Do you really need that much sugar?

If you look at your daily food intake, how much of it is comprised of sugar? Not just pure sugar but also carbohydrates? Whether we eat pure white sugar or normal carbohydrates e.g rice or pasta, it all gets broken down into glucose in the body. This then gets shipped off to certain areas of the body to be used for various tasks, one of which is exercise.

For many of us that exercise, one of our main goals is fat-loss. However, when we exercise, our body likes to use the carbohydrates in our system as they are easy to access first. If we are eating a lot of carbs and our stores are topped up regularly, it may take up to 30 minutes to burn these off before we even switch to using fat as a fuel source! So if you go for a 30 minute run, your ability to burn fat could be minimal.

If we look to reduce our sugar/carb intake then this can increase our fat-burning success! Have a look at the below meal plan and see how we could switch sugars for protein:

Meal 1 - Cereal (sugar) and toast (sugar)

Snack - Fruit (sugar) and cereal bar (sugar)

Meal 2 - Sandwhich (sugar) and crisps (sugar)

Snack - Biscuits (sugar)

Meal 3 - Pasta (sugar) and sauce (sugar)

Snack - Low fat yoghurt (masked by adding sugar!)

The above looks at simple sugars and more complex sugars in carbohydrates such as bread and pasta. The above is a very typical day even for people that have a sedintary lifestyle. Sugar is basically stored energy so why would you need all this stored energy if you are sitting at a desk all day? If it doesnt get used it may turn to fat or stop you burning fat at the gym.

Try this instead:

Meal 1 - Omellette

Snack - nuts

Meal 2 - Chicken and cottage cheese salad

Snack - Mixed berries (low in fruit sugars)

Meal 3 - Steak, sweet potato chips (low sugar) and veg

Snack - Greek yoghurt (not low fat therefore no added sugar)

Have a look at your daily intake of food. Does it look like the high sugar plan? If so, are you struggling to lose fat even with all your efforts in the gym? Start switching the composition of your meals from high carb to a balance between protein, good fats and small portions of carbs and the fat may start to shift!
Oli.