Basic HTML Version
12 • Touchline • Issue 15
Most people have a pretty good
understanding of how diet works. There
seems to be a new super food every
month, but on the whole conventional
wisdom seems to be that we should
avoid sugars, most fats and processed
starches like white flour.
As a rule of thumb, flip what you used
to do with proteins and carbohydrates.
Double the amount of lean ham in your
sandwich and halve the bread. When you
do eat bread, switch to rye or something
else that has seeds in it.
You have to eat fat to fight fat, so foods
with Omega 3 fats are still approved by
dieticians. Walnuts, salmon and avocado
will help your body break down fat.
Walnuts are a fabulous snack, because
they also suppress appetite.
Current science –but watch this space,
they have been known to change their
minds- has found that high protein diets
assist in fat-weight loss, while at the
same time stablising or even increasing
lean muscle weight. So don’t take the
scale too seriously. Diary is back in
fashion, so go nuts on yoghurt and
cheeses.
If the science of eating changes fashion
more quickly than Lady Gaga changes
looks, try getting a handle on exercise.
This is one area that is mystifying, with
its rumour, cliques, vested interests and
fads.
One particularly interesting debate has
been the struggle over whether cardio
exercise or resistance is more effective
for torching fat. Logic might suggest that
running over a long distance, with your
heart rate up and your body sweating
profusely, is the best way to burn calories
and lose fat. But this is your body, and
logic has no place here. Science told
us that resistance was actually more
effective, the idea being that destroying
your muscles at the gym means that you
are burning energy long after the work
out is over as the muscle reforms.
Add to that the fact the assertion that
the more muscles you have, the faster
your metabolism runs, and we had many
big men using their muscles to hoist
their treadmills into the nearest rubbish
skip.
Lifting weight to lose weight does work
but you have to be smart. No time for
rolling up your sleeves and posing in
the mirror: you need to lift to failure
DIET
EXERCISE