Kickstart Your Fitness

Is the reason you're not losing fat because you're eating too late at night?

The problem with this belief is that it doesn't have much evidence to back it up

When I first started training at 16 years old, I was told that one of the key hacks to not storing excess body fat was to not eat after 8pm at night due to the food storing straight to fat if eaten too close to bedtime (yes, a lot of these false beliefs apply to me and my experience if you haven't noticed)

I would usually have a busy day at college, come home, then train at the gym for around 18:00

This meant by the time I got home, I only had around 15-30 minutes to cram all of my remaining food in for the day, before the apparent 8pm cut-off point

This actually, looking back, led me to eat a lot more calories than I probably would have if I didn't have this cut-off point

Instead of having just dinner, I'd have dinner and then wolf down a big bowl of cereal because I feared I might not be able to eat for a while without storing body fat

I did this because I wanted to drop some fat, see my abs, and I wanted to do whatever it took to get there

The consequence of having the "not eating too late at night" cut-off, is that it was actually putting me in a calorie surplus the majority of the time

Meaning that the reason I wasn't dropping fat wasn't that I was trying not to eat too late at night, but I just was simply eating too much over the course of the day... who would have thought?

Once I did my research, I learned that the driving factor for fat loss is calories in vs calories out

Not how late at night you eat

A good reference point I give to my clients is that eating late at night WILL cause you to gain weight IF you have already eaten a lot throughout the day and calories aren't equated for

For example, if your goal calories are 2000, you've already consumed 1800, then at 10pm you have a bowl of cereal which equates to 500 calories, you are going to be eating 300 calories over your goal

But, if you had that same 500 calorie bowl of cereal at 10pm and had only consumed 1500 calories throughout the day... then your calories would be equated for and the bowl of cereal wouldn't put you in a calorie surplus

Eating smarter not harder

Sugar gets demonized by a lot of media/high-profile platforms...

But, is it actually that bad for you?

Maybe you have always had the thought that sugar is the reason you're gaining weight, or sugar is the devil and it's the first thing you cut out when you go on a diet

The problem with doing this is that it isn't sustainable and you actually don't need to do it to lose weight. You can actually still incorporate a lot of sugar in your diet AND lose fat (crazy right?)

We've all done it at some point, we've stepped on the scales and got a bit of a fright when it rudely reads higher than we imagined

So we immediately begin planning to cut out carbs such as bread, start eating "healthy" and say no to every sugary food insight

After a few days of doing this, we realise that we are feeling hungrier than ever, we end up craving high-fat, high sugar foods

This leads to us having a weekend-long binge of donuts, chocolate, sweets, or whatever you can get your hands on

We do this because we have deprived ourselves of these foods for a certain amount of time without incorporating them into our diet...

The consequence of this is that you're in a constant limbo of cutting sugar out of your diet for X amount of days, then binging on it after you can't handle it anymore

How do you solve this?

WE EAT SUGAR

Contrary to popular belief, sugar isn't that bad. It's almost essential for us to include it into our diets

To lose fat you need to be in a calorie deficit whether that's cutting out sugar or not

In its most simple form, sugar is a carbohydrate, which is a source of energy

If carbohydrates are accounted for in your diet in regards to calories, you will still get the results you want

If you look at people who have your goal physique, AND they eat a good amount of sugar... how do you think they do it?

They do it by accounting for eating higher calories by keeping their calorie expenditure high as well as tracking their calories so they know their intake, not by completely cutting out sugar

I'm going to explain to you why the fruit & veg you're eating may actually be a problem area...

We all know that fruit & veg are "healthy", but, are there limits on how much we should eat?

The problem with eating TOO much fruit & veg could actually be counter-intuitive to your weight loss (as well as your toilet frequency)

Now I'm not getting carried away saying that you shouldn't eat fruit or veg because that would be a bit stupid considering they have great benefits such as helping us feel fuller for longer and help get in our vitamins/minerals

But, too much of a good thing... isn't good

Before I tracked any of my calories I would try to cram in as much fruit and veg per day because I was told that it was "healthy"

Not only did I feel a lot gassier, but I actually didn't drop that much weight compared to what I wanted

I would eat fruits such as dates, avocado's, banana, grapes pretty much every day without fail

Veg wise I'd make sure I had a portion with every meal I had

After I noticed a decline in progress with my weight loss, I decided to track my calories to see what my actual caloric intake was

I guessed at 2200-2300 calories per day

Guess what I was ACTUALLY consuming?

... 3000!

What I realised was that through the big emphasis on consuming fruit, I was actually eating a lot higher calories than I thought

Here's an example of the calories in some fruit...

Avocado = 250 calories
100g of Dates = 282 calories

This doesn't seem like much, but I was having 1 avocado per day with breakfast and two portions of dates for snacks throughout the day, that's 800 accumulated calories when I estimated it to only be around 100-200

I did this because like I said, I thought that eating fruit (no matter the amount) was ok because it's "healthy"

This led to me consuming nearly 800 calories more per day than I thought I was

The consequence of this meant it was putting me in a slight calorie surplus, meaning I was putting on weight that I couldn't account for before tracking calories

The solution to this is simple, whenever you're eating these higher calorie fruits, make sure you know exactly how many calories you're consuming

Have you been a culprit of eating foods such as avocados, dates, or nuts relentlessly thinking it was ok because it's "healthy"?

Maybe you would benefit from knowing the exact portion size or tracking your calories/weighing out your portion size to get a better understanding

If you've ever tracked your calories on MyFitnessPal, it will give you a calorie target for consumption as well as "active calories"

But, should you be eating back your calories that you have burned from a workout or should you stick to the calories which were initially given?

Eating back your burned calories could actually be the reason you're not making progress, and here's why...

I had a client pretty recently start with me as she wanted help with her fitness goals. Her main problem was the nutrition side of things as she thought that she was doing everything right such as tracking calories, training consistently, and sticking to a plan

I looked through her food diary and realised that on an average day, she was consuming approximately 2500 calories

The only reason this was a warning sign was that I knew that although she trained 3-4 times per week, she had a sedentary job in which she didn't burn many calories outside of training, meaning that 2500 calories are were a high target.

I asked her why she was eating 2500 calories and asked if she had used a calorie calculator to get this target...

"On training days I eat back my burned calories from the workout which is usually between 2500-2800 calories" she replied

The consequence of eating this many calories and "eating back burned calories" meant that she was essentially putting herself into a calorie surplus without knowing it

This wasn't her fault as this was what she was told to do and what she thought was correct

I then went away and recalculated her daily calorie target (1800 calories)

After just 6 weeks of hitting this new target, she successfully began to drop body fat again at a steady rate of 1 pound per week, putting her right back on track

Here are a few reasons why you may want to re-think eating back your burned calories:

1) The calorie burn feature on your Fitbit or Apple Watch isn't as accurate as you may think. Studies have shown that activity trackers could overestimate your calorie burn by up to 93%! This means that if you burned 350 calories during a workout for example (according to your watch), a 93% overestimation means that you would be eating 326 calories more than you needed.
Although that being said, I do think many people can benefit from activity trackers as they promote NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) such as step count as well as reminding you to get up more and do some exercise.

2) Have you ever suffered through a long workout and thought "I've earned this pizza"?... yes I've done it too. Some studies show that some people may be prone to eating more after exercise because they're hungrier, and think they burned more calories than they actually did... leading to over-consumption.

3) Your daily calorie target should already include your exercise burned calories. Just like my client earlier, I set her a new target of 1800 calories which already took into account the training she was doing.

Is the reason you're not losing weight actually because you "don't eat enough?"

I've heard this one many times over the years of Personal Training

You may have been following a diet a while in which you initially got results but your progress has started to slow down and now you're thinking...

"Is the reason my weight loss has stalled actually because I don't eat enough calories and my body is storing the calories I do eat as fat"

Well, the problem with this is it goes against evidence of being in a calorie deficit to lose weight

Let me tell you a story about a client I trained in 2017 and why I was actually the person in the wrong...

Let's call this client Sarah (as I don't want to reveal her actual name)

Sarah came to me wanting to lose quite a considerable amount of weight and if I'm being totally transparent, she had quite a bit to lose

I started her off as I do with every client, getting her to track calories, and started her out training 2x per week with me in the gym

within the first 12 weeks, Sarah had lost over a stone of weight... which was great!

But after this initial period, the weight loss did begin to stall

Like I do with every client, I looked over her MyFitnessPal food diary to see what her caloric intake was. It showed that she was consuming on average 1400 calories per day

At this point, Sarah had also started training with me 3x per week as well as apparently eating 1400 calories per day, which in my head, was quite a struggle to understand why her weight loss had stalled

Sarah asked me if the reason she wasn't seeing any more progress because that she didn't eat enough, to which I agreed.

This led me to up her target calories to 2400 per day from the initial 2000 calories per day to try to jump-start her metabolism

Guess what happened?

She still didn't lose any more weight

I did this because I thought that the body needed a sufficient amount of calories to continue weight loss otherwise it would hold on to the calories and store them straight as fat

This led to more weeks/months of very little progress for her

I then made the conscious decision to research the problem we were having and why Sarah wasn't losing any more weight

The solution was actually pretty simple... she was actually underestimating her total daily calories

More likely than not, if you think you're eating "too little calories" to lose weight, it may actually be that you're not tracking your calories accurately enough

The body will lose weight if in a caloric deficit

Think about this, if you were stranded on a deserted island for 3 months with next to no food, do you think that you would only lose a small amount of weight because your body wanted to hold on to what it had?

... the answer is no

You would most likely be skin and bone by the 3-month mark because of the severe deprivation of calories


That's why being as accurate as you can with your tracking of calories is imperative if you want to make serious progress with your weight loss goal

How many calories do you actually need to consume to lose weight?

I'm sure you have been through the scenario of having a scare from the scales leading to a sudden motivation to lose weight

You want to do it as fast as possible so you cut out carbs, and reduce your calories intake to salads, protein shakes, and fruit/veg

Then after a few weeks, you're starving, angry, and losing the motivation to live, leading to binge eating over the weekend which leads to putting all of the weight back on you've lost

... we've all been there

The problem with reducing your calories too much when wanting to lose weight is that, as I just mentioned, you will feel hungry, angry, and will lose motivation fast

It's not sustainable

I remember a year or so after I started my fitness journey I was loving the progress I was making. I had put on a bit of muscle, built up my fitness levels, and felt like I had come a long way

After the first year, I decided I wanted to drop body fat therefore meaning I'd need to lose just under a stone so I could see my abs for the first time in a while

Because I had a goal in mind of wanting to see abs, I really did feel motivated to get the results and put in the work

The problem was, I didn't really know where to start. I knew that I had to eat less, but the questions still remained...

- "How many calories should I be eating to lose weight?"
- "Do I need to eat only salads and cut out all carbs to get abs?"
- "What diet should I be following?"

This then led to reducing my calories to approximately 1500 per day (not that I knew this at the time because I wasn't tracking)

I cut out most carbs such as pasta, rice, potatoes only leaving oats in my diet as the carb source

The rest of my calories came from protein shakes, chicken, and veg

The initial week or so wasn't too bad. I was able to handle the reduced calories as the motivation from losing weight spurred me on

Although after the second week, I began to feel all of the downsides of overly reduced calories such as

- Hunger
- Loss of motivation
- Poor performance
- Thinking about food constantly

The reason I reduced my calories so much was that I thought that was the way to lose weight fast and efficiently

Once the third week came by, I ended up have a week-long binge of takeaways leading to putting a stone back on due to the deprivation of all of the foods in the initial couple of weeks

Why did this happen?

Well, the diet I was following wasn't sustainable and didn't work for me and my lifestyle

After intensive research, I learned that reducing calories too much isn't ideal for losing weight/dropping body-fat

I learned that an achievable 300-500 calorie deficit was all that I need to get the result I wanted

After these findings, my new calories target was 2300 with a mix of protein, carbs, and fats all included

After 8 weeks of following these calories, I successfully dropped the weight/fat and felt fitter than ever!

- No cravings
- No binges
- No loss of motivation

Eating smarter not harder

"If I'm eating whole foods, surely I don't need to count calories because I'm eating healthy"

A common statement and belief is that if you're eating mainly whole foods (rice, pasta, oats) you don't even need to count calories because you should be staying at a healthy weight anyway

Well, the problem with this is that if you've never tracked your calories before, I can almost guarantee that you may be overestimating or even underestimating your caloric intake by up to 1500 calories (trust me I've seen it)

Maybe you have had this problem too. You have been eating consciously "healthy" but you haven't seen any noticeable results in your fat loss/weight loss journey.

I once had a client start up with me and as always, I asked her to fill out a food diary for the first week before starting the programme.

The reason I asked her (and everyone) to do this, is so I can get a good idea of their eating habits as well as their exact daily calorie intake.

Before asking her to do this, she had a few objections saying... "I've tried tracking calories and it doesn't work, so now I eat mainly whole foods so I'm eating healthy. But the problem is, I don't understand why I'm still not losing weight"

I then explained to her that if she wants to drop fat, she needs to be in a calorie deficit (burning more calories than you consume)

"But I always eat healthily so I should be losing weight" she replied

This is very common and as I said, you may have gone through this too

Because she wasn't tracking her calories, she wasn't aware of her exact caloric intake... meaning there was no data to analyse to pin-point exactly where we could make adjustments

This lead to intuitively eating "healthy" but still leading to an overconsumption of calories

Which was the reason she wasn't dropping any more weight.

How do I know she was still over-eating? well, when I got her to track her calories for the onboarding week, we found that she was actually consuming around 2600 calories per day!!

Around 800 calories more than she predicted

Through getting her to track calories, we then knew her exact calorie intake to make adjustments to put her in a sensible calorie deficit to get the results wanted without feeling tired, hungry, or fatigued

In conclusion, eating whole foods is a great way to stay fuller for longer meaning you a less likely to over-eat, but if you're still consuming too many calories for what's needed, you will still gain weight

I urge you to track your calories for a short period of time if you haven't before to gain a better understanding of your caloric intake

Even if you have tracked calories before and didn't enjoy it, I promise if it's done correctly, you will be surprised at the number of calories you actually consume

Stay tuned for the up-and-coming Kickstart Your Fitness podcast by me, Lewis Horsley!