Nutrition
Backing up your training with the right kind of fuel
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Behind every layer of fat there are toned muscles trying to get out, and if you're not eating the right kind of food to underpin your fitness programme, then a lot of your effort will go unnoticed - particularly around your belly. You need to realise that training is not restricted to the gym and the bike, but continues when you get home and open your fridge.
The first thing you need to look at is your fat intake, especially if your local curry house sends you a Christmas card every year. Its recommended that our daily intake of fat should be restricted to 90g. If you're trying to lose weight you should be looking to halve this.
Within the 90g guideline we should have no more than 31g of saturated fats. These are the ones that are solid at room temperature, e.g. butter, or the fat around a pork chop. Saturated fats will not only add to the size of your waistline but will also raise your cholesterol level.
Theres fat in just about everything you eat. But you can't live your life without it, so just try to look for daily opportunities to cut it out of your diet and incorporate some of the following stratagies when buying, cooking or eating food.
Whenever you can, grill, bake, poach, boil or steam as an alternative to frying. If you have no choice then make sure you use a non-stick pan to cut down on the added fat. If you're frying an egg, for example, you only have to add a drop of oil to a heated non-stick pan, and then roll it around. Even better to ditch your cooking oil and buy a low fat spray. The most careful pouring of oil will add around 15g fat to the meal, a spray will add only 1g per shot.
Go easy when applying butter or margarine to toast. You can either apply it thinly or use none at all under beans or jam; you'll hardly notice the difference.
Always look for the leanest cuts of meat, but be aware that even lean cuts will require some trimming to get rid of all the fat. The best way to do this is place the cut in the freezer fo half an hour first. You'll find that all the fat will tun white, making it easier for you to identify and cut off.
Use low fat mayonnaise wherever possible.
Use skimmed milk for cooking, especially sauces that call for large amounts of milk, cream and butter. Dishes made fromskimmed milk or semi-skimmed milk aren't that much different from those made from whole milk.
Make salad dressings from natural yogurt, herbs, spices tomato juice, vineger or lemon juice.
Buy skinless chicken or turkey. About half the fat you'll find in poultry is either in or directly under the skin.
Dry fry mincemeat, and pour off the fat as it melts
Use half fat hard chese, cottage chese or, if you have to, very small portions or stronger flavoured full fat-cheese.
Eat more beans and less meat and you'll get all the protein you need and alot less fat.
When you buy canned tuna buy it packed in brine or water instead of oil, which adds a significant amount of fat to the meat.
Substitute those mid-afternoon high-fat snacks like crisps or chocolates for carbohydrate rich, low-fat fruit bun or scone.
Turn yourseld into a compulsive label reader when you're in the supermarket; its the only way to be completely sure that you're cutting back on fat. To qualify as low-fat the meal must contain less than 5g of fat per 100g, so if you see something marked 'light' or 'lite', 'reduced fat' don't sling it in your basket automatically. Products labelled like this only have to have 25% less fat than normal.
Get into the habit of placing a couple of dishes of vegetables on the table for every meal and lways be within reach of a bowl of fruit. This gives you even less of an excuse to fill up on fatty foods - and for every bite of vegetable or fresh fruit there's less room for steak-and-kidney pie or cheesecake.
Of course you're not always going to be in a position to dictate what you eat and how its cooked, but just use your common sense, and eat sensibly.
