Top 5 reasons you should stop counting calories
 
A lot of people are using my fitness pal and other tracking apps to make sure they aren’t eating too much to make sure they hit a certain macro target or targets, which is incredible as people can see just how much they eat, what foods contain a lot more calories than they thought.
 
I can be a great way to teach you about balance and it’s how I start almost all my clients off on their nutrition journeys, however, the goal is to get them off from using it as soon as possible, here are the reasons why!
 

1. It takes some of the pleasure and fun from eating - when you go out for a meal the last thing you want to do try and work out how much food your eating, every meal you have to scan and portion, everything you want must be tracked, someone birthday in the office and get a muffin? Tracked! Someone buys you a latte? Tracked!
2. It can develop some disturbing behaviours of people where if they can track the food they won’t eat it, there is even a new eating disorder because of these apps where people become so obsessed with tracking it becomes unhealthy.
3. The act of tracking itself doesn’t actually teach you anything, you need someone to help guide and teach you how to then get away from tracking and weighing everything
4. You don’t have to only track and log everything you need to weigh all your food, you need match the labels to the app, you need to double and triple check otherwise you might then log it wrong and either massively under or over eat – which then reinforces the obsessiveness of the app.
5. The last thing about them is just the act of tracking itself, being really hungry or thirsty and having to then wait while you log it in to your phone and if the food itself isn’t in the app having to then wait even longer before you can eat it to make sure you get all the ingredients in the right quantities, a lot of people track at the end of the day and can miscalculate by up to 500 calories per day, so you have to track as you go to get the best results.

 
So there you have it, the pain of tracking is hard, Personal trainer will make it sound easy, we have time to do it, we eat similar things every day, we tend to have good habit building abilities, to get a Mum to track would be pointless, kids running around and fighting and slamming doors and all sorts a mum isn’t going to get her kids to sit down while she tracks, young kids don’t work like that unfortunately.
 
The apps can be incredible for some people but definitely shouldn’t be long term use, they are a great starting tool to be weaned off, so you know roughly how much you eat, roughly how much protein, carb and fat there is in foods, how many calories are in foods etc and used as a tool for learning.
 
Hope this helps! Make sure you check out the 3 ways I can help you get in shape and feel sexy and confident again!

A religious post followed by a vegan post? The 2 most sacred and forceful belief types ever!

Most vegans become idiots, sorry become vegan because of animal rights concerns which is great! We should be doing so much more to allow cows to be completely grass fed, free roaming, to allow pigs and chicken to be the free roaming and healthy.

The better the animals are treated the better their meat quality, the better they taste and the healthy they are.

The problem with is is people are popping people out left right and centre and people are wasting soooo much food!

It’s estimated up to 1/3 of all food produced is wasted. 1/3!! That means out of your monthly food shop you will bin over a weeks worth of food. That’s an insane amount of food!
This has to be controlled if we can control this then we look at improving the quality of the less food we need to produce at such a rapid pace.

The other thing I love about veganism is the amount of fruit and veg (although you can’t actually eat some fruit and veg because it’s lined with bees wax to make it look shiny) irony 101 right there!

Everyone should have a plant based diet - EVERYONE! Plant based doesn’t mean plant only it means the base of your diet is plants(fruit and veg) and you build up from there, you add nuts, meat, dairy etc.
Buy frozen as it might actually be better quality than fresh, it’s cheaper it’s easier, it’s less wasteful. You have no excuse!

Even when I go to a steak house I’ll get a side of mixed veg, if it’s a buffet I’ll get the first plate loaded with veg and then go back for my meat and extras.

And now regarding the health aspect of veganism, I don’t agree with it at all, why most people feel so much more healthier being vegan is because they have gone from eating 1 small portion of veg a week to eating 40-50,

It’s the same feeling as when you have a blocked nose and can’t breathe, you have a sore throat so every breathe you do take hurts, it’s going from that level of extreme discomfort breathing to then clearing it all in a day or 2 and how much more alive and alert do you feel? It’s the same principle, restrict something and you feel terrible.
From my point of view a diet were you HAVE to supplement something is a less or even unhealthy diet (vitamin D is excluded from this as that more where you live, in England it’s essential!)

Vegans have to supplement B vitamins, iron maybe even more depending on your variety of food and amount of it you eat.

Why go to the extreme when you can have a mixture of everything and be happy and healthy and not miss out on restaurant trips with friends, trust me you’ll lose friends being vegan!

The keto diet seems to be going through another resurgence - an I have had some people ask if I recommend it.

The short answer is No - not at all! nothing about the keto diet is fun or appealing apart from the amount of bacon I would be able to eat. 

Let's start with what the keto diet claims - It claims you will burn loads more fat, and you will because your diet is 70-80% fat you will burn A LOT of fat BUT that does not mean you will burn your body fat, the only thing that determines your body fat levels is a calorie deficit.

They claim the Keto diet allows you to eat loads of bacon, steak, cheese, which isn't strictly true - because the state of ketosis is a very fine line, if you eat too much protein your liver will cover that protein into glucose, this conversion is called gluconeogenesis. once you eat so much protein this process will occur and either stop you getting into ketosis or will stop you being in ketosis, which means you start all over again. 

They also claim the switch is easy or some won't mention the process at all! The process can be very long! up to 12 weeks for some people thats 3 months of eating potentially less than 30g of carbs.
If you have a chocolate bar then well that process is longer, you can make it quicker by eating more fats but then get ready for some serious explosive poo, you WILL have to supplement fiber and ketones to hurry the process on. 
Some people get Keto flu, where you feel like you have symptoms very similar or the same as a flu or cold. 

The results of the keto diet are the same as in an average diet when protein and calories are matched, so you can go to that italian with your friends eat your pasta dish and enjoy it, you can have popcorn at the cinema, you don't have to find low carb ice cream and keto friendly brownies and all the rest of it, why do something so extreme for no benefit.

Most people go on a keto diet for '2 months' lost 7-10kgs of weight, then you dig a bit deeper and they were on a very low carb didn't actually go into ketosis but restricted carbs so much they created a huge calorie deficit and that's where the huge weight loss happened. 

Another caveat to this huge restriction is depleted muscle glycogen stores, which when you come off the diet and start eating carbs again means you could quite easily pack on another 2-3kgs, which yeah might not be visible fat but you then get disheartened that you have fallen off and put that weight back on, so the physiological effects of seeing that is the problem not the weight gain.

Where as if you keep carbs in your diet do the same level of calorie restriction you'll get the same end result but you won't have the same 'rebound' of weight. 

Just eat a bit less than you normally do, have a varied diet and enjoy the process. 

Dieting should NOT be a punishment.

Let me know in the comments whether you have tried it, or if you have any questions about ketosis or any other diet.

What to do with your calories now you have worked out how many you have everyday.

Hopefully you used my calorie calculator – it takes some work but once you have worked out what you should be on dieting/maintenance and weight gain is a bit easier.

In this blog we’ll focus on what to now do with those calories.

Let’s say example you ended up on 2000 calories for your maintenance it’s a nice round easy number – the only reason I picked it,

Let say you weigh 65kg, exercise 4 times a week, first thing we have to do is work out your daily protein as a high protein diet makes Everything to do with weight loss, maintenance and gain easier,
You have to have a range so you don’t get obsessed with figure, you have a tip top and bottom range.
The range is between: 1.7g – 2.2g x 1kg bodyweight so 65 x 1.7 = 110.5grams of protein per day (minimum a day)
Then 2.2 x 65 = 143grams of protein per day (maximum)

So your daily range of protein will be 110 grams to 143 grams of protein which equates to 440 – 572 calories as its 4 calories per 1gram of protein.

Which if we take that away from your daily calories (2000) we get left with 1560-1428 calories per day. These remaining calories can come from wherever you want, high carb, low carb, high fat, low fat!

You need to make sure your health comes first, so make sure there is veg in there, either as smoothies, roasted, boiled it really doesn’t matter just make sure you get veg in there and fruit, same again, as smoothies, juices, fruit salads whatever, just eat fruit!

Once the base of your diet is protein and health based, you can use your calories on your favourite things, burgers, sweets, chocolate whatever it.

I love pick n mix! So when I diet I won’t have carbs in my meals, or will have very few carbs and will purposely make sure I pick lower carb fruit and veg in the meals so I can enjoy my pick n mix, which means my adherence to the deficit should be better, if adherence is better and more consistent the results will be better and quicker.

Counting and tracking what you eat makes this process quite possibly 1 million times better and easier! Likewise having a diet plan or diet guide makes this process easier, I give clients a guideline with what a weekly diet will look like, as a base and they can then add in things they like.

If you need to lose weight and have done all this maths and work to get ready but now don’t know what to do remember to comment and I can help you, if you’re Birmingham based and want personal training then comment below and I’ll get in touch!

Have a great week!

Dan

 Most of my client work in an office and this comes with a HUGE problem... other people in the office! 

This in itself isn't a problem BUT people aren't just people, people are a bag of judgement and emotions. 

so when my client pulls out a food prep container and people start saying 'ooo what have you got? that smells funny', 'are you losing weight, you don't need too, you look fine', 'why are you eating that, don't you just want a doughnut?', and all that stuff.

which might be true, they person might be at a healthy weight, that doesn't mean they're happy, some people feel sluggish and heavy at the weight they are, I'm now 96 kilos (211 lbs) and I feel heavy, It's a healthy weight for someone my height and that trains but when I move/run I feel heavy and sluggish, so I do need to drop my body weight for ME, not for the scale but for my own... mental health I suppose. so some people might fit into that 'healthy scale' but not feel it, and that feel is more important, you must feel comfortable in your skin.

So stop telling people that they don't need to lose weight and they look fine, it makes people feel guilty for wanting to feel their best.

The 'Your food smells/looks funny' comment.. you just need to fuck off with that. it's food, the person finds it delicious, get over yourself and focus on what you're doing. stop judging someone's food when you're sitting there with a cake, chocolate bar, packet of crisps, bottle of full fat coke and a sausage and cheese muffin. Focus on your own things and fix your health.

Then the 'Don't you just want a doughnut?' is a very very very worrying idea when it comes to dieting. if you go on a diet that says 'what's your favourite food? okay yeah never eat that again' 
that's the best and quickest way to make sure someone never adheres to their diet.

When you're dieting you need a certain amount of 'free' (can't think of a better word) calories, these are calories that don't count these are calories that you allocate specifically for your favourite foods, like biscuits etc. but this is the last thing to sort out, first is calories overall, then protein, food quality like veg, fruits etc and then sort out the rest of you caloric allowance. 

so if that person wants a doughnut, eat a doughnut, just eat 1 not 10.

It's insane how much judgement there is in an office space, stop judging other people, instead why not ask if you can help them? or join them? or see if they can help you to lose weight. if you all your going to do is comment on the other person then take a look at your own health and if you're eating loads of poor quality foods then fuck off.

Have a wonderful day.

If you want to learn how to lose weight while still eating some of your favourite foods, then get in touch and let's start some personal training.

​How to calculate your own calories
 
This blog post will be quite unusual and if there is anything you want to know or need my explanation on please write a question the comments box below.

So, first thing you need to do is work out how many calories you need everyday to maintain your life the calculation for this is;
 
Adults male: 66 + (6.3 x body weight in Lbs) + (12.9 x heights in inches) -(6.8 x age in years) = BMR

Adult Female 655 + (4.3 x weight in Lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 age in years) = BMR
 
So that roughly calculates what you need to keep you alive, then from that number you can work out your maintenance calories
 
If you are;

• very sedentary (little or No exercise): BMR x 1.2
• Lightly active (light exercise/sport 1-3 days) BMR x 1.375
• Moderate activity (moderate exercise 3/5 days) BMR x 1.55
• Very active (hard exercise 6/7 days) BMR x 1.725
• Extremely active (very hard exercise & physical job or 2 a day training) BMR x 1.9

 
Once you work this out you need to know how much weight you want to lose if you want 10kgs, you need to know the Lbs version for 10 its 22 Lbs. (1kg x 2.2lbs)

There are roughly 3500 calories in one pound of fat, so then it’s 22 x 3500 = 77,000

Your holiday is in 15 weeks – it’s then 77,000 / 15 = 5,133
5,133 / 7(days) = 733 that’s a 733-calorie deficit per day which is seems like quite a lot however,
 
That’s 1.46 Lbs loss a week (5133 / 3500 = 1.46) which is a pretty decent rate of weight loss.
 
From there you need to work out your protein per days which is your body weight in Kg x 1.8-2.2 if you're try to lose weight I prefer the higher end, so 2.2g per kg.
 
So, for example 70kg x 2.2 = 154g per day of protein which is (154 x 4(calories per gram) = 616 calories per day of protein
 
Now you have your daily calories, you know how many of them are taken from protein it’s now completely up to you where your other calories come from, whether it’s high fat/low carb, low fat high carb, moderate fat/moderate carb whatever mix, make sure it makes you feel good, in a calorie deficit there is only so good you can feel and also you can stick to it through the duration of your diet.
 
Once you have all this information you need to implement it, you need to work out where to gets those calories from and build your own plan, it can change week to week but if you know what to eat and have a proper plan, that you have created, you’re less likely to buy random things in the store.

This is a little sneak peak of a part of the carbohydrate e-book.

Effects on the body:
The only carbs you can absorb through the gut glucose, galactose and fructose. They are the only ones that hit a vein called the portal vein on the way to the liver, where those 3 are processed.
The others which are sucrose, lactose and galactose are broken down into their monosaccharides glucose and fructose, maltodextrin, starches are broken down into their single molecular glucose.
 
From the liver, glucose generally goes directly into the bloodstream as that’s the source most things use and prefer, fructose can either be converted into glucose where again it will be sent and stored as muscle glycogen, the body stores about 300-400 grams, however Carb loading and keto diets will increase or decrease this amount respectively, it could also be turned into liver glycogen (which is stored in the liver approx. 50-100 grams) or converted into lactate, please note that more than 50 grams of lactose can be converted into fatty acid however this is very unlikely unless you eat A LOT of fruit, and I don’t think anyone reading this is eating double maybe triple figures of apples and pears.
 
Basically this means that whatever carb you eat it will mostly get turned into glucose, fructose and galactose and even then it’s only glucose that makes it back out the liver and into the blood, this does not mean all your carbs can come from snickers and bounty’s - still eat a variety of fruit and veg to get more than enough vitamins and minerals, be smart with your food choices but does it mean you can be more free with your diet? bloody hell yes,  if you’re eating enough vitamins and minerals does that mean you can fit in some of the good stuff you love eating? yes, as long as you are still in a calorie deficit or at calorie maintenance you will still lose weight or stay at the same weight.
 
The only difference then between the different carbohydrate types is the speed they are digested and the added health bonuses of vitamins and minerals.
 
There are two other Digestive carbohydrates we will talk about oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, we will tackle Polysaccharides first.
 
Polysaccharides – Poly means ‘many’ and as we know saccharides means ‘sugar’ – this chain of carbohydrates is hundreds sometimes thousands of glucose molecules long, for us this almost always means starch - amylose (a straight chain of glucose) or amylopectin (a branched tree like
chain of glucose molecules).
 
Amylose starts digestion in the mouth and if you don’t believe me pop a piece of bread in your mouth and chew a tiny bit to start it breaking down just let it sit there, you will then start to taste a very sweet taste which is the Alpha-amylase breaking down the starch into free-glucose.
 
But I hear you cry, if glucose is stored in the muscle and animal meat is muscle then why doesn’t my juicy steaks have any carbs? then this is mother nature’s way of making sure the animal can decompose, so if you want glucose in your meat go and grab your sharpest knife, hunting gear and probably some Imodium, because the second you kill the animal, it's body will start to breakdown and will get rid of as much of the glucose as it can as quickly as it can.

If you want to know more then the link to sign up to get access to more ebooks, recipe packs etc then click below to find out more!

Firstly, what do I mean by liquid calories?

Any calories that’s are in fizzy drinks, coffees, any liquid drink that has calories.
 
I think they should be minimised, what’s the point in wasting your daily/weekly limit on drinks?
 
If you have 3 teas a day that’s 198 ish calories per day but then you have a coke at lunch, and you have a special Caramel latte for lunch – this could very easily get to over 600 calories, from what?
 
You would have drunk all that and not feel any more hydrated, for 400 calories, you could have 2 large cookies and still have your tea.

When your dieting, especially if your dieting on lower calories ever calorie has to be used to maximize not only satiety but also your cravings for your favourite foods, its essential to a sustained deficit that you have something that you like in your diet, and if you’re wasting calories on a caramel latte, it’s just a stupid idea.

For some people by just cutting out or minimize liquid calories you can get into quite a large deficit, take the above for example, if someone has the 3 teas, 2 special coffees, and 3 cokes throughout the day that can reach over 1000 calories,

Now you can keep the teas as that would be habitual so stacking another habit on to the tea making process would be a good idea.

But swap the cokes for coke zero, diet coke, pepsi max etc so zero calorie versions of them, and completely cut the coffees or again swap them for lower calories options.

Eventually you want to try and minimize the fizzy drinks, just think about your teeth!

So, this week take a few days to log everything you drink, workout the calories, comment below with what you drink and the calories and lets try and workout what alternatives you could have.

I will write another blog about habit stacking next week, it’s an absolutely incredible tool for weight loss, muscle gain, health and general life success to be honest!