Exercise done, now for a treat!

I was at Abs Cross Leisure Centre last Tuesday promoting Herbalife products and handing out free samples and nutritional advice to the local runners at the running club there.

That night they were running either a 3 or 5 mile run and at the end of the run they were offered from me a post run protein shake with all the right nutrients present and balanced to help the body recover quicker or from another table, slices of different types of cakes that were filled with high amounts of saturated fat and sugar with zero amounts of nutrients.

A lot of runners did take up my offer of a free protein shake I am pleased to announce but a hell of a lot walked right past my table and went straight for the cakes!

This got me thinking that probably a lot of people overestimate how many calories they've burned during an exercise session and underestimate how many calories are in certain foods such as cake.

For a more in-depth view on this please feel free to check out my previous blog on this subject:

http://titanfreestyle.blogspot.co.uk/2014_10_01_archive.html

If an 8 stone 9 lbs woman ran 3 miles at 6 miles per hour than she would burn about 300 calories in the 30 minutes it would take to cover this distance at that speed.  If she was heavier she would burn more calories.

After congratulating herself and believing she should have a reward, she heads straight for the cakes and gobbles up a Mr Kiplings Bakewell cherry tart (186 cals) and a slice of Victoria Sponge cake (53g/243 cals).

So after burning off 300 calories on the run she has just consumed in a space of mere moments a total of 429 calories, which leaves her with 129 calories extra.  This food will not fill her up and she'll go home and have her dinner on top of all those calories she's just eaten.

As you can see if you are looking to lose weight and make the wrong food choices after a work out you can easily derail your good intentions in next to no time. 

To put things into perspective a Herbalife Formula 1 meal replacement 250ml serving is around 220 calories or jacket potato with baked beans and salad is only 400 calories!

 What meals will keep you fuller for longer do you think?

In order to successfully lose weight you should be looking to have a daily deficit of 500 calories. This can be done by exercising (energy out) and eating less (energy in).  So if your snacks have more calories in them than your main meals and your daily food intake is higher than your energy out you will gain weight rather than lose it.

So next time you've done your exercise ensure you make the right snack and meal choices in order to stay on track to achieve your weight management goals.