Whilst most people think of weight training as a method to primarily increase the size and strength of your body. Whilst it is true that systematic and carefully planned weight training will help you increase the size and strength of your muscles, weight training does have another string to its bow. Before we go any further it is best to introduce the idea of Sets and Repetitions for those of you who are not familiar with this idea. Repetition refers to the amount of times you complete the movement, whilst a set is a block of repetitions performed consecutively. As a guideline the last repetition of a set should be very difficult. Multiple sets of repetitions performed at…
Category: Nutrition
The BBC recently aired a Horizon documentary titled Sugar v Fat’. During the show two doctors (identical twins) embarked on a month long study comparing the differing effects of Fat and Sugar in our diet. It was thought that since the twins have similar DNA the results of the study will be down to diet alone, as genetics (which can play a big part) would not be a confounding variable. One of the twins followed a diet where he consumed only fat, whilst in stark contrast the other twin followed an extremely high carbohydrate diet (HCD), with only the negligible amounts…
Milk! Superfood right? Yes milk is a great source of Calcium, Protein, Vitamins A and D, as well as providing an ample dose of Carbohydrate. However much of the benefits are lost when we switch to Semi-Skimmed and Skimmed varieties, and that is something a large percentage of the population do. Most people are under the impression that the Semi-Skimmed and Skimmed milk are healthier options than the full-fat version. However if we consider that Vitamins A and D are fat-soluble, meaning that removing the fat from the milk (as is done with skimmed and semi-skimmed milk) means that these…
When people typically think of macronutrients the big three spring to mind; Carbohydrate, Fat and Protein. Whilst they are vital to achieving optimal nutrition, Dietary Fibre is often forgotten and overlooked. So what is Fibre? Dietary fibre is a polysaccharide that escapes digestion in the gastrointestinal tract, in simple terms it is the indigestible part of carbohydrate. Rich sources of fibre are fruit and vegetables, as well as wholegrains. Fibre can be generally classified into two categories; Soluble Fibre– As the name suggests this fibre dissolves in water. Inside the body the fibre dissolves to form a gel. It is…
Many who suffer from conditions that affect the digestive system choose to remove grains and gluten from their diet due to intolerance. However in recent years a popular trend is now to remove them from their diet regardless, in a new ‘clean eating wave’. This means no bread, pasta, cereal, rice or oats, regardless of whether they are wholegrain. The question on your lips must be is it healthy to completely remove a food group? To answer this question let us look at what these foods provide us with. Wholegrains are healthy right? Most…
In a recent article (entitled ‘Is Eating Little And Often Still Relevant?’), I posed the question of whether eating little and often offered all of the benefits that have been suggested by the health and fitness industry, as well as introducing the idea of ‘intermittent fasting’. To re-cap, intermittent fasting involves completely refraining from food and energy intake for a set period of time, or consuming a very low level of energy for a set period of time. Both of these protocols are then followed by a re-feed. Two popular protocols: The 5:2 diet involves 5 days of normal eating…
MyFitnessPal is a free app for smartphones that contains a database allowing users to log and monitor their calorie and nutrient intake. Users simply enter their food and drink intake with measures for each meal during the day. The app will then produce a breakdown of total energy intake, as well as where the energy intake is coming from in terms of macronutrients for each meal, in addition to a daily total. The user has the choice of searching for the food manually in the database (to be honest the app contains pretty much every food and drink item that…
The Health and Fitness Industry has for a long time promoted the message that ‘small regular meals are the key to weight control, fat loss and even muscle gain. The theory behind this is that we constantly drip feed our muscles with fuel to keep our metabolism high, as our body increases energy expenditure in the time period following a meal in order to process the food that we have just eaten. The idea was that you can actually burn more calories by eating the same amount of food that you would eat in your 3 square meals but…
In this short article I am going introduce to a few food and drink items that are often criticised in some way, shape or form, but in actual fact can be beneficial for your training as well as your health. Whole Milk- Whole milk is often swapped in favour of semi-skimmed and is often thought to be a high fat food. However 100 millilitres of whole milk typically contains around 3.6 grams of fat, making it less than 4% fat. That makes it 96% fat free! In order for a food item to be considered low-fat it must contain no…
Most of us have heard the phrase ‘No Carbs before Marbs’, with the implication that Carbohydrate foods should be avoided if one is trying to lose weight. Whilst there may be some truth in this statement it is important that we understand some basic information about the much discussed macronutrient that is Carbohydrate before going any further. For you science geeks Carbohydrate molecules consist of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms joined together in a chain, with there being two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atom to give the general formula C H₂0. These chains can vary in length depending on…