Aidan
00:00:09 – 00:00:34
Hello and welcome to Episode 30 of the ideal nutrition podcast. Um, today we are going to be doing a Q and A Episodes is the second one we’ve done, and the first question comes in from Natalie Roll Mint on Instagram. And she asks, What do you eat on a one week diet break? Whatever you want or should it be at maintenance? So, Leah, what are your thoughts?
Leah
00:00:34 – 00:01:10
My thoughts are well, firstly, with my clients. I would typically put them on maintenance during a diet break because at the point of a diet break is to break up a calorie deficit. So I don’t really want to be going backwards and start gaining weight for that couple of weeks that you are like on a diet break off for the week you’re on. But at the same time, if it’s just a week and you’re planning your diet break around the time of, like, a holiday or something, I sometimes get clients to just not track or stick to a meal plan and just literally eat what they want. So I think it depends on your situation and your goals.
Aidan
00:01:10 – 00:01:49
I agree, like in the research. They usually do it under pretty controlled circumstances. They try to make sure it is exactly or as close as they can get to maintenance calories, because that’s what they’re trying to study. They’re trying to study it at maintenance calories, but in practice, it doesn’t really matter. There’s a lot of options. I usually aim for roughly maintenance, but the big thing we’re trying to do is undo some of the restriction mental burden, et cetera, that is associated with dieting. And if you miss the mark a little bit and go slightly over, it probably doesn’t matter that much, particularly if you get a lot more done while you’re in the calorie deficit, or if that’s a longer phase or whatever. And it is just one week at higher calories.
Leah
00:01:50 – 00:02:08
And I do wonder if going into a slight calorie surplus does have maybe a bit of a quicker effect in terms of under that hunger, and maybe there’s a time and place for it. I think the only thing would be is, if you’re taking a diet break and you’re eating whatever you want, not tracking and then still in a deficit, then that’s probably a problem for sure.
Aidan
00:02:08 – 00:02:15
Yeah, and I would also caution going excessively for a week. Maybe not for sure.
Aidan
00:02:16 – 00:02:59
Um, Holy Seville underscore, Dietitian asks is getting below 8% body fat for males detrimental? Um, from my perspective, in a lot of cases, it can be. But it’s a pretty nuanced topic. What would I consider being most like detrimental aspects is like little things like decreased testosterone. Maybe some hormones like T3 and T4 could be altered. Just general mood fatigue. All these kind of things can happen. But there are certain things to consider in terms of like one. Some people might just naturally be able to maintain a little bit below there a little bit more easily. And to How did you get? There is probably another kind of thing.
Aidan
00:02:59 – 00:03:43
I saw a thing from Angus, shout out Angus Bradley. But like on Instagram, he put out something that was along the lines of like, yeah, bodybuilders always talk about how being lean year round is really, really detrimental for performance. And he kind of pointed out, How does like there is a lot of athletes out there who will be below, say, 8% body fat, or around 8% body fat year round. The only difference is that they didn’t do a bodybuilder style cut where they go, then lose, say, half a kilo or more per week for 10 to 20 weeks on relatively low activity outside of lifting and like, you could make an argument. What if somebody was sitting 10% body fat year round and then slowly dipped under 8%? It’s probably a slightly different experience to somebody who has been 15% body fat and done a hard cut to under 8% as well.
Aidan
00:03:43 – 00:03:57
But there’s a lot of factors in that I think is pretty individual. The short answer is mostly yes, it probably is a little bit, but it’s a long discussion. It depends on a lot of a lot of factors.
Leah
00:03:57 – 00:04:18
Yeah, it probably depends a lot on your set point, and it naturally so a tough one to answer with a yes or no for sure. Um, the next question we have is from I’m going to butcher this polio. Um, and they ask when trying to hit fibre targets. Does it matter what type of fibre? Um, for this one, I’d say, Well, variety is the best.
Leah
00:04:20 – 00:04:33
You wouldn’t want to just take, say, Benefibre and not have any other fibre in your diet. Like we know that having as much variety in your fibre intake is probably what’s best for your general health and then for gut health.
Aidan
00:04:33 – 00:05:12
Yeah, I agree, like different types of fibres is probably the first starting point. You want a pretty wide variety. And on top of that, I guess the type of fibre does kind of matter as well, in terms of like, for example, for constipation, stuff like that we could be looking at, like psyllium husk, so it does matter. But I’d start with variety, and a lot of the other stuff seems to fall in place. In most cases, If you just aim for variety, the next question is a bit of a two part question. So it comes from Rosie Louise, and it’s the first part is how long does it take to see muscle growth for beginners intermediate and advanced?
Aidan
00:05:12 – 00:05:39
And then the second part is in relation to thinking that you’re at maintenance calories for two weeks, and then your weight still increases on those calories. So they’re very different questions. And so starting off with the first part, just treating that as an isolated question. How long does it take to see muscle growth or like reframing? How much muscle growth would you expect to see in a year under those kind of beginner, intermediate advanced categories?
Leah
00:05:39 – 00:06:23
I think I really want to preface this with is everyone is very individually different, like there is so much individual variation in how much muscle somebody can gain and how quickly. Um, that it does complicate this question. But of course, like when you’re a beginner and you have low levels of muscle mass, you are going to see that muscle gain a lot more quickly. Um, I guess when I’m trying to put weight on people beginning in this space, I probably aim for, like that 1 to 1.5 kg per month. But that’s also not all going to be muscle at the same time. And how much percentage muscle to body fat that weight gain is going to be is going to be dependent on genetics, nutrition, recovery and a bunch of stuff.
Aidan
00:06:23 – 00:06:48
Yeah, exactly. Like if I was going to chuck numbers on there, I chuck some numbers, like maybe 6 to 10 kg of muscle in the first year, maybe 4 to 6 in the second. And then in the third, it starts getting depressive. You’re not taking any drugs or anything like that. Maybe maybe 2 to 4. And then after that, you’re forever chasing the next 1 to 2 kg of muscle game. Um, then, like obviously like, those are just rough numbers. There are people who gain more than that.
Leah
00:06:48 – 00:06:50
Yeah, There are some people that are absolutely free.
Aidan
00:06:50 – 00:07:26
Yeah, for sure. And like, they also make assumptions that you’ve got a solid training program. You’re incredibly consistent. Nutrition is good, your sleeps good. You have low levels of stress. You don’t get injured like there’s a lot of factors that are backed into those numbers as well. Um, but those are some rough numbers, so that’s addressing the first part of the question. And like food for thought, that’s something to think about. If you’re gaining weight at a quicker rate than that would kind of allow for, you’re probably gaining body fat or a decent amount of body fat on top of that. And I also assume that if you say gains that take you a year, you probably also did gain a decent amount of body fat in that process as well.
Leah
00:07:27 – 00:07:28
Exactly 100%.
Aidan
00:07:28 – 00:07:43
With the second part of the question, though, in relation to thinking that you’re reading at maintenance calories for two weeks and then your weight still increases on those calories. You’re laughing about this under a different context earlier. But what does that mean to you?
Leah
00:07:43 – 00:08:11
Yeah, so I’d say, Whenever your weight is either increasing or decreasing, you’re technically just not at maintenance. So if your weight isn’t staying the same outside of general fluctuations, then you’re just not at maintenance. So I think we’re a lot of people. Get confused is the number that’s reality and like the number that my fitness pal or a calculator gives them because that is not always accurate.
Aidan
00:08:11 – 00:08:38
Um, and those numbers can be different, like its predictive maintenance, based on the formula that they’ve used everything like that. That doesn’t mean that’s going to be 100% accurate. And then there’s also your own tracking and assumptions based into that in terms of even when we’re tracking food, we’re never going to get at 100% accurate. Um, our exercise, our energy expansion, those or fluctuate like we don’t 100%? No. But what we do know is that calories are what are controlling, what we way.
Aidan
00:08:39 – 00:09:06
If you’re eating maintenance calories and you’re building muscle, your weight still doesn’t increase like you’re just re-comping. You’re losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. Um, you can build muscle in a calorie deficit. You would just be losing weight at the same time that you’re building muscle, which would therefore mean you’re losing more body fat while gaining that muscle. So, basically maintenance calories. If you’re a maintenance calories for a significant period of time, you would maintain your body weight on average over that time,
Leah
00:09:07 – 00:09:18
so the next question we have is from Ali L. B. And they asked. The Mediterranean diet is recommended for good health, but is high in calories, tips? Where would you start with this one?
Aidan
00:09:18 – 00:09:57
So it is recommended for good health. I don’t necessarily recommend it to clients specifically looking to improve their health, even though it is one of many options that can work incredibly well, It is a great option. Is it high in calories? Like I do understand where the question is coming from because it’s not exactly the most high protein as a percentage style diet. It has a lot of foods that I say high in healthy fats and stuff like that. But I would question, Is it high in calories? In terms of compare the average Mediterranean diet to like the standard Western diet and the standard Western diet is probably higher calorie,
Leah
00:09:57 – 00:10:28
I would say so. I would definitely say so, especially considering that the Mediterranean diet is predominantly plant based. I think when people hear Mediterranean diet, they definitely do think of all those foods high and healthy, and I think that career is like the most of what it is, but it’s actually like that’s a small part, a small, fundamental part of the diet. But a lot of it is getting in. There is low energy, dense, plant based foods, so I think it ends up being generally a slightly lower calorie than what a typical Western diet would look like for sure.
Aidan
00:10:28 – 00:10:48
I don’t necessarily that’s high in calories. But then there is the dilemma of like what if you wanted a higher protein diet? That’s part of why I don’t necessarily recommend the Mediterranean diet consistently because it’s like I typically go higher protein than that diet. Basically, Um, yeah, that’s how I view it like, because it is also like predominantly whole foods as well.
Aidan
00:10:49 – 00:11:08
Yeah, like it’s like standard Western diet like, say, in Australia. On average, I believe the statistic is somewhere around. At least 30% of calories on average, come from junk foods, like If that’s or discretionary foods that includes alcohol and stuff like that. If that 30% is reduced disabled 10% that’s saving a tone of calories to start off with.
Leah
00:11:08 – 00:11:18
When people are usually over consuming calories, it’s typically not on the things that are high and healthy fats. That usually is the process foods and alcohol contributing to that.
Aidan
00:11:18 – 00:11:34
So question from Jack rubs wordsmith, shout out jack opinion on lab grown meat. Ethically, do you see this as an option for vegans? I am going to hand over to Leah on that because I don’t have any thoughts whatsoever? That one.
Leah
00:11:34 – 00:12:14
I mean, if we’re just talking like ethically, I don’t know, I feel like some vegans would definitely think it was much more ethical than what happens in factory farming. Um, I know this like an amount of animal testing that goes into lab grown meats. Or maybe technically, it’s not vegan. Still, because of the animal testing. Um, but I don’t know. I think every vegan would have to make up their own mind on that. Although I see it as a real pro from just an environmental standpoint. Like if we had everyone, like if we had a really good way to produce lab grown meat that didn’t involve all of that factory farming and all that agriculture that could be great for the environment, just even for non vegans.
Leah
00:12:16 – 00:12:21
It’s a really interesting topic. I’m excited to see where it goes and where people fall on that debate,
Aidan
00:12:22 – 00:12:40
so the next two questions are very similar, so I’ll lump them together. So, uh, Sarah Peric asks, Does bicarb soda increased strength? And at Jordan, Atkins asks, Do you know of anybody who has tried bicarb soda for their training. So does it increase strength?
Leah
00:12:40 – 00:12:51
I mean, I guess it doesn’t increase strength. It’s more about buffering the pH of the blood and therefore not allowing that acidic build up. So it allows you to train at a higher intensity for longer.
Aidan
00:12:51 – 00:13:11
Yeah, like the closest I’d say is like it increases muscular endurance. Sure. Like if you were measuring strengthen like something that was, like higher reps set, you might be able to get more reps out if you’re measuring, strengthen like one rep. Max that it wouldn’t in terms of people who have tried it out. So you’ve tried it with one?
Leah
00:13:11 – 00:13:13
I’ve tried it with one athlete so far.
Aidan
00:13:13 – 00:13:17
Yeah, um, did that you get did improve that performance?
Leah
00:13:17 – 00:14:02
Yes. So I like messaged you straight after they messaged me. Like they got a really good improved. So they were CrossFit athlete. I should say, um, and they trialed in training. Um, and they said like there WOD was, like, amazing. They felt so, so good. But after taking the by carbon before their session, they did actually have some pretty bad diarrhea. Um, but in saying that like there what they ended up. Getting for that from that supplementation was so good that they’re willing to try it again. So I’d say like, it’s probably worth it. It’s just going to have to play around like I’m going to have to play around with that athlete, to work out a way that it doesn’t cause diarrhea. But yeah, so far my testing has been somewhat successful.
Aidan
00:14:02 – 00:14:29
Yeah, and like I’m playing around with some athletes at the moment, I’ve haven’t got much feedback yet, but I’ve tried it myself because I’m like, I’m not going to recommend something that seems horrific for people without actually trying it myself. So I did try it myself. I used a relative like I used the standard dosage on the high end of the standard dosage. Actually, um, and I did it just before a late session where I was doing high rep legwork to failure that I’ve been doing for multiple weeks in a row just to kind of see a difference.
Aidan
00:14:29 – 00:15:05
From a GI distress kind of standpoint, I don’t usually get symptoms or anything like that, and I didn’t really get major symptoms. I just like the closest I can say is I felt a bit unwell, like I didn’t feel good like I didn’t feel great. Um, and that was still enough for me to be like, If I’m gonna do that again, I might lower the dosage. But part of my thought process in that thinking is that it did actually make a huge difference. So, like the big thing. So, like, I had been doing tempo leg press sets of 20. That’s a hell along set when you think about, like, tempo leg press 20. So it’s a long set, which is why certain black car would be so useful for that.
Aidan
00:15:05 – 00:15:30
But like I had previously been going to failure on that and getting around about 20 reps on the weights that I was using so obviously more on the first set dropping off his things would go because it’s too failure. Um, I was getting like sets of around 30 while using sodium bicarb, then went back in the weeks after without sodium bicarbonate back again and around sets of 28 like that’s like a 50% improvement for an activity. It’s like, perfectly designed for sodium bicarb.
Leah
00:15:30 – 00:15:40
Yeah, I wouldn’t say I’d recommend it for, like other power lifted in CrossFit, especially for competition.
Aidan
00:15:40 – 00:16:04
I think that’s where it probably really shines, and that’s exactly what I’m probably never going to use it again because it doesn’t really affect my sports like I play basketball and I did not really going to matter. But I was like If the moment I decided to have a crack at CrossFit and I was 100% I would use it for, like, play around with it, trying to find that perfect dosage, and then I would use it for events. Basically, because it seems to improve performance significantly enough that, like it’s worthwhile experimenting with just not for the faint hearted, I reckon.
Aidan
00:16:06 – 00:16:27
Yeah, And as I said, like, I would consider lower dosages like just like just to play around and see if that does help. Um, at Lonnie Zara asks tips, first, swapping from tracking to intuitive eating to maintain weightless achieved from tracking. So I’ll let you start on that one. You’ve got some notes written down.
Leah
00:16:27 – 00:16:56
yeah, I feel like I’ve written about this a couple of times, so I’m going to try to be as distinct as possible here. But there’s a few things I definitely recommend when someone is transitioning from tracking two more intuitive eating to maintain the weight loss. Um, so the first thing is definitely mindful eating like it’s such we’ve talked about that so many times. It’s a boring one. But if we’re talking about maintaining weight loss in the long term whilst not tracking calories, I think it makes a lot of sense to start there.
Leah
00:16:56 – 00:17:29
Um, and just generally getting back in touch with your hunger and satiety cues. Because if you’ve been dieting for a long time, well, I guess firstly, I’d say, if you’ve been dieting for a long time, it makes sense to track for a while at maintenance post diet to allow for time to just regulate those hunger cues and hunger hormones. But after that, I still think because you’ve ignored your hunger cues for such a long period of time, it makes sense to actively go and just try to gauge and satiety um and just get back in touch with it.
Aidan
00:17:29 – 00:18:14
Yeah, I agree with everything that I also have another like called a terminology thing. But some terminology I like as another potential option is what’s called informed eating. It’s not quite intuitive. Eating like intuitive eating is really listening to all your cues and acting on those cues to a certain degree, like when you get hungry, you ate all those kind of things. I think that’s a really good thing. Um, another option arguably could be informed. Aiding where it’s like you still take a lot of the skills you learned from tracking a lot of nutrition knowledge, all those kind of things. But you could say it’s not truly intuitive eating, because at times you might ignore your hunger cues, or in times you might eat when you’re not hungry and stuff like that as well. So like, for example, like what if you had quite a low calorie day that was lower than you intended?
Aidan
00:18:15 – 00:18:56
But you still thought, Hey, maybe I’ll eat now because it might make me feel better the next day or something like that. That’s probably a bit of about example, but there’s a lot of other things. Like, for example, what if somebody is trying to gain muscle mass and they’re not tracking? They might eat when they’re not hungry to facilitate that vice versa if somebody was trying to maintain weight loss and if they were truly listening to hunger and fullness, cues and stuff like that. But their weight was increasing. Maybe they could eat 20% less and be 20% hungry or whatever it is and kind of make adjustments based on that. It’s not true intuitive eating, but it is an option that you could go with.
Leah
00:18:56 – 00:19:15
That’s a really good point because I think the big thing with intuitive eating is that it’s not a tool to manage your weight so you can intuitively eat and gain weight if that’s what your body just feels like it needs to do. So I think you’re informed eating makes a lot more sense. I like that terminology.
Aidan
00:19:15 – 00:19:20
I think I’m stealing from Shannon beer or someone else.
Leah
00:19:20 – 00:19:48
So I really like that because I’d also recommend, like, intuitive eating is like. Well, if you feel like do not eat a doughnut. But you know, if I ate it every time I felt like one, I probably have a little bit of a hard time managing weight loss or managing my weight, post weight loss or post cut. So I’d also say, like having well balanced meals, eating regularly throughout the day and using all those little tools we often talk about as part of it as well.
Aidan
00:19:48 – 00:20:09
Yeah, it’s like a combination of both of them. Um, so the next question from Live Chance 09 is when women get their period, how to combat fatigue for exercise and maintaining diet with cravings. Oh, start on that one. Um, and then then we’ll go with you.
Aidan
00:20:10 – 00:20:35
I don’t know where I want to say, because it’s very, very long topic like, I suppose, also some background stuff where there’s like to kind of extremes of like one extreme is, um, the suck it up approach, which is like, not the one I want to go. But it’s something to think about where it’s just like it’s going to be harder to a certain degree. Maybe six of the exact same plan may be trained to try and train the exact same way may be trying to eat the exact same way. That’s obviously very unappealing for a lot of reasons as well under certain circumstances.
Leah
00:20:35 – 00:20:39
And I think risky for a dude to come out and say, like I can understand why you want to take that.
Aidan
00:20:39 – 00:21:16
And then the other approach, um, is an interesting one. Like the other extreme. I’m stealing this from Dr Stacy Sims and, like she talks about certain things, like the week before the period. Typically, there is an increase in energy expenditure, I think it’s 100 to 300 calories she kind of talked about. It’s actually really hard for us to measure that, like we can’t actually see it that clearly.
Aidan
00:21:19 – 00:21:45
So it’s 100-300 calories. But the 300-500 calorie number is the number that most females eat during that week, like they eat 300-500 calories more than usual on average. Um, sharing our experiences like from what I’ve seen with clients. Some people seem to barely notice a change in their appetite and cravings. And some people 1000 calories extra is like what I say.
Leah
00:21:45 – 00:22:23
Yeah, and I think it definitely depends on that woman’s person like that person’s personal experience with having a menstrual cycle. Everyone experiences it differently Pains, Different fatigue is different, but also, I think people’s just general reaction to their period is different. Some people do like I know a lot of the time. I feel very sorry for myself, but some people just get on with it. So I think it’s just your personal reaction to that week as well. So I think you need to take an approach that suits you. So for a lot of my clients, we do have a bit more of an allowance for extra food on that week, and then for a lot of my other clients, they go to just crack on like it any other week.
Aidan
00:22:23 – 00:23:00
Exactly, and like if we trust the judgement of the 100 to 300 calorie increased kind of thing and we go with the average of 300-500 calorie kind of thing, on average, we could make the assumption. It’s like Okay, well, maybe we just add 300 calories as an allowance for that week. But then I think it’s obviously worth taking that next step that you just kind of said where it’s like, What if somebody just still crushes it while they’re like, What if they don’t need that? And they stay, stick to the plan or whatever? Like we wouldn’t need to change anything. It’s over complicating things by changing things to a certain degree or unnecessary to make those changes. What if somebody really did struggle around the time of the period and stuff like that?
Aidan
00:23:01 – 00:23:36
Maybe we add a little bit more like maybe we go all the way back up to maintenance or maybe even a small surplus or something like that for the one week, because it’s one week of the month like you can still make progress over the month. Um, and what is? That person was normal, eating 1000 calories extra and maybe this man say 85 like there’s so many factors to consider. But my general ideas, maybe we can just increase tell us a little bit for that for some and for others. We don’t even need to overthink. Basically, we’ll jump straight to the last question now, just out of time. So we’ll go. Power of Love asks. Is creatinine only beneficial for those who lift weights?
Leah
00:23:36 – 00:23:54
I think creatines good for most people, definitely all athletes of all kinds, in my opinion, um, would usually benefit from creating. I think anyone who is plant based or predominantly eating plants can benefit from Korea. Teen even with it, Not an athlete. Um, yeah, I love creatine for everyone.
Aidan
00:23:54 – 00:24:27
Yeah, everyone, like delays Alzheimer’s or reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. People get less headaches and creating. That’s another fun fact, like there’s just so many benefits to it. Um, it’s incredibly rare for people to get enough through their diet because it is like the equivalent of one kg of red meat per day. So it’s like most people aren’t going to be doing that. Um, I always say this, though, that if I stop lifting weights, I probably wouldn’t take creatine. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be beneficial. It would still be beneficial. It’s just there’s a lot of could be beneficial supplements that I also wouldn’t take because like this it’s just that’s just a personal preference thing.
Aidan
00:24:29 – 00:24:45
But it’s like I’m not overly fussed about, like the Alzheimers things. I’m not like I’m not going to go out of my way to do something every day in a bid to try to like That’s how I think it through. So, like I say that being like it’s beneficial for pretty much everybody but doesn’t mean you need to do it.
Leah
00:24:45 – 00:24:50
Basically, this has been Episode 30 of the ideal nutrition podcast. Thank you for listening.