The Right Type Of Diet For You
The government guidelines states that an average woman should eat 2000 calories a day on average and a man 2500.
That is divided up this way for a woman-
Energy: 8400kJ/2000kcal
Total fat : less than 70g, 30%
Saturated fat: less than 20g
Carbohydrates: at least 260g, 50%
Total sugars: 90g
Protein: 50g, 20%
Salt: less than 6g
Fat, carbohydrates and protein are macro nutrients. You may have heard of people talking about macros..
What are Macronutrients (Macros)?
Carbohydrates, Fruit and vegetables, pasta, rice (our main energy source).
Fats, Oils, Nuts, cheese (secondary energy source and essential in vitamin absorption).
Protein, Meat, fish, tofu (to build and maintain muscle mass).
Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals and as long as we eat a healthy, varied, colourful diet we should be able to reach our daily allowance for micronutrients.
Now we all know there are diets out there which claim to help you lose 20lbs in 6 weeks but are they realistic? Are there bad foods and good foods? Should we be eating less carbs or lowering our saturated fat intake?
Losing weight, maintaining or gaining is all about energy balance, eat more than you burn and you will store FAT. Move more than you eat and you will lose weight (in a high calorie deficit lean muscle mass can also be lost when dieting)
So for example, to lose fat we need to be in a calorie deficit. But is it as simple of eating the recommended above and reducing those portions?
From my experience working with clients the right diet is the one YOU can stick to and one that works for YOU, we don't all do the same as each other each day so why would we eat the same?
Consistency is key when trying to lose weight or make muscle gains or in some cases fat gains and you cant expect to see results doing the same thing over and over that hasn't worked so far.
The government guidelines are there for the whole of the country, using the average person doing the recommended exercise. The government has to advise us on how to eat healthier, what to stay away from and what to include in our diets and lets face it with the obesity crisis in this country they have to be doing something.
The average person, to maintain a healthy BMI (BMI is also based on an average person in a wide spectrum society), probably does eat too much saturated fat, too many high fat/ high sugar snacks and not enough vegetables so this information is given to us for the average person.
Then we look at exercise, these two factors are clearly related but what if we eat the government average diet but I'm 6ft tall and training for a marathon, then what?
The government have to do something about the obesity crisis and give us guidelines, and they are trying but one size doesn't fit all. To me education is key, if we re educate families about health, fitness, diet and nutrition people will understand more and be able to have the knowledge to back their choices.
As a trainer I try every way possible to get my clients eating healthier and I understand the way I choose to monitor my energy balance isn't right for everyone else.
With the Silver and Gold packages the PHBP takes your current lifestyle and diet and helps you make small changes to make it healthier and more orientated around you and your goal. For the Bronze members there are guides on macro tracking, working out how much food you need, following the diets and top tips to help you make small changes.
A diet overhaul is also an option but we want to make sure its realistic for you, I would love to go into every method in which way we do this but its personal to you.
Its all about YOUR energy balance , work out how much food YOU need HERE, follow the macros, monitor your food, set your training schedule and see how a week goes, if you get no changes then tweak it.