Nutrition is the foundation to health, therefore this course has been created for you to learn about food and how to eat well for life.
About this course
Nutrition is the foundation to health, therefore this course has been created for you to learn about food and how to eat well for life.
Macronutrients are nutrients that provide us with energy and are vital for our everyday living. There are 3 types:
The calories (or energy I prefer to say) that we gain from these macronutrients is:
The only other fuel source we gain calories from is alcohol which is 7 calories per gram but this isn’t a macro nutrient as we don’t need it for survival. So going by the above, you’re thinking, carbs and protein ok, but steer clear of the fat as there’s over double calories per gram. Am I right?
We always think of fat as the enemy but it isn’t, it’s an essential part of our diet, yet so many of us are lacking in it. What I emphasis through this programme is, eating fat doesn’t make you fat. Your macronutrient intake has to contain all 3 otherwise you have an imbalance.
So why do we need them and what do they do?
Every carbohydrate you eat bread, pasta, cereal, potatoes, rice, fruit, dessert, sweets etc. is eventually converted to a simple form of sugar (glucose). In essence, when you eat a bagel, your body is getting the equivalent of a handful of sugar cubes. If you source about 60% of your calories from carbohydrates (as many nutritionists, doctors, and other misguided souls recommend) your body will be subjected to the equivalent of 2 cups of pure sugar a day.
Carbohydrates are primarily responsible for enabling fat storage, it is not difficult to see why the majority of the UK are overweight. This is largely due to the pancreas releasing insulin to help lower your blood sugar. In doing so we get a signal to the brain that we’re hungry, so we eat another carb based sugary meal or snack and the cycle continues. This is known as spiking.
You Don’t Need Carbohydrates to Survive
Your body does not require carbohydrates in the same way that it needs protein or fat to function. Carbohydrates are not used as structural components in the body; instead, they are used only as a form of fuel, whether burned immediately or stored as glycogen or fat.
While your body quickly malfunctions without ample amounts of fat or protein, the actual amount of carbohydrate your body requires from food is zero.
The brain is the only organ that needs glucose, roughly 130 grams a day. However, while your brain runs on glucose, you do not need to EAT glucose to provide it with the glucose it requires; your liver has the ability to transform 58% of the protein you eat into glucose. As such, eating plenty of protein supplies the liver with the raw material to manufacture glucose on its own.
Protein is part of every living cell in your body and vital for growth, repair and development of tissue and bones. It also makes up many hormones and plays a vital roll in the antibodies that fight disease.
Protein is divided into 2 groups
Complete proteins come from animal sources and incomplete come from plants. Proteins are also made up of long chains of amino acids. There are 20 different types, 8 are essential 12 are non-essential. All 8 essential are found in complete. The remaining 12 are incomplete. It's vital we get our essential amino acids for bodily functions as listed above. If you're vegetarian you can get all 8 by eating a mixture of incomplete proteins.
Protein is the most important macronutrient for reaching and maintaining your ideal body composition. It gives a tremendous boost to overall health, improving immunity and antioxidant function, building HDL (good) cholesterol, and enhancing insulin function. In addition, protein facilitates the message to the body to feel satisfied.
Protein has a powerful thermogenic effect, meaning it revs up your metabolism and helps you burn calories. It also makes you feel fuller than carbs or fat do, so you tend to eat less than you would if your meals were mostly carbs and fat.
Protein stimulates your pancreas to produce a hormone called glucagon. Glucagon’s job is to increase your blood sugar and promote the mobilisation of previously stored fat. Meaning as you burn food reserves between meals, high levels of glucagon are helping remove the layer of fat from around the waist, thighs, hips etc.
On the other hand high glycemic load (carbohydrate rich meals) suppresses glucagon secretion. This means the stuff that mobilises stored fat (glucagon) isn’t there, but the hormone that promotes storage (insulin) is... even worse for the waistline!
If you want to curb hunger and lose weight rapidly without deprivation, eat more high-quality protein – up to 1 gram per pound of your ideal body weight daily. As long as you eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, it is nearly impossible to eat too much protein.
Lipids (Fat) - the most complex of all! Many are scared of consuming it as it contains 9 calories per gram, it is however, an essential macronutrient.
Its role within the body is to;
Fat has been blamed for all the world’s problems including heart disease, clogged arteries and obesity. But a high intake of fat isn’t the problem — it’s the solution. Fat consumed in food is chemically distinct from stored fat; eating more fat instead of carbs will help you lose fat.
Fats are essentially metabolically inert and have little to no impact on insulin. As a result, eating fat actually enables you to burn both dietary and stored fat as fuel.
Fats protect your body, promote proper cell function, support the release of fat-burning hormones, aid in the absorption of vitamins and minerals, and add flavour to foods. Furthermore, ingesting fat makes you feel full and satisfied in a way that eating carbohydrates does not. Because fat has little to no impact on blood glucose levels and insulin production and takes significantly longer to metabolise than carbohydrates, you feel a deep and long-lasting satisfaction from consuming generous amounts of fat.
One of the roles of fat is the uptake and storage of fat soluble vitamins. This is why we but oil on our salad to enable our body to absorb fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K. You might not think that's important but as Vitamin A (retinol) is essential for eye health, vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption, immunity and cell growth, (vital for children and pregnant women.) Vitamin E is an antioxidant, essential for protection and finally vitamin K plays an essential role for blood clotting (this is why you have the jab after giving birth) and bone health.
What makes us fat then?
Excess carbohydrates that act as a catalyst for fat gain. You may recall that the carbs you eat are converted to sugar, raising your blood glucose and causing the release of insulin which signals your body to store fat. As a result, your liver starts converting excess blood sugar to triglycerides, or fat. Once digested, carbs become fat. you can see a diet low in fat isn't healthy, we just need to make sure its the right fat we're getting. Trans fats are the worst kind and should be avoided otherwise we will become unhealthy as well as overweight.
Why You Should Care About Insulin
Your body can either store or burn fat, but not both at the same time. The level of the hormone insulin in your blood dictates whether your body will burn fat (called lipolysis) or store it (called lipogenesis). Specifically, when insulin is elevated, your body is unable to release fat from your fat stores.
The primary role of insulin is the storage of nutrients. Insulin also regulates the level of sugar in the blood, induces fat storage, and performs thousands of other tasks within the human body. In excess, insulin can make you hungry, moody, sleepy, bloated, or light-headed. It can also elevate cholesterol, raise blood pressure, cause your body to retain fluid, wreak havoc on your arteries, and convert sugar into fat.
Have you noticed that people around you tend to gain weight every year of adulthood even though they haven’t changed their diet or exercise habits? In most cases, their weight gain occurs because they have developed insulin resistance (also known as metabolic syndrome) an extremely common condition that results from long-term overconsumption of carbohydrates.
Here is the cold, hard truth: if you are overweight, then you are probably insulin resistant already.
Your body’s constant battle to regulate your spiking blood sugar (the sugar high) with floods of insulin (the sugar crash) eventually causes your system to malfunction. Insulin essentially stops working and you require more of it to properly clear glucose from the bloodstream. As a result, the pancreas pumps out more and more insulin which creates a constant state of elevated insulin levels in the blood (known as hyperinsulinemia) and low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia). This abundance of fat-storing insulin causes people to become fatter and fatter despite eating the same foods they have for years.
This partially explains why teenagers can drink gallons of fizzy drinks and eat all the pizza, chips, and doughnuts they want without gaining weight: their insulin sensitivity is still intact. As the body ages and insulin resistance eventually kicks-in, however, they suddenly start gaining weight. Some unique bodies can withstand the onslaught of carbs longer than others, but insulin resistance starts affecting most people by their thirties and is evidenced by high blood pressure, increased cholesterol, and love handles.
There are 3 main body types:
One popular method of categorising all the body types is called somatotypes: ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph. The fitness industry has grown and in my experience the three body types weren't accurate to classify people, therefore, you may feel you belong to 2 of these body types; ecto-mesomorph for example.
Your genetics predispose you toward one of the three body types. However, it’s possible to see people getting closer to a different body type than their original one. Dedication into your training and your lifestyle means everything.
Naturally thin, small bone size, often characterised by a short upper body, long legs and arms, narrow feet and hands and tends to have very little fat storage. This individual usually has a small amount of a muscle mass and a high metabolism, which makes weight gain almost impossible.
Nutrition For An Ectomorph
The main goal of an ectomorph is gaining weight and this task is hard. You will usually have a high metabolism, which helps turn foods into energy easily and quickly. If you want to build muscle, your goal will be to mainly increase your daily carbohydrate intake, as well as a higher caloric intake overall.
Recommended macronutrient ratio for an ectomorph who wants to build muscle:
Carbohydrate 50% - Protein 30% - Fat 20%
Training For An Ectomorph
Your main goal if you're an ectomorph is building muscle mass (get toned). You won't have enough strength and endurance to do long training sessions.
During the training sessions, the ectomorph will have to:
The mesomorph has a solid muscle structure and large bones; large chest, long torso, low waist and great strength. You usually have a high metabolism, not as high as ectomorph; but a mesomorph's nutrition can also be high in calories as long as you stay active. This body type is often considered as the "good genetics" and people are normally envious and desire this body type the most.
Nutrition For A Mesomorph
Mesomorphs tends to turn food into muscle really easily, so you need a high amount of protein, but a caloric intake less important than an ectomorph. You can handle a moderate amount of carbs since, but if it becomes too high you will be more likely to store fat compared to an ectomorph.
Recommended macronutrient ratio for an mesomorph who wants to build muscle:
Carbohydrate 40% - Protein 40% - Fat 20%
Recommended macronutrient ratio for an mesomorph who wants to lose fat:
Carbohydrate 30% - Protein 40% - Fat 30%
Training For A Mesomorph
Building muscle for a mesomorph isn’t difficult at all. However, you will have to include different types of exercises in order to develop proportion to the muscle mass, rather than getting just 'muscular'.
Whether you want to build muscle or lose fat, you should:
Mix Compound And Isolation Movements: put an emphasis on mass, quality, details and proportion. That's why the training of a mesomorph should be composed of both compound (multi joint) and isolation (single joint) movements.
Moderate Cardio: cardio sessions should be included in your workout routine, even if you are bulking. The number of sessions should vary between 1 to 4, depending on your fitness goals.
The endomorph is usually round and has a soft musculature; round face, wide hips, shot neck and heavy fat storage. Endomorphs have a slow metabolism, so they need to watch what they eat in order to get fit. You should aim for a moderate caloric intake and add cardio exercises and weight lifting so you can burn more calories and boost your metabolism.
Nutrition For An Endomorph
An endomorph often has a slow metabolism and has greater amount of fat cells. Endomorphs can build a lot of muscle, but they will have to watch what they eat in order to keep their body lean. In that case, carbohydrates should be limited, whether it's for building muscle or lose fat.
Recommended macronutrient ratio for an endomorph who wants to build muscle:
Carbohydrate 30% - Protein 50% - Fat 20%
Recommended macronutrient ratio for an endomorph who wants to lose fat:
Carbohydrate 20% - Protein 50% - Fat 30%
Training For An Endomorph
Building mass for an endomorph is not very difficult neither. You will have to be concerned with weight loss, this is why you should be dedicated into your diet and workouts, which will help you achieve this goal.
Whether you want to build muscle or lose fat, you should perform;
Your gut plays a major role in your immunity and health. Some 80-85% of your immune cells is located within your digestive system.
Your gut is a huge ecosystem of a trillion bacteria; in total, they weigh about six pounds. Some of these bacteria are beneficial and some are harmful. The good bacteria helps to digest our food, assist in assimilation, create nutrients, and protect us against toxins. Without them, our health will be in great jeopardy.
This colony of bacteria is separated from the rest of your body by the gut lining. This lining's main job is to let in the vital nutrients from your food and keep out all the harmful substances such as toxins and undigested food particles from the rest of the body.
To have a healthy gut, you need to have:
Without both, your immune system will be hugely compromised, eventually leading to many gut and health problems.
Common Gut Issues
Unfortunately, for many of us, our gut health has been challenged by a poor diet and modern lifestyle and the overuse of prescription drugs (antibiotics, antacids, birth control pills, NSAIDs, steroids), resulting in an overgrowth of bad bacteria and intestinal permeability, a condition called leaky gut. Here are some of the most common gut problems:
1. Low stomach acid
Likely causes include chronic psychological stress which reduces stomach acid production and overuse of heartburn drugs that neutralise stomach acid or suppress its production.
In a healthy situation when your body can produce enough acid, the stomach is extremely acidic in the presence of food. The pH can be as low as 1 and the acid will destroy most of the harmful bacteria in the food. However, if you don't produce enough acid, the pH can go up to 4 or 5 and this may allow the bad opportunistic bacteria to survive and thrive within your intestinal tract.
2. Abnormal gut flora with an over abundance of bad bacteria
In a healthy gut, their numbers are limited and tightly controlled by the beneficial bacteria. But when this beneficial flora is weakened and damaged, the opportunists get out of control. A common opportunistic flora is the yeast fungus called Candida albicans. Candida infection is a direct result of abnormal gut flora.
Common causes are over use of antibiotics (also found in commercially raised meats, milk, and eggs) that have a devastating effect on the good bacteria, and a diet high in sugary foods and processed carbohydrates and lacking in fermented foods, which are rich in live cultures that can help inoculate the gut with good bacteria.
Some people with an abnormal gut flora may be asymptomatic, but some may have gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, belching, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and constipation. More and more research is now linking Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis to an abnormal gut flora.
3. Leaky gut
Most people who have an overgrowth of the opportunistic gut flora have some degree of intestinal permeability. The bad bacteria constantly produces toxic substances, which are by-products of their metabolism. Such bacteria damages the integrity of the gut wall barrier, making it permeable for toxins to leak through. Once the toxins get circulated into the lymph and bloodstream, they cause problems in various organs in the body, especially the brain and skin.
Leaky gut has been associated with many brain disorders like ADHD/ADD, autism, various learning disorders, Alzheimer's, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety as well as skin conditions such as acne, eczema, and psoriasis.
When you have a leaky gut, partially digested foods also get through the gut wall into the bloodstream, where the immune system recognises them as foreign and attacks them. This is how food allergies and intolerances develop. In many cases, when the gut wall is healed, food allergies naturally disappear. Given what we know, it is not at all surprising that a number of studies show that the integrity of the gut barrier plays a major role in many autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's, type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Finally, leaky gut may lead to nutritional deficiencies as it interferes with the proper absorption of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, B vitamins, and other micronutrients.
The human body has an incredible ability to heal itself, given the right help. However, be patient as recovery can be slow and may take up to a year or two if there is serious gut damage. To have good overall health, you first need to heal the digestive tract, so it stops being the major source of toxicity in the body. Second, you need to remove the toxins that have already been stored in the body. The following are some diet and lifestyle recommendations:
Conventional medicine often views the body in distinct systems and psychological problems as independent from the rest of the body. But in actuality, our brains are inextricably tied to the gastrointestinal tract. Have you ever felt "butterflies" in your stomach before giving a presentation or intestinal pain during times of stress? The brain has a direct effect on the gut and the connection goes both ways.
Just as the brain has neurones (nerve cells), the gut also has neurones, including neurones that produce neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) like serotonin that are responsible for controlling mood, sleep, and appetite. 90-95 percent of our serotonin is made in the gut. The neurotransmitters then travel from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve, which is the longest nerve that emerges directly from the brain. Therefore, if our gut health is compromised, the production of serotonin and other neurotransmitters will also be compromised. A deficiency in serotonin may cause depression, anxiety, sleep cycle disturbances, carbohydrate cravings, as well as PMS.
The vast majority of psychological complaints such as brain fog, concentration issues, anxiety disorders, depression, mood swings, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder are rooted in neurotransmitter imbalances that begin in the gut. Chronic digestive problems (including gas, bloating, acid reflux, constipation, and diarrhoea), fatigue, toenail fungus, and cold hands and feet may also be indicators of gut-brain dysfunction.
How Is Your Gut Causing Brain Symptoms?
1. Infections in the gut
In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the microbes in the gut play a vital role in brain health. First, researchers found that depending on what species of bacteria dominate a person's gut, the connections between brain regions differ, resulting in the manifestation of different behaviours. For example, when some autistic children were given probiotics (beneficial bacteria), autistic behaviour disappeared or strongly ameliorated.
Second, studies found that pathogenic (bad) bacteria in the gut interact with the immune system to cause the release of inflammatory cytokines (proteins involved in cell signalling) which then travel throughout the body. When they get to the brain, inflammation serves to shunt the use of tryptophan (an amino acid that makes serotonin) toward production of anxiety-provoking chemicals rather than serotonin and melatonin (the sleep hormone).
When we have enough good bacteria in the gut, the opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms are normally kept in check. However, several factors tend to disrupt a healthy gut ecosystem:
Infections in the gut may be viral, bacterial, parasitic, and/or fungal. The two most common type of infections are Candida yeast (fungal) overgrowth and Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO).
We all have some Candida yeast in the body. Yet, when the yeast becomes too numerous, it coats the lining of the intestinal tract and suppresses our ability to make serotonin. Candida yeast affects the brain and mood by producing chemicals that are neurotoxic. This is the reason why so many people with Candida overgrowth complain of brain fog, poor memory, anxiety, and depression.
Similarly, SIBO occurs when bacteria in the small intestine get out of balance and overgrow. Normally, the large intestine is full of bacteria but the small intestine should not. (SIBO can be diagnosed with the simple, non-invasive lactulose breath test.) With SIBO, the bacteria feed off carbohydrates and break them down into short-chain fatty acids, creating gas and causing bloating. Have you even eaten something and within a few hours your stomach is so bloated that you cannot even button your pants? In addition, SIBO can lead to a B12 deficiency, causing symptoms such as fatigue, depression, and anxiety.
2. Wrong foods causing leaky gut and inflammation in the brain
Certain foods can manifest psychological symptoms. An obvious example is coffee which exacerbates anxiety. Others may be more subtle, hence, many people are not aware of their consequences.
In this fast-paced society, most of us are eating far too much processed and packaged foods that are filled with gluten, dairy, corn, and soy. These foods may unknowingly be sabotaging your brain health.
3. High-carb, low-fat diet worst for the brain
In the last few decades, the media has been touting the idea that we should be on a low-fat or close to no-fat, low-cholesterol diet to stay healthy. So we end up indulging in abundant amounts of carbohydrates and are almost void of fat and cholesterol. The problem with this diet is that it is exactly the opposite of what the brain needs. Our brains thrive when given good fats, and cholesterol is one of them, and we do not do so well with copious amounts of sugar and carbs, even if those carbs are gluten-free, whole grain, and high in fibre.
One of the ways in which carbs set off the inflammatory cascade in the brain is through surges in blood sugar. When blood sugar increases, neurotransmitters, which are the main mood and brain regulators, immediately get depleted. That means your levels of serotonin, epinephrine, norepinephrine, GABA, and dopamine all go down, not to mention that chronic blood sugar surges are tied to insulin resistance, leading to diabetes, and obesity.
Additionally, being diabetic doubles the risk of Alzheimer's disease. This is why Alzheimer's is now called type 3 diabetes. With insulin resistance, the body may not be able to break down a type of protein called amyloid that forms brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's. It also provokes inflammation that can result in hardening and narrowing of the arteries in the brain. Research shows that even being "pre-diabetic", when blood sugar issues are just beginning, is associated with a decline in brain function and shrinkage of the brain's memory centre.
As with fats, it is true that certain types are damaging to health. There is compelling scientific support that trans fats and commercially processed vegetable oils (e.g. corn, soy, canola, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower) are toxic and linked to many chronic diseases. Yet, healthy fats (like omega-3s in fish oil and monounsaturated fats in olive oil) and cholesterol (in saturated fats) are vital to brain health. The human brain is made up of more than 70 percent fat! There is ample evidence showing that eating high cholesterol foods has no impact on our actual cholesterol levels. The alleged correlation between higher cholesterol and higher cardiac risk is an absolute fallacy.
What To Do?
The key to recovering from many of the most common psychological symptoms is recognising that most are actually rooted in the gut, not the brain. If you already suffer from digestive ailments, it is essential that you heal your gut and eat the right diet in order to bring your body back to balance and regain psychological health.
Many people mistakenly think that water is an enemy to weight loss. However, retained water is easy to reverse. Fat loss is much more difficult to achieve. A lack of sufficient water can actually make it harder to lose fat because of the damaging effects to health when you lack enough water in your body. A lack of water could very well interfere with the essential functions involved in your body's metabolism of fat. To better understand this, you have to have some understanding of how body function, water and weight loss go together.
Water is at the centre of all life function. Water makes up at least 2/3 of your body. Water makes up more than 9/10 of your blood, where nutrients are distributed. Water is used by your body to properly absorb water soluble vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from the foods you eat. Drinking plenty of water helps your kidneys function better at removing poisonous wastes, weight and other wastes from your body.
In addition to its aid in metabolic function, drinking plenty of water can have major benefits in other parts of health. Water is responsible for helping your body regulate your body temperature. Water also helps keep your blood thin to prevent complications from clotting and hypertension. Water helps keep your joints and muscles well lubricated. Water is necessary to keep your skin healthy. Water can be beneficial in treating many headaches. So there are a lot of benefits to combining water and weight loss that go beyond just metabolic function.
One of the most important links between water and weight loss is that water can make your stomach feel full. Also, in some cases your brain may make you feel hungry if you are deficient in water because some water can be extracted from foods. In many cases when you feel hungry, you may actually be thirsty. So drinking plenty of water can help your brain distinguish better when you are actually hungry. So there is a lot more to water and weight loss than just maintaining proper metabolic function.
To test this out for yourself, just drink half a litre of water the next time you are feeling hungry and you know you have eaten within the last five hours. After five minutes, you should feel less hungry. If you don't feel less hungry, you know it is true hunger and you probably didn't eat enough fibre during your last meal. It is a good idea to always carry a bottle of water with you and drink consistently throughout the day. However, you should not exceed 4 litres per day without first consulting your doctor about your body's water capacity.
It is important to understand that even a small individual needs at least 2 litres of water per day under normal circumstance. There are other factors that can increase your water needs. How active you are, how much you sweat, how much soda you drink, your health, and how much caffeine you consume can also have an impact on your water and weight loss needs. The reason why you need to be careful with caffeine and fizzy drinks is that they are diuretics. This means that they cause your body to give up the water it would normally hold on to for normal body function.
It is possible to get some extra water out of other sources, but the amount you get is not enough to alleviate your need to drink plenty of water. For example, many types of fruit have a high water content. Fruit not only can have plenty of water, but it tends to have plenty of fibre too, making it an excellent hunger suppressant. Additionally, of course, fruit is loaded with vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients. There are also some vegetables that may be an excellent source of water and nutrients. But, again, drinking water is still necessary. Try to carry a bottle of water with you at all times. This will greatly aid you in staying hydrated as you combine water and weight loss to improve your health.
Symptoms of Dehydration
Many people live their daily lives short of the water they need for hydration simply because the only symptom of dehydration they are aware of is thirst. But there are several other symptoms that you may be dehydrated. The most common unrecognised symptom of dehydration is headaches. If you have a lot of headaches, you may be shocked to find out that just drinking more water reduces your number of headaches each day. You may also experience a loss of mental acuity during dehydration, as the chemicals in your blood get out of balance and your blood may even become toxic. If you aren't peeing every two hours, you are probably dehydrated. Or, if you pee yellow any time other than when you first wake up, you may be dehydrated. Likewise, if you are constipated, you may be surprised to see the constipation disappear with a little more water daily. Unhealthy skin or rough skin can also be symptoms of water shortage. Finally, experiencing frequent dry mouth or bad breath unrelated to food consumption can be indicators that you need to drink more often.
If You Suspect Dehydration
Water is vital to life, so if you have symptoms above, you should check with your doctor about whether you are getting enough to drink. Also, water can be toxic if you drink too much, so consult with your doctor. Proper amounts of water and weight loss are closely related, as is water and health. So make sure you get enough water to drink each day.
Your hormones play a huge part in how your body functions and in particular, whether you store fat or burn fat. Hormones are chemical messengers that are secreted into the blood and travel around the body to organs and tissue. They're created by glands of the body which is part of your endocrine system.
The main ones are listed below;
The hormones I want to go more in-depth with are Insulin, Cortisol, Growth Hormone, Ghrelin and Leptin.
Insulin is produced in the pancreas and is responsible for controlling and releasing sugar in our liver, muscle and fat cells. When we eat carbohydrates (starch carbs) the sugar content is absorbed into our blood stream and elevates our blood sugar levels. Subsequently our body releases insulin to lower our blood sugar, which creates a dip in energy. This normally happens around 11am and 3pm (after a sugary or carb heavy breakfast and lunch) causing us to feel sluggish and tired. Our brain craves sugar and in response we reach for a sweet snack, the whole cycle of blood sugar spiking repeats itself and before we know it insulin is going up and down all day like a rollercoaster. Unfortunately insulin is the fat storing hormone so excess secretion will result in more stored body fat.
Sustained high levels of insulin or spiking as mentioned above) cause us to become insulin resistant. This means our bodies become less sensitive to insulin, our immune systems are low, we become pre-diabetic and our body fat increases.
What is insulin resistance?
Insulin resistance occurs when your cells are less responsive and the receptors don't properly bind with the insulin. When this occurs the pancreas keeps producing insulin to try and lower blood sugar, but as the cells do not respond properly, insulin is now high, which means fat storage plus elevated levels of cortisol (stress hormone). Inflammation also occurs which also prevents weight loss.
How do i know if I'm insulin resistant?
The most accurate way is to measure your blood glucose levels each morning with a finger prick testing kit. It's not the nicest thing to do when you get out of bed but if you're fed up off slow progress this could be vital. Normal blood glucose levels should be between 70-100mg/dL. (The nearer to 70 the better) If your reading is between 100-140 mg/dL this is pre diabetic and would suggest you're insulin resistant. Anything higher than 140 is diabetic.
How to improve insulin health
The fat you eat plays a huge role in this. Every cell in your body is made up of lipids (fat), if you eat good fat your more sensitive to insulin therefore the insulin receptors bind to it easier allowing glucose to enter the cell and be used as fuel. If it's bad fat like trans fat, or you have an imbalance between omega 3 and omega 6 they won't.
Getting the balance right
Omega 6 is found in vegetable oil like corn, sesame and peanut, and used in baked or processed foods. Omega 3's fats are the most liquid of fats, so when your bodily cells are mainly made up of these you're going to allow insulin receptors bind to them more easily. Look at increasing omega 3 and make sure the ones you're taking contain DHA.
Ways to reduce your insulin level:
Muscle acts as storage pods for insulin. Having more storage available will improve your insulin sensitivity.
Consider your muscles as car parking bays. The sugar are the cars. When the car parks are full there is nowhere else to park.
The sugar now has to find somewhere else to park (store as fat). By exercising using weight training and more conditioning based exercise you are creating more parking spaces (because the muscles are getting bigger) so you will be able to tolerate more sugar.
Known as a stress hormone is produced by our adrenal glands. Increased by lack of sleep, over exercising/constantly exercising for long periods. It’s important to remember that hormones behave differently depending on the environment they’re in. For example, releasing cortisol during a workout is normal and this is a healthy release, exercise is a form of stress therefore cortisol is released along with growth hormone to optimise fat burning.
When cortisol is high due to stress of work, emotion and anxiety it activates a part of our brain craves unhealthy sweet food. You’ll be overwhelmed by bagels, cake and other varieties of beige food. Once you give in and eat this your blood sugar will raise and insulin is released. The worst possible combination of hormones to be secreted at the same time… Boom the perfect belly fat storing environment.
There are 4 times more cortisol receptors in your stomach which sadly mens it is a area that will store body fat if your levels are high. Cortisol weakens your immune system, contributes to infertility, increases blood pressure and reduces bone formation (contributing to osteoporosis)
Some ways that you can reduce your cortisol levels are:
Growth Hormone is regulated by 3 things, sleep, exercise and nutrition. Its secreted by the anterior pituitary gland and our body is constantly trying to create more of it. It’s released several times a day based on the 3 factors above and feeds on body fat. The main surge of it being approx 1 hour after the onset of sleep. Yes you can actually burn fat during your sleep!! However, to get the most effective use of it, your other hormones need to be in sync with HGH (Human Growth Hormone.) Exercise is the next most powerful stimulus and it’s important you get your post nutrition refuel correct as you don’t want to interrupt HGH job of burning fat. The hormone is a protein peptide and its job is cell regeneration, tissue repair and growth so eating protein will give your body the amino acids you need for growth, repair, development and fat loss. It is vital not to under eat for fat loss.
Some of the best protein post exercise snacks are:
I would avoid adding fruit to this snack as growth hormone is also a stress hormone and as mentioned previously with cortisol, stress hormone and insulin released together are going to encourage fat storage.
Ghrelin is your hunger hormone, an appetite stimulant that is found in the stomach and also encourages the release of growth hormone. This hormone has also been held responsible for slowing metabolism and decreasing the body's ability to burn fat. When the stomach is empty, ghrelin is secreted. When the stomach is stretched, secretion stops.
When Ghrelin receptors are blocked, the signal from your stomach to your brain (that tells you when you are hungry or full) becomes unclear if your diet is heavy in sugar and generally bad foods.
Eventually the signal mis-fires and regulates at the wrong times (leaving you with food cravings). Food that contains preservatives, sweeteners, are preserved or covered in sauces will all contribute to poor Ghrelin responses being lower.
The Ghrelin response is commonly felt after eating fast food. When eating fast food you will become full quickly and feel tired and bloated after. A short time later you will crave sugar and eventually become hungry again even though a short time ago you had a large meal.
Other foods that will effect you Ghrelin response are high in starch and gluten such as pasta, potato, bread and flour.
One of the best ways to allow your Ghrelin receptors to work efficiently is to eat a protein breakfast. The morning is when your stomach receptors are clear and the neurotransmission between the stomach and brain are set for the rest of the day. Eating protein will allow you to feel fuller for longer, give your brain the satisfaction from the amino acids (that are essential) and prevent fast drops in sugar (referred to as a spike) that you would get if you ate cereals, toast, yoghurt or fruit for breakfast not forgetting drinks like orange juice or smoothies (all full of sugar.)
Ghrelin also responds well to a good nights sleep so make sure you’re getting 7-8 hours per night
Leptin does exactly the opposite of Ghrelin and is an appetite suppressant, both of these hormones act upon receptors in the hypothalamus to regulate appetite. They work in conjunction with each other regulating secretion like a thermostat. Imagine your body weight thermostat is 65kg and you go on a diet and lose a 2kg, dropping you below 65kg. Ghrelin goes up to stimulate the appetite, which in turn lowers Leptin (an appetite suppressant). Now tour Leptin levels are lower its going to cause hunger. (That’s why old fashioned weight loss diets create a yoyo effect of weight loss and weight gain.) This process would continue until weight is regained bringing levels back up to 65kg. Leptin increases again and Ghrelin decreases stabilising hunger pangs and weight. If you've tried to lose weight by dieting alone, you've certainly experienced this phenomenon. As you lose more and more weight it becomes harder and harder to lose more weight, due to increasing hunger.
How you can combat this cycle.
Firstly, don’t starve yourself or deprive yourself, this will only stress the thermostat too much raising your Ghrelin levels. Secondly, you can try to "fool" your body into thinking it should be leaner. The key to this is resistance training as it increases lean muscle mass. Muscle is a high metabolically active, food-burning furnace and by adding in resistance training to your workouts you will increase your metabolic rate. Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is determined by your height, weight and activity levels. You can calculate it yourself using the Harris Benedict Equation.
Metric BMR Formula
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kilos) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)
Days 1-10 of starting the nutrition plan are known as the detox and are the most important.
It is in this first step that your carbohydrate intake is at its lowest. You will be getting your carbohydrates from vegetables.
In this detox stage the body will be recovering from all the processed sugary food it has been accustomed to and removing toxins that are stored in the fat cells.
By cutting out processed foods and bad carbohydrates, the body will be in an optimal fat burning state and this, along with exercise is the ideal way to loose fat quickly and keep it off.
Once the detox stage is over you can start to introduce more natural carbohydrates including some fruit. If step one has been done correctly the body will be able to process sugar better, and can handle a certain amount of sugar as long as it comes from the correct source.
The first 10 days are very important, this period is very strict and has to be completely free of processed carbohydrates. The aim of this stage is to detox the body from all the bad processed foods and put back the building blocks for good health.
On the 11th day it's cheat meal day!
For one meal that day eat and drink whatever you want, so if it's fish and chips and a massive cream cake, enjoy!
Cheat meals
Cheat meal time comes around every 5 days, if you want to make it more infrequent than that, once a week or just on special occasions is fine. If you want to make the most of it and cheat every 5th day then that is equally fine.
The only cheat meal rules are:
Make it a meal and not a day
After the first 10 days of the plan, the body will have entered a fat burning state. So now is the time to start re-introducing some natural carbohydrates which will not be stored as fat but used as fuel.
The foods you can start to re-introduce to the plan include:
The nutrition plan is not a diet, it is a lifestyle
Try to keep up the good eating habits so you can continue to see good results. We also need to make it realistic to fit your lifestyle.
By now if you have followed the steps correctly you should have lost a fair bit of body fat, be feeling better and your body should be using the food you eat as fuel and not to store as fat.
It is important you stick to your new eating habits and don’t revert back to old ways, remember it is a lifestyle change not a diet! You can also start to add other fruits but with caution if you’re still looking to lose body fat. Try to follow the rule of ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’. This is because fruit will be made into glycogen and increase your blood sugar which intern produces insulin. (Remember this hormone promotes fat storage) The best time to eat fruit is before a workout as you will use the glycogen as fuel rather than storing it. Avoid fruit after working out you ideally need to restore glycogen in the liver - fruit wont to this. Choose a combination of protein and carbohydrates, like a *whey protein powder with almond milk or a meal like chicken/prawn salad with olive oil.
*Choose a good quality whey protein powder like Pink Sun Organic Whey or one from the Pulsin range.
It’s important you source your protein well. Aim for grass fed cows rather than grain, free range chicken and organic eggs. The reason being is if these animals are being fed on the food you’re looking to avoid then your results will be altered to. Many factory farmed products contain antibiotics and hormones that you don't particularly want to ingest.
Good Vegetables (fresh or frozen)
The general rule of thumb is eat what grows above ground rather than under.
Try to buy organic or better still, grow your own!
Good Fruit
Fruit should only be introduced after phase one - detox the first 10 days as it is high in natural sugars.
Good Fats
*Nuts must be unsalted and unroasted, avoid peanuts.
*Peanut butter is an exception if the brand is good and contains no sugar
Good Flavours and Spices
Try to cook using coconut oil and avoid deep frying. Olive oil is better cold than heated so use this on your salads
Bad Foods (foods to avoid during the nutrition plan)
Fruit and fruit juices are not allowed during phase one - detox - as they're high in natural sugars.
Cereals
Drinks
** No alcohol is allowed during phase one - detox. After this period the occasional glass of red wine is allowed (red wine has strong antioxidants and low insulin response)
Dairy
Carbohydrates
Sauces
Remember you can choose the bad food on a cheat meal.
Breakfast Ideas
Start each day with a protein packed breakfast
Breakfast Ideas Phase One - first 10 days – detox
If you don't like certain foods, substitute and swop to make the options better suited to your taste
Breakfast Ideas Phase Two & Three
You can now start introducing a little dairy and fruit to your breakfast
You can also choose foods from the good protein or vegetable list or eat nuts from the good fats list
Lunch Ideas
Lunch Ideas Phase One - first 10 days – detox
During step one no dairy, fruit, processed carbohydrates, sugar or alcohol is allowed.
Lunch Ideas Phase Two & Three
You can now start to introduce a few extras to your lunch, these include sweet potato, goats cheese and black, brown or red rice
You can also choose foods from the good protein, good vegetable and the good fats list.
Evening Meal Ideas
Drink 1.5-2 litres of water daily
Evening Meal Ideas Phase One - first 10 days – detox
During step one no dairy, fruit, processed carbohydrates, sugar or alcohol is allowed.
Evening Meal Ideas Phase Two & Three
You can now start to introduce a few more ingredients to your evening meals, these include sweet potato, goats cheese and black, brown or red rice
You can also choose foods from the good protein, good vegetable and the good fats list.
Snack Ideas
It is important to eat every 3 hours to stop blood sugar levels dipping
Protein and good fat snacks are essential to stop your blood sugar levels dipping. They will stop you from feeling hungry and grabbing unhealthy, quick alternatives.
You also need to make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids to keep you hydrated.
Here's some healthy mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack ideas:
If you don't like certain foods, substitute and swop to make the options better suited to your taste.
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.