Fun, Facts & Fitness from Mary Morris MSc.
Once the festive season is over, we see numerous TV programmes turning to the whole issue of weight loss and fitness. Interestingly, we are told that 81% of people say they want to eat more healthily and a massive 88% say they want to exercise more!
Of course, this is totally understandable as we have probably spent the last month or so indulging in both larger quantities, and numerous different types of foods that are not normally on our supermarket list. Not only that, but with all the hustle and bustle of the run-up to Christmas it was almost impossible to fit in our usual amount of exercise and activity. The result being that most of us are likely to have put on weight!
Ideally our goal is not focussed purely on weight loss or fitness, but more about improving our health overall in the coming year by embracing and maintaining a healthier lifestyle. The result should then hopefully involve both weight loss and improved fitness to take us through the whole of 2024 and beyond.
Professor Tim Spector was recently a guest on The One Show where he was encouraging us not to be so focussed on calorie counting if weight loss is our goal, but rather on the quality of our food. Eating a high-quality diet gets rid of the high-fat, high-sugar rubbish, whilst automatically reducing the calorie intake. We are in total agreement with this, as you know. The 28-Day Immunity Plan is your perfect partner if you want to eat quality foods combined with portion control. It is perfect for weight loss and a healthy diet and includes a complete exercise programme.
‘Quality food’ is based around the high consumption of foods that originate from plants and low-fat quality protein. The recommendation of 30 plant foods a week (mentioned in Newsletter 136 ~ 10th November 2023) seems exceedingly daunting until you start to break it down and realise just how many of the foods we eat do, in fact, come from plants anyway.
I am not a vegan but I appreciate that if we eat a more plant-based diet, rich in fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes, plus some good quality protein and a careful consumption of the more processed foods, we will lose weight. In addition, if we resolve to become a lot more active and 'on the move' every single day, we will become fitter.
So, if we shouldn’t be focusing on calorie counting our food consumption, should we be more focussed on knowing our calorie spend from the exercise we do if we want to become fitter? Not necessarily, is the simple answer. But understanding and knowing the type of activity or exercise we do, and when we do it, apparently is very valuable information to help us. Let me explain...
Boost your Metabolism
We need to work on developing a high metabolic rate so that our body is constantly a ‘high-calorie burner’ leading us to never have to think about numbers of calories.
Our metabolism is the engine of our body, burning energy constantly, even when we are asleep or doing nothing. In fact, the greatest amount of our ‘energy spend’ every day comes from what is called our Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). [Our BMR is the amount of energy we burn just by being alive as if we just stayed in bed all day!] Our BMR is increased significantly if we have plenty of muscle in our body. The stronger our muscles, the higher our BMR.
All exercise will increase our muscle to some level but I am going to encourage you to increase your strength training particularly. As an exercise teacher, I have always wanted those I am teaching to understand why they need to do a particular activity in order to up their motivation to do it... and here lies the main reason for picking up those weights. Muscle is an energy-hungry tissue and the more muscle tissue we have (stronger muscles) the higher the calorie spend, which explains why our BMR increases.
As we get older strength exercises become much, much more important as we are naturally losing muscle with age and therefore our BMR is also dropping. 2007 study showed that for men aged between 50 and 80, the number of fibres in the large thigh muscle (the vastus lateralis) decreased by a massive 50% from 600,000 fibres to 323,000. The great news is that this degeneration can be slowed down significantly by keeping those thigh muscles working hard. We have always encouraged you to do the 'Sit to Stand' exercise to make sure you have strong thigh muscles - which is why I have called them ’big engines’. This shows why it is so important and hopefully you will now have the motivation to keep doing it!
Increase your Protein Intake
Protein is the key to boosting our metabolism as it plays a key role in building muscle and it takes a lot of energy to digest. Fat on the other hand slips into the body unnoticed with an energy effect of less than 3%. Carbohydrates have an energy effect of 10% and protein is up to 30%! Basically, if you consume 1000 calories of protein you will expend a massive 300 calories simply digesting it. That's why protein is so powerful if you want to lose weight and maintain a good muscle mass. So, eat less fat and carbohydrates (but not none!) and eat high-quality, low-fat protein. We are not suggesting you go on a high-protein diet, as that can be unhealthy. It is about balance and eating healthily with more plant-based protein.
Exercise Hungry
This fact has come up before but is worth repeating. Taking an exercise session in the morning, when we are hungry, will give us considerable metabolic benefits. The reason our body adapts to long, low-to-moderate intensity exercise (a good walk) before food, is because it puts our body under metabolic stress. Basically, we are low on fuel (food) and in response to this fuel ‘crisis’ our muscles adapt better to using body-fat as a fuel. Great news if weight loss is our aim. This is called our Fat-Max (yes – a new term for me too!) In other words, the exercise session in which we burn the greatest amount of fat for fuel. Such good news!
Stick with it!
Of course, after the over-indulgent festivities we should make a concerted effort to shed our excesses by giving ourselves smaller portions and exercising more, but let’s think of the long term too so that we can make some positive changes to help us manage our weight and fitness so much better in the future.
Eating a more plant-based diet, eating a good level of protein and exercising regularly, particularly when we are hungry, means that we will be doing our very best to achieve and maintain a healthy weight as well as a strong immune system. It just makes sense. But be patient, it takes time for these healthy habits to show their benefits. So, think longer term, giving yourself a minimum of three months to get into the habit of eating well and exercising regularly. I promise you, if you do, you will feel so well and more confident about managing your weight and fitness in the future.
Such information enables us to make educated choices for our individual ongoing health and wellbeing. This is about making positive changes to discover a new way to achieve and feel our absolute best!
During the 19th century, two parallel movements drove the evolution of the bra from the corset: health professionals' concerns about the cruel, constraining effects of the corset and the clothing reform movement of feminists who believed women needed to discard the corset before they could expand their roles in society. In the United Kingdom, notable figures in the movement included Constance Lloyd, the wife of Oscar Wilde. The Rational Dress Society, the National Dress Reform Association, and the Reform Dress Association were prominent organizations that advocated for the end of the corset but despite their campaigns early bras had limited commercial success. Only well-educated, wealthy reformers wore them to any significant degree because they were expensive.
