Relax, this isn't about global warming, renewable energy, fracking, wind farms or nuclear power.....at least I don't think it is. I read this phrase, 'Overconsumption of Energy' last week from Professor Ian A. Macdonald head of the UK Centre for Arthritis and Musculosketal Ageing research, University of Nottingham Medical School (some title, I know).
We all know that obesity is on the increase, the US is no 1 and the UK no 2, closely followed by every nation in the developed world, even France, the last bastion of supposed balanced eating has seen a massive rise in obesity. Why? There is no question that High Fructrose Corn Syrup and many other nasty ingredients contribute to the problem, including lack of exercise. Often it all sounds very complicated as we tend to talk about exercise, nutrition and general health in terms of numerous diet plans, supplements, medicines and varied exercise protocols. He was making the point that many foods can be good or bad for the human body and in varying degrees but his main argument was that obesity or just general weight gain comes from simple overconsumption of energy. It puts a different spin on eating too many calories or not doing enough exercise and I think simplyfies our understanding.
When we eat we are absorbing energy, now you might think that having a glass of wine or eating a bag of chips or a tasy salad is a pleasureable action that stimulates the senses and it often is but at a very basic level its just fuel for the body. Once it hits your stomach these various foods are just broken down into units of energy or waste. If you consume too much energy which is in excess of your basic metabolic rate plus any additional exercise then you will get fat. You can count calories and run to Texas and back but if you take in more energy than you use then you will get fat.
Generally speaking nutrition is 65% of the energy equation whilst the other 35% is exercise. If we think in terms of how much energy did you use today in relation to how much expended then you get a much clearer picture of where you are at. A good start is to work out your Basic Metabolic Rate or BMR, click on the link to find out yours....
http://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/bmr-and-daily-calorie-calculator.html
Now this is how much calorific energy you use up even if you stay in bed all day.... so the more you move around and EXERCISE then the more you will need. Using the Harris Benedict Formula (see link) you can work out how much in total including exercise, you burn a day. (Do it now, it takes about 10 seconds). Mine is approximately 2200 calories a day and that includes 6 days a week of
exercise. An 'average' woman's is about 1500 calories.
A Big Mac, chips and a coke is about 1100 calories! Two pieces of toast with butter and honey on is about 350, Two glasses of wine is 300 calories. Just think about that ...... that's 20% of a woman's energy intake per day. If you drink 2 glasses every night with an evening meal for a week that's the same as 10 Donuts! Would anyone think that eating 10 donuts a week is healthy?
As you can see from these figures overconsumption of energy is very easy to achieve ... and unfortunately the people who overconsume also tend to eat very bad calories, bad fats, poor proteins and very poor high GI carbohydrates aswell. This leads to not just obesity but type-2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, heart disease and many other illnesses.
My last blog 'Fatbuster' was my most widely read to date so clearly this is an issue that we are all concerned about ... and rightly so. But then why isn't everybody aware of the healthy, quick and efficient ways to lose weight or even to maintain their existing weight. There are mountains of books, diets, tv programmes, dvd's and of course the internet, surely it shouldn't be that complicated and the truth is, it isn't. If you eat rice, potatoes, pasta, cakes, pies and pastries and consume alchohol regularly what do you think is going to happen? It doesn't matter how many times you go to the gym, play a sport, swim, run, cycle, dance or zumba if you eat crap you will get AND remain fat.
You can't exercise away a bad diet.
Remember I've run up mountains for 10 hours at a time and lost no weight at all, in fact I put it on. I won't even start to talk about Cortisol and Insulin spikes as that's for another day but please note this - Not all calories are created equal - If you take your energy (calories) from protein, vegetables and healthy fats as opposed to bad carbohydrates eg pasta, cakes etc then you can consume more because the body will utilise this type of energy more efficiently. Remember starve the fat, feed the muscles. and ask yourself these questions;-
1)What and how much are you eating ?
2) What type and how much are you exercising?
3) What's your Basic Metabolic Rate?
And finally .... stop your overconsumption of energy .... its bad for your health ... and bad for the planet....
....... and now I'm off now to save the Whale :)
P.S. You may have noticed I've changed my Blogger name .... I'll explain more in the next post.
We all know that obesity is on the increase, the US is no 1 and the UK no 2, closely followed by every nation in the developed world, even France, the last bastion of supposed balanced eating has seen a massive rise in obesity. Why? There is no question that High Fructrose Corn Syrup and many other nasty ingredients contribute to the problem, including lack of exercise. Often it all sounds very complicated as we tend to talk about exercise, nutrition and general health in terms of numerous diet plans, supplements, medicines and varied exercise protocols. He was making the point that many foods can be good or bad for the human body and in varying degrees but his main argument was that obesity or just general weight gain comes from simple overconsumption of energy. It puts a different spin on eating too many calories or not doing enough exercise and I think simplyfies our understanding.
When we eat we are absorbing energy, now you might think that having a glass of wine or eating a bag of chips or a tasy salad is a pleasureable action that stimulates the senses and it often is but at a very basic level its just fuel for the body. Once it hits your stomach these various foods are just broken down into units of energy or waste. If you consume too much energy which is in excess of your basic metabolic rate plus any additional exercise then you will get fat. You can count calories and run to Texas and back but if you take in more energy than you use then you will get fat.
Generally speaking nutrition is 65% of the energy equation whilst the other 35% is exercise. If we think in terms of how much energy did you use today in relation to how much expended then you get a much clearer picture of where you are at. A good start is to work out your Basic Metabolic Rate or BMR, click on the link to find out yours....
http://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/bmr-and-daily-calorie-calculator.html
Now this is how much calorific energy you use up even if you stay in bed all day.... so the more you move around and EXERCISE then the more you will need. Using the Harris Benedict Formula (see link) you can work out how much in total including exercise, you burn a day. (Do it now, it takes about 10 seconds). Mine is approximately 2200 calories a day and that includes 6 days a week of
exercise. An 'average' woman's is about 1500 calories.
 |
| BREAKFAST 1 (with Juice Plus/Fish oil/Green drink and Probiotics) |
 |
| BREAKFAST 2 (5 mins after opening my Glut-4's) |
 |
| EXERCISE (20 mins or 50 mins)) |
 |
| BCAA's/GLUTAMINE/PROTEIN SHAKE |
 |
| LUNCH |
 |
| AFTER LUNCH |
 |
| DINNER |
A Big Mac, chips and a coke is about 1100 calories! Two pieces of toast with butter and honey on is about 350, Two glasses of wine is 300 calories. Just think about that ...... that's 20% of a woman's energy intake per day. If you drink 2 glasses every night with an evening meal for a week that's the same as 10 Donuts! Would anyone think that eating 10 donuts a week is healthy?
As you can see from these figures overconsumption of energy is very easy to achieve ... and unfortunately the people who overconsume also tend to eat very bad calories, bad fats, poor proteins and very poor high GI carbohydrates aswell. This leads to not just obesity but type-2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, heart disease and many other illnesses.
My last blog 'Fatbuster' was my most widely read to date so clearly this is an issue that we are all concerned about ... and rightly so. But then why isn't everybody aware of the healthy, quick and efficient ways to lose weight or even to maintain their existing weight. There are mountains of books, diets, tv programmes, dvd's and of course the internet, surely it shouldn't be that complicated and the truth is, it isn't. If you eat rice, potatoes, pasta, cakes, pies and pastries and consume alchohol regularly what do you think is going to happen? It doesn't matter how many times you go to the gym, play a sport, swim, run, cycle, dance or zumba if you eat crap you will get AND remain fat.
You can't exercise away a bad diet.
Remember I've run up mountains for 10 hours at a time and lost no weight at all, in fact I put it on. I won't even start to talk about Cortisol and Insulin spikes as that's for another day but please note this - Not all calories are created equal - If you take your energy (calories) from protein, vegetables and healthy fats as opposed to bad carbohydrates eg pasta, cakes etc then you can consume more because the body will utilise this type of energy more efficiently. Remember starve the fat, feed the muscles. and ask yourself these questions;-
1)What and how much are you eating ?
2) What type and how much are you exercising?
3) What's your Basic Metabolic Rate?
And finally .... stop your overconsumption of energy .... its bad for your health ... and bad for the planet....
....... and now I'm off now to save the Whale :)
P.S. You may have noticed I've changed my Blogger name .... I'll explain more in the next post.
