Aidan:
Hello and welcome to the Ideal Nutrition podcast. My name is Aidan Muir. I’m here with my co-host, Torwen Eerkins. This is episode 255, where we’re going to be doing another Q&A. As a bit of the behind the scenes, we’re both busy people. We had a compressed schedule for prepping for this one. We made a promise after the last one.
That we weren’t going to do too many real difficult ones for us to prep for. So Q&As are always easy. I like to think they provide value in another way as well. As I always say, the stats show people listen to this at least as much as the other ones. If not more, so keen to do more of them.
Torwen:
So let’s get started. Aidan, I’m going to ask you the first question. How long should you stay in a deficit before moving to a maintenance break?
Aidan:
So there is no right or wrong here. I do have my own thoughts. But I don’t like putting them too strongly on record. There are many ways you can do this. So I’ll share my own thoughts. And I’ll share why I think what I think. Then I’ll also explain why I wouldn’t want this to be a hard rule.
I think most deficit phases should be eight to 12 weeks. The reason I think that is because there is a cost associated with being in a deficit. There are downsides to achieving that deficit. There are also downsides to attempting to be in the deficit and not achieving it. I don’t want to turn this into too long of a list. But there are some physical changes. People become hungrier, and their desire to eat increases. There is a decrease in metabolic rate. And there is a decrease in incidental movement in many cases.
Then there are psychological changes, partly related to the restriction and a variety of reasons. The longer the timeline gets, the harder it is to manage things. There is this saying that you should never start a diet that you can’t stick to forever. I have a tweak on that. Because I don’t intend on being in a 500 to 1000 calorie deficit for the rest of my life.
And I can make a few more sacrifices during that eight to 12 week period. But the longer the timeline gets, the more it’s like, I have a certain way I want to live. I kind of have to line this up with that as well.
I won’t go too deep into that. But with the whole idea of maintaining, I think it matters far more what you do after the deficit. It matters more than what you do during the deficit. For a variety of reasons, I think if you spend eight to 12 weeks in a deficit, have time at maintenance. That can kind of reset a bunch of this stuff. It can set you up for another phase if you want to do another deficit.
Why do I not want to put a hard limit? There are so many people in this world who succeed with much longer deficits. There are people who have a lot of weight to lose. They stay in a deficit for an entire year. Then they can maintain that afterwards and get really good progress. I’d hate to have somebody who’s on a journey, doing a really good thing, hear me say eight to 12 weeks is the limit. Then they stop it, and it just breaks their momentum or whatever.
So do whatever suits you. But these are my thoughts on what would be most likely to benefit most people.
Torwen:
I think that’s something we would assess on a case-by-case basis with clients anyway. If there are events coming up, or whether they’re going on holiday, there are always reasons that date can change. Or whether their goal is shorter term anyway. It makes a lot of sense that we don’t stick to a very specific limit.
Aidan:
Yeah. And there are so many of my clients who are currently in deficits longer than that. I’d hate for one of them to be listening to this and being like, hang on.
Torwen:
What’s he saying?
Aidan:
Yeah. So the next question for you, Torwen, is should you put creatine in a hot drink?
Torwen:
This is a good question. Short answer is yes, you can. Creatine monohydrate is actually fairly stable in heat. So adding it to something like coffee or tea isn’t necessarily going to destroy it completely. The issue does lie with prolonged exposure to heat. Over time, it can convert to creatinine, which isn’t necessarily the useful form for performance.
So my simple tip would be, if you’re having it in something like that, drink it pretty soon after mixing. Within the 10 to 15 minutes. Or if you’re more concerned, let your drink cool slightly before mixing it in.
An upside that I will say is creatine does sometimes dissolve better in warmer liquids. So for people who really don’t like that gritty texture, it might be easier to take. Especially compared to having it in a cold drink. But regardless, at the end of the day, consistency matters most with creatine. So if you’re adding it to your morning coffee, and that’s how you remember, that’s probably better than not having it.
Aidan:
So I was recording with Tyler this morning, and the release of these won’t line up. But shout out to Insights of Ideal Nutrition Podcast. We were talking about creatine this morning. We were even talking about the fact that you could actually get cold water and warm water. Put them next to each other, mix in creatine, and you’ll see a difference. You’ll see it dissolves so much better. That can potentially reduce gut issues as well.
Another thing you touched on there was coffee. Some people have concerns that creatine and caffeine can interact in a negative way. My personal two cents is that it very likely doesn’t matter. There are a lot of people who have mechanistic explanations as to why. I think one of the things, and this is my own philosophical way of looking at it, is we only have so many easy wins.
You would think if creatine gives a one to 3% benefit, caffeine gives a one to 3% benefit. You add them together, and you get a two to 6% benefit. I just think stuff like that doesn’t really happen in the real world. So it’s not that they cancel each other out. I just think there’s only so many easy wins. The shorter way of saying that is I don’t think they’re getting in the way of each other either. It’s not like it stops creatine from working.
Torwen:
Yeah, lovely. So Aidan, your next question then. Can you elaborate on why German creatine is not superior? We’ve got Creapure specifically.
Aidan:
Did you say collaborate or elaborate?
Torwen:
Elaborate.
Aidan:
Can I collaborate on the idea? So I don’t think this is a hot take. I don’t think any individual country would have a monopoly on the ability to manufacture one synthetic product. Especially not in a way that’s superior to everything else. I just kind of reject that notion. I don’t know if that’s viewed negatively by anyone. But I don’t think that’s hot take. I’m going to explain where this idea comes from. Then I’ll explain why I think it’s not better.
The reason this question came up was because on one of my Q&As on Instagram, somebody asked this. They asked, is German creatine better? I just said no. But I’ll give more context. So to start off, the main reason people would think it’s better is that although creatine itself is safe, the manufacturing process could cause unwanted by-products.
Some of these by-products are creatinine, which could occur due to poor processing or storage. There is a thing called DCD, which is a precursor used in some production methods. That could remain in the final product. And DHT can occur in low-quality synthesis. The next obvious question should be, how common is this?
Although I did mention the country’s thing, a significant portion of the world’s creatine supply does come from China. So it largely does come from a single country. Not almost all, but a significant portion. While many of these Chinese factories produce high-quality creatine, it’s usually 99.9% pure creatine. That is very, very good and matches what Creapure is, which I’m going to talk about. But the oversight and quality control can be variable between manufacturers.
So Creapure, which is what most people are referring to as German creatine, is known to have strict standards. It also has testing to ensure purity. So I can see the logic. If you’re somebody who’s like, I don’t want by-products in my creatine, I agree. That’s a fair enough belief. But let’s go deeper.
The argument against being better is the most obvious one. From an outcomes perspective, it just doesn’t work better. That’s really simple. It is a lot more expensive, and it also does not work better. Most people wouldn’t make that trade unless there were other major downsides.
If you have something that’s 99.9% pure, it’ll lead to the same results. The vast majority of reputable brands, including places like Bulk Nutrients, achieve purity levels of 99.5 to 99.9%. That is where a lot of people will be buying from. They almost all do testing for DCD and DHT. They come out well below safety thresholds. So it’s not really that big a concern for reputable brands.
If somebody was to ask a follow-up question of what is a reputable brand, I’ll say this. Something that has a decent customer base. It’s not just one of the smaller brands. Creatinine levels are typically low, because you might have noticed that I skipped over there. Even if it wasn’t, in the amounts that it’s found in, it’s very safe. It’s more just a dead by-product where it doesn’t give any benefits.
But if you used the tiniest bit higher dosage of creatine, you’d get around that problem. So that’s my kind of argument for why German creatine is not superior.
Torwen:
The cost one’s probably a big one for me. If we’re recommending things to clients and they’re extremely expensive, it’s harder to come by.
Yeah, there’s no real reason to be taking Creapure.
Aidan:
It’s hard to make an argument for. I think it was three times more expensive. It’s hard to make an argument and be like, hey, pay three times more. It will give no better benefits.
So the next one is, somebody asked that they’re getting full quickly on weight loss medication. How do they maintain adequate fibre?
Torwen:
Again, this is something that we’re probably seeing more and more in practice. That is with a bit of a rise of weight loss medication.
As a bit of background, weight loss medications slow gastric emptying. That’s how they help reduce appetite, which is why they can support weight loss. So it can make it harder to get enough nutrition in, especially things like fibre.
My thoughts here are being a bit more intentional about what you’re eating and when you’re eating it. So a few things that I like to focus on are making sure you prioritise fibre-containing foods earlier in the day. Often, this is when appetite is usually a bit better. You’ve had the whole night to digest the previous food. Often, there is a little bit more appetite there.
Second, probably choose more compact fibre sources. So things that give you a fair bit of fibre without heaps of added meal volume. That could be things like berries or a little bit of fruit. Nuts, seeds and small portions of legumes as well. Often, those big, bulky salads contain a good amount of fibre. But they can be too filling and uncomfortable to eat.
So then spreading that fibre across the day makes it a lot more tolerable as well. Rather than trying to get it all in at one meal. With that, keep fluid intake as high as possible, or nice and high. This helps make sure you’re not making constipation or any of those gastrointestinal symptoms worse.
Aidan:
Fibre supplements?
Torwen:
That was going to be my last little thing. In some cases, I might also consider adding something like psyllium husk in. But that is a little bit more individual on whether or not you need that. It can be such an easy way to get a lot of fibre without a lot of volume. It also avoids anything added or extra.
Aidan:
Yeah, absolutely. Makes sense. And in the last episode, I was talking about bariatric surgery versus weight loss medications. I do think that, to a degree, this is a nice benefit of weight loss medications over bariatric surgery. I don’t know how many people listening have seen the bariatric portion plates. It is like half the plate goes towards protein. Then a third or a quarter goes towards vegetables, or even more. I don’t know. Then there is the tiniest portion for wholegrains and healthy fats or whatever.
It’s almost like with bariatric surgery, the moment it happens, the gut health conversation goes out the window. Because it’s like, well, you can’t prioritise everything. You can’t get all your protein in, vegetables, and so on and so forth. Whereas at least with the weight loss medications, it’s more challenging. But it’s still a relevant conversation. Can we still try and get all of this through food where feasible too?
Torwen:
Yeah, absolutely. If cooking or cooling carbs increases resistant starch, should active people increase their overall carbs to account for this?
Aidan:
I don’t think so. But I will explain where the question comes from. Regular starch, or forms of carbohydrate, have four calories per gram. Resistant starch has two calories per gram.
When you cook and then cool certain carb sources like potato, rice and pasta, some starch converts to resistant starch. So you can make the logic. For people who are looking to lose weight, they’ll be like, that’s a nice bonus. There are fewer calories in this. There are also gut health benefits from that too.
But if somebody has come from that background, they might look at being like, hang on. I’m an athlete, and I’m trying to hit high carb needs. Should this change? I really don’t think so. Adding context, it’s really not a huge conversion. In 100 grams of rice, if you went through this process, only a few grams end up as resistant starch. Let’s say it was three grams. That total difference is six calories.
I just wouldn’t think about it.
Torwen:
It’s such a small number.
Aidan:
Yeah. So then somebody asks, are IBS-specific probiotics better than general ones for IBS-style symptoms?
Torwen:
Let’s chat through it. IBS-specific probiotics generally contain specific probiotic strains that have been found to be low in IBS patients. Or they’ve been studied specifically for their positive effects. A few of these are things like Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Those are the main ones that we’ll see.
Whereas a broad-spectrum probiotic will still contain these strains too, but at a lot lower doses. They’ll have more of a broader range. So in terms of are they better, I don’t necessarily think they are better than broad-spectrum. But I think they have different uses.
If you’re having IBS-style symptoms and you think you already have pretty okay gut health, potentially I would say this. Let’s trial an IBS-style or an IBS-specific probiotic. On the other hand, if we’re trying to improve overall gut health, we might start with something broader. That might apply if there has been any history of antibiotics. Or it might apply if your gut health is just not up to scratch. We might start with something broader to introduce a greater array of probiotic strains.
Regardless, trial one probiotic supplement at a time. Stick to it for a minimum of four weeks. If you don’t see any improvements after around 12 weeks, then I would probably stop.
Aidan:
Love it. No notes from me.
Torwen:
Lovely. Well Aidan, are greens powders of any value for very fussy eaters?
Aidan:
So viewing it from a positive perspective, it can be a little bit of a nutritional safety net. In that, it helps cover some gaps. In many cases, I do have my preference for multivitamin. But greens powders could still play a role, particularly if I was viewing it through that positive lens. They are high in a lot of micronutrients. They can also contain fibre in some cases. So that’s a nice bonus too.
The negative perspective is they usually have a lot less fibre than if you were to get it from plants. Or just through vegetables as well. Even if they didn’t, it is often largely fortified through one to two sources. Whereas getting it through whole vegetables leads to more diversity. That is usually a good thing for gut health. They’re also going to be way less filling, and there are a few other negatives. But if you added them for somebody who otherwise wasn’t going to eat enough vegetables, I still think it’s positive overall.
Torwen:
Yeah, that makes sense. I also often ask if clients are considering that for their kids or that sort of thing. How are you going to be taking it? If you’re putting it in a smoothie, could you honestly just put the real deal in the smoothie anyway? It would save you a lot of money. Like we said, you’ll probably get a bit more fibre through that way as well.
Aidan:
That’s valid. I’d be curious on people’s takes because we don’t get feedback on the podcast. If somebody was a fussy eater, how do greens powders go down? Are they likely to enjoy them? I don’t know. Have you tried greens powders yourself?
Torwen:
Only the pineapple flavoured little sachets that I get as a bit of a taster. But not personally, no.
Aidan:
I’ve tried a few and some are pretty gross. I’m not picky in any way. So if I’m saying that, I’m actually just curious. If anyone wants to give me feedback in my Instagram DMs. But yeah, what should you do if you suspect an intolerance, possibly gluten or dairy slash lactose?
Torwen:
This is honestly another really good question. It is probably actually quite applicable if anyone is listening along. If you suspect that you have some issues this way, the first thing I would say is don’t cut foods out straight away.
If you’re thinking it might be gluten, it’s really important that you go and see your GP. Get tested for coeliac disease first. For this test to be accurate, you need to be eating gluten regularly. If you’ve already cut gluten out, the tricky part is that you might need to reintroduce it before testing. Otherwise, you will get a false negative result. Honestly, that just becomes a whole other challenge. So go and see your GP.
Now, when coeliac disease is ruled out, some people might experience what we call non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. It’s a little bit less defined. Sometimes it’s not actually the gluten itself. It can be other components in these foods, like FODMAPs. So if this is you, I recommend chatting to a dietitian who works in this space.
On the other hand, lactose intolerance is actually quite common. That happens due to reduced lactase enzyme activity. For most people, it’s dose-dependent. So they can often still tolerate small amounts of lactose. Yoghurt or hard cheeses, that sort of thing, is normally okay.
But generally, using lactose-free products is actually a pretty easy thing to trial. So my suggestions there are reduce that one thing at a time. Track your changes in symptoms. If you notice that you feel heaps better, or your bowel movements are more regular and formed, maybe that’s the answer. But if you’re curious that’s the case, and your symptoms are resolved, I would always say this. Maybe it’s worth doing a bit of a test again afterwards. Reintroduce it. If you’ve got confirmation, then that makes a lot of sense.
Aidan:
I’m really big on trying to differentiate between lactose and dairy intolerance, just due to the prevalence. Such a massive percentage of the world is lactose intolerant. There are a lot of people who will just write it off as dairy in general. I don’t know why I care so much beyond the nutrients and stuff like that. Also, I don’t like restriction where it doesn’t need to be.
It can be really easy to test for the difference between the two. We do have lactose-free milk. It wouldn’t be fun if you were lactose intolerant. But what you could do is day one have a lot of regular milk. See if you get symptoms. Day two, assume you got symptoms on day one, have lactose-free milk. See if you didn’t get symptoms. If you didn’t get symptoms on day two, you’re probably pretty confident.
If you really want to check again, just to see what if something went wrong on day one, repeat the cycle. You do that twice, and that’s generally the best way to test. They don’t do breath testing or anything anymore because the accuracy rate was not ideal. This would be the best way to figure it out.
I have a big preference for somebody. If somebody feels like they’re dairy intolerant, but they’ve never done this test, I would do that. It could give you more options.
Torwen:
Yep, that makes a lot of sense. Keep the background nice and stable. Don’t go changing lots of other factors at once. Otherwise again, it becomes quite unclear what’s going on. So Aidan, should I start a diet at a more aggressive deficit? Then should I reduce it at a lower body fat percentage?
Aidan:
So I’ve only seen a few people talk about this, and it’s totally fine. You can do it. I view it as a personal preference thing. So the logic makes sense. Deficits are easier at the start and hardest at the end.
There are a lot of reasons why. I think literally what I said earlier in this podcast makes sense. Changes in hunger, metabolic rate, steps, or just incidental movement. Desire to eat. It’s easier to push harder at the start. So it’s like, okay, let’s go lower calorie at the start. When things get harder, let’s go higher calorie and ease off a little bit there.
It makes sense. Same thing with muscle retention. It’s easier to maintain muscle when you have a higher amount of body fat. It gets harder as you get leaner as well. So that makes sense. That said, I haven’t seen many people do it and get better outcomes frequently with this approach. I have suspicions as to why I think that could be harder in some ways too.
One of my thoughts is the deficit is at its hardest at the end. If you feel like you’re easing up by raising calories or whatever, it’s hard to be in that mindset. I don’t know. I’ve got a lot of thoughts about that. But I like to view it as a personal preference thing. You could achieve the same goal in multiple ways. So if you wanted to do that, you can try and see how it goes.
Torwen:
Another thing that maybe we weave in there as well is if you’re starting at a higher body weight. If it’s a more aggressive deficit, then as you lose weight, it’s going to naturally be less aggressive anyway.
Aidan:
Yeah, yeah. That is super valid as well. I also think that’s a small portion of why this becomes less often used as well. Interesting. So the last question we’ve got is, why does appetite increase during certain phases of my cycle? Do I actually need to eat more?
Torwen:
Changes in appetite during certain phases of your cycle are super normal. In many cases, you actually can include a little bit more food. It usually happens in the luteal phase, or the week or so before your period. It is actually a time when progesterone is a little bit higher. This increases appetite. Your body is actually preparing to use a little bit more energy for menstruation. So roughly around the extra 100 to 300 calories per day, generally.
This is also when you might notice more cravings. So things like carbs or chocolate. And it’s not necessarily random. It often actually is somewhat physiological. Your body is wanting to have energy-dense foods. So I always tell my clients, we can lean into it slightly. There is absolutely no reason to go overboard. But potentially adding a tiny bit extra to meals, or including an extra small snack, can help during that phase.
Aidan:
Incredible.
Torwen:
Cool. Well, we’ll wrap it up there.
Aidan:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been episode 255 of the Ideal Nutrition podcast. So as always, if you could please leave a positive rating and review, we would massively appreciate it.