Dietary Analysis
By Gavin Gillibrand
I want to show you a diet that was given to me by a client recently.
I shall call this client Mrs Jones. Please note that names and details have been changed and Mrs Jones is not really called Mrs Jones.
Mrs jones is 33 years old, works in finance in the City, is married, no children and goes to the gym on average about 3 times per week. Her aims are overall health and fitness but she feels she has about 1-1.5 stone to lose which is about 6-9kg. She has been going to the gym for about a year now and has struggled to lose anymore than a few pounds. She tries to keep her diet as healthy as possible apart from the odd treat here and there.
This is her diet.
Breakfast -Bowl of cereal with skimmed milk. Fruit & Fibre. No added sugar. Glass of orange juice, coffee with skimmed milk and 1 sweetener.
Mid morning -Piece of fruit, usually a banana. Sometimes dried fruit or sometimes a bar of chocolate as a treat. Latte, skimmed milk, 1 sweetener
Lunch -Pret chicken salad. Can of diet coke.
Mid afternoon -Nothing.
Dinner -Jacket potato, steak and vegetables or something similar. Always meat and veg.
Lets look at how this diet will make Mrs Jones feel and why she will struggle to shift that body fat regardless of how hard she works in the gym.
Breakfast. This so-called healthy cereal is filled with hidden sugar and because of the way its processed the body will look at it as empty calories. Blood sugar will shoot up and to combat this the body releases insulin. Too much insulin and you store body fat, it’s that simple.The healthy orange juice is really orange flavoured sugar and is even worse. The average 250ml glass contains about 30grams of sugar and with this sugar being in a liquid form, its digested very very quickly. On top of that, its been processed and stored and possibly been in the carton for about a week or more before it made its way into her fridge. Forget the supposed vitamins and minerals you can obtain from orange juice as by the time you drink this orange juice they are non existent.
Coffee with skimmed milk is ok but full fat milk would be better than skimmed but I will explain that later.
The banana mid morning is full of sugar. Its natural, I give you that but it’s still sugar and it’s fairly high GI which means your blood sugar will rise fairly rapidly after eating the banana. Not good if you want to burn body fat.
The pret chicken salad is not too bad. The first sign of protein so far which is what we want. The diet coke, although much better than normal coke is still a problem. The sweetener in the coke still sends a signal to the brain that we are ingesting sugar so unfortunately insulin is still released. Yes, that’s right, your diet soft drinks can still stop you from burning fat.
Now she has a big gap of about 5-6 hrs where the blood sugar will drop which is the opposite of what we want. Ideally a small snack mid afternoon would be great to see her through to dinner time. The jacket potato is very high GI which is a problem and the steak and vegetables are great.
So how will Mrs Jones feel on a diet like this?
To start with, she will feel quite sluggish as times but with sudden bursts of energy. Highs and lows throughout the day and by the time its dinner time, she will most probably be very hungry. This is due to the fact that her diet is nearly all carbohydrate based with a lack of good quality protein and essential fats. Her performance in the gym will be hit and miss, depending on the time she goes to the gym. Her chances of burning body fat and losing 6-9kg are exactly zero which I can imagine, is terribly frustrating as she thinks the diet is quite healthy with no fried food and only the odd chocolate bar as a treat.
This is an actual diet given to me 3 weeks ago by a client of mine but its fairly typical for many people in the City trying to stay in shape.
Is your diet like this?
Do you think that this diet is healthy?
Just because it’s what you have always eaten and what other people eat doesn’t mean its good for you.
Make sure you check back here soon as I will write out a suggested diet that Mrs Jones could follow. A diet that will help her burn body fat, give her way more energy and massively improve her moods and her health.
Gavin
Gavin Gillibrand BSc. Fat loss and Body Transformation Expert in the City of London, UK
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