When I first became a Personal Trainer and I living in Sydney I would meet many clients who were obsessed with counting their calories or had tried counting calories at some point in their lives. Not only is this an inconvenient approach to achieving your health and fitness goals, it’s also an unhealthy way to view food and a ‘healthy’ diet.
Let me explain.
1. Food is broken down into macronutrients – a sweet potato seen as an orange piece of carbs and sugar. You see, when counting calories people fail to acknowledge the micronutrients in the sweet potato like fibre, potassium and vitamin A, super important things to include in your diet.
2. Full fat yoghurt = protein/fat/carbs = fat. As a direct result of these negative thoughts, they turned to low calorie, low fat foods. But be warned, these foods are full of processed sugars, chemicals and fillers. Low fat foods are notorious for being higher in sugar and refined carbs than their full fat counterparts, the biggest culprits for insulin resistance and weight gain. I could go on all day but I think we’ll save that for another blog.
3. Calorie counting induces a negative approach to food. Many people that count their calories develop anxiety around eating out at restaurants as they cannot weigh their food and they don’t know exactly what is in it. You don’t have to compromise your social life in order to reach your goals!
Then I met Dietician Matt O’Neill, who offered a different approach to healthy eating. Matt developed a program called Metabolic Jumpstart which delivers a long-term weight management approach. You receive a personalised balanced eating plan of nutrient rich wholefoods, based on your goals whether it be fat loss, weight gain or weight management and you are continuing being educated whilst on the program.
Your plan will include daily food group targets that you need to hit to reach your goals. Depending on your body and goals, you will eat a certain number of serves (or exchanges) of a certain food group per day. For example, to maintain body weight and tone up, you would have a target of 5 exchanges of vegetables, 2 fruit, 2 dairy, 1.5 protein, 3 oils and 4 starch. Coupled with a structured exercise program of 2-3 group personal training and Pilates sessions per week, you will become toned, fit and healthy, inside and out. What makes this program so effective is will regulate your metabolism, moods and hormones whilst helping you achieve your goals.
It’s making every calorie count instead of calorie counting.
For more information on or to enquire about Metabolic Jumpstart, get in touch!