Fitterfoodlover health, fitness and nutrition

Food tracking can actually give you more food freedom later on…

I think most people miss that bit.

You don’t have to track forever… sometimes you just need to do it for a little while so you actually learn what your diet looks like.

What your portions look like.
How much protein you’re getting.
Where snacks creep in.
What weekdays look like compared to weekends.

You don’t even need an app… write it down, take photos.

The point isn’t to become obsessed with tracking, it’s to learn enough that eventually you don’t need it as much (or at all).

If you’ve never done it properly, track what you normally eat for a week or two. Don’t change anything at first.

Just see what’s actually going on.

You’ll learn a lot… I promise you!

Before you spend money on another supplement, check these 5 things 👇

**1. Does the claim sound too good to be true?**
If one product claims to sort out your sleep, stress, focus, immunity, hormones and energy all at once, that should immediately make you a bit sceptical.

**2. What’s actually in it?**
Are the ingredients clearly listed, and does it tell you how much of each one you’re actually getting?

**3. Is the dose meaningful?**
Look at the amount used in research that actually found an effect, then compare it with what’s in the product. NIH supplement fact sheets and PubMed are good places to start if you want to check the evidence yourself.

**4. What kind of evidence are they using?**
Has it actually been studied in humans, and if so, who was it studied on? Healthy adults, older people, athletes, people with a deficiency? A mouse in a lab or a cell in a Petri dish isn’t the same thing as you.

**5. Has this actual product been tested?**
Or are they taking research on individual ingredients and implying the finished gummy, powder or blend will do the same thing? Because that’s not necessarily the same thing.

And before all of that, ask yourself: **what am I actually trying to fix?**

If the problem is poor sleep, inactivity, a poor diet or another basic habit, a supplement is probably not the best place to spend your money. Work on those first.

Save this for the next time a supplement ad makes you think, “maybe I need that.”

As a nutritionist, I’m not trying to get you to eat more s**t.

I want you eating more whole and minimally processed foods.

What I don’t want is people becoming scared of perfectly ordinary foods because someone has walked around a supermarket pointing at ingredients and calling them “toxic”.

Good nutrition advice isn’t about creating a false choice between “real food” and everything else.

It’s about helping real people eat better in the life they’ve actually got.

That means looking at the evidence, the overall diet, the person in front of you, and what is realistically going to work for them.

More whole foods? Absolutely.

More fear, guilt and bulls**t around food? No thanks.

Calorie targets and workout plans are easy to find.

You can get both on Google in five minutes.

So the question is, why can’t you stick to them?

And I don’t mean that in a judgy, “why can’t you just get your s**t together?” kind of way.

I genuinely mean, what keeps getting in the way?

Is it work?

Ferrying the kids around after school?

Having to cook three different meals at dinner time?

Or are you just trying to do too much?

That is the biggest part of coaching for me.

Not judging someone for not following the plan, but instead working out why they’re not following it, and then helping them change things so they can.

Calorie targets and training plans are useful.

But neither are much use if we haven’t worked out how to make them fit into your week.

So...

**What is your Tuesday like?**

Being shredded doesn’t mean they’re nutrition experts…

Often it’s the complete opposite!

One of the easiest mistakes to make when it comes to fitness is deciding who to listen to based on how they look.

Someone is lean, muscular or shredded, so we assume they must know what they’re talking about when it comes to training, nutrition and health.

But those two things aren’t the same.

Being able to build a shredded physique doesn’t mean you understand the science behind it, that you know how to coach somebody else to get results, or that the way you got there is even right for the person watching.

But this is how it apparently works on social media. If somebody looks how people think a fitness expert should, it gives what they’re saying credibility before anyone even stops to think about whether they make sense.

The problem is health and fitness rarely works in absolutes. The right advice depends on the person, what they’re trying to achieve and what’s going on in their life.

So when somebody tells you that everyone needs to eat a certain way, avoid a particular food or train in a particular way, don’t judge the advice by the body delivering it.

Listen to what they’re actually saying. Do they understand it? Have they got the experience to apply it to other people? And can they back it up with evidence?

And that applies to me as well.

Don’t agree with something just because I’ve said it. If something doesn’t sound right, question it. Ask me why I think it. Ask me what the evidence is.

That’s a much better way of deciding who you listen to than looking at who’s got the best abs.

The number on the scales isn’t the problem.

What you do next might be.

A big jump after a holiday can make you feel like you need to fix something immediately.

Eat less.
Train more.
Undo the damage.

But that’s exactly when you need to avoid making decisions off one weigh-in.

Get back to your normal routine.

Eat normally.
Train normally.
Move normally.

Then give your body a few days to settle and look at what the trend is actually doing.

You might find there was never a problem to fix in the first place.

Give normal a chance to work.

You probably don’t need 200g of protein a day.

Comment PROTEIN and I’ll send you my free macro calculator so you can work out a sensible target.

The problem with protein advice online is everyone gets given the same number.

But your target depends on your body weight, age, activity, training and goals.

For most people, around 1.2 to 1.6g per kilo of body weight is a solid range for supporting health, muscle retention and body composition.

You don’t need to hit the perfect number every day.

You need a realistic target, meals that make it easier to reach, and enough consistency for it to matter.