Skipping Breakfast
Finding half an hour for a proper breakfast in a busy work schedule can be difficult. However, systematically skipping breakfast will not save you time: you will most likely have to ‘work off’ the missed meal on the treadmill. Studies show that skipping breakfast increases the risk of obesity and atherosclerosis (fat deposits in the walls of blood vessels) by about one and a half times. This is partly explained by the fact that a person will inevitably consume the ‘missed’ calories in the morning at work. However, instead of protein and slow carbohydrates, such as dietary fibre in porridge, muesli or fruit salad, the source of calories will be sweet coffee, croissants with jam and lollipops. The excess glucose contained in these products is the main cause of fat metabolism disorders.
Solution
Drink a glass of water immediately after waking up — this will cause your stomach walls to contract. This, in turn, activates the hunger centre in the brain: after half an hour, your appetite will wake up.
Endless snacks after a heavy dinner
Feeling hungry right before bedtime and, as a result, wanting to eat another slice of pizza or open a can of sweet soda are manifestations of stress and fatigue after work, not the body’s real need for calories. Salty snacks reduce cortisol levels, the classic stress hormone. Eating ‘until the last bite’ leads to a ‘carbohydrate hangover’ — the elevated blood glucose levels remaining from the evening interfere with normal appetite in the morning and slow down awakening.
Solution
Include more vegetables in your diet. A vegetable stew with chicken breast or a large portion of salad with feta cheese is a great way to trick your brain. The dietary fibre in these foods will keep you feeling full for a long time. If you still can’t shake the urge to snack in the evening, don’t deny yourself the pleasure, but eat an apple or any other fruit.
Coffee instead of food
In moderate doses, caffeine is an excellent stimulant for the nervous system, increasing concentration by releasing cortisol and noradrenaline. These hormones are released during stress and allow us to gather our thoughts and make the right decision in a short time. In large doses, caffeine is addictive and also increases the tone of the muscles that make up the intestines. An overdose can cause nausea, stomach cramps and acid reflux from the stomach into the oesophagus. Caffeine suppresses the hunger centre — if you stay on caffeine until the evening, your body will direct the first portion of food to the creation of adipose tissue.
Solution
The safe dose of caffeine for a healthy man is considered to be 400 mg per day. That’s four cups of espresso, ten cans of cola, or a couple of energy drinks. A cup of strong tea (both black and green) contains as much caffeine as half a cup of coffee.
Overestimating the benefits of fitness training
Regular exercise is almost a feat for the modern business man. Unfortunately, it is not enough to reduce body weight.
It is a scientific fact that exercise and diet only work together.
There is no point in spending time on an exercise bike or sweating on a treadmill if the result of these efforts is a hearty snack of pastries and sweets on the way out of the gym. For the same reason, you should be cautious about ‘sports drinks’: many of them are designed not to reduce body weight and increase muscle mass, but to improve the performance of professional athletes, and therefore may contain a lot of fast carbohydrates — the equivalent of ‘easy energy’ for muscles.
Solution
Use an online calorie calculator and discuss your diet during periods of intense exercise with a dietitian/nutritionist.
Alcohol ‘for a good night’s sleep’
Many people know about the existence of a safe dose of alcohol. For a man without liver disease, this is about 40 g of pure ethanol per day (i.e. 100 g of strong alcohol or two glasses of wine). But relieving the stress accumulated during the working day and falling asleep quickly with the help of a glass of alcohol is not the best idea, because alcohol disrupts normal sleep cycles. In the first half of the night, it ‘turns off’ the rapid eye movement (REM) phase, during which the brain processes the information received during the day and memorises facts. By the middle of the night, as the alcohol breaks down, the picture changes: sleep becomes shallow and is easily interrupted by the slightest noise. Such sleep is unlikely to allow you to recover.
Solution
If you wish, you can drink with dinner, but no later than two hours before bedtime. It is better to induce sleep using ‘natural’ methods: take a cool, but not ice-cold, shower half an hour before bedtime and make the room completely dark.