At the outset of this lesson, I have to stress that I am not a doctor and that you are responsible for what you choose to do with this information. This information does not constitute medical advice.
I don't know you personally and we've never had a face-to-face consultation. I cannot comment on your specific case or provide you with personalised advice.
If, at any point, you have concerns about your health, you should consult your medical practitioner.
First, and very importantly, the carbohydrate-based plan will not work for everyone. Due to our modern way of life, there are some categories of people who won't get great results at the levels of starchy carbohydrates contained in this plan.
- Anybody with a metabolic disease, primarily type 2 diabetes. It's estimated that 75-85% of western populations have some level of insulin-resistance, essentially the precursor to developing full blown type 2 diabetes, so it is possible that many of us have some level of metabolic disease already.
- Anybody who struggles to maintain a stable weight and puts on fat easily. This is one of the proposed symptoms of metabolic disease.
This may well be a very large part of the population.
Generally speaking, the people who tend to do well on a carbohydrate-based approach tend to be the lean high-performing athletes. Funnily enough, I see more women than men who manage well on this approach too.
Worksheet at hand, here's what to do.
Planning Your Nutrition - Carbohydrate Approach
Step 2: Daily fat intake
- Simply write 50g in the box, no calculating to be done.
- Consider adding 5g of fish oil per day as part of the 50g.
- This isn't a hard limit but too much more & you'll run into the issues that arise from mixing carbs and fat (autumn signalling).
Step 3: Calculate starchy carbohydrate intake
- Multiply your body mass by 2.5.
- Write this number in the box.
- This is a limit, not a target.
Step 4: Make up the rest of your daily nutrition with non-starchy vegetables.
- In fact, the best way to do this is to eat non-starchy vegetables with every meal Eat them & the protein first. Then finish off by eating as much of the starchy carbs as you have an appetite for.
- Much more important than the point above, start to develop a sense of when you're satisfied and stop eating at that point. There is no calorie target, you know you're full because you read the signals.
Tasks for this lesson:
1. Complete Steps 2 - 4 on the worksheet downloaded in the lesson 20.
2. Start looking at nutrition labels on food packaging to get a feel for the macronutrient composition of various foods.