the world wants you to do. Run away from the food you have eaten..or more…try and banish the food you have eaten from your body. Secondly, she has a smile on her face. This smile could mean two things:
She has realised that she doesn’t need to run anymore from the cake and ice cream, and banishing the calories you have eaten through exercise is a daft thing to suggest.
She is just enjoying movement because the movement is there to make us happy.
I fear I am being overly optimistic about the photo. I think the photo in truth was designed to promote the banishing of calories from your body.
This article arose from a TV Programme that was aired here in the UK. It was called Horizon. The tag line for this show is the following:
“Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you’ve never seen before”
This particular episode was focussing on “The Restaurant that Burns Off Calories”. All you need to know at this point is that a Doctor and a Restuarant Owner teamed up and built a restaurant full of the UK’s “favourite dishes” and built a gym behind the restaurant where there were about 40 Gym Bunnies all ready on Cardio Machines to burn off all the calories that were consumed in one service in the restaurant. The whole menu had been calorie counted, and then the figures were totalled up, and those on Rowing Machines, Treadmills and Exercise Bikes saw this figure ever-increasing and had to keep working towards the final of total of, 45,687 calories.
The show came into much criticism on Social Media as it is promoting the idea that you “have to earn your food in the gym”. Which you simply do not. And anything that promotes this notion is going to be criticised for helping push people towards very real and dangerous eating disorders.
In this article, my aim is to move your mind away from the very worrying and potentially damaging thought that you have to “earn your food”. I would also like to say right from the start, I have never had an eating disorder, and I am also not an eating disorder professional. Throughout the article, I have cited where I have got my information from, and the sources that I believe to be very credible.
My sole purpose in this article is to try and show you how all food including, cakes, donuts, crisps, alcohol, sweets and ice cream as well as exercise and training play two very important roles in maintaining both your physical and mental health. And above all…why you do not have to earn your calories.
If you have found this article, and are suffering from an eating disorder please stop reading, and seek professional and medical advice right here: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/support-services
We will go through the following:
The Dangers of “earing your calories”.
The Dangers of overtraining.
Why did the BBC Produce this TV Show? and the problems within it.
The best foot forward…
THE DANGERS OF “EARNING YOUR CALORIES IN THE GYM”
This article arose from a TV Programme that was aired here in the UK. It was called Horizon. The tag line for this show is the following:
“Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you’ve never seen before”
This particular episode was focussing on “The Restaurant that Burns Off Calories”. All you need to know at this point is that a Doctor and a Restuarant Owner teamed up and built a restaurant full of the UK's “favourite dishes” and built a gym behind the restaurant where there were about 40 Gym Bunnies all ready on Cardio Machines to burn off all the calories that were consumed in one service in the restaurant. The whole menu had been calorie counted, and then the figures were totalled up, and those on Rowing Machines, Treadmills and Exercise Bikes saw this figure ever-increasing and had to keep working towards the final of total of, 45,687 calories.
The show came into much criticism on Social Media as it is promoting the idea that you “have to earn your food in the gym”. Which you simply do not. And anything that promotes this notion is going to be criticised for helping push people towards very real and dangerous eating disorders.
When we equate the food we eat in a direct correlation to the amount of exercise we have to do to burn it off…it is a battle we will always lose, because you cannot exercise that much. Or if you do…it will likely lead you towards very excessive behaviour patterns and destroy your relationship with what exercise is, and what your food is.
When you adopt purging behaviours (verb. to physically remove or expel (something) completely) you are treading a very very dangerous line between both your mental health and your physical health.
Here some infographics I once made:
From @thegymstarter on Instagram
As you can see from the infographics…it is merely impossible to:
Do 239 minutes of running at 6mph every time you have a Pizza.
Do 526 minutes of walking, just because you ate Christmas Dinner.
Do 24 minutes of walking every time you consume a Glass of Red Wine.
The sheer thought that you might think, when you sit down on December 25th to enjoy your Christmas Dinner that you will then be faced with nearly 4 hours of walking (depending on your weight) will suck out all enjoyment of that dinner and the true meaning of Christmas. Despite the fact, I don’t know many people that will willingly engage in that much time on a Treadmill (I ran a half marathon on a treadmill once…I do not recommend it).
So what is the other option…you purge the food away.
Every time you do this you are setting up a neurological behaviour that equates food with pain. We all need to eat food. We all need calories to survive. Without them, we will die. This is a fact of life.
And when you become overwhelmed with the idea of how much exercise you will have to do in order to banish the food from your body you will look for the shortcut…which will then lead you into directions such as:
Avoiding social situations.
Living with a feeling of shame.
Relating food enjoyment to painful behaviours.
Changing your brains chemistry to a reward system for these behaviours (1).
Engaging in compensatory behaviours can become addictive. Self-induced vomiting can actually change an individual’s brain chemistry, affecting serotonin levels and releasing endorphins.
This can result in a high that those with purging disorder might strive to recreate following a meal. Similarly, it can be difficult to cease laxative use if an individual’s body has become reliant on them to produce bowel movements (1)
Studies have shown that living on a Very Low-Calorie Diet typically less than 800kcal a day, but can be as little as 1000kcal a day it can have the same physiologically as total starvation (2).
CAN THAT MUCH EXERCISE BE DANGEROUS AS WELL?
Overtraining is a serious subject as well…and if you start walking down the path of “earning your calories” you will have to engage in copious amounts of exercise to compensate.
As I mentioned above, I once ran a Half Marathon on a Treadmill, and it was not a good decision. It took me 2 hours. And yeah…it left its mark. So much so I wasn’t able to train for 4–5 days. But that was a one off stupid incident during marathon training from someone who was very well versed in the ability to run. If I did that day in and day out over a long period of time other issues will begin to arise such as:
Increase in weight
Heavy mood swings
Constant muscle aches (different to DOMS)
Overstressing of muscles leading to frequent injuries
Fatigue and exhaustion
Sleep quality has decreased
In order to actually create a change in the body through training, it must be backed up with a very disciplined regime of sleep and nutrition. Without these two things, you will not build that body you want, and therefore you will always be chasing your tail. If you are considering your food as something you have to burn off, and you educate yourself on the calories contained in foods, then you will be moving towards poorer nutritional choices (ie too few calories), combined with a tendency to overtraining.
According to a study in May 2002, approximately 80 percent of patients with anorexia nervosa and 55 percent of patients with bulimia nervosa compulsively exercise. Female eating disorder patients who exercise report higher levels of psychological distress and psychopathological traits than non-exercisers (3).
Therefore you can see how it will begin to affect both mental and physical health.
WHY DID THE BBC PRODUCE THIS SHOW AND THE PROBLEMS WITHIN IT
A piece of research came out in 2019 from Loughborough University that stated when people know how much exercise they will have to do to burn off their food, as displayed on a food label (knowns as PACE labelling) they are likely to reduce their caloric intake by 103kcals a day (4)
An NHS Blog post (5) states this as the conclusion:
Researchers found:
1. people were less likely to buy a sugary soft drink if it was labelled with PACE information, compared to no label.
2. people selected on average 64.9 fewer calories if food or drink was PACE labelled, compared to no label or other labelling (95% confidence interval (CI) -103.2 to -26.6)
3. people ate on average 80.4 fewer calories if food or drink was PACE labelled, compared to no label or other labelling (95% CI -136.7 to -24.2)
I remember when this story broke as I was invited to talk about it on BBC Radio 5 Live. I was merely approaching it from the relationship of PACE labelling and weight loss. I didn’t really see the relationship this would then have with eating disorders until I looked into it more.
The premise is a fair one. Let's get that out the way right now. The idea that anything that reduces our caloric intake could be a win-win is always going to be a “good idea” especially when we are facing huge increases in obesity globally. But I would like to think that the first half of this article has made you realise the very serious consequences labelling food like this can have.
The show itself was very lukewarm on two fronts. One, its dietary information and the message it tried to get across, and two its understanding of the role exercise plays in our metabolism.
I could pull the show apart, trust me, I made enough notes on how sensationalist it was at times throughout the programme. But also just how sensationalist the whole premise was. Having 40 or so people, all who were not a cross-section of society in terms of their exercise habits, their age and weight working out on Cardio Machines to burn off food others had eaten is simply sensationalism. And the fitness industry has dabbled in sensationalism far too much. This is one reason why eating disorders are on the rise (6) because of Diet Culture and unrealistic expectations of what is achievable being spouted left right and centre to everyone.
Other issues I noticed with the show was that there was no given metric as to how they were monitoring how much exercise the subjects had to do. They didn’t look to me like they were wearing heart rate monitors or were going through a VO2 Max Test as they were doing it to determine truly how many calories they were actually burning.
The lack of information about how the exercise subjects output was being monitored might lead some people to jump on a treadmill and take the numbers that the machine gives you as fact. The numbers of calories burned on a Treadmill, Exercise Bike or Rowing Machine are to be disregarded at all times. They are wildly inaccurate and will nearly always give a higher reading close to 15–20% than what you actually did.
This is important to know because you will be giving it your all on a Cardio Machine, tracking that number…not seeing results that you think you deserve and then you will want to give up again.
I also felt that nearly every shot of the exercise subjects you saw, they looked downtrodden, deflated and absolutely exhausted. I mean…who wouldn't be? Having to do that much exercise.
The meals that the restaurant were serving might have been “typical” to the UK, but they are only typical to the UK when we are eating out. Something that we do not do all day every day. So to directly correlate the very stark image of that many people, looking that hot and sweaty, because of food that someone has eaten, is falsifying the truth. Home Cooked Food vs Restaurant Cooked Food is always going to have big variances in the Caloric value due to things like Oil, Salt and other flavourings that are used in the food.
One of the hosts gave a very simplified version of how your Metabolism worked, and she followed this statement up with “you can’t do much to influence your BMR”, again, which is not giving you the full truth. Which is what makes this programme so very wrong indeed. The sheer fact that the programme is telling you only what you can and cannot do in one exercise session to burn away your calories is very misguided.
The show took in no regard for what happens over long periods of time when you add muscle to your body, and how that helps you maintain your weight. The show gave reference to the fact that Muscle requires more calories to maintain than body fat…but it didn’t look into that any further — which again is giving a very imbalanced view.
It also didn’t mention EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). EPOC is responsible for the continuation of burning calories post-exercise. It occurs both in Cardio work and Resistance Training. However, it occurs to a greater degree in resistance training (7), although the studies I could find do say it is a small difference, and it is an incremental difference over long periods of time.
One last point on the show which I think sums the whole thing up. There was a moment when Angela a middle-aged woman who was enjoying a meal ordered a dessert. The waiter then showed her the PACE labelling for the item she ordered. Angela changed her mind to a different less calorific dessert. However the look on her face would have suggested that she was neither happy about choosing ice cream, and she seemed even less impressed that she felt guilt-tripped into having it.
She also says as her husband is eating the Cheesecake “I have pudding envy. I really wanted the cheesecake”. She was out having a nice meal and has now had her dinner somewhat spoiled by the fact that she now knows she saved 335kcals on her meal.
They went on to ask her about this and she said that she has a goal in mind to fit into a dress for a wedding…and this choice will get her one day closer to getting into that dress.
Which is a nice thought? But it won't help her. It won’t help her because she is encouraging herself to move away from the enjoyment of her food and into a place where she is having to avoid things she enjoys, simply because she is viewing her food as like for like exchange for calories, and weight. She also states later in the programme that “she isn't careful about the food she eats”.
Which brings me to my last point in this section. You can’t build good habits with food if you are building it on a foundation of sand. Shocking people into better choices will not work, because an awful lot more goes into why people chose the foods they eat each day. It's down to their emotional behaviours, their environmental factors and their relationship with themselves.
Not their relationship with their food labels.
THE BEST FOOT FORWARD AND CONCLUSION
So what should we do? If PACE labelling isn’t the answer what should we do instead?
Like with most things two words spring to mind.
Education and Balance.
The education required would be to acknowledge that Exercise is responsible for just 5% of your Daily Metabolic burn.
Read that again.
Exercise is responsible for just 5% of your Daily Metabolic burn.
Above is your Metabolism each day set out as percentages. And you can see Exercise Activity is responsible for just 5% of that.
So I ask the question…why was the show expecting people to burn off 100% of their meals?
Energy In vs Energy Out is what it is important here. And that bar in my infographic is 100% of your energy out. Therefore a keener focus on the big sections of the bar would be useful.
You can improve your BMR by lifting weights, maintaining muscle mass, sleeping better, eating more protein and enjoying the compound effect of these lifestyle changes over a long period of time will help improve your metabolism.
Increase your NEAT. This is your Daily Movement. Fidgeting, Standing, Climbing Stairs, Walking, Gardening, Dancing and everything in between.
We can even increase our Thermic Effect of Food due to making sure the food we eat has a higher Protein focus.
Add all that up and you are increasing 95% of your Metabolism. Yes, it will take time but this isn’t nor should it ever be a like for like situation. Your metabolism is a lot more complex than Exercise = Calories, and the sooner we can understand that the sooner you will start protecting your future self from increased weight gain.
If you want to lose weight and don’t want to spend all day on the treadmill just because you ate a burger …then you can need to do the above.
I would also suggest that you get yourself Calorie Educated. Spend time learning what calories are in your food, and learning how that can work into your numbers for each day. I repeat:
You do not have to earn your calories eaten in the gym.
I have a system called the Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life which I outline in this video which will be a great place to start your understanding of how this all weaves together and why not equating calories eaten to time spent on a Rowing Machine is a good idea.
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And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam
References:
1.Ekern, B., 2020. Purging Disorder: Signs, Symptoms — You Need To Be Aware Of This. [online] Eating Disorder Hope. Available at: <https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/blog/purging-disorder-signs-and-symptoms> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
2. Uclahealth.org. 2020. Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) Plan : RFO Weight Loss Program | UCLA Center For Human Nutrition. [online] Available at: <https://www.uclahealth.org/clinicalnutrition/vlcd> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
3. Eating Disorder Hope. 2020. Exercising And Eating: What Are The Risks And Effects Of Over-Exercising. [online] Available at: <https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/orthorexia-excessive-exercise/risks-over-exercising> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
4. Davis, N., 2020. Exercise Advice On Food Labels Could Help To Tackle The Obesity Crisis. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/10/exercise-advice-on-food-labels-could-help-to-tackle-the-obesity-crisis> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
5. nhs.uk. 2020. Exercise Advice On Food Labels Could ‘Change Eating Habits’. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/exercise-advice-food-labels-could-change-eating-habits/> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
6. Marsh, S., 2020. Hospital Admissions For Eating Disorders Surge To Highest In Eight Years. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/hospital-admissions-for-eating-disorders-surge-to-highest-in-eight-years> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
7. Unm.edu. 2020. Resistance Training And EPOC. [online] Available at: <https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/epoc.html> [Accessed 23 April 2020].