Carbs are bad, fat is bad, protein is bad….looks like it's the dust diet then!

I felt compelled to write this blog based on various bits of news I've seen in recent times. I call it news in the loosest sense of the term, scaremongering may well be a better term at times, or at least exaggeration or over-emphasising points that come out of scientific studies.

And here's why these things concern me. In recent times I've read, and you probably have to that:

• High protein diets may be as bad for you as smoking: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/eating-animal-protein-may-be-as-harmful-as-smoking-scientists-claim-9169335.html
• Carbohydrates are bad for you: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2509255/Carbs-rot-brain-Doctor-slams-grains-silent-brain-killers.html
• Meat is bad for you: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/04April/Pages/Red-meat-chemical-link-to-heart-disease.aspx

Now there's always a degree of truth in the articles when you read them; the question for most people though who don't spend their life reading all of the research is 'which bit is the degree of truth and which bits should I ignore?' 

I want to make three things very clear as I feel it's really important that people are aware of them and that they feel confident in the food choices that they make. So here they are:

1) Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are not foods themselves. That is, most real foods contain a mixture of at least two of these.

2) To say that any one of carbohydrates, fats or proteins are 'bad' for you is to make a generalisation as wide and as misleading as saying that 'all youths cause trouble' or 'that 'all Kenyans are brilliant marathon runners'. There are 'good' and 'bad' carbohydrates, 'good' and 'bad' fats and good and bad protein sources.

3) To denounce any one of these nutrients is to miss the point. There are benefits of eating carbohydrates, benefits of eating fat and benefits of eating protein. 

Let's take a look at each of these in a little more detail:

1) Carb's, fats and proteins aren't foods

You just don't see this that often. Yes some foods contain much higher proportions of one nutrient than another, but you'll often find that a food contains at least a small amount of another nutrient at the same time. For example, lentils are carb's right? No, one cup of lentils contains 44% carbohydrate, 36% fat and 20% protein. And steak is protein yes? Yes, well a fillet steak is 56% protein, 44% fat. And in 100 grams of avocado there's 15 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbohydrate and 2 grams of protein.

2) Carb's, fats and proteins are 'bad' for you

There are different types of carbohydrate and thousands of different foods that provide it. The same is true for fat and protein too. Some types may be harmful to your body, some may be good for you. Let's face it, if it were true that carb's were bad for you, fat caused you to get ill and protein shortened your life expectancy, there would only be on thing left to eat……dust! And I'm sure I could quickly pull together a study about the dangers of the Dust Diet too, which leaves you living on air and water. But then we know that too much water is bad for you, aaaaaaarrrrrrrghh! 

Let's look at an example in carbohydrates.

Recent times have led many people to think that carbohydrate is bad for them. But how can it be when it:

• Provides energy for the muscles to power movement.
• Provides energy for the brain to function properly.
• Allows the nervous system to work as it should.
• Enables fat to be broken down properly and used as fuel.

It depends on three things:

             1) What carbohydrates you eat.

                                     2) How much you eat.

                                                     3) When you eat it.

Fruit and vegetables contain carbohydrate and in their natural state they are extremely good for you, providing your body with essential nutrients and energy. Lentils, beans and quinoa also provide carbohydrates and are healthy choices. Refined, processed sugar on the other hand is not so good. You may have seen the statement today from the World Health Organisation that sugar intake should be halved. Check out what they had to say here. Some are surprised to realise that sugar intake doesn't just mean chocolate and cake, fruit juice and smoothies are included too. This doesn't mean that fruit is bad for you, it means that when you smash it into a million pieces increasing the speed at which your body can absorb the sugars, it has a far worse effect. It's no longer in its natural state so its benefits are reduced and even become risks.

Then of course there's quantity, the occasional smoothie in a diet full of unrefined produce will likely not do any harm; consume them every day and they may. And even timing may play a part, take in some sugar in the middle of a marathon and it becomes your best friend, sit drinking energy drinks on the couch and weight gain and diabetes become a real probability.

There are good fats too (Omega 3 in fish) and bad ones (trans fats found in processed foods). High protein foods like grass-fed organic steak will provide you with many good nutrients, cheap, heavily processed sausages and bacon will contain protein but increase your risk of cancer and other conditions at the same time.

So it's not carb's, fat or protein that's bad for you, it's about where you get them from and how much you have, which links nicely to the final point.

3) It's about balance

If all you ate was carrots you'd get health problems, but nobody claims that carrots are bad for you. It is about balance; each of carbohydrate, fat and protein has an important role to play in our body, carb's provide energy, fat makes the nervous system work and helps absorb vitamins, protein builds muscles and organs. Don't eat one and you'll be out of balance, unable to perform vital tasks.

The key thing is to find the balance of these that is healthy for the individual, and I have no doubt that this balance is different between different people and changes at various times too. This I know from experience and also from the fact that certain people will say that a particular diet had amazing effects on their weight and health whilst others trying the same one felt terrible and had to give it up quickly.

The mainstream guidance would suggest around 50-60% carbohydrate, 20-30% fat and 10-15% protein. Some will find more success with higher fat and protein intakes and lower carbohydrate and this may take some trial and error, but each to their own I say. Super-high protein diets may well put strain on the kidneys as excess protein cannot be stored, and it's worth knowing that excess protein can be converted and stored as fat if you eat too much of it. Natural fats are healthy, but they are higher in calories so quantity is important.

From experience I'd suggest you do the following:

1) Focus on the quality and the quantity will come - it's hard to overeat fish, nuts, fruit and vegetables as they are so filling and do not play havoc with your hormones and hunger levels like processed foods do.

2) Find a balance that works for you - there will be foods you like more or less, and foods you know make you feel more or less energetic. Record how you feel over time and adapt your diet to work for you. Whatever your balance, you will need carbohydrates, fats and proteins, I can say that with all certainty. 

I hope you found this information helpful and it puts your mind at ease. If you find the world of food, eating, nutrition and diet confusing, feel free to ask me a question via my Facebook page.

Look out too for my new weight loss diary, launching in the next few weeks. There will be spaces to fill in your exercise and lifestyle activity, and in the nutrition bit you'll be able to record all of the carbohydrate, fat and protein that you eat! ;-)

Be healthy,

Paul

The Social Media Drain

How many times have you checked Facebook today? Tweeted? LinkedIn with another random person you'll never meet?

Social media dominates the modern world we live in, and has seemingly stopped us actually being sociable in the true meaning of the word.

Despite the fact that Facebook now has around a billion users worldwide (that's 1,000,000,000,000 which is a lot of zeros), how often do those people have meaningful conversations or interactions with their ACTUAL "friends"?

Around 95% of Facebook users log into their account EVERY day, with 60% of Twitter users doing the same. That's a lot of liking, poking and twatting...sorry, I mean tweeting!

So how can this affect your wellbeing?

Whilst research into the impact of using social media websites is in its infancy, there are concerns over the potential negatives. Lack of face to face contact with other humans, more time alone, more time tweeting about how much you had to drink last night...

And of course less time moving around and keeping fit!

Some reports suggest the development of a "social media depression" as more and more people interact online and compare themselves to the idealised profiles and avatars of those they follow.

But is social media all that bad? After all, it allows friends and family to keep in touch with those they may not see that often, share photos of their happy families and tell the world about what they've just had for dinner.

#tweetwhatyoueat right?

I'm not going to sit here and tell you to delete all of your social media apps, or to sever all links with your virtual "friends" but it is a thought provoking topic that I question on a regular basis personally. Having a Facebook friends "cull" is always pretty satisfying, wouldn't you agree?

Have a think though, and if you're spending more time retweeting or sharing photos of cute fluffy cats (whatever makes you happy eh?) than talking to your friends and family or playing with your kids, then perhaps it's time to re-evaluate things.

As health and fitness professionals, social media offers us a vast number of potential opportunities. Be it promoting your business, connecting with current or potential clients, or keeping in touch with like-minded individuals to share opinions on the latest industry trends. Or re-tweeting a video of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson having a "cheat meal".

But it could also have a negative impact by distracting you from what you really should be doing. As ever, the key is to find a balance. By all means use social media to your advantage, but don't let it interfere with your life.

After initially putting this article together I took action, something I'd been telling myself I would do for some time. What did I do? I deleted the Facebook app from my phone. I know, can you imagine?!

The freedom it gave me was actually pretty amazing! Now, I could have deleted my account and never gone back on it again, but I do see the plus side of Facebook and use it to keep in touch with friends and family so I'm in no hurry to rid it from my life completely...yet.

I still have Facebook on my iPad but this now means I can only access it when I have wifi, meaning that I'm not connected 24 hours a day. And guess what? I'm not missing much and can easily catch up on the day's events!

So here it is...I implore you to find a way to reduce the time you spend on your social media feeds, and start having real conversations with those who really matter to you.

Ironically this blog post will appear on Facebook and Twitter, sorry about that!

Chris

Chris Foster is a health and fitness professional with 10 years' industry experience. He has worked as a Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, Club Manager, Regional Clinical Lead Health & Wellbeing Physiologist, Clinic Manager, Physiology Training and Recruitment Manager and Wellbeing Implementation Lead. Chris is passionate about helping people live healthier lives through proactive lifestyle choices, as well as driving the level of professionalism within the industry.

I wish I was a little bit taller...

I went back to my homeland briefly this weekend to do a little personal training work, catch up with a few friends and see my godson. On the Saturday I had a coffee with an old friend from my time as a PT at Fitness First in Solihull. I can't believe that it's been nine years since I've worked there, it seems like yesterday that I used to start my working day at 6:00am with a run with Nicolette. She used to meet me in the club car park as the gym didn't open til 6:30, we could then get about four miles in and be back in time for here to have a shower and get to her busy job as a lawyer. I'd then proceed to see around ten to fifteen clients across the day until 10pm when I'd go home and start writing session plans for the following day. I certainly learnt a lot about my trade in those years, and more importantly, a lot about people.

Anyway, I met with Jack who had been a member and good friend who I've kept in touch with but not seen for years. We talked about his family and of his trips back home to Kenya and India where he had family. He told me that he'd recently spent a few months in Dubai and of all the wealthy individuals out there hiring their PT's to keep themselves in shape.

He also told me of a craze in India where the wealthiest members of society were spending vast amounts of time, money and effort on looking more white. From make-up to skin bleaching, face powder to staying out of the sun, they wanted to be pale because lighter skin was fashionable and denoted wealth and power. This struck me as rather sad, firstly that skin colour should be connected with success in any way even today, but also because I found it saddening that people will spend so much of their time wanting to be something different.

Then I thought, isn't that why people hire personal trainers? To be something different? And the answer is yes of course, but whilst we have a job to do in terms of helping people to achieve the weight loss they desire, helping them to tone up and look good for the beach, giving them more energy to play sports with their children and grandchildren and keeping them healthy for the years to come, we also have an obligation I feel to help people to feel comfortable in their own skin. As a PT I am never more satisfied than when a client tells me that they feel better about themselves, and even though they've only lost a couple of pounds, or sometimes nothing at all, they feel more energised, less stressed and better able to cope with the challenges of life.

The problem is of course, the whole world these days is obsessed with selling the idea of the 'body beautiful'. Magazines, newspapers, television, adverts, billboards, the Internet, you cannot escape the endless images of gorgeous, lean individuals wearing tight fitting clothing, or hardly any clothing, selling you everything from cars to cereal bars. Celebrities often endorse products and you think, 'there's no way that guy eats that and looks like he does or does what he does', Chris Hoy and a certain range of breakfast cereals or Mo Farah and a vegetarian alternative to meat being good examples.

As an industry, those of us that work in health and fitness have a responsibility to people to help them achieve their goals and dreams, but also to recognise that it's OK to feel good about yourself and to accept that you may never have the physique of Angelina Jolie, and that's OK. But do we? I don't think we do, not even close. The images you see on gym walls are rarely of an older couple going for a walk are they? And they're not of a man pleased to fit back into his size 34 trousers, even though he had to jump around a bit and breathe in to do up the button. No, they're of Barbie and Ken smiling after their latest teeth whitening procedure, bright enough to blind you if the sun bounces off them at the wrong angle.

I myself have spent the last three years developing learning materials for a fitness training provider, and the stock images I have to choose from to put on the front covers of the manuals are often hilarious. There's more fake tan than TOWIE, more enhancements than a Pamela Anderson lookalike convention. Maybe I'm foolish, but I've often pushed to turn down the image of the man who's arms are  bigger than my body and looks like he's been Tango'd in favour of a normal, middle-aged woman doing step aerobics, or an older couple doing a power walk along the beach. It might not sell but surely the aim is to be realistic and to attract those to our way of life who so far have failed to join us?

We can all take some responsibility for making this happen, for making people feel like it's OK to be normal. We can start by removing all of the pictures of Personal Trainers advertising their services whilst posing with their tops off. Unless it's a bodybuilding gym, there's just no place for this. It serves only to make the majority of gym members feel self conscious and unworthy of their membership. We can also stop encouraging people to buy every supplement under the sun to achieve their dreams. The majority of our clients don't need protein shakes, BCAA's, green tea supplements or any type of 'fat burners', they need a healthy balanced diet and a good mix of resistance training, cardio and flexibility a few times each week.

This week I posted my weekly shop on my balance weight loss Facebook page. I did this not to show off, but to show people that in amongst my healthy food, I had in fact bought some treats including a pizza, and I was going to eat it and enjoy it. I did by the way, and I didn't feel the slightest bit guilty as I've trained hard this week and won't be having one every day. If I can help to make normal people a little bit healthier whilst still being normal, I'll be a happy man.

It is absolutely OK to want to look and feel different, everybody needs a goal to strive towards and many people in today's society need to be more active, eat more healthily and lose some weight. It's not however OK to have people feel like they are pressured into being something that they are not. A lecturer of mine at university used to say 'you can turn a Shire Horse into a faster Shire Horse, but you can't make it a Racehorse.' When I was younger I always wanted to be a little but taller than I am. I peaked quite early at around 5 feet 11 inches, and that extra inch or so always eluded me.These days I don't worry so much that I never made it to 6 feet, I just spike my hair up the front and use that to give the illusion that I'm taller. And when my hair disappears, which is highly likely given the genetic predisposition in my family tree, I'll either accept being 5 feet 11, or I'll buy a hat!

If you're a PT, I challenge you to go and inspire people to be a better version of themselves, not an imitation version of somebody that they're not.

Kind regards,

Paul

Paul Waters, fitness guy

What am I?

I've been blogging for a while for my business, balance weight loss, but I've not until now sat and written much as me. It's a change in style for me and I spent some time wondering whether anyone would be interested in the slightest in what I had to say. I've worked in the fitness industry all of my adult life and I've done lots of different roles. I've been a Fitness Instructor, self-employed Personal Trainer, worked in Nuffield hospitals as a Lead Physiologist, and for the last nearly seven years I've had a variety of jobs with a wonderful company, Lifetime Training, including Tutor, Senior Tutor, Regional Manager and Curriculum Manager. I've recently written a book for Bloomsbury Publishing called The Complete Guide to Weight Loss, due out in September this year, and in the coming months I shall be back self-employed doing a wide range of work including course tutoring, course writing and development, weight management courses, book writing and personal training.

I'm looking forward to such a varied existence and I hope that it can be seen that what I say in this blog comes from a reasonable amount of experience. I certainly am not going to be labelling myself as a 'Fitness Guru' or 'Master Trainer' any time soon though, rather I hope to be seen as an experienced member of the health and fitness community and one that offers balanced views (hence the business name) on a range of topics around the subject. I guess it's OK when someone gives another person a fancy sounding title, but I'd never dream of assuming one for myself, so for now I'm going to call myself a 'Fitness Guy'.

More than words

As I was thinking about what to call myself, I realised that this may be a good place to start with my thoughts on the fitness industry. Over the years, many words, terms and job titles have emerged in our sector, and more recently which of these is used seems to have taken on even greater importance. I was at a Skills Active Technical Expert Group panel meeting recently (another term I'm not sure I'd choose for myself but it was an honour to be asked to be part of the group) and we spent a long time debating what the new occupational standards that guide fitness instructor and personal trainer qualifications should be called.

Should it be fitness, exercise, physical activity, wellbeing or health? Are we  fitness instructors, gym instructors, fitness professionals, wellbeing advisors, personal trainers, coaches, motivators, or movement specialists? Does it matter? I'd argue that it does, as each of these words brings about a different image in a person's mind, some of these images may well be positive ones, others not so. Ask the average member of the public their thoughts around what goes on inside a gym, and bizarrely still to this day, there's a notion that it's full of incredibly muscular individuals all staring at themselves in the mirror, preening in between sets of lifting heavy weights, not that many people know what a set actually is. I ask you, is this so bizarre? Or have you seen this happen? I know I have, many a time in all sorts of gyms, fitness centres, leisure centres, wellbeing facilities or whatever you prefer.

And I guess this is my point, it should be about what people prefer. If the target audience of a gym is those who wish to get bigger, stronger or faster, then calling itself a Wellbeing Centre and having Lifestyle Coaches isn't going to get many people through the door, if they'd fit with those extremely broad shoulders! 

We can be pretty certain that the general public currently don't prefer what we're doing. According to a state of the industry report published every year, around 7.6 million people are gym members in the UK, out of a population of nearly 64 million. OK so the total membership base did rise in 2012/3 for the first time in a while, but the reality is that gyms have barely made a dent on getting the majority of the British public active. And maybe that's not their fault, maybe gyms are for 'Fitness' and 'Exercise' people, I'd count myself as one of those weirdos. We like to exercise, enjoy working hard, get up in the depths of winter in the pitch black to get to the gym before work, and use terms like 'training to fatigue', 'working to failure', 'achieving overload', 'beastings', and attended classes including the words 'blast', 'attack', 'pump' and 'carnage'. It's no wonder the general public think we're nuts! 

Global crisis

This is all well and good, and it keeps the small percentage of the 7.6 million people who are members of gyms who actually go entertained. But the truth is there is currently a health crisis of epic proportions right here on our doorstep and across the globe. Obesity rates have soared since the 1980s and a report last week suggested that the shocking figure predicting that by 2050, 60% of the population would be obese, may well have underestimated the extent of the problem. Add to this high blood pressure, high cholesterol, shockingly rapid increases in cases of type 2 diabetes, depression, stress, anxiety and an ageing population suffering from arthritis, osteoporosis, and back pain and in need of hip and knee replacements, and I personally start to feel that we are under-equipped and failing in our attempts to improve the nations' health. But maybe health wasn't our focus, maybe it was fitness?

What happens next?

This is a question I have spent much time pondering. In my career, I have never really been driven by working with the highest level athletes; I like normal people and I like helping them to achieve what some see as everyday goals like losing weight, climbing the stairs, increasing energy levels and boosting self-esteem.

Maybe there is a role for gyms to play in this goal, I've seen enough good things over the years to know that people can achieve these things in a gym environment, with the right encouragement and education. But for this to happen on a wider scale some big things need to happen and they need to happen soon to start making an impact. 

1) We need to start talking people's language. We might need to consider the terms we use to name exercises, the titles of job roles, the names of our fitness (or activity/wellbeing) facilities.

2) We need to build the trust of the medical profession, and vice versa. Two-way meaningful dialogue needs to be had, and this should be driven by the government themselves. The health and fitness world can play a major role in improving health and preventative medicine should be considered far more important than it is now. For this to happen we need to continue to strive towards high standards of education for instructors, quality control and assurance in our roles, a unified system of regulation that encompasses the many approaches to exercise but ensures the same messages consistently come across to the end user, the general public.

3) We need to focus more on a holistic approach to health and wellbeing. For too long the emphasis has been on exercise, and often on training hard. We need to balance this off with more on nutrition, daily physical activity, lifestyle factors like alcohol and smoking, sleep, stress and behaviour change. We should have clearly defined boundaries in these areas, but changes to these aspects of life can make massive improvements to health even in the absence of hard physical exercise.

4) We need to think outside of the box (one for the Cross Fit community), or rather outside of the gym. When we took exercise outdoors a few years ago, we went out with Boot Camp, training people like we were Royal Marine PTI's, screaming at them to do more clap press-ups or swing that kettle bell faster! A good friend of mine, the legend that is Keith Smith, often talks of starting Ug Camp, like Boot Camp only softer. And he's right, it's OK to offer training until your eyeballs bleed for those who are into that sort of thing, but we need to have more choices on our shelf. We need walking groups, chair-based exercise sessions, dance, family activities, cooking lessons, yoga, sports, water-based activities and play. Something for everyone, something to attract those who hated PE at school, something to enable people to be 'active' instead of worrying about their 'fitness'.

5) Finally, we need to care. This doesn't mean we need to go around hugging more people. It means we need to put more effort into making this a reality. It means we need more courses on lifestyle-based activity and how to promote it, we need to work more closely with schools, GP surgeries and local councils. We need to want to help people, we need to involve people who actively dislike gyms to find out why and also to get them to design activity programmes that they would prefer, and we need to take exercise, or health, or wellbeing, or physical activity to the population, in a way that appeals to them, instead of them being terrified to walk through our doors and join us in 'pumping some iron.'

Time for change

I hope you don't see this blog as a rant, and I certainly hope nobody takes it as a criticism. There are many fitness professionals and gyms that do wonderful things every day for many people, changing lives constantly. This is rather a call to arms, and legs for that matter, to change the way people perceive being active and healthy.

Yours,

Paul Waters, fitness guy, or should that be Paul Waters, health and wellbeing guy, or Paul Waters, physical activity guy?

It's up to you, and more importantly, it's up to the people who we have yet to engage in a healthy lifestyle!