Big white is AWESOME! More stuff on health & fitness...

So close... no matter how far... 'I would do anything to lose weight, anything! Except of course diet and exercise.'

Diet and Exercise...!??
Can I have some chips instead?

In 2010 CNBC reported the diet industry was a $55b a year industry. In 2008 68% of Americans were considered obese - definition is a greater than a 25% BMI, or percentage of total fat. The current estimates of exercise and weight loss industry is a $20b a year in the US alone. These astonishing statistics (that I just made up, well I pulled them off the internet... so same thing) are... well... astonishing!

Now, as you guessed, I am all for health and fitness, if I don't look after my body... where will I live? But, there are no shortcuts, no quick fixes, no nothing, gluten, wheat, sugar, etc, etc... No shortcuts, period. (Do you like that, I did period followed by a period...)

Weight control/management consists of a very simple formula - calories consumed has to equal calories expended... calories do not multiply when you eat them, thinking 'but I don't eat much... and I still put on weight - it has to be dairy, or it has to be gluten or this or that... or whatever...' No. I'm sorry, if you consume 2500 calories and burn 2000 a day... on average you will increase your body weight by one pound per week.

To paraphrase Dickens-
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.

Calorie intake 2200, calorie expenditure 2250 - result... you can work out the rest. Those 50 calories, or a tenth of a bagel (without any cream cheese, butter...). A tenth of a bagel...? Or, less than one bite... hmmm yummy - fill me up Scotty.

Of course other stuff matters - type of calorie makes a difference, exercise makes a difference, when you eat makes a difference...

Type of Calorie.
There is good, there is neutral and then there is Sugar (once described as the heroin of the world) when I say sugar I mean all simple carbs - it could be white bread, plain sugar, carbs in apple juice, wheat products - cereals (cornflakes) corn syrup. Anything similar. Your body loves sugar, do you know why? Sugar converts to usable energy instantly. Brilliant...! Or it would be if we expended the energy - imagine running a marathon, and you eat a chocolate bar - the sugar converts to energy and gets burned up with this high energy activity.

But, what if you are sat watching TV? The sugar instantly enters your bloodstream and has nothing to do. Your body being this amazing product of evolution has a solution - it can and will store the energy for times of famine - in the form of fat. Well not that simple it (the pancreas) has to produce some extra insulin to do the conversion.

So Rule No. 1 - stay away from too much sugar. Actually the World Health Organization is planning a recommendation of a reduction in sugar consumption from 10% of your daily calories to just 5%. Current averages in North America are 25%... 

Fats.
A gram of fat contains 9 calories. A pound of butter is 3500 and is similar for all types of fat - Olive oil, vegetable oil, lard, bacon fat... etc.

I am not going into saturated v none saturated but lets just use a broad brush stroke - fats from meat are believed to be less healthy than most others.

But it is not all bad, fat takes time to be converted to usable energy - you will stay feeling satiated longer.

Rule No. 2 - include fats. But not too many, and stick with the healthy stuff if possible - olive oil etc.

Proteins.
Hmmm... my favourite. A gram of pure protein contains 4 calories. And proteins are a complex product - animal proteins are the muscle. And, your body's muscles cannot increase their mass without protein. 

Okay, a little tangent here. When you exercise hard your body breaks down muscle fibres. The soreness you feel the day after exercise are these damaged muscle fibres (or lactic acid, whatever). And your body is repairing them... cool. Of course your body needs protein to repair and it has two options - consumed protein, or employ existing protein - your other muscles. Your body does not and cannot fabricate muscle from fats or carbs! Read it again - fat does not turn to muscle and vice versa. 

Rule No. 3 - eat protein. We live in a world of abundance - protein is an easy option.

Burning the energy.
Or exercise. Do not tell me you don't have time to exercise. You have time to watch tv, surf the internet, check personal emails, take selfies, go to the bar, chat with friends... etc. read my crappy blogs... rubbish, get outside and go for a walk.

Weight, speed, elevation, inclination are all factors to the energy consumed but just assume 200-300 calories per hour. Squash (my favourite) 1200 calories per hour (based on my personal stats). Just for fun the number of calories in a White Spot double double meal, with a coke - 1360 (my favourite) number of hours I have to walk to burn those calories... six hours. Six! It is almost a full days recommendation of calorie consumption!

What burns energy?
Muscle - yes, fat no. More muscle, more calories burned. 

Fad diets.
Rubbish, crash diets - yes you will lose weight, you will lose fat, fluid and muscle. When you come off your diet you will have a slower metabolic rate, (less muscle you see) it will be easier to put on fat. And your body will be in this famine state (OMG, we are going to starve, limited food... okay guys lets slow the energy burn down, and speed up the fat storage... not ideal for the dieter).

But a quick fix
sounds better... 

Quick Fix?
There is none, none, none. Remember at the beginning - $55b industry? A quick fix would wipe out this industry overnight. If there was a quick fix do you really think they would share the info? No! 

The solution is diet and exercise.
Burn more calories, eat more of the right foods, less of the wrong foods.


But I feel hungry!

So, so hungry... brains... yes, high in protein!
Ask any Zombie.

Then you are eating the wrong stuff. Eat a 500 calorie bagel with cream cheese and a coffee for breakfast - what 800 calories? Your body converts this to sugar instantly - it leaves your stomach, goes to the blood stream, is unemployed and gets stored for later (on your hips, or ass, or stomach - actually everywhere). The insulin is working hard to convert all that crazy sugar - two hours later, it is gone, converted to fat. Your blood sugar level has now crashed, your stomach is empty and you are craving a donut. Thank god Frank from accounting brought a dozen in from Tim's 'I'll just have one... okay two...'

Three eggs, with cheese.
350 calories (depending on the amount of cheese of course...). The proteins and fats will take a while to be converted to usable energy. Your blood sugar will not spike, and it will not crash, four hours later you are not desperate for food. Your blood sugar is balanced and you will find it easier to make a healthier choice. 

And... the White Spot meal - 1360 calories? Equivalent to 20 eggs... I can eat the burger meal, it is yum, but could I eat 20 eggs? Probably not...

But what has this to do with Big White? Not much, but if you are lucky enough to live here, you will enjoy a slight (altitude related) metabolic rate advantage. Maybe it is the extra work your body does to extract the oxygen from a lower level of oxygenated air. I don't know... but that sounds good eh?

Just for me!

You want to get healthy?
1. Exercise 15 minutes every day. Every!
2. Start your day with a high protein breakfast.
3. Don't try and starve yourself but make healthier choices - fish over steak.
4. Cut down on carbs, increase protein.

Sólido Properties
lives, works, owns, rents and manages property and exercises at Big White. And yes, sometimes I make poor food choices too... beer...