Nutrition is the key!

I am sorry to say so, but you will not be able to go far with exercises alone. If you believe that a strength training session will allow you to stuff your face with processed burgers... I am going to blow that bubble right here, right now.

The exercises you do (and remember, your sweat session needs to be a sweat session, not taking selfies in the gym mirror) is 20% of your success. It is the food that makes the difference! Ok, ok, I get that, but what to eat? Keep on reading.

I could write about food & nutrition for hours (somebody, stop me!), so instead I will just tell you what not to eat and give some basic guidelines. Wow, still difficult, where do I start?

1. EAT CLEAN FOOD: stay away from anything that is processed. How do you know what is processed and what is not? Anything that comes from nature is good for you and anything that doesn't come form nature, but is rather produced by humans is bad, bad, bad! I will repeat after Zoe Harcombe... Oranges come from a tree (good stuff), orange juice - NOT!
Why is it so important to eat clean food?

A bit of science (mind you, this is a simplified sketch):
If you eat a potato your body knows that you ate a potato. Potato is carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are eventually converted and absorbed into the blood in the form of glucose. Now, once the blood glucose level rises, the pancreas releases insulin to return the glucose level in the blood to normal levels. Some of the glucose will be converted into glycogen (stored in muscles or liver). Once the glycogen storage is full (if you do not use it up for energy), insulin will convert it into fatty tissues (fat we so much hate and want to get rid of). This is why insulin is so important in losing/gaining fat! You want to eat food that doesn't cause the release of insulin.

Action of insulin

So, going back to our potato -> once you eat a potato your blood glucose level rises and the pancreas releases as much insulin as needed (not too much, not too little) to bring the blood glucose level back to normal after.
However, if you eat mashed potatoes or any other processed food your body sees it as an alien food, so the pancreas will not release the "right" amount of insulin, but will release 20 times as much. Now, that's where the horror starts. So much insulin will surely get bored and will start converting glycogen into fat. Another thing is, that after eating processed food, your blood glucose level goes up up up very fast, and then (due to the insulin release) goes down immediately, below the normal level, so you will need to eat something sweet again to rise the blood glucose level (low blood glucose level is dangerous, but I will not write about that now) and this is how the vicious circle starts. You will keep on eating carbs to bring the blood glucose level up, it will drop after the insulin release and again and again and again.

Just think about how hard it is to stop eating candies once you start. You eat one after another.

Ok, for all of you who don't make much of my science talk above, just remember to eat clean food.

2. REDUCE CARBOHYDRATES TO MINIMUM: The reason is the same. Insulin is released to the blood ONLY when you it carbs, and storing fat is only possible in the presence of insulin.
Don't get me wrong, I am not telling you to ditch brown rice, fruit (fresh, not juice and not dried!) etc.. You can eat that every now and then, especially after a long cardio session when you feel exhausted (you may even feel sleepy!), but do not eat too much of carbs and NEVER combine them with fat (e.g. pasta with bacon is a big NO!). Why? Because your body will use carbs (pasta) as an immediate energy source and will store fat (bacon) for later. Storing fat is only possible in the presence of insulin (and of course your body release insulin cause you ate carbs). So, if you make a risotto, make it vegetarian, if you eat wholemeal(!) pasta - add peas and onion, drop the bacon!

The beautiful thing is that if you reduce carbohydrate intake to minimum or even stop eating carbs all together, your pancreas will start releasing glucagon (have a look at the image above), which will cause liver to break down the stored glycogen (your soon-to-be fat) into glucose and release it into the blood to release the blood level. This way you get rid of glycogen (stored fat) and start losing fat (again, please remember, I simplified the process just to give you an idea).

3. STOP COUNTING CALORIES: calories do not make you fat. This is such a long story. The theory of calorie counting has no base whatsoever (another long story) and it doesn't work! I am a real example of that.
If calorie counting worked, all those ladies who eat weight watchers crisps would be slim, instead they are obese and sick. Of course, when - from one day to another - you decide to eat as few as 1000 calories a day, you will lose weight, but you will lose lean muscle(!) not fat. Your body will go into a starvation mode and will slow down the metabolism to minimum, so in a month you will start gaining weight eating still just 1000 calories. Now you need to go down to 800 calories a day > in a month your body will get used to that > you need to drop down to 600 and so on and so forth.

Calories from protein and fat are the fuel that your body needs, they are called the Basic Metabolic Rate calories. You need them to repair your cells, pump the blood, manage the waste, stay alive! Calories from carbs are purely for the energy (so if you are not going to run a marathon, you do not need them!). Anyway, you can get energy from protein and fat (fat is the most concentrated source of energy, by the way). So carbs are, simply speaking, useless! They do not help you with your BMR, they have no vitamins or minerals that you couldn't find in protein or fat, and they can only be used for energy, but then again, you can use fat and protein for energy instead.

If you start counting calories, you will start eating all the bad food, processed fat-reduced chips, crisps, reduced calorie drinks, reduced-calorie snacks etc. You will end up eating 3 apples a day, 4 cups of coffee and reduced-calories chocolate bars. You will eat fewer than 1000 calories per day for sure, but you will feed your body with glucose all the day long (remember what I said about insulin and gaining fat?) and you will never get any BMR calories that your body needs. You ill feel sick, without energy, lack of concentration and woman will lose their period, which of course is a sign something is wrong (I can confirm, been there, done that). It is not worth it cause you neither lose weight any longer (even start gaining) and your life gets miserable.

So, to cut a long story short:

The recommended ratio of carbs, fat and protein is 10/30/60, respectively!

A good guide to get your 10 carbs, 30 fat and 60 protein :)

In the Internet you will find a lot of info on the so called eat well plate (are you kidding me?), which recommends making carbs and starchy food 50% or even 60% of your daily calories intake. It is not a joke, unfortunately. If you believe in it, have a look at the UK population that blindly follows that plan, where over half of men and women are overweight, and by 2030 the numbers will increase (Have a look at this article from the Guardian). Now, think twice and reduce your carbs and definitely get read of that bag of crisps you are hiding in the drawer by the desk.


P.S. The above guideline is really basic, and there is so much more to cover. Yet, I hope I gave you some idea of how a human body works and processes food and how to eat to stay healthy and fit, to get results and do not exercises in vain. If, however, you are interest and would like to know more, I strongly advise checking what Zoe Harcombe has to say: http://www.zoeharcombe.com