This blog is about energy and eating and body weight and being a bit fitter. It’s about being healthy (enough to do all the things you want to do for as long as you want to do them) but not obsessing about measuring everything. At the outset, the disclaimer and personal bias is that I do not in principle subscribe to the oft quoted medical “get out of jail cards” like “obesity is never your fault / it’s in your genes / it’s like hypertension – if you’re going to get it you will”. A small percentage of obese people genuinely have a primary medical issue (perhaps hormone related) that will predispose to weight gain; but for most, it is simply in your jeans, not your genes I’m afraid. You cannot outrun your fork. Robust data clearly indicates an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease (your risk of having an early heart attack); musculo-skeletal disorders (aches and pains – knees and back especially); sleep disorders; and many cancers that are directly associated with obesity – so there’s plenty of motivation to shed some unnecessary pounds.

Some basics first – calorie is an old scientific term for an amount of heat required to warm water by a degree. In some parts of the world, the term joule or kilojoule (just more joules) is used. Same thing at the end of the day – it is a unit of energy. And your body needs energy to do everything. Every single cell needs energy ultimately delivered to it via the bloodstream as a simple sugar (glucose). [1 calorie = about 4.2 kilojoules by the way]

You get your energy from the fuel or food you eat – in basic terms the macronutrients – carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Each macronutrient contains calories :

Proteins and carbohydrates – about 4 calories per gram and fats – about 9 calories per gram.

Other macronutrients, such as fibre, may differ in calorie content depending on whether they’re insoluble or not. 

So one area to look at is simply understanding how much fuel you actually need. As a male, probably around 2500 calories per day (depending on age and activity level and some other factors for a different tutorial) and about 2000 for the average female. This is mostly due to males having slightly higher lean body mass / muscle bulk. Get a simple nutrient app (eg MyFitnessPal) and just begin to understand what the cal-counts of typical foods are (90 cals in a banana / about 100 in a piece of buttered toast / 150 in a cappuccino / 400 in a standard hamburger / same for a bowl of tomato based pasta) – it will help you particularly in cutting down on the consumption of empty foods that have hidden calories without much nutrient value. You will be amazed at the rubbish people eat. Typical empty foods include processed carbohydrates like biscuits and cakes; processed meats; sweets, sodas (160 cals in can), condiments (100 cals in a tbsp of mayonnaise!!) and alcoholic beverages (200 cals in a pint of beer). Your body’s fuel metabolism is a truly complex system though and looking for quick fixes and magic bullet diets is a path to failure mostly.

So do your maths and have a basic idea of how many calories you’re actually consuming. Remember to factor in portion sizes and extra helpings. If you are way over the recommended daily amounts – you will need a strategy for reducing this as well as upping your activity levels (it’s usually called exercise) which will simply burn more fuel.

Simple – hmm, maybe not.

What you eat to get those calories also makes a difference. 100 calories is 100 calories – whether it is broccoli or chocolate – but your body uses vastly different amounts of energy to process certain foods (eg more to process a protein than a sugar) and certain foods dramatically impact blood sugar and appetite. You’ll have heard about foods and their glycaemic index (more terms to confuse you) but that simply talks to how quickly that carbohydrate can get sugar into your bloodstream. High GI means fuel quickly into action. Not good or bad – just depends what you need. Generally though – too many “quick sugars” (aka standard snacks) boosts blood sugar, which results in insulin spikes and in turn affects energy levels as well as eating behaviour. And remember your body and your metabolism doesn’t set out to be an Olympic triathlete, but rather a “comfortable survivor”. When you add human social weaknesses and habits and chemically driven poor eating habits, living lean becomes quite a difficult discipline.

Exercise is also not the total solution – albeit a critical part of good health. You can run 10km and burn a whopping 600-700 cals or use up 100-200 cals just walking briskly for 30 min. The key element here is ensuring you are “fit to train” before you “train to be fit” – meaning managing health issues (like asthma or cardiac issues) or injuries (those dodgy knees) first. Also use the right kit (shoes especially) and find something you actually enjoy, otherwise sustaining your new years’ resolution will be very challenging.

Hormones are worth a mention. These are magic substances produced in special parts of the body that control very specific metabolic and physiological functions and pathways. Thyroid hormones, sex hormones and sugar metabolism hormones are better known; but sensible weight control and watching the glycaemic range of your diet can generally keep those in normal ranges. Less well known players in this extravaganza include leptin (a hormone produced in fat cells that actually reduces hunger pangs) and should cause you to consume less; however over time and increasing BMI it seems that one’s body tolerates all sorts of things and thus ignores this useful leptin messaging. Ghrelin is produced mostly in the stomach and controls all sorts of processes including stimulating appetite and growth hormone. The point is that certain foods actually trigger certain hormones so being aware of oats’ ability to stimulate leptin while remembering that basic sugar foods give ghrelin a boost can help you manage your own appetite.

No weight conversation is complete without a brief mention of Body Mass Index (BMI). It is a simple weight / height ratio formula and although was invented in the 1830’s by a mathematician, it has gained traction in healthcare as an obesity measure. Yes, high BMI does correlate mostly with being overweight, however the finer detail like lean body mass for total fat not being differentiated and many populations having quite different normal height:weight ratios means that it should be used to assist health assessments not applied blindly or with religious fervour . Understand what your sensible ideal body weight should be – and aim there for a start. Also, considering where the weight is might be useful. Abdominal girth or circumference is used by many medical authorities to get a better view of long term cardiovascular health so your waist size (or waist to hip ratio) is a very helpful guide. Fitting into those old jeans and not giving up and saying you just “fit your genes” is the way to go.

So if you think you need to lose a little ballast – don’t stress – recognition is the first step. And it’s a proper journey – like months to years, nothing overnight or for “the upcoming holiday”. Chat to professionals like nutritionists and your doctor if you have underlying health issues. Avoid a drive-through mentality – you can’t fix this in a healthy manner if you think the answer is in a tablet (remember early appetite suppressants were amphetamines) or a bizarre diet. Extremes are seldom recommended. Total exclusion of certain dietary elements (eg the carb free diet) have some very specific metabolic ramifications – so chat to a sensible healthcare professional first before even contemplating. Simple input vs output might be the easier path to follow.