June 19-25

This week I want to give a little nutrition advice. We get to talk about exercise and training everytime people are in, but nutrition takes more time and nuance.

First I always like to use this example for people who think that they can simply just work harder to burn off those extra calories. I like to use two things that most people are familiar with. The Burpee and Starbucks most popular drink the Caramel Frappuccino. The Frappuccino contains 380 calories (about the equivalent of a Snickers bar). If you were to try to burn off those calories doing burpees here would be the math.

This is assuming an average weight of 155 lbs person doing performing 1 burpee per 3 seconds (20 burpees per minute). The caloric burn would change slightly depending on bodyweight. At that rate the person would burn 10 calories per 20 burpees, so 10 calories per minute. So this would mean to burn 380 calories it would require 38 minutes of burpees, which would mean you would have to perform 760 burpees. That is an insane amount of burpees just to burn off something that was just supposed to give you a little energy to make it through lunch. Its much easier to make better food choices. Calorie estimates were taken from Healthline.

Speaking of better food choices. Protein should be your first choice when deciding what to eat. This is for many reasons. Protein in necessary to help rebuild muscle tissue from training, it is also very satiating (filling), and finally, most people don't get nearly enough protein. I always recommend people aim for roughly their bodyweight in grams of protein. So for the same example above of the 155 pound person that would mean trying to get 155 grams of protein per day. If you prioritize those first, generally the rest of the calories will fall into place as after eating that much protein you will not have room for the less than optimal choices. Don't take the easy route and just add a bunch of protein powders. This is a good choice if you cannot physically eat the protein, but whole food is always a better choice over processed foods.

If you are interested in help with your nutrition we are having a special on our nutrition coaching for the summer, see the details in the Bytown Community Group.

NOTICE: We will be closed on Canada day. We had opened in the past and it was always incredible slow so we opted to remain closed. Enjoy your Canada Day Downtown.