THE IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITION

If you are trying to lose weight there are so many “diet” options out there to choose from – juice diets, no sugar, no carbs, cabbage soup diet, 5:2 diet – the list goes on! The problem with these sort of diets is that they are not sustainable. They may give you the quick results you want but once the diet is finished, the weight will more likely than not start creeping back on.

These diets are all doing the same thing – restricting how many calories you are eating a day – it doesn’t really matter what it is you are eating, if you are only eating 500 calories of it (which is the amount some of these fad diets promote) of course you will lose weight because you are eating far less calories than you expend. BUT it is not sustainable, good for you health and will leave you exhausted!

It is so important to educate yourself about what you are eating and understand if you want to lose weight you need to put yourself in a calorie deficit consistently over time. Calorie deficit is not a diet, it is a scientific process that needs to be in place to lose body fat!

Understanding calories and macro-nutrients – which are the 3 categories of nutrients we eat the most, CARBOHYDRATES, PROTEIN and FATS – is the key to weight loss.

The knowledge of the importance and benefits of a high protein diet is something that most of us are lacking, but by educating yourself on how many grams of protein are in food and what a good target to hit is, you are providing yourself with a really useful tool to achieve weight loss.

Counting calories and macros is not something that needs to be done long term but if you have tried the fad diets, yo-yo’d in weight over the years then educating yourself what is in your food is the key to long term success.