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In Nutritionby

Which Protein Powder Should You Choose?

 

Protein powders are probably the first thing that spring to mind when you think of sports nutrition supplements. They’re no longer considered to be exclusively for bodybuilders and elite athletes — in fact, protein blends are quickly becoming a cupboard essential for all kinds of lifestyles and body goals.

So why are so many people taking protein? And how do you even know where to start with all different types available out there? Read on to have all your protein questions answered.

What Is Protein?

Proteins are molecules made up of amino acids, which are the body’s bricks and mortar for rebuilding muscle, replicating DNA, and catalysing metabolic reactions. The human body can biosynthesise some amino acids, but not all of them, so you need protein in your diet to get the rest.

Like carbohydrates and fat, protein is classed as a macronutrient, which means it’s required in large amounts in your diet for your body to be able to function properly.

What Are The Benefits Of Protein?

Protein is involved in many vital processes within the body as well as being a valuable support to your fitness goals. It’s used to make enzymes and hormones, is an important component of every cell in the body, plus it’s a building block of muscle, cartilage, skin, hair and nails.

In regards to general wellbeing and fitness, here are some of the ways in which this powerful nutrient can help you out:

Muscle Building

Using data from 49 studies spanning over the last 23 years, a recent review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that dietary protein supplementation optimises both muscle mass and strength during resistance training.

Here’s how it works:

  • Resistance training stimulates two actions in the muscles simultaneously — catabolism (tissue breakdown) and anabolism (tissue growth).
  • The factor that affects which one is favoured in the body the most is called ‘net protein balance’. A positive net protein balance favours anabolism, and a negative one favours catabolism.
  • Consumption of adequate dietary protein puts the body into positive net protein balance, and so enhances muscle growth while resistance training

It’s not just muscle mass and strength that protein consumption improves, either. A study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that protein supplementation reduces muscle fatigue, too —meaning you could blast through a week of intense training if you stay topped up throughout the day.

Increasing your muscle mass and strength isn’t just great for gym selfies and looking good by the pool though — it’s key for good health as you grow older. ‘Sarcopenia’ is the degenerative loss of muscle mass in aging individuals, causing frailty and loss of muscle function. It’s incredibly common, but entirely preventable with proper nutrition and adequate resistance exercise.

Weight Management

Higher protein diets have also demonstrated the ability to help with weight management. Of course, a healthy, balanced diet is the key to keeping the extra pounds at bay, but something about this mighty macronutrient seems to be helping people to lose weight, and keep it off. Here’s how:

Thermogenesis

Thermogenesis is the natural increase in the energy your body uses after eating. Protein causes a higher rate of dietary thermogenesis than other nutrients — research in the Nutrition & Metabolism journal explains that eating protein can actually allow the body to blast through up to 20-30% more calories than carbohydrates or fat.

Satiety

Simply put, protein helps you stay fuller for longer — reducing the chances of you ‘accidentally’ grazing your way through a whole packet of biscuits and share bag of Doritos in between your meals. Based on a visual analogue scale, which measures perceived appetite, people have been found to be fuller after a 60% vs. a 19% protein meal.

Metabolism

Muscles are metabolically active, which means that they require energy to simply exist. So, the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories your body will burn every day.

It is worth highlighting though, that if you’re looking to go down a belt notch or two, eating a higher protein diet doesn’t mean simply eating all the protein you can manage without any consequences. You do still have to be mindful of the energy you’re consuming vs. the energy you expend.

Preserving Muscle

If you’re trying to lose weight through dieting and are restricting your energy intake, it’s still really important that you maintain an adequate intake of protein — otherwise your body will be burning muscle mass for energy, as well as fat. Which is less than ideal for that sculpted physique you had in mind…   

How Much Protein Do I Need?

It’s recommended that the baseline requirements for adults is 0.75g of dietary protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day. That’s around 55g per day for the average sedentary man and 45g per day for the average sedentary woman (equivalent to a sirloin steak).

However, for anyone looking to muscle-up, sculpt their bodies and improve athletic performance —this amount increases.

To maximise muscle growth, research from the Journal of Sports Sciences recommends consumption of between:

  • 1.3-1.8g per kilogram of bodyweight per day (the amount between these two points depends on training status) and;
  • Up to 1.8-2g per kilogram of bodyweight per day during periods of energy restriction to prevent muscle loss – more than double the government recommendations.

You might be thinking: can’t I just get all my protein from food? And the answer is yes, you can.

Protein supplements aren’t intended as a substitute for your everyday meals, they’re there to work alongside a healthy, balanced diet as a convenient way to up your protein intake, at a much lower cost.

For instance, your average supermarket chicken breast will set you back around €1.50 and contains 24g of protein per 100g, while the average scoop of whey protein powder costs around €0.60c and scores around 80g of protein per 100g.

When you see the figures, it’s really a no-brainer for individuals looking to boost their diet and achieve their fitness goals. Plus, it takes out the time and effort of meal prep and cooking!

How To Choose A Protein Powder

After laying out all those benefits on the table, you’re probably keen to get your hands on some of this must-have supplement yourself — but where to begin?

Which Protein Should I Use?

There are so many protein powders out there — you should pick one that’s best suited to your personal goals. Whether you’re looking to bulk-up, build muscle, lose weight, or just get yourself into a healthier shape, there’s a blend that’ll be just right for you.

Here’s a rundown of the most commonly used protein powders available:

Whey Protein

Whey is an all-natural by-product of milk, and whey proteins are isolated from this during filtration. Whey protein is the most commonly used protein supplement due to its excellent digestibility, amino acid profile, and absorption rate.

Whey Isolate

Whey protein isolate comes from exactly the same source, only it’s been expertly filtered to remove most of the fat and carbohydrates that are naturally present in whey concentrates — making this ideal if you’re watching your calorie intake.

Casein

Casein is derived from milk and it has a much slower absorption rate than whey protein. This means that it takes longer to be completely digested and used by the body, making it good for providing your muscles with a sustained supply of protein between meals or even while you sleep.

Weight Gainer Blends

Weight gainer blends are perfect for individuals trying to increase size and mass. Your body can only do this if it’s in calorie surplus, which is when you’re consuming more calories than you burn, and this can be difficult and expensive through food alone.

Vegan

The demand for plant-based protein powders has increased dramatically with the ever-increasing population of vegans. Supplementation is perhaps even more important in their case too, as they aren’t getting any protein from meat or animal products.

When Should I Take Protein?

As protein powders are so convenient, you can pretty much have a shake wherever you are and whatever you’re doing with your day.

If you’re just looking to generally increase your protein intake, then take your protein whenever works best for you — some people like to add protein powders to porridge/cereals in the morning, or make up shakes to have on-the-go.

It’s especially important for your muscles to have a supply of protein after you’ve exerted them through exercise though, as this will help with muscle recovery and growth. Some fast-absorbing blends, like whey protein are therefore best consumed 30-60 minutes before or after a workout, to maximise intake.

Slow-releasing blends, like casein, take longer to be digested and so provide a more sustained supply of protein to your muscles over time. This makes them a great choice to keep you full between meals, or just before bed so that you have a protein supply throughout the night.

Take Home Message

The power of protein is pretty clear. Whether you’re looking for gains, want to drop a few dress sizes, or just want to set yourself up for a healthy future, supplementing your diet with the right protein powder can really support and fuel your ambitions.

Source: Jennifer Blow has a Bachelor’s of Science in Nutritional Science and a Master’s of Science by Research in Nutrition, and now specialises in the use of sports supplements for health and fitness, underpinned by evidence-based research

In Nutrition, Newsby

Staying On Track During Lockdown

Staying on track during the lockdown

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear, author of Atomic Habits.

What we can’t control?

Gym’s closing.

What we can control?

Our Mindset.

This is probably going to be the biggest factor in overcoming any obstacles over the next month. We’ve been through two lockdowns already and with gyms set to close a third time, it’ll only be a struggle if we allow it to.

Instead of expending your precious energy in the gym, we can spend this time creating a bulletproof mindset to ensure that we can come back mentally stronger.

Some new hobbies that I would advise taking up include reading, meditation, and journaling.

Sleep Hygiene

If you can maintain a consistent time for going to sleep and waking up, it’s linked to a whole host of benefits. Your daily sleep routine habits influence your quality of rest, general day to day energy, and cognitive performance.

If you can maintain a consistent time for waking and going to bed, bonus points for including a pre-bed routine, better health outcomes are a result of just a little extra planning.

Look up circadian rhythms (fancy words for our bodies’ internal 24-hour clock) and you’ll get a better insight into why.

Food Quality and Calorie Intake

Your body needs calories for energy. But the overconsumption of calories relative to your respective activity levels will lead to weight/body fat gain.

So if you’ve never tracked your calorie intake before, it could be a good idea to start and that can give an insight into why you could be losing, maintaining, or gaining weight. Myfitnesspal is the app of choice, for any smartphone user.

Also, calories are not the only piece of the puzzle here. Yes, they are ultimately what it comes down to when we are looking to lose/gain weight, but you should also be making sure that you consume a variety of good wholesome nutrient-dense foods.

Having a broad spectrum of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes will lead to much better health outcomes, ensuring that we are not only fuelling our body. But ensuring that we are getting in a full panel of vitamins and minerals too, will be highly beneficial when looking to keep our immune system strong and our overall health in check.

Productivity

Yes, I know what your thinking. This is the perfect time to binge-watch one of the hundreds of different series on Netflix, or even browse social media for hours upon hours a day.

While this does sound enticing to some, it is not the most productive use of our time and will ultimately lead to our screen time going through the roof. Something that our minds will not enjoy.

So what can you do instead? 

You could be investing more time in yourself, which previously would have been something unthinkable. Maybe this can be upskilling for work and helping you chase a promotion, new job? Or this time can be used to take up new skills, hobbies, or interests that could have seemed alien to you before.

Our minds love a challenge and will only benefit from learning more. The worst-case scenario is that you end up not enjoying it and finding a different said hobby or skill to do with your time.

Something as simple as going for a walk with a friend or listening to a podcast/audiobook is a great way to make use of your time, learn something new, and increase your overall energy expenditure (bonus points for getting it in during daylight, away from your work, home environment).

Not every single second of our day has to be 100% productive, but instilling some good habits like these, can only be beneficial.

Activity levels

Some big advice I’d give would be to hit a daily step goal. While not everyone will have the benefit of getting outside for as much time as they’d like to. Setting yourself a daily step goal is a great way of keeping your general activity levels consistent.

Most smartphones, watches, and/or fitness trackers have built-in pedometers that measure your step count/activity levels for you without you even needing to do anything.

There are also apps you can download for this, simply search step-counter/pedometer in your app store and choose your preferred app of choice.

Remember what we said about going for a walk with a friend or listening to a podcast/audiobook? That’s one way of increasing activity levels.

If you still don’t have the time or miss training in the gym even though we cannot supply that for you, what we do have on sale soon is Bodyfirst adjustable dumbbells that range from 2-24kg or 5-40kg in 2kg increments.
These a great way to ensure that you can still have some form of progressive overload and can bring a small piece of the gym home, rather than having to use general household items.

Graham Keenan
Personal Trainer & Coach
(Instagram @grahamkeenan_)

In Nutritionby

6 Protein Myths You Need To Stop Believing

Chances are you’ve snacked on a bar or knocked back a post-workout shake at some point in your life. If not, how have you managed to miss the ever-growing trend that is protein?! This macronutrient ringleader can be found in many foods and now, with its popularity rising, the market is awash with snacks and treats packed full of the stuff like protein bars.

Despite its popularity, protein is still a bit of a mystery to many. So, we thought we’d bust a few of the myths and spill the beans on this popular nutrient.

1) Protein will make you fat

As a macronutrient, protein is a source of calories and, as you know, eating too many calories leads to weight gain. It’s as simple as that, really! Consuming the correct amount of protein as part of a balanced diet will not make you fat. It’s all about balance, ladies and gents.

2) You can only get protein from animal-derived foods

Red meat, fish, eggs. All great sources of protein, right? Well, not if you’re a vegan. But, believe it or not, vegans can still get their protein fix without consuming animal-derived foods. From beans and veggies to tofu and soy-based products, there are so many options for those following a plant-based diet.

3) The more protein, the better

You can have too much of a good thing, you know! The body can only actually utilise around 25-30 grams of protein at once so filling up on this macronutrient doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll benefit more. Next time your gym buff mate shows off about their protein intake, set them straight!

4) You only need protein if you work out

Big fat nope. Protein is so much more than a fad food eaten by meat heads and gym bunnies. Alongside carbs and fats, protein is an essential macronutrient that everyone needs to consume as part of their daily diet.

5) Protein shakes make you fart

Ah, the famous protein fart. Unfortunately, you can’t point the finger at your protein shake! Protein itself isn’t the issue here. But consuming excess amounts of protein can cause extra smelly wind – nice. When you consume more than the RDA, the excess protein heads straight to your colon, where gut microbes begin to feast on it. This makes the body produce hydrogen sulphide gas, the root cause of those whiffy farts.

6) Protein is best consumed straight after a workout

Now, we’re not against a post-gym shake. But it’s not the only time you should be packing in the protein. Experts recommend consuming small amounts of protein regularly throughout the day. Not only does this help keep hunger pangs at bay but, as mentioned, the body can only absorb 25-30 grams at one time so packing it all into one snack or meal isn’t beneficial.

In Nutritionby

The Importance Of Post Workout Nutrition – What To Eat After A Workout

Post Workout Nutrition

Everyone’s always saying that you’re supposed to eat a healthy meal after working out, but what does that meal actually include? Well, first we have to understand that when it comes to training, you can’t dismiss the post-workout meal. If you look at the people working out in gyms today, you’ll see that most of them are just lifting weights without any real effect. They do the work in the gym maybe even perfectly, but since they don’t recognize the necessary nutrition to go with their training regimen, their results are miniscule.

However, you can fix this fairly easily, since exercising isn’t the issue most of the time. The issue is made up of people not paying any attention to what they’re supposed to eat, regardless if they’re bulking or trying to cut down. People spend all of their time focusing on what they’re supposed to train while dismissing what they’re supposed to eat – it simply doesn’t work like that! To be able to get to the bottom of this we need to look at what’s good and what’s bad regarding nutrition, including how to utilize it to get the best possible results in the gym.

Let’s begin.

1. What Is a Post-Workout Period?

Well, it’s the period right after you stop exercising, of course! Working out will help you with a number of tasks, including health and aesthetic reasons and benefits. Working out itself isn’t a positive thing for the body though, as it perceives it as a threat that weakens the body and the muscles through stress. Signs of this stress include needing extra sleep, an increased appetite and muscle soreness manifested through DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness). When you feel these symptoms, it means that your body no longer has any reserve in the muscles you’re trying to work on and there has been some minor damage to the tissue. Also, this means that your muscles need to recover and recuperate immediately, which would allow them to be repaired. When this happens, your muscle adapts and improves as to be able to better handle the same level of stress in the future.

If you’re working on some endurance training, the energy that your muscles store will become depleted and your muscles will sustain some damage in the short run. In the long run, it’ll fix itself because the muscle will rebuild itself into a more efficient aerobic machine. If you’re training for strength, you want to destroy the weaker muscle fiber in order to create stronger, bigger fibers. This is the case with all types of workouts, and it’s a naturally known occurrence called “remodeling”. While you’re working out and right after you finish, the stress the exercise puts on your carbohydrate storage in your muscles means that they become depleted and the muscle protein structure changes very little. After that, your immune system gets involved and starts fixing the problem. When you’re not consuming the necessary proteins and carbs, your body won’t be able to rebuild. This means that you’ll have no muscles ready to fulfill their potential, nor any that have already fulfilled it. Make sure you know that the time you invest in your exercise will return with necessary results only if you train smart and eat smart as well – so munch on those carbs and proteins!

2. Feeding Your Muscles!

People who are gym beginners, no matter what they’ve chosen to work on, have to have their post-workout nutrition to make the muscle grow by providing it with the necessary macronutrients. Every single jolt of energy that you spend comes from carbohydrates, so the depletion of the carb stores in your muscles can’t be avoided. This means that an after-exercise meal needs to have lots of carbs to put them back in your muscle storage and replenish the reserves You will need to eat enough carbs to make your body release a big dose of unsilin which will push the carbs and amino acids in your muscles. Also, this triggers an increase in muscle synthesis and your protein balance turns positive, which means your muscles will repair much quicker than if it was negative.

If you eat a lot of carbs, the body will release a large dose of insulin, which will in turn resupply your glycogen stores in the muscles, but it will also boost muscle tissue repair. The carbohydrates will boost your glycogen synthesis as well and will make your muscles regenerate more quickly, as opposed to when you work out, when your muscle protein starts degrading and you will need a lot of protein in your after-workout meal just to fix the structural problems of the muscle that arise when you lift heavy weights. After working out, your body will slow down the speed of your protein synthesis and it will also boost the speed of your protein breakdown, which means that your muscles will start degenerating. You can stop this by ingesting some protein and amino acid solutions, which will boost the synthesis process and negate the breakdown process.

3. What About Meal Timing?

When you consume a post-workout meal, you will need to have a few very important things in there – proteins, carbs and absolutely no fat. You need essential fats during your entire nutritional day, but when you eat fat right after working out, when the goal is to get macronutrients into your muscles as quickly as possible. If there’s fat in your meal, its effects will be slowed and you won’t get the full benefit of the post-workout beverage. Fat slows the movement through your intestines, which means that when you eat fat right after you work out, you’ll slow your system’s digestion and the absorption of carbs and protein will be slowed as well.

I can’t stress how important it is to eat your after-training meal right after you’re done with training. This is because your muscles will be really weak and will need a lot of protein and carbs to begin to function at their best, but keep in mind that they are also primed to receive nutrients, meaning it’s the best time to eat. This is known as an “anabolic window”, and it’s not constant – the longer your period of recovery grows, the shorter the anabolic window becomes, meaning you have to eat right after working out or you risk missing the golden time window and recovering fully. If you eat a meal 1 hour after working out, it will have a better effect than eating the same, or a better meal three hours after the training has concluded. If you wait more than this time, your glycogen synthesis process and your protein repair mechanisms will be diminished and you’ll have to deal with unwanted consequences.

4. Supplements or Whole Foods?

Sometimes, it’s better to take a supplement instead of eating whole foods. I know it sounds ludicrous, but it’s the truth. When you’re working on your post-workout nutrition, the fact that the protein shake is liquid means that it will do a far better job than any solid whole food. Here’s why:

  • After working out, you’ll hear a lot of people say that they can’t stomach eating a large meal. This is because the training stresses your body to a point where your instinct for hunger is pretty much dead, but I can’t stress how important it is to eat if you want to keep your muscle structure ready to heal at all times. Eating right after working out will help your muscles remodel, but it will also help them recuperate and make them bigger.
  • Liquid supplements are easy to drink, they’re full of nutrients and they’re relatively delicious. They’ll give you all you need right after training, and they’re relatively simple on the molecular level which means your intestines will process them with ease.
  • The liquid supplements that have fast-digesting protein such as whey hydrolysates and isolates, as well quickly-digesting carbs like dextrose and maltodextrin have a better chance of absorption than whole food meals, which is another advantage for supplements.
  • If you take a liquid post-workout shake it’ll be in your system in half an hour to an hour, which means your muscles will get all they need in a very short time. If you eat a solid meal, you might need a few hours for the nutrients in it to reach your muscles.

You need the protein and carbs to reach your muscles as soon as possible to improve your chances of recovery and muscle tissue synthesis. There are some nutrients that improve your recovery period when you eat them right after your workout. This type of nutrition will have a lot of water as well as high-glycemic index carbs and amino acids in certain ratios that your system deems healthy. Also, you should definitely steer clear of any fat in the post-workout period. The best way to make sure these nutrients are in your system is through a liquid blend of your make and choosing.

Source: www.fitnessandpower.com

In Nutritionby

Get back on track (Part 2)

GETTING BACK ON TRACK IN THE NEW YEAR PART 2 – WHICH HABITS AND BEHAVIOURS TO WORK ON

Now that we have discussed how to go about goal setting in part one of this post, if you haven’t read part one then please do because it’s important and sets the basis for any of the following – it’s no good picking habits if you don’t know why you want to choose them based on what you want the overall outcome to be.

You will likely have specific goals and be able to distil behaviours from those that are going to help you succeed. I would encourage you to do this as these will likely be the most meaningful to you (so important as discussed in the previous post) but in the spirit of getting fitter, healthier and more well both physically and mentally this year here are some habits that will give cover a lot of bases and give you a lot of return on the time and effort you invest.

If you haven’t taken heed by now once you select one or two from this list to get started REFER to part one so that you know how to implement them successfully and so it doesn’t end up just a six-week fling. All of these habits and behaviours must be viewed through a lens of successful implementation that is discussed on part one.

1) Practice Gratitude 

This may be a surprising one to start off with because ‘hey you’re a nutritionist and this is a nutrition blog’ – true, and there’s a lot more to health than just what you put in your body and how you move it. You can’t separate what happens in your head from what happens in your body either – they are intimately linked. So if there’s ONE thing I could encourage people to take on board for this year it would be to adopt a regular practice of gratitude. There are many many ways to do this – the simplest is probably to dedicate five minutes in the morning to write down some things you’re grateful for though you could do the same in the evening or at any point in the day really. Writing it down does seem to have a more powerful effect than just thinking it so put pen to paper or thumb to screen or fingers to keyboard and get going. Practicing gratitude is the simplest thing you can do to improve your happiness and sense of well-being. In some studies it’s shown to increase your happiness as much as doubling your salary and that was only with practicing once per week. I would suggest doing it daily or close to it. And the best thing is the change is lasting – doubling your salary might make you happier temporarily (and not at all past a certain point) but it’s shown that once you adjust to this being the new ’normal’ the effects wear off. Gratitude will keep you happier!
My best tip for practising gratitude is to be quite specific about what you’re grateful for. ‘Friends, partner, family, health’ will get stale pretty quickly and you lose connection to it. Think about specific people and what about your relationships with them you’re grateful for. Events, trips, opportunities etc. What your health allows you to do that you’re grateful for.

It can be as simple as just getting a copybook and a pen and writing one to three things each day. Or if you want some help and structure to it there are many gratitude journals available. My favourite being The Five Minute Journal.

2) Get more quality sleep

Similar to a gratitude practice this habit will pervade your entire day and life. Better health both physical and mental awaits you when you start taking your sleep seriously. Improvements in well-being, fat-loss, muscle gain, recovery, performance, protection from diseases, improved symptoms, improved mood, increased resilience and tolerance to stress and more – sleep does it all. For most people 7-9hrs of quality sleep per night is ideal – you can tell if you’re getting enough based on your energy levels when you wake up and during the day. If it’s a major struggle to get up each morning it’s probably worth investigating your sleep. And if you’re getting less than 7-9hrs then you would first address this before looking elsewhere.
If you need more help on getting better sleep read this blog post.

3) Eat more protein rich foods

These contain essential nutrients to help you recover, stay healthy and sustain stable energy and hunger levels throughout the day. If you exercise then you want to get about 1.5g-2g of protein per kilogram of your bodyweight per day. And even if you don’t exercise I would still aim for 1.5g/kg. The best protein-rich foods are all meats, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, soy products like tofu, protein powders. Secondary to these foods that will also contribute are pulses and legumes i.e. lentils, chickpeas, beans and grains like breads, pastas, rice and oats. If you want somewhere to start consider adding a scoop of protein to your breakfast (breakfast is quite low in protein for most people) and/or a protein bar or biltong as a snack during the day. Improving your health, fitness or weight-loss efforts becomes infinitely easier when your protein intake is high. That’s why it’s the one thing you’ll rarely see argued about in the field of nutrition. We all pretty much agree high protein is a good idea.

4) Eat more plant foods

Vegetables, fruits, pulses/legumes, wholegrain are among the healthiest foods you can eat – they contain many important nutrients you won’t find elsewhere to keep you healthy and strong and resistant to illness and they tend to be very filling and low in calories and high in fibre which makes them ideal for anyone wanting to lose fat. Instead of removing foods at random focus your efforts on eating more of these plant foods. Experiment with different cooking methods and seasonings to make them tastier if you need to build up to eating more of them. There are endless recipes online to help you with this. I particularly like the BBC Good Food website. Consider using a blender to make smoothies with spinach and fruit (and maybe some protein powder) as the sweetness of the fruit or protein will help hear. Similar to eating more protein this is one we can pretty much all agree on. Except for those pesky carnivore advocates but it’s probably best to ignore them. Greens powders are also an easy way to get in more plant nutrients while working your way up to eating more plant foods.

5) Get some exercise

We all know that exercise is good for us, or at least helpful when wanting to lose weight. The fact is there are far more benefits to some sort of exercise than just to help to lose weight. In fact, studies show that when exercise is used alone without any change to diet the results for fat-loss are quite poor. So if fat-loss is your main goal then you should focus on diet and nutrition and you should exercise for other reasons. Better sleep, improved strength, better mood, more social interactions, improved cardiovascular health are all extremely good reasons to get involved in some sort of exercise. Do something you enjoy and will therefore stick to. It doesn’t have to be running and it doesn’t have to be going to the gym. Anything is a good idea. And it’s one of the greatest acts of self-care so think about it as such – not something you have to do to punish yourself. F*ck that.

6) Eat oily fish or supplement with a marine omega-3 supplement

There’s a good reason oily fish consumption is at the top of many nutritional guidelines – they are an excellent food and are shown time and again to be one of the healthiest foods we can eat, much of this is due to the high concentration of omega 3 fats found in them. These are essential for us to be healthy both physically (particularly heart health) and mentally (very important for brain health). Oily fish are salmon, mackerel, sardines, anchovies and herring (kippers). One to two servings per week is enough and if you’re like most people and not great for eating oily fish then an omega-3 supplement might be for you. When you check the label you will see quantities for EPA and DHA – these are the omega-3 fats we want. For a daily dose you need to get 1000-2000mg of EPA and DHA combined. For example if a serving of fish oil is 2x soft gels and that gives you 500mg of EPA+DHA then you need to take 4-8 soft gels per day. Take them with a meal that contains some fat as they are better absorbed this way. The only valid plant source of marine omega-3 to get these fats is algae oil, so for vegans this is the one to go for.

7) Take a vitamin D supplement

Vitamin D is an extremely important nutrient that we can’t get enough in Ireland between October and March because we don’t get enough appropriate sunlight. This is how we usually get our vitamin D and since it’s nearly impossible to get enough from food, a supplement is advised. Somewhere in the range of 2000-5000iu per day, taken with a meal is going to be ideal for most people. Vitamin D is crucial for bone health, hormonal health, immune function, mental health and a whole host of other things. It’s the most common nutrient deficiency in the Western world so address it. Then when there is adequate sunlight between March and October you still need to make an effort to get enough sunlight. Fifteen minutes of face and forearm exposure in daytime sun five days per week is enough but remember this has to be ‘unprotected’ sun exposure that isn’t blocked by suncream. Also, please don’t burn, that is not good for you either.

8) Cook more at home

The more meals you prepare yourself the healthier they are likely to be both for your body and for your wallet! Look to develop your cooking skills little by little and get more accustomed to cooking at home and meal preparation. You don’t need to be a master chef, you can do a lot with very basic cooking skills to create tasty meals and quickly. Recipes online or in books can be a great help and give you ideas of what to shop for. If you’re not used to cooking or meal preparation then take it slowly – try one new recipe per week or some appropriate amount for you and your situation and build up your repertoire from there. If you are very time poor or near more of a helping hand to get you eating healthier while you figure out this cooking business consider a meal prep delivery service like Bodyfirst Prepp’d.  

By Brian Ó hÁonghusa
Nutritionist & Head Coach, The Fit Clinic
Instagram: @brianohaonghusa

  • 328 Clontarf Rd, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 KT21
  • 51 Cullenswood Rd, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, D06 X7P1

(01) 8055911

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