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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.