Nutrition Advice & 10 Myths

Nutrition is as important, if not more than, training for losing weight. Both are important but by combining the two key factors, you can achieve tremendous results.

You’ll find that the first two food groups have little to no Carbohydrates. By lowering your carb intake and combining it with adequate training, you can definitely lose fat.

There is no calorie counter for the amount you can eat. I think you guys have enough on your plate (no pun intended) in college without having to calculate calorie numbers on the back of food packages. Plus, counting calories is a very inefficient, and time consuming, method of losing fat. You will find a list of foods in this manual that will be beneficial to this diet along with recommended proteins. However, these portions are only indicators. If you find yourself still hungry after meals at the start of this program, feel free to have an extra portion.

Lowering your carb will actually help curb your appetite as, not only are you limiting your variation, you are also eliminating the sugar from the food which can be highly addictive. Note that sugar does not just refer to the “bad” foods like sweets and chocolate. Sugar can also be found in starches like bread, pasta, potatoes and rice.

Why do we limit our Carbohydrate intake?

Carbohydrates (the sugar) are the primary food group that adds body fat. By reducing carbs in our diet, we’ll be relying on our body stores of fat for energy, thus burning fat. Starch is also found in fruit and most of the processed food we consume.

Fruits are actually a good source of food, but it is essential not to over indulge due to the amount of sugar. So let’s forget about the 5 a day myth as most people forget that it includes vegetables too!

Processed food, especially the ones that are “low-calorie” could have a lot of chemicals in them. While the sound of low calorie food appears to be beneficial for losing weight, it actually has the opposite effect.

Chemicals are usually added to food to increase shelf life, taste and to make them more addictive. However, our bodies don’t now how to properly digest all the chemicals stored in processed foods. In short they are sent to the liver. There is only a certain amount of chemical food that our body can digest. With too many chemical foods consumed our body stores them as fat until they can be processed.

In the sample meal plan I’ve highlighted meals with either a (P) or (C) meaning Protein meals or Carbs. While lowering your Carbs is great for losing weight, try not to totally eliminate them from your diet. Going forever without carbs is unrealistic... and can give you incredibly messed up mood swings! Try a (p) meal every now and then to limit your intake of carbs.

If you are doing this to lose weight, please... DO NOT WEIGH YOURSELF EVERYDAY!! It’s completely unnecessary and a terrible way to judge fat loss. Measurements is a far better way to measure your progress and if you are going to weigh yourself, do it once a week at the same time of day to limit on the other factors that effect the scales number.

A before/after picture will be even better!!

Nutrition Myths:

Myth 1. Caffeine is bad for you.

Caffeine does have it’s health benefits. It is a big source of anti-oxidants (as much as some fruit and veg) and is also credited with with lowering the risk of many disease such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Caffeine is good for you... Monster cans, Red Bull etc are not so much!

Myth 2: Eating Fat makes you Fat.

“Low-Fat‘ foods are not good for you. They are laced in chemicals! The body stores these chemicals because the body doesn’t know what to do with them. This translates to fat. This fat is much different to nutrition fat. If you’re looking to lose weight, ‘low-fat‘ diets are not the answer. Only high fat foods that are also high in carbs will add lbs to the scales. More and more research s coming out that the answer is to lower your carb intake of weight loss is your goal.

Also, a number of studies have shown that saturated fat does not lead to heart disease.

Myth 3: Too much Proteins can be bad for you.

Unless you already have issues with your kidneys, there is no scientific studies to show that too much protein is harmful. I’m not going to go into grams per body weight you should be taking because, unless you are an elite athlete, NOBODY is going to follow that (and if you are, you’re not going to be looking at a college leaflet for you answers!)

Proteins are the main building blocks of the body so don’t neglect them. Red meat is good for you by the way as long as it is unprocessed. So your best place to get meat os the butchers! if only the college had good deals for butchers...

Myth 4: Eat smaller meals to ignite the metabolic flame.

This one is still making the rounds and I know there’s a fair few people reading this that will disagree on this one. Eating food does raise your metabolism slightly. However, eating bigger meals at more spaced out times will have the exact same effect on calories being burned throughout the day.

And, let’s face it, we won’t have time to be prepping six small meals through out the working day. So cut down on the snacking and have bigger, healthier meals.

Myth 5: Too many Eggs are bad for you.

The Yolk of the egg has this stigma of having high cholesterol. It does. This has absolutely nothing to do with cholesterol in the blood for most of us. The yolk actually has the most nutrition so when you’re cooking your eggs, don’t throw them away. 

Myth 6: It’s all in the calories consumed.

All calories are not the same and thus can have a different effect on the body. A high protein diet can increase the metabolic rate, even if the foods had the same number of calories as other products. Therefore, don’t count calories, count chemicals. A lot of foods that have low calories (due to fat being taken away) have been replaced with sugar and chemicals instead. So low calorie foods tend to actually be more harmful to you as increased sugar can lead to obesity and diabetes... but you already knew that!

Myth 7: If the food is Gluten Free, that’s good.

Gluten is a combination of two proteins that are usually found in grains. While it’s essential for celiacs to remain gluten free, there is a market out there for producers to label items gluten free just to appear more healthy. Snakes!

Myth 8: Microwaving your food is bad for you.

Thank the Lord that this is not true! Microwaves are a lot weaker than those in X-rays and are mainly heating to prepared foods. Heating them in plastic containers can have an effect so use a microwave container. It’s more down to the food in the microwave rather than how it’s prepared! If you keep re heating the food, you will lose it’s nutrients. The longer something is cooked, the less nutrients it has. 

Myth 9: Natural foods are good for you.

Just like ‘Gluten-Free’ products, the word ‘natural’ is a term loved by marketers to trick consumers into thinking they are eating more healthy. Anything can be labeled Natural. a product could have natural sugar... it still has the effects of sugar! The word you’re really looking for is ‘Organic’.

Myth 10: If you’re drinking, stick to red wine only because it’s the only one with health benefits.

According to a number of studies, it’s actually the alcohol it’s self which can raise good cholesterol! Which means... no, I’m afraid it doesn’t mean that going on the piss every night is good for you!

Wine is better to drink than beer mainly because you will drink less and it will reflect on you consuming a lot less calories. Red Wine contains the fewest amount of chemicals and carbohydrates. After that, whiskey, scotch and brandy are your next best bet before white wines and then vodka/gin. Of course it all depends on the mixer as well! Cider is slightly better for you than beer. There’s more calories in Heineken (44 per 100g) than there is in a Guinness 37 per 100g) believe it or not! 

Two fantastic carbs substitutes are Cauliflower rice (finely chopped up/grated cauliflower fried in coconut oil with seasoning of your choice) along with butternut squash cut into chips, seasoned and in the oven for 20 mins... trust me! 

(p) - Protein meals (c) - Carb meals
(Before) and (after) represent after the training sessions. Completely up to the individual how you feel eating before or after training. 

Meal recipes will be added to CoachSeanC.com/recipes over the next few months so keep an eye out for creative, healthy and, most importantly, easy to make dishes to help keep your nutrition on track!