Phil Paterson - Nutrition

15/03/2017

Lunch or Dinner, here's some tasty looking ideas for you

17/01/2017

Are you over thinking your diet?

Some thing are best kept simple.

Let Ben Coomber explain in our latest blog.

http://bodytypenutrition.co.uk/blog/are-you-over-complicating-your-diet/

11/01/2017

For anyone thinking of buying into the nonsense that is 'detox' products - especially after Christmas; just know that your body does all the 'detoxing' you need! 👊🏼

For anyone trying to sell you these products stating that they'll rid your body of toxins, ask them what toxins they are talking about.

It's all about context. Some foods, both natural & synthetic, can be toxic depending on the dose.💉

For example we all know cocoa 🍫is considered healthy, however, in dogs the theobromine from cocoa can be harmful to their health - toxic if you wish.

Same with water, we all know the benefits of water however too much can actually be toxic as well! 💧

Don't listen to everything you see on social media, however appealing it might seem - do your own research to save yourself some time and money in the long run💸

11/01/2017

Detox diets are a scam

They don't do what they claim and can even cause you harm.

As always, at this time of year, the pyramid marketing scammers up their game and prey on vulnerable people who desperately want to find solutions to their problem.

Until you realise that becoming a new and improved version of you requires you to change the version of you that you are right now you'll keep finding yourself back at square one.

Please don't fall for any quick fix, well marketed scams.

But don't take our word for it. Take the word of Examine.com

https://examine.com/nutrition/detoxes-an-undefined-scam/

And if you do want lasting change, work with us over the next 12 weeks in our online group coaching programs:

https://groupcoaching.bodytypenutrition.co.uk

05/01/2017

Happy new year. So it's time to get back in the waggon I guess.

The easiest way to ensure we do more meal prep is to make it as simple as possible. While taking time to cook can be fun, when you're juggling life, it needs to be quick too.

I'm a big fan if one pan meals, casseroles etc. Baking entire meals like this example below is great because it's healthy, creates less washing up and can make multiple meals in one go.

Give it a try.

22/11/2016

While most athletes are aware of the existence, if not the importance of macronutrients and might even be pretty handy when it comes to tracking them. Often we can forget the importance of micronutrients for not just health but sports performance.

While macros are important for fuel and repair, we need vitamins and minerals for hundreds of functions in the body.

http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2016/11/21/understanding-micronutrients-role-healthy-diet

18/11/2016

Training and Nutrition are all very important for optimal cycling performance. But, if you're bike fit is correct you could be missing a very important performance benefit. Not only that; incorrectly fitted bikes can increase your chances of injury.

Read up here on Troy's explanation as to how a modern bike fit works and can benefit you.

Bike not feeling right?

Although angles and measurements are important there's more to a good bike fit than a few numbers.

Each body is different and each rider has different levels of mobility and stability meaning that no two riding positions are the same.

Sometimes you have to compromise style to improve biomechanics and sometimes you have to compromise comfort to improve performance.

18/11/2016

The second part of my post on Fasted training.

Fasted training for endurance part 2

Training fasted has been linked to increases in PGC-1 (alpha) which is involved in mitochondrial biogenesis.

So, the more mitochondria we have available the more energy production can occur within the muscle. Training in a fasted state has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, as well as the body’s ability to continue using fat as a dominant fuel source at lower intensities.

Psilander et al. (2013) studied the effects of exercising with low glycogen levels and concluded that it amplified the expression of the major genetic marker for mitochondrial biogenesis (PGC-1 α) in highly trained cyclists. The results suggest that low glycogen exercise may be beneficial for improving muscle oxidative capacity.

Note, that training fasted, and training in a glycogen depleted state are not the same thing. Since you can be fasted, from not eating for a short duration, but you may still have glycogen stores.

Consider the efforts required in endurance sports; holding a threshold pace, racing in a pack & taking turns on the front, climbing a hill, environmental conditions (wind) etc. All of which may require working at different intensities.

Even within team, multi-sprint sports there are huge variations in the level of energy requirement. An athlete’s ability to take advantage of this in their training could have significant implications for performance. However, there are some general guidelines;

* Sessions should be completed early in the day, within a couple of hours of waking, otherwise you risk not being fuelled enough to complete the session.

* Fasted training is more suited to steady state, aerobic or sustained efforts since the requirement for carbohydrate at higher intensities may limit performance in training.

* Sessions should be

17/11/2016

Endurance, it's not just for classic endurance sports. Most sports have an endurance element to them. In this latest post BTN Coach Alana goes over why endurance is important for team sports.

When is endurance training beneficial for team sports?

If you’ve ever played a team sport such as soccer, rugby, hockey or GAA for example, I am sure you remember the days of running multiple laps and full lengths of the pitch – maybe you still do?!

This style of training – aerobic training – isn’t exactly the optimal way to train for these team sports, given the nature of their games.

Team sports usually require more anaerobic fitness. I’m talking short, fast sprints and quick recovery time.

How often in a game do you do a long, slow run the length of the pitch and back? Not very often.

However, that’s not saying aerobic training shouldn’t be implemented into team sports training; it just has to be utilised in the correct manner in order to be beneficial.

This is where the importance of periodisation comes into play.

Making athletes run laps upon laps of the pitch as their only form of fitness training, then expecting them to perform their best in a game just doesn’t make sense.

Adding aerobic or endurance training in order to build team sports athletes’ stamina, however, is a good place to start.

This should then be followed up by adding in some high intensity intervals, speed, power and agility drills etc., in order to optimise the athlete’s performance. These are more sport-specific.

There’s a time and place for aerobic endurance training in team sports, it just has to be implemented correctly.

- Coach Alana McConalogue

15/11/2016

My latest blog for BTN; Fuelling for endurance racing. How to plan and execute a nutrition strategy Based on my own experiences in middle distance racing.

Do you take part in endurance events?

Know anyone who does?

Do you find that fuelling for the longer events can be a pain in the arse? Sometimes literally!

Well, Our endurance coach Phil Paterson knows a thing or six about triathlons and has written our latest blog on fuelling strategies.

http://www.bodytypenutrition.co.uk/blog/race-fuelling-for-endurance-sport-a-review-of-3-half-iron-distance-races/

15/11/2016

Endurance week kicks off with a short post from Troy on winter base training.

Are you a competitive road cyclist?

Now that winter is here the road race season is finished.

Winter is traditionally the time to develop your aerobic 'base'.

Base training is performed at a low tempo, often referred to as talking pace.

The idea here is that the low intensity training builds aerobic capacity and increases your lactate threshold.

Ideally you will perform these sessions for a minimum of 2 hours which is where the practicalities come into conflict.

4 hours on a turbo trainer are likely to drive you mad with boredom while the weather is often against you when you want to get out for a long base ride on a Sunday morning.

But if you can manage it, then performing a base session in a fasted state is a great way of dramatically improving physiological adaptations to endurance performance. Including up-regulation of fat oxidation and improved glycogen utilisation.

What does your winter training schedule look like?

- Coach Troy Martin

12/11/2016

How educated on food and nutrition are you?

Would you take a graphic like this at face value and assume that the creators had your best interests at heart?

Or are you able to critically assess the information and objectively conclude that context is missing?

Listing these foods by percentages is pretty misleading.

Broccoli 45% protein. 45% of what? Total volume? Calories? Unicorn hair?

A graphic like this is created to 'meat' (see what we did there?) the agenda bias of the creator, rather than to educate.

When examining nutrient ratios of foods always look at weights rather than percentages.

For example 100g of broccoli contains about 4.4g of protein dry and around 3.1g boiled (due to increased water absorption).

While 100g of lean braised beef contains around 34g of protein.

Broccoli is also not a 'complete' protein source making it a poor choice all around when talking about protein. It is, however a great source of essential vitamins and minerals and should, absolutely be a staple of any healthy diet.

This just highlights the importance of informed, objective education over misleading zealotry.