It’s National Coffee Week! Coffee is now the most popular drink world-wide.Every morning around 80% of British households kickstart their day off with an instant caffeine hit, collectively consuming around 95 million cups of coffee per day. Not that we need an excuse for our morning coffee, but there are a fair few benefits of that daily ritual when it comes to your health and your performance in the gym. So, how does caffeine actually work?

Well, caffeine has the ability to block the uptake of a chemical in the brain known as adenosine. Think of adenosine as a ‘sleep agent,’ accumulating and binding to sites on the brain (adenosine receptors) and then causing a slowing down in nerve cell activity. This change in pace make us feel drowsy, mentally fatigued and tired, a perfect cocktail to help us fall asleep. Across the night our brain washes away the accumulated adenosine ready for the next morning, and the process starts all over again.

To a nerve cell caffeine, looks like adenosine, which allows the caffeine to bind to its receptor site – it’s a battle between caffeine and adenosine and caffeine always wins. However, caffeine doesn’t slow down a cell’s activity like adenosine would, but rather speeds it up.

This increase in speed causes increases in communication between nerves, neurones and the four hemispheres of the brain. Our pituitary gland (the thermostat of our hormones) senses this increased activity and thinks some sort of emergency is about to occur, so releases a wave of stress hormones as defence, switching our system into “fight or flight” mode. We now have a heightened state of alertness and mental acuteness. You’re now like Bradley Cooper from the film Limitless when he took NZT-48.

This new state brings about some rather impressive results when it comes to your performance in the gym. Struggling to see improvements in how much you can squat? Caffeine has been shown to improve strength and power in the lower body by up to 7%. In addition, it’s been shown to enhance both our aerobic and endurance capacity, providing a whopping 9% advantage compared to drinking water alone! And it effects don’t just stop there, as caffeine can help improve recovery between workouts, cutting post workout muscle soreness by almost 50%, which means you can could go back the next day and hit it hard.

There’s no doubt that caffeine acts as a truly remarkable ergonomic aid, enhancing strength, stamina and recovery but to see such effects on our performance the general recommendation is to consume between 3-9mg per kilogram of bodyweight. For an average 80 kg male this would equate to between 240 – 720mg, the equivalent of 4-12 Nespresso capsule shots. That’s a lot of coffee, and exactly why using coffee as a source of caffeine before a training session can be problematic.

With coffee you never know exactly how much caffeine you are getting, as factors such as the type of coffee bean and the roasting process can influence the amount of caffeine that ends up in your cup. One study found that the same coffee beverage obtained from the same cafe varied in its caffeine content by as much as 60%.

The second problem is the amount of coffee needed to drink to ensure you hit the appropriate caffeinated threshold. In most cases this would be an average of two large Americanos, which could leave you needing to dash off for frequent trips to the bathroom* during the training session. As a result, caffeinated sources in the form of tablets, gum or gels are generally recommended over coffee itself.

However, this is National Coffee Week and despite coffee not being the most appropriate source of caffeine, it does provide us with a host of additional advantages that pills and gels cannot.

This may come as a surprise to you, but coffee is our main supply of antioxidants. In fact, studies show most people get more antioxidants from drinking coffee than both fruits and vegetables combined! Up to 79% of our dietary antioxidants come from beverages such as coffee, tea and red wine, with a surprisingly low amount coming from food, at just 21%. These antioxidants are very useful at neutralising free radicals and preventing oxidative stress.

You then have the polyphenols which give coffee that characteristic and rich smell. It’s been suggested these polyphenols may help to prevent a number of diseases such as heart disease and cancer, with the majority of findings showing they reduces blood glucose, and possibly lead to a 40% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Coffee (and caffeine) can help you harness some truly remarkable gym results, but it’s not without its drawbacks when it comes to sleep quality. That’s a blog for another day, but I cannot stress how important getting a good night of sleep is as nothing quite rivals sleep’s impact on our body and mind. With that in mind, I’d urge you to stop your coffee intake at 11:00am, allowing time for the caffeine work its way through your system, ensuring you’re able to drift off peacefully and get a good night’s rest ready to “wake up and smell the coffee” the following morning.

*Coffee nor caffeine are not a diuretic like most people would make you believe as recent evidence indicates that a moderate daily coffee intake provides similar hydrating qualities to water.

And in case you were wondering, where the name “Americano” came about…

As the name suggests, the drink did originate from America. During the Second World War, American soldiers were served shots of Italian espresso on the front line, only to find it was too strong, so they requested for it to be served with more water – hey presto, the brith of the Americano.

Our society today is used to getting everything instantly – if we order a package from Amazon it arrives the same day, and if we want to know something then the answer is just a google away. But when it comes to fat loss, is quickly really the best method, or does slow and steady win the diet race?

We’ve lost count of the number of members who have come to us after trying fad after fad – vowing to start a radical fasting programme, going on a juice diet, or trying to give up alcohol completely when drinking several units per night. They’re looking for a quick fix. Most personal trainers, nutritionists and health professionals warn against these quick fixes, arguing that adopting a slow and steady approach is healthier in the long run and better for long term weight loss; after all, this gives you time to adapt to new habits, making them more likely to last and therefore avoiding a huge rebound in weight gain when you crack under the pressure of an unrealistic nutrition plan.

But in our industry, it’s crucial to keep an eye on the science and research – things constantly evolve. So, what does the research say?

In recent years, several papers have looked at the impact on the rate of weight loss when it comes to regaining weight. A 2013 report in the New England Journal of Medicine went against conventional wisdom, concluding that “the rate of weight regain is the same irrespective of the rate of weight loss.” More recently, a 2019 study looking at weight loss across a year in obese menopausal women found the women who restricted their food intake by 65-75% for the first four months and then 25-35% for the remaining eight months lost 15.3kgs compared to 8.4kgs in those women who restricted their calorie consumption by 25-35% across the year. The severely restricted group were also 2.5-3 times more likely to lose at least 10% of their bodyweight, as well as finding the regime three times easier to stick to.

Sounds like a promising start for an initial period of restriction, however the research also shows us that over half of those who originally lost the weight managed to put it all back on within the first two years, regardless of how quickly they lost it to begin with. This regain in weight has little to do with the rate at which you lose it, but rather the mechanisms behind losing the weight.

This is crucial information for those who are losing weight, and those who are helping them to do it, to understand. Often, it’s not the losing weight that’s the issue, it’s the keeping it off once the job is done. Why is that?

Well, whether you’re trying to lose weight slowly or not, the body begins to fight back in an effort to return back to its initial starting weight. It does this by altering your hunger hormones, decreasing the hormone leptin that is responsible for food intake and energy control, and increasing the hormone ghrelin that helps to regulate hunger and appetite. The levels of these two hormones change as we begin to lose weight and remain altered even after a year. Evidence suggests the change in these hormones can offset the weight we’re trying to lose by increasing our food intake by around 100 kcals per day for every kilogram lost.
Not only do we find our appetite increases as we try to lose weight, but typically, our general day-to-day movement decreases. Non-Activity Exercise Thermogenesis (NEAT) is the number of calories we burn outside of formal exercise. Subconscious movement such as standing, holding your posture, fidgeting, chewing gum, walking to and from the car etc. all require energy – small actions that we rarely think about but in fact can equate in upwards of 1,000+ kcals per day. Sadly, as we begin to lose weight we also begin to (subconsciously) move less, as the body begins to put the brakes on in an effort to conserve calories.
So, as we lose weight, our appetite increases and our general movement decreases. The balance of those calories every day doesn’t need to change much to move us out of a deficit or maintenance, and back into weight gain.

So now we understand the challenge, what lessons should we learn from this?

The most important thing when embarking on any diet is the support network you have around you. If your environment isn’t set up for success, if you haven’t got a team of people cheering you on, supporting you, and helping you overcome the barriers your face then it’s going to be an uphill struggle. Once that’s all set, it’s about working out what kind of fat loss will work for you. Are you a very on or off person who does well with strict rules, has good discipline and likes to see fast change? If so, then starting off with a slightly more restrictive plan may benefit you. If you’re somebody who likes flexibility, who wants to gradually build better habits and still have the odd treat, then taking the slow and steady approach may be better.

But keep in mind that your efforts will have to continue even when you reach your goal weight. In many respects, this is the most important period for consolidation, and you’ll need that support around you to carry on.

If you’re struggling to lose weight or just confused on what you should or shouldn’t be eating, why not check out our nutrition services? Or you can learn more about building a personalised diet here.

Welcome to our new video course on ‘How To Build a Personalised Diet.‘

Whether you’re looking to lose weight, build muscle or improve performance, the next six videos will give you the tools, the knowledge, and the know-how to construct an eating plan of your own that’s built on healthy, enjoyable and sustainable nutrition principles.

Since lockdown began a few weeks ago, a lot of us have seen our weight increase slightly even if we’ve kept our food intake the same. Why is this? Well, apart from those of us who have just been eating and drinking more than usual, we’ve all seen a huge drop in our daily energy expenditure, or NEAT.

Firstly, what the hell is NEAT? NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which is basically all activity that is non-exercise specific, such as walking while talking on the phone, going up and down the stairs because you forgot to bring something down, or fidgeting while you watch that Netflix box set.

NEAT is a hugely important tool for weight management. It can contribute to up to 15% percent of your daily calorie expenditure, but this varies hugely from person to person. An office worker would typically have very low NEAT, having to sit down all day, while a doctor’s NEAT would be much higher as they are on their feet. Even if the office worker spent an hour in the gym before work, the doctor’s calorie expenditure for the day could end up higher. For some people, NEAT expenditure can be as high as 2000 calories per day! That’s pretty neat…

Most people will have seen a big drop in NEAT since lockdown began, as we’re no longer able to pop to the shops as often, or indeed leave the house as much as we’re used to!

So how can you keep your NEAT up while in self-isolation?

1. Aim for 250 steps per hour

Just three minutes of walking each hour could earn you up to 250 steps. When working from home, try to do this every hour even if it’s to make a cup of tea or grab something from upstairs. It may sound easy but we know how quickly an hour on your laptop can fly by. Set a reminder on your phone to ensure that little bit of movement.

2. Think of ways to get active that don’t include formal exercise

Now we’re all stuck at home it’s the perfect opportunity to get on with all that cleaning and gardening that’s been on the list. A vigorous clean of the house could increase your NEAT sevenfold and lugging all those weeds or your mower around the garden is another way to burn more energy. All movement is good movement, and if another benefit comes from it then even better!

3. Don’t sit still

If you have kids, this probably goes against everything you’ve taught them, but fidgeting contributes to a large amount of our daily energy expenditure. Simply jiggling your foot while you’re watching the television or tapping your fingers while you wait for the kettle to boil can really help your energy expenditure to add up. Interestingly, fidgeting drops considerably in people following a calorie-restricted diet. This drop in NEAT can sometimes be the biggest contributing factor to a weight loss plateau, as the drop in daily calorie expenditure can take a person out of a calorie deficit. So, don’t sit still, get fidgeting!

4. Be less efficient

Usually our lives are so busy and we need to make the most of every minute. But now we’ve been able to slow down a bit, we can start being less efficient around the house – if you have things to take upstairs, take them one at a time for example. It may sound like we’re grasping at straws but making several trips up and down the stairs can use 10x more calories than sitting, and twice as many as walking at 1 mile per hour. It’s all about the little things that add up.

It’s not glamorous, quite frankly it’s rather laborious, but it won’t make you sweat. So, no more excuses, get moving…. but only around your house.

The only way to lose weight (or body fat) is to eat fewer calories than you use each day. Counting your calories and tracking your macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate and fat) is an extremely helpful tool for weight loss, but it’s one that a lot of people don’t get on with it. While there are no quick fixes for dropping weight, there are lots of simple changes you can make every day to limit your calories and avoid using any apps. Here are six of our favourite tips.

1. Reduce your carbohydrate intake

Carbohydrates are our body’s preferred energy source, but with so many of us spending the majority of their time either sitting at a desk or doing low-intensity forms of exercise e.g walking to work, we don’t really require a whole lot of energy from carbohydrates. Reducing our carbohydrates to 1-2 meals a day and increasing the quantity of protein at each meal will usually reduce our daily calorie intake. Not only that, but it will also increase feelings of fullness and reduce cravings (1).

We recommend 25-30% of your calories should come from protein. A good measure is 1-2 palm-size portions of protein three times a day for women, and four for men. When measuring carbohydrates, we recommend 1 cupped hand of carbohydrate 1-2 times a day for women and 2-3 times a day for men.

2. Swap out your morning latte

Lots of us reach for a milky coffee mid-morning and mid-afternoon to help us through the working day. Swapping a regular whole milk latte for a regular almond milk late could save you 107 calories (2). That’s a whole meal of calories saved! Better yet, if you swap your latte for an americano you could save 170 calories. Now I know this could be a big ask for many people, so we suggest cutting that daily latte down to just 3-4 days a week. This simple swap could save you over 1,000 calories a week, which would put you well on your way to any weight loss goal.

3. Reduce your eating window

Fasting to lose weight can be structured in many different ways, with the aim being the same every time – reduce overall calorie consumption. A favourite tactic of mine is to reduce your eating window to only 8 hours a day, allowing 16 hours of fasting – the majority of this will be completed overnight. An example day would be to eat your first meal or snack of the day at 11am, then make sure the last meal or snack you eat is before 7pm. You will then fast (not eat) until 11am the next day. Simply allowing yourself less time to eat often equates to fewer calories consumed. You can adjust the start and finish times to suit you and the times you prefer to eat.

4. Get rid of that breakfast bar

Breakfast bars have become quite a bugbear of mine. They are super tasty and moreish and they have “health” written all over them. Manufacturers have even brought out “high protein” breakfast bars, making them even more tempting to those looking for a healthy nutritious snack. Sadly, since there are no guidelines on the amount of protein required for a brand to advertise their product as high protein, most of these bars fall short of what we would actually consider high protein. Aiming for protein-based snacks usually helps to keep hunger at bay and often keeps calories low. My favourite mid-afternoon snacks are the following; 2-3 baby bell lights, beef jerky, grenade protein bar, protein whey shake, a boiled egg, tuna on a rice cake or a Greek yogurt snack pot. Aim for 1-2 of these snacks a day and ditch the high-carb alternative.

5. Don’t multi-task while you’re eating

It can be so tempting to flop in front of the television with a nice hot meal after work. However, for a lot of people this is the time when we’re at a higher risk of overeating. One study showed that students eating either pizza or macaroni cheese in front of the television (compared to those eating without stimulus) ate 36% more and at a faster rate (3). There will always be times when you want to treat yourself to a sofa dinner and a Netflix binge but aiming to eat the majority of your meals without an extra stimulus may be of huge benefit to you, allowing you to enjoy the meal you’re eating and concentrate on whether you’re feeling full.

6. Prioritise your sleep  

I feel the eye roll of every reader with this one – I know it’s been said a thousand times over. Getting an adequate amount of sleep has many benefits beyond weight loss, but it’s been shown that a rough night’s sleep of 4 hours or less can increase food consumption by 22% (4). For the average person consuming between 1,500-2,000 calories a day that is an increase of between 330-440 a day – equivalent to a whole meal. You may not be able to get the golden 8 hours every night but being strict and sending yourself to bed an hour earlier could have a huge impact on your food choices the following day. If you know you have had a rough night, we suggest writing down everything you eat that day to make yourself more accountable. One study found that keeping a simple food diary could double a person’s weight loss (5).

References:

1. PMID 20847729 ,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20847729

2. Starbucks nutritional information https://globalassets.starbucks.com/assets/E3DA4F2E01A148DD88D61BC756C5A223.pdf

3. PMID 16822530 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16822530

4. PMID 20357041 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20357041

5. Science Daily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708080738.htm

It’s the time of year when everyone seems to have a cough or a cold, and with more that 200 different common cold viruses you’d be forgiven for thinking that catching one is inevitable. Luckily, there are a lot of different ways to boost your immune system so that you can stay fit and healthy throughout the winter months. We caught up with Nutritional Therapist Laura MacDonald to find out her top tips.

1. Keep your digestive system happy

My number one tip for a healthy immune system is to focus on your gut, which is home to more than 70% of your immune cells. Keeping your gut bacteria happy is key – they thrive on fibre so increasing your fruit and vegetable intake is a great way to support them (and has the added bonus of increasing your overall nutrient intake too).¹ Aim for plenty of variety and colour because just as we have different food preferences, so do different strains of bacteria. Another way to increase fibre is by swapping refined carbohydrates for complex carbohydrates – choose brown pasta and grains over the white varieties which are much lower in fibre and nutrients.

Fermented foods also promote growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut, which then support the immune system. These are foods that contain ‘probiotics’ – live bacteria. Unsweetened, natural live yoghurt, milk or water kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi and miso are all examples of fermented foods and most can be found in large supermarkets or your local health food store.²

2. Check your Vitamin D

No blog post about the immune system would be complete without mentioning vitamin D. Deficiency is strongly linked to increased susceptibility to infection.³ Though you can get some vitamin D through diet (oily fish, red meat, liver, egg yolks and fortified products), between September and March it is recommended that we take vitamin D supplements in the UK because we don’t get enough from sunlight. The NHS recommends 10 micrograms daily, but it is impossible to guess each individual’s levels, and since this is such an important vitamin it can be useful to test your levels and supplement more, or less, as required.⁴

3. Protein

Make sure you’re getting sufficient protein from whole, unprocessed sources. Amino acids (the molecules that make up protein) are integral to producing immune cells such as antibodies, cytokines and macrophages and research has shown a link between insufficient protein intake and reduced immune function.⁵ Meat and shellfish are also a good source of zinc, another essential nutrient for the immune system, while plant-based sources are a source of antioxidants which can help protect against inflammation. In contrast, processed protein sources often contain additives and sweeteners which irritate the gut and are detrimental to the health of gut bacteria – remember, a healthy gut supports a healthy immune system.⁶

4. Limit alcohol

Alcohol disrupts gut bacteria, allowing opportunistic and pathogenic bacteria to grow and inhibiting the communication between beneficial bacteria and immune cells. It can also cause inflammation and even has a negativity on the integrity of the gut wall. All of this effects the immune system – remember, the majority of the immune system lives in the gut.⁷ It’s not all doom and gloom though – whilst excessive drinking can have this effect, there is a small amount of evidence to suggest that a small amount of high quality, red wine might actually benefit the gut bacteria due to the polyphenol content. ⁸

It’s very easy to only focus on the health of your immune system when you start to feel it struggling, but by putting these tips into practice on a daily basis you can set yourself up for a much healthier winter.

By Laura MacDonald, Nutritionist

References

1. Holscher, H. (2017). Dietary fibre and prebiotics and the gastrointestinal microbiota. Gut Microbes, 8(2), pp.172-184.
2. Rezac, S., Kok, C., Heermann, M. and Hutkins, R. (2018). Fermented Foods as a Dietary Source of Live Organisms. Frontiers in Microbiology, 9.
3. Aranow, C. (2011). Vitamin D and the Immune System. Journal of Investigative Medicine, 59(6), pp.881-886.
4. NHS. (2020). Vitamins and minerals – Vitamin D. [online] Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/ [Accessed 3 Jan. 2020].
5. Li, P., Yin, Y., Li, D., Woo Kim, S. and Wu, G. (2007). Amino acids and immune function. British Journal of Nutrition, 98(2), pp.237-252.
6. Moreno-Pérez, D., Bressa, C., Bailén, M., Hamed-Bousdar, S., Naclerio, F., Carmona, M., Pérez, M., González-Soltero, R., Montalvo-Lominchar, M., Carabaña, C. and Larrosa, M. (2018). Effect of a Protein Supplement on the Gut Microbiota of Endurance Athletes: A Randomized, Controlled, Double-Blind Pilot Study. Nutrients, 10(3), p.337.
7. Sarkar, D., Jung, M. K., & Wang, H. J. (2015). Alcohol and the Immune System. Alcohol Research : Current Reviews, 37(2), 153–155.
8. Nash, V., Ranadheera, C., Georgousopoulou, E., Mellor, D., Panagiotakos, D., McKune, A., Kellett, J. and Naumovski, N. (2018). The effects of grape and red wine polyphenols on gut microbiota – A systematic review. Food Research International, 113, pp.277-287.

Easter has arrived meaning we only have one thing on the brain, and that’s chocolate, lots of it!

But is chocolate as healthy as the media claims?

We decided to take a look at the science and share with you the actual health benefits chocolate possess.

Let’s take a closer look…

Currently the UK government recommends a mere 0.8 grams per kg of bodyweight, that’s a pitiful 56 grams of protein per day for a 70kg male!

Scientists have teamed up to publish large studies looking at health improvements from protein over the course of years but unfortunately, to reap a lot of the benefits associated with protein intake we need to be consuming a lot more than what’s currently being advised, and despite the huge amount of reasearch around protein the government still stands by their recommendation.

Fear not! As my team and I have been reviewing the most recent literature that’s hot off the press, to uncover how much protein is exactly needed if we wish to keep on top of our health, and our training.

We’ve pulled out all of the ‘need-to-know’ stats and figures from the research we’ve reviewed and compiled them into this handy infographic with the specific amounts you should be shooting for.

So, whether you’re an active person who loves to train, someone looking to lose weight or you’re wishing to optimise your performance and recovery, we have a protein intake that’s right for you!