Nutrition Recommendation

 

Nutrition

The factors that determine your fitness are Rest, Exercise, Nutrition and Hydration.

At Evolution we can recommend ways to improve your health but our main

focus is upon your fitness. If you do not eat well exercise will help you improve your fitness, but not as much as if you are well fueled.

Having an increased muscle-to-fat ratio will improve your health & fitness, even if you lose no weight. There are different types of muscle, Arnold Schwarzenegger developed the type most women don’t want to have – We appreciate this and will not bulk you up unless you want to!

Evolution recommends an even mixture of Cardiovascular and Resistance exercise.

‘Cardio’ exercise elevates your heart rate and burns fat; this involves running, rowing, cycling, swimming, etc. Evolution provides cardio facilities for you to use outside the times of your personal training sessions at no additional cost to you.

Resistance exercise develops muscle; preventing less of your food being stored as fat, this involves weight-lifting [even if just your body weight].

Tips:

  1. Always eat breakfast. Even if you are going to exercise at 6am.

You need at least 50g of carbohydrate at least 20mins before exertion [this includes your commute to work]. This will ensure you metabolise your fat stores for energy instead of using your precious muscles for fuel [hormones in your body will breakdown protein if no other energy source is available].

The majority of overweight people do not eat breakfast.

  1. Eat after exercise. Replenishing your energy stores will allow you body to start recovering. Carbohydrate is the best fuel here, as all food will be converted to sugar and stored in your muscle before recovery begins. There is no need to be overloading with protein at this point.

Ideally you should consume 50g of carbohydrate every 30mins for 2 hours and a total of 40g protein. For practicality you could just have a bowl of porridge, rice or fruit.

  1. Yo-yo diets do not work. 2 – 4kg per month can be sustainably lost without a huge risk of immediate replacement. If your energy input is lower than output you will lose weight, once you reach your target weight loss eat more and maintain your weight. Evolution recommend keeping a food diary for a week, this

    will make you think about what you eat and improve your appreciation of your diet.

  2. The typical female requires 2000 kilo-calories per day, males requires 2500. These are estimates for a ‘normal’ person. Very sedentary people will need fewer than recommended. Olympic rowers need about 8000 per day.

If you over-eat the excess food will be stored as fat. I.e. if you need 500kcal and consume 800kcal you shall store 300kcal as fat. The exception to this is protein – excess protein will mostly pass through you and be wasted. This is how the atkins diet works. It dehydrates you [thus more weight-loss] provides you with little energy to function on [so you metabolise your fat and muscle] and strains your liver and kidneys.

Whatever the amount of Calories required, or the sport undertaken, the proportions of macronutrients should be the same.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends;

Carbohydrate: 60 to 65% of energy intake [at 4kcal/gramme]. Thus 300g for a 2000kcal diet.

Fat: 25% of energy intake [at 9kcal/gramme]. Thus 55g for a 2000kcal diet. This should be constituted from 1/3 of each type [monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and unsaturated].

Protein: 10 to 15% of energy intake [at 4kcal/gramme]. Thus 100g for a 2000kcal diet.

Water: at least 2.5litres [at 0kcal/gramme].

All products you buy will have the macronutrient values listed on the packet. Kilo-calories may be described simply as Calories [even though this is 1000 times less than what they are representing!]

There are websites that can give you typical values for most foods and branded products.

Here are few values that may surprise you, keep your food diary for a week and you could be even more shocked.

Food, 100g Carbohydrate Fat Protein Kcal
Brown Rice 81.3 2.8 6.7 357
White Rice 85 3.6 7.3 383
Muesli, Swiss Style 72 6.7 9.8 363
Porridge Oats 72.8 8.7 12.4 401
Wholemeal Spaghetti 66.2 2.5 13.4 324
Wholemeal Bread 40.3 2.3 11.4 228
Baked Potato 31 0.2 3.9 136
Broccoli 0.9 0.9 4.4 33
Carrots 7.9 0.3 0.6 35
Sweet Potato 27.9 0.4 1.6 115
Banana 23 0.3 1.2 95
Cottage Cheese 3.1 3.9 12.9 101
Cheddar Cheese 0.1 34.9 25.4 416
Double Cream, 100ml 1.7 54 1.6 496
Whole Milk, 100ml 4.5 3.9 3.3 66
Soya Milk, 100ml 0.5 1.6 2.4 26
1 egg white, large 0 0 3.5 17
1 egg yolk, large 0 5.2 2.8 61
Sirloin Beef 0 6.7 26 166
Chicken, White Meat 0 4.5 30.9 173
Chicken, Dark Meat 0 9.7 27.4 205
Duck 0 11.2 29 201
Sea Bream 0 2.9 17.5 96
Kipper 0 6.2 13.8 111
Baked Beans 15.1 0.6 4.8 80
Brazil Nuts 3.1 68 14.1 682
Peanuts 12.5 46 25.6 563
Butter 0 79.2 0.6 739
Orange Juice, 100ml 8.8 0.1 0.5 36
Tea 0 0 0 0
Ice Cream, 100ml 25 8 3.5 180
Beer, Bitter, 100ml 2.2 0 0.3 30
Beer, Lager, 100ml 0 0 0.3 29
Champagne, 100ml 1.4 0 0.3 76
Whisky, 100ml 0 0 0 224
Vodka, 100ml 0 0 0 224
Red Wine, 100ml 0.3 0 0 68
White Wine, 100ml 3.2 0 0 74

Fibre and water will usually account for additional weight in the food.

Alcohol contributes 7kcal/gramme and can only be used directly by the brain, otherwise it needs to be stored as fat before being metabolised.