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Introduction
What You'll Learn
A lot of people get caught up in the specifics. We tend to think about, well, if we're nutrition coaching then I need to be looking at the amount of carbohydrates that my client is eating, I need to make sure that they're eating low GI carbohydrates, avoiding sugar. Some people would recommend organic foods or everything has to be fresh, but that's the specifics. The basics are going to give you most of what you get.
Why it's Important
You get 80% of the results that you get out of doing anything from only 20% of the effort that you put into the thing. When it comes to nutrition, that really, really is true. You get the vast majority of the benefit that you get from eating a healthy diet from following the very simple stuff that you start out with. After that very simple stuff, everything else that you get is just like a little bonus. You get rapidly diminishing returns, and so it's really important for you as a coach to make sure that your clients have these basics in place because if they aren't, it doesn't matter what specific little details you want in, it's not going to give you any benefit because you've missed the fundamentals. You've missed the foundation.
A lot of people get caught up in the specifics. We tend to think about, well, if we're nutrition coaching then I need to be looking at the amount of carbohydrates that my client is eating, I need to make sure that they're eating low GI carbohydrates, avoiding sugar. Some people would recommend organic foods or everything has to be fresh, but that's the specifics. The basics are going to give you most of what you get.
Why it's Important
You get 80% of the results that you get out of doing anything from only 20% of the effort that you put into the thing. When it comes to nutrition, that really, really is true. You get the vast majority of the benefit that you get from eating a healthy diet from following the very simple stuff that you start out with. After that very simple stuff, everything else that you get is just like a little bonus. You get rapidly diminishing returns, and so it's really important for you as a coach to make sure that your clients have these basics in place because if they aren't, it doesn't matter what specific little details you want in, it's not going to give you any benefit because you've missed the fundamentals. You've missed the foundation.
The First Principles of Nutrition
You probably know a reasonable amount about this already, but I do think it's important to go over it again, make sure that we cover it within the context of coaching and also just recap you on anything that you might have learned a long time ago and forgotten, or you've allowed to fall out with your practice. Or if you're brand new to this, this is something that you really do need to get nailed down. I'm not going to be talking about micronutrients today. In fact, we're not going to be talking about those in the video series; micronutrients being vitamins and minerals that you get from your foods.
The reason I'm not going to be talking about those is because largely, first of all, your client is going to be unable to track their micronutrients. It's just not something that you can realistically do. You consume an awful lot of different vitamins and minerals every day, and if you're looking at your diet in terms of trying to get the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals and get the balance right every single day, your diet becomes too restrictive. That's not how vitamins and minerals work. You can consume them over the course of a week by just eating a varied diet.
If you're sticking to a proper calorie balance, or an appropriate amount of calories for your or your client's diet, you're eating the right macronutrients for your needs and you're also consuming whole foods in a highly diverse diet, then you don't need to pay attention to micronutrients because they kind of take care of themselves. It's then useful if you're eating a restrictive day in any way, be that because you have certain allergies, because you avoid certain foods for ethical or religious reasons. That will be considered an unbalanced diet and at that point, you may be at elevated risk of micronutrient deficiencies. That's something we talk about on the Practical Academy. Today though, we're just looking at the basics, so we're going to be talking about how to estimate a client's needs, and how to get them to eat it even if they're not tracking their stuff.
It's true, what they say, and calories are king. Calorie balance is the thing that determines weight gain or loss. If you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. The opposite is also true, and that is regardless of food source. We often hear this argument of, "Oh, if you're saying that calories are king, are you saying that if someone ate 1000 calories of cake or 1000 calories of chicken and vegetables, that the outcome will be the same?" No. But the change in body ... not body composition. The change in body weight would be pretty much the same. So, calories really are king.
The reason I'm not going to be talking about those is because largely, first of all, your client is going to be unable to track their micronutrients. It's just not something that you can realistically do. You consume an awful lot of different vitamins and minerals every day, and if you're looking at your diet in terms of trying to get the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals and get the balance right every single day, your diet becomes too restrictive. That's not how vitamins and minerals work. You can consume them over the course of a week by just eating a varied diet.
If you're sticking to a proper calorie balance, or an appropriate amount of calories for your or your client's diet, you're eating the right macronutrients for your needs and you're also consuming whole foods in a highly diverse diet, then you don't need to pay attention to micronutrients because they kind of take care of themselves. It's then useful if you're eating a restrictive day in any way, be that because you have certain allergies, because you avoid certain foods for ethical or religious reasons. That will be considered an unbalanced diet and at that point, you may be at elevated risk of micronutrient deficiencies. That's something we talk about on the Practical Academy. Today though, we're just looking at the basics, so we're going to be talking about how to estimate a client's needs, and how to get them to eat it even if they're not tracking their stuff.
It's true, what they say, and calories are king. Calorie balance is the thing that determines weight gain or loss. If you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. The opposite is also true, and that is regardless of food source. We often hear this argument of, "Oh, if you're saying that calories are king, are you saying that if someone ate 1000 calories of cake or 1000 calories of chicken and vegetables, that the outcome will be the same?" No. But the change in body ... not body composition. The change in body weight would be pretty much the same. So, calories really are king.
Calorie Balance
What is calorie balance? Well, it's just simply the result of an equation. It's the food and drink that you consume, and the energy that is extra absorbed and extracted from that, and then ... that is calories in. And then calories out, is your exercise and movement and all of the other stuff that your body has to do on a day to day basis just to survive. The calories that you consume come from the macronutrients. That's protein, carbohydrate and fat. That's not the only things that they do of course, but it is what they do in terms of this conversation. But the calories out is a little bit harder to quantify, and that's why it's useful as a coach to focus on calories in.
It's basically impossible for you to track the calories that your clients are burning day to day. You can estimate it, and I'm going to show you how to do that, but often what happens is people will pick exercise and they'll say, "Well, how many calories will I burn doing a session of resistance training, or running three miles, or doing a session on the bike?" The honest answer is unless you did that in a lab with a whole bunch of equipment that can measure these things, the best thing you can do is guess. And so, it's useful to estimate the amount of calories that your client requires using the methods that I'm going to outline and then simply control their food intake in order to adjust their calorie balance.
You can increase their calorie burn. If someone's doing two exercise sessions a week and you add in two more, you don't know by how much, but their energy expenditure has increased. But there are problems with that. There are reasons why exercise in and of itself is actually really, really ineffective for weight loss. We cover that in the Practical Academy, but for now, just consider as a thought experiment. Day to day, you might burn X amount of calories because you walk to work, you sit there and fidget, you do things like I'm doing now. Like, I'm not moving around really, but I'm also not still; I'm gesticulating and I'm talking to you guys.
It's basically impossible for you to track the calories that your clients are burning day to day. You can estimate it, and I'm going to show you how to do that, but often what happens is people will pick exercise and they'll say, "Well, how many calories will I burn doing a session of resistance training, or running three miles, or doing a session on the bike?" The honest answer is unless you did that in a lab with a whole bunch of equipment that can measure these things, the best thing you can do is guess. And so, it's useful to estimate the amount of calories that your client requires using the methods that I'm going to outline and then simply control their food intake in order to adjust their calorie balance.
You can increase their calorie burn. If someone's doing two exercise sessions a week and you add in two more, you don't know by how much, but their energy expenditure has increased. But there are problems with that. There are reasons why exercise in and of itself is actually really, really ineffective for weight loss. We cover that in the Practical Academy, but for now, just consider as a thought experiment. Day to day, you might burn X amount of calories because you walk to work, you sit there and fidget, you do things like I'm doing now. Like, I'm not moving around really, but I'm also not still; I'm gesticulating and I'm talking to you guys.
Where do Calories Go?
If we're going to be looking at estimating a client's calorie requirement, it's useful to understand exactly where the calories go and how they're burned. We can talk about calories in terms of TDEE, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure. That's made up of primary parts. You've got EAT, which is Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. That's simply the energy that you expend doing intentional exercise.
You then have NEAT or Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, and that is all of the stuff that I explained earlier. That's commute to work. It's fidgeting, it's changing your position while you sat on the couch watching Game of Thrones. It's all of the little movements that you do every day.
Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis as the primary explanation for the calorie requirement difference between two individuals that have the same statistics. If you've got one female who is 65 kilos and she works in an office, and you've got another woman who is 65 kilos and she works in an office. Then this lady over here, she might do power lifting; this lady over here might not do anything. And you would think that it was the power lifting that would make the biggest difference between their two calorie requirements, but actually it's the non-exercise stuff. It's which one commutes to work, which one goes walking at the weekend to go hiking and enjoy herself. All of these, all of this sort of stuff, which is usually referred to as activity instead of exercise, is the big determinant. That's why it's really important for you guys not to be pushing exercise too high because if you do that, you will take away from the activity stuff that actually makes a difference.
You've then got the Thermic Effect of Food or TEF. That is simply the energy that is required to break down and metabolize and store the food that we eat. If you eat a potato, that potato needs to be broken down into glucose. That glucose then needs to be stored and then it needs to be used, and that uses calories.
And then finally you've got the big one, which is Basal Metabolic Rate, which makes up 60 to 75% of your daily energy expenditure on average. If you're a very active person, that's probably not going to be true. But for the average person, which is going to be most of your clients, it certainly is. And so, that is the big rock. That is the one that we work out first.
You then have NEAT or Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, and that is all of the stuff that I explained earlier. That's commute to work. It's fidgeting, it's changing your position while you sat on the couch watching Game of Thrones. It's all of the little movements that you do every day.
Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis as the primary explanation for the calorie requirement difference between two individuals that have the same statistics. If you've got one female who is 65 kilos and she works in an office, and you've got another woman who is 65 kilos and she works in an office. Then this lady over here, she might do power lifting; this lady over here might not do anything. And you would think that it was the power lifting that would make the biggest difference between their two calorie requirements, but actually it's the non-exercise stuff. It's which one commutes to work, which one goes walking at the weekend to go hiking and enjoy herself. All of these, all of this sort of stuff, which is usually referred to as activity instead of exercise, is the big determinant. That's why it's really important for you guys not to be pushing exercise too high because if you do that, you will take away from the activity stuff that actually makes a difference.
You've then got the Thermic Effect of Food or TEF. That is simply the energy that is required to break down and metabolize and store the food that we eat. If you eat a potato, that potato needs to be broken down into glucose. That glucose then needs to be stored and then it needs to be used, and that uses calories.
And then finally you've got the big one, which is Basal Metabolic Rate, which makes up 60 to 75% of your daily energy expenditure on average. If you're a very active person, that's probably not going to be true. But for the average person, which is going to be most of your clients, it certainly is. And so, that is the big rock. That is the one that we work out first.
Estimating BMR
To estimate your basal metabolic rate, which is this big chunk here, you can do a bunch of different things. There are a lot of different ways and the more complicated you make it, the more accurate it tends to be. For today though, we're just going to be talking about the simple process, the more complicated one we talk about on the Academy. That is simply to take your weight and multiply it by either 11 or 10, if you are a man or a woman respectively.
Using BMR to Get TDEE
Once you've got your BMR, your basal metabolic rate, you then add an activity multiplier, which you can see here. I'm not going to read these out to you, but as you can see, as you become more active, of course the number that you multiply your basal metabolic rate by goes a little bit higher. The problem with this is, it can be quite difficult to fit someone into one of these categories. So, hard exercise and sedentary job, or very hard job and no exercise, or a moderate exercise and moderately active job; that will be moderately active and you would multiply that BMR by about 1.55.
That is hard to quantify because it's quite vague and it's not really specific, and you can probably think of either yourself or someone that you know or a client that you've worked with who doesn't fit into any of these categories. And so, what I generally advise is you go for somewhere in between them. If you think could it be sedentary, could it be moderate, well, just go in the middle. As you're going to see in a minute, you do need to make adjustments after you've done this estimation anyway. So don't worry about getting it right first time. Just get it as close as you can. Once you've done that, you can then look at your macronutrient needs.
That is hard to quantify because it's quite vague and it's not really specific, and you can probably think of either yourself or someone that you know or a client that you've worked with who doesn't fit into any of these categories. And so, what I generally advise is you go for somewhere in between them. If you think could it be sedentary, could it be moderate, well, just go in the middle. As you're going to see in a minute, you do need to make adjustments after you've done this estimation anyway. So don't worry about getting it right first time. Just get it as close as you can. Once you've done that, you can then look at your macronutrient needs.
Why We Need Macronutrients
As I mentioned before, they do contain energy. If you consume a food that's got a hundred calories in, those hundred calories come from the fact that that food contains macronutrients, and those macronutrients can be broken down to use as energy in the body. But that's not all they used for. Protein is used, for example, in muscle mass. Everyone knows that. But protein is also important for organ mass, skin, hair and nails, and a bunch of enzymes. Enzymes are the most common protein that is synthesized in your body. We always think of enzymes as something that just happens in digestion, so you eat something and then enzymes break it down in your digestive system.
But enzymes are used for a whole ton of other things. Basically, well, almost every reaction that happens in your body, be that digesting a piece of fish or using glucose to produce ATP, which is the energy currency of the body, that's how your muscles will move, that requires enzymes to do so. Your body has to make a ton of them and if you're not eating enough protein, your body couldn't create those enzymes. What then happens is you find yourself in a situation of being protein deficient and your body needs to break down other things, muscle mass, organ mass, or it doesn't produce healthy hair, skin, and nails in order to get the protein to make the enzymes. And so, consuming adequate protein is really important.
You've then got fat, which is used for cell membranes. If you remember from GCSE biology, if you haven't studied it since then; if you have, I apologize for explaining how [inaudible 00:23:38]. An animal cell, generally speaking ... there's a few exceptions, but an animal cell, generally speaking, is drawn as a circle. It's usually something spherical and within that, you've got a whole ton of machinery, so you've got your nucleus, [inaudible 00:23:54], et cetera, et cetera, all of the things that make the cell do what it does. Well, that outside membrane is made of what's called a phospholipid bilayer. That is made up of two fatty acids and a phosphate. And you need fat in order to make those cell membranes. If you're not eating enough fat, that becomes a major problem.
You also need it for fat soluble vitamin absorption. Vitamins A, D, E, and K, all very important for health. If you consume them and you don't have dietary fat, your body cannot absorb them and so you will excrete them. So dietary fat is important meal to meal. If you eat a big plate of vegetables and you haven't eaten yet today, and you don't need any fat, some of the vitamins from those vegetables cannot be absorbed.
You also need Omega-3, that is w-3. That is important for inflammation management. Omega-3 can allow your body to mount an inflammatory response, which is important, but then quell that inflammatory response when it's no longer needed. Inflammation is a good thing. Chronic inflammation is a bad thing. And Omega-3 is one of the things that prevents the former becoming the latter.
Then you've got carbohydrates. That's important for movement. Carbohydrates are probably the closest one that we can see as just being used for energy, but it's also important for brain function. Your body run ... Your brain runs on glucose. It requires about 100 to 120 grams per day of glucose, and if it doesn't get that, your brain can't work. That's one of the reasons you get brain fog, if you haven't eaten for very long. You can adopt a ketogenic diet, which we discussed on the Practical Academy, which kind of circumnavigates that glucose brain problem. But generally speaking, unless you're in a ketogenic state, your brain is running on glucose, you need those carbohydrates.
But enzymes are used for a whole ton of other things. Basically, well, almost every reaction that happens in your body, be that digesting a piece of fish or using glucose to produce ATP, which is the energy currency of the body, that's how your muscles will move, that requires enzymes to do so. Your body has to make a ton of them and if you're not eating enough protein, your body couldn't create those enzymes. What then happens is you find yourself in a situation of being protein deficient and your body needs to break down other things, muscle mass, organ mass, or it doesn't produce healthy hair, skin, and nails in order to get the protein to make the enzymes. And so, consuming adequate protein is really important.
You've then got fat, which is used for cell membranes. If you remember from GCSE biology, if you haven't studied it since then; if you have, I apologize for explaining how [inaudible 00:23:38]. An animal cell, generally speaking ... there's a few exceptions, but an animal cell, generally speaking, is drawn as a circle. It's usually something spherical and within that, you've got a whole ton of machinery, so you've got your nucleus, [inaudible 00:23:54], et cetera, et cetera, all of the things that make the cell do what it does. Well, that outside membrane is made of what's called a phospholipid bilayer. That is made up of two fatty acids and a phosphate. And you need fat in order to make those cell membranes. If you're not eating enough fat, that becomes a major problem.
You also need it for fat soluble vitamin absorption. Vitamins A, D, E, and K, all very important for health. If you consume them and you don't have dietary fat, your body cannot absorb them and so you will excrete them. So dietary fat is important meal to meal. If you eat a big plate of vegetables and you haven't eaten yet today, and you don't need any fat, some of the vitamins from those vegetables cannot be absorbed.
You also need Omega-3, that is w-3. That is important for inflammation management. Omega-3 can allow your body to mount an inflammatory response, which is important, but then quell that inflammatory response when it's no longer needed. Inflammation is a good thing. Chronic inflammation is a bad thing. And Omega-3 is one of the things that prevents the former becoming the latter.
Then you've got carbohydrates. That's important for movement. Carbohydrates are probably the closest one that we can see as just being used for energy, but it's also important for brain function. Your body run ... Your brain runs on glucose. It requires about 100 to 120 grams per day of glucose, and if it doesn't get that, your brain can't work. That's one of the reasons you get brain fog, if you haven't eaten for very long. You can adopt a ketogenic diet, which we discussed on the Practical Academy, which kind of circumnavigates that glucose brain problem. But generally speaking, unless you're in a ketogenic state, your brain is running on glucose, you need those carbohydrates.
Bringing it all Together
You work out their calorie requirements by estimating their BMR, and then you use an activity multiplier, and then from that you've got their calories. Of course from that, you can create a calorie surplus by adding some calories, or a calorie deficit by taking some calories away. And then you work out their protein requirements and tell them to fill the rest of the whole foods. If only it was that simple.
Clients don't want or need a calculator. Everything that I told you right now, you can learn for free on the internet, and you can even plug in your details and a calculator will spit out your requirements. It's useful for you as a coach to know this because you're going to have to calculate this for some clients, even if they're not tracking, as I'm going to discuss in a minute. But you will need to work it out for people, but that's not why they're hiring you. That's not what you're for. Similarly, if you brought in someone who was a joiner and they were going to fit your kitchen cabinets, they would measure your kitchen. But that's not what you've hired them for. It's part of their job, but it's definitely not all of it. You could do that yourself.
The role of coach is about overcoming barriers. It's listening, providing appropriate advice, giving support and encouragement, and helping someone to attend everything that is defined by self-determination theory. Self-determination theory is a massive topic we cover on the Practical Academy because it is another thing that really underpins the way you work with people and your behavior change approach.
In short, a person is not going to be motivated into doing things that aren't useful for their health or personal wellbeing, so they're not going to be motivated to eat well, to exercise, to look after their sleep if they don't feel competent, if they don't feel like they're able to do it, if they don't feel related. So, if they don't feel like other people actually care about what it is that they're doing and they don't feel that they can share their experiences with other people who are on a similar journey. And not if they don't feel autonomous, which is where they feel like their decisions and their choices matter, and they're in control of their own lives.
Clients don't want or need a calculator. Everything that I told you right now, you can learn for free on the internet, and you can even plug in your details and a calculator will spit out your requirements. It's useful for you as a coach to know this because you're going to have to calculate this for some clients, even if they're not tracking, as I'm going to discuss in a minute. But you will need to work it out for people, but that's not why they're hiring you. That's not what you're for. Similarly, if you brought in someone who was a joiner and they were going to fit your kitchen cabinets, they would measure your kitchen. But that's not what you've hired them for. It's part of their job, but it's definitely not all of it. You could do that yourself.
The role of coach is about overcoming barriers. It's listening, providing appropriate advice, giving support and encouragement, and helping someone to attend everything that is defined by self-determination theory. Self-determination theory is a massive topic we cover on the Practical Academy because it is another thing that really underpins the way you work with people and your behavior change approach.
In short, a person is not going to be motivated into doing things that aren't useful for their health or personal wellbeing, so they're not going to be motivated to eat well, to exercise, to look after their sleep if they don't feel competent, if they don't feel like they're able to do it, if they don't feel related. So, if they don't feel like other people actually care about what it is that they're doing and they don't feel that they can share their experiences with other people who are on a similar journey. And not if they don't feel autonomous, which is where they feel like their decisions and their choices matter, and they're in control of their own lives.