FATBUSTER 2 AND THE OVERCONSUMPTION OF ENERGY
Relax, this isn't about
global warming, renewable energy, fracking, wind farms or nuclear power.....at
least I don't think it is. I read this phrase, 'Overconsumption of
Energy' last week from Professor Ian A. Macdonald head of the UK Centre for
Arthritis and Musculosketal Ageing research, University of Nottingham Medical
School (some title, I know).
We all know that obesity is on
the increase, the US is no 1 and the UK no 2, closely followed by every nation
in the developed world, even France, the last bastion of supposed balanced
eating has seen a massive rise in obesity. Why? There is no question that
High Fructrose Corn Syrup and many other nasty ingredients contribute to the
problem, including lack of exercise. Often it all sounds very complicated
as we tend to talk about exercise, nutrition and general health in terms
of numerous diet plans, supplements, medicines and varied exercise
protocols. He was making the point that many foods can be good or bad for the
human body and in varying degrees but his main argument was that obesity or
just general weight gain comes from simple overconsumption of energy. It puts a
different spin on eating too many calories or not doing enough exercise and I
think simplyfies our understanding.
When we eat we are
absorbing energy, now you might think that having a glass of wine or eating a
bag of chips or a tasy salad is a pleasureable action that stimulates the senses
and it often is but at a very basic level its just fuel for the body. Once it
hits your stomach these various foods are just broken down into units of energy
or waste. If you consume too much energy which is in excess of your basic
metabolic rate plus any additional exercise then you will get fat. You can
count calories and run to Texas and back but if you take in more energy than you
use then you will get fat.
Generally speaking nutrition
is 65% of the energy equation whilst the other 35% is exercise. If we think
in terms of how much energy did you use today in relation to how much
expended then you get a much clearer picture of where you are at. A good start
is to work out your Basic Metabolic Rate or BMR, click on the link to find out
yours....
http://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/bmr-and-daily-calorie-calculator.html
Now this is how much calorific energy you use
up even if you stay in bed all day.... so the more you move around and EXERCISE
then the more you will need. Using the Harris Benedict Formula (see link)
you can work out how much in total including exercise, you burn a day. (Do it
now, it takes about 10 seconds). Mine is approximately 2200 calories a day and
that includes 6 days a week of exercise. An 'average' woman's is about 1500
calories.
A Big Mac, chips and a coke is about 1100 calories! Two
pieces of toast with butter and honey on is about 350, Two glasses of
wine is 300 calories. Just think about that ...... that's 20% of a woman's
energy intake per day. If you drink 2 glasses every night with an evening meal
for a week that's the same as 10 Donuts! Would anyone think that eating 10
donuts a week is healthy?
As you can see from these figures overconsumption of energy is very easy to achieve
... and unfortunately the people who overconsume also tend to eat very bad
calories, bad fats, poor proteins and very poor high GI
carbohydrates aswell. This leads to not just obesity but type-2 diabetes,
atherosclerosis, heart disease and many other illnesses.
My last blog 'Fatbuster' was my most widely read to
date so clearly this is an issue that we are all concerned about ... and rightly
so. But then why isn't everybody aware of the healthy, quick and efficient
ways to lose weight or even to maintain their existing weight. There
are mountains of books, diets, tv programmes, dvd's and of course the internet,
surely it shouldn't be that complicated and the truth is, it isn't. If you
eat rice, potatoes, pasta, cakes, pies and pastries and consume
alchohol regularly what do you think is going to happen? It doesn't
matter how many times you go to the gym, play a sport, swim, run, cycle, dance
or zumba if you eat crap you will get AND remain fat.
You can't exercise away a bad diet.
Remember I've run up mountains for 10 hours at a time and lost no weight at all, in fact I
put it on. I won't even start to talk about Cortisol and Insulin
spikes as that's for another day but please note this - Not all calories are created equal - If you take your
energy (calories) from protein, vegetables and healthy fats as opposed to bad
carbohydrates eg pasta, cakes etc then you can consume more because the
body will utilise this type of energy more efficiently. Remember starve the fat,
feed the muscles. and ask yourself these
questions;-
1)What and how much are you eating ?
2) What type and how much are you exercising?
3) What's your Basic Metabolic Rate?
And finally .... stop your overconsumption of energy .... its bad for your
health ... and bad for the planet........... and now I'm off now to save the Whale :)
RSS Feed
