It’s not just about you…
It may be a little strange to think of, but the body you inhabit isn't strictly your own. In fact, you’re sharing it with approximately 100 trillion bacteria that colonise your gut – your own unique army of micro-organisms. But it’s not as scary as it sounds, as these tiny creatures control your health in a variety of ways. Firstly, they extract energy from food; the greater the diversity of your gut bacteria, the more effectively you are able to digest nutrients. Gut bacteria break down carbohydrates, and prevent them from being stored as fat – hence the reason there is a direct correlation between insufficient gut bacteria and obesity. They also build your immune system, and are directly linked with your emotional health; restoring gut flora has been shown to boost mood and fight depression.
In the right conditions, you can live in harmony with your gut flora and co-exist very happily. Look after them, and in turn, they look after you. But, create a troublesome environment for them (through inflammation, stress, or antibiotic use amongst other things) and they will be compromised, and in turn, so will your health. Here are a few things you may wish to consider in order to care for your gut flora.
Consider a high quality probiotic
The first (and most obvious) thing you can do to support your healthy gut flora is to supplement with a high quality probiotic. This will help to repopulate your digestive tract with beneficial bacteria. Opt for a probiotic with a number of different strains of bacteria, and consider rotating your supplements over time to maintain greater diversity.
If you’re wondering how our ancestors maintained healthy gut flora long before probiotic supplements hit the shelves (or the shelves were even invented) then consider the point below!
Eat Organic Produce
Thousands of years ago, our ancestors’ gastrointestinal tracts would have been teeming with a huge diversity of bacteria, taken directly from the untouched soil in which their produce grew. They wouldn't have worried about washing their hands after digging for them, let alone washing the produce itself. Modern day agricultural methods and non-organic farming have seen our soils stripped of this bacteria; unfortunately, conventionally grown plants grow in soil that is virtually sterile. The solution? Buy organic, preferably local – and don’t worry about thoroughly washing scrubbing every vegetable. A bit of dirt will only be beneficial.
Eat Fermented Foods
Fermented foods play a large part in the diet of almost all traditional cultures, and would have further supplemented their gut biomes. Fermented foods like Kombucha, Sauerkraut and Kimchi are rich in beneficial bacteria; and they’re delicious, too. Consider making your own fermented foods, or if you have to buy them, make sure they are unpasteurised so the bacteria remains.
Eat food rich in prebiotics
Just like you, your gut bacteria need to be fed. Feed them the right foods, and they will thrive. Prebiotics are found in foods such as Chicory, Jerusalem Artichoke, Onions, Leeks and Garlic – and they stimulate and nourish the good bacteria in your gut.
Try resistant starch
Much like prebiotics, resistant starch provides optimum fuel for your gut bacteria. Resistant starch is starch that passes through the colon undigested, thus giving the bacteria an excellent food source. Paleo friendly sources of resistant starch include cooked and cooled tubers – especially arrowroot and cassava.
Avoid sugars and high GI Carbohydrates
On the other side of the coin, if you eat a diet high in sugar and other high GI carbohydrates, you are providing optimum fuel for the bad bacteria in your gut (such as Candida). Who knew there were any further reasons to give up the sugar and grains!?
Don’t Stress
Finally, the most important thing you can do to support your gut bacteria is to reduce the inflammation that makes their living environment hellish to live in. Along with a poor diet, stress causes excessive inflammation within the body. Take time to relax, exercise, perhaps meditate – so that your gut bacteria can do the same.
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It’s official – I have a slow metabolism
I've been talking about my own weight loss struggle, and the journey I'm on to find out exactly what’s going on (and what I can do about it). You can catch up on the first three posts here, here and here. This week, it's all about metabolism.
Last week I told you about my body scan, and how it calculated my resting (basal) metabolic rate. Your resting metabolic rate is basically how much energy your body needs just to keep ticking over, with no physical activity (for brain activity, breathing, digestion etc).
Unscientific BMR
You can work out your resting metabolic rate yourself, using a very crude formula along the lines of:
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )
Here is the metric version:
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.8 x age in years )
Using this formula, I get a BMR of 1608 calories a day. Of course, this formula uses your total body mass, so if you had identical twins of the same height, age and weight, they would get the exact same result for their BMR – even if one had 8% body fat and the other 40% (and this just happened to work out to the same overall weight).
Slightly more scientific BMR
The body scan I had calculated my resting metabolic rate as 1639 kcal a day. This would have used a similar calculation, but it would have taken into account my exact lean muscle mass and my exact fat mass (as they require different amounts of energy to maintain).
As soon as I saw this figure it caught my attention. During my months of experimenting with different ways to lose weight, I’d spent a significant period eating far less calories than this – whilst sprinting and swimming. How can I have been expending so many more calories than I was in taking – and not burning off any fat to make up the deficit? It just doesn’t make sense?
What if my metabolism is lower than the average used in these calculations? What if my body uses far less energy than an average person each day? Perhaps my metabolism is a lot lower than the calculated 1639 a day?
I had to find a way to calculate my exact resting metabolic rate, to understand how much of an impact this was having on my difficulty to burn off fat.
Scientific BMR
I found out about the most accurate way to have your basal metabolic rate tested. Apparently there are special chambers which are completely sealed. You are weighed and all of your biometrics are taken before you enter the chamber, which is then sealed. Everything that goes into and out of the chamber is weighed and measured. You effectively live in this chamber for 24 hours and go about a normal(ish) day, resting, sleeping, eating etc, By calculating your weight, the amount of gas inhaled and exhaled, what you eat (and what leaves your body), they are able to calculate exactly how much energy your body uses in a day, at rest (whilst you’re asleep) and when awake and going about a typical day.
I had to spend 24 hours in one of these chambers.
Unfortunately my extensive googling revealed there doesn’t seem to be a single one of these chambers in the whole of Australia. The chambers that I thought I may be able to convince to let me test my BMR all seem to be in North America – which unfortunately isn’t realistic at the moment. So I had to find the next best alternative…
Scientific-enough BMR
I found out about a metabolic testing option called VO2 (as in volume of oxygen) testing, that is something I can realistically have tested – in my own city. VO2 testing seems to be geared around athletes wanting to find out how efficiently their oxygen use is (and ultimately make this process more efficient and improve their athlete performance).
The VO2 test measures both your resting (basal) metabolic test and you exercise metabolic rate. In my quest to find out more about my metabolism, it was the resting metabolic rate that I was particularly interested in, but in the interest of comparison had the exercise rate tested too.
For the resting test, you need to be as un-awake as possible, so they like to run this test early in the morning. I usually have a long commute, so I stayed locally the night before to avoid any extra stress from the commute. They told me not to listen to music or check emails before, so I did as I was told and got to the studio at 6am as un-awake as I could manage.
As soon as I arrived I was given my mask which was hooked up with some tubes, connected to the machine that was to analyse my breath. I also put on a heart monitor that was connected to the machine and laptop. They lowered the lights and I laid down for about 15 minutes, while the test got underway. Trying to breath normally – when you know it is being analysed – was surprisingly hard, but once all the data had been collected the machine beeped to indicate the test had concluded. By measuring my oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production during this period of rest, an accurate daily caloric expenditure is calculated. Exactly the information I was looking for!
The exercise assessment happened straight after. For this I wore the same mask (not a good look!) and moved into the gym, where I chose to do the assessment on the treadmill (the other option was the bike). The laptop was hooked up to the machine and told the trainer when to increase the intensity of the treadmill (he increased the speed and gradient), depending on my heart rate. By the end of the assessment it got really difficult, but this is how it has to be to ensure the test captures all of the required data. This test is supposed to measure VO2 utilization (amount of oxygen you're able to use during exercise), heart rate response, the precise number of calories your body burns during exercise, and whether fats or carbohydrates (sugars) are being used as the primary energy source. The assessment also maps your appropriate heart rate training zones. Interesting stuff!
The Results
So the whole purpose for this was to find out my actual resting metabolic rate. Was the formula calculated value of 1639 right? Well it turns out it wasn’t even close… The VO2 tests calculate my resting metabolic rate as 1316 calories a day. That’s over 300 calories less than where the formula put me! Given that it wasn’t a true resting assessment as I was well and truely awake, perhaps that means the calculate rate was still too high? Either way, 300 calories is a huge variance – that’s a meal!
On the exercise side (which I'm less interested in, but will be a useful comparison point) it looks like my primary energy source is fat, not carbohydrates (which given my paleo diet isn't really a surprise). But if my exercise is efficient at burning fat – then why is regular HIIT not burning my fat stores?
A long way from average
Seeing the concrete proof that I do in fact have a low metabolism raises so many more questions than it answers. Why is my BMR so much lower than average? Has it always been this way? What came first, the slow metabolism or the weight gain? Do all of my slim friends have higher than average metabolisms? Do all overweight people have slow metabolisms? And of course the big question – (how) can I change my metabolism?
What I really don’t understand is how I sustained daily exercise on top of eating quite a bit below this number of calories each day. Where did the surplus come from, as it clearly didn’t come from burning fat stores?
There has to be more to it…
Next week I’ll be sharing more of what I’ve found out on this journey into weight loss
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GIVEAWAY! Win a free copy of IQS Kids Book!
It's giveaway time!
I'm going to be giving one reader a free copy of the new I Quit Sugar Kids Cookbook!
This book is exactly what you need if you're trying to get your children eating healthily but are struggling for ideas and inspiration. In the beautiful book you'll find:
- 85+ fructose-free party recipes, breakfast ideas, lunchbox snacks and afternoon treats.
- Handy conversion widgets, substitution charts plus a shopping list generator.
- Safe sweeteners and how to use them.
- Tips and tricks from experts and health-conscious parents.
- Ideas to get the kids involved in cooking and growing their own food.
How To Win?
To win a free copy of this ebook* all you have to do is leave a comment below or on the facebook post with your top paleo kids idea or tip. It could be a healthy snack idea, a school lunch tip, a paleo baby weaning idea, or perhaps a fun way you've found to get your children to eat more veggies.
So what's your top idea for paleo friendly children's ideas? Leave your comment below.
The winner will be selected at random from all comments left (both on this page and on the facebook page) by midnight 27th April and I'll announce the winner on the 28th April! Good luck – and keep the tips and ideas coming!
You can find out more about the I Quit Sugar Kids Cookbook here
*Please note that this is a digital book – I'll send the winner the file which can be read on any computer or ereader deviceShare this:
My DXA body scan
Last week I wrote about my weight loss struggles, and my first appointments with a naturopath and functional doctor…
Exactly how overweight am I?
As I spoke about in my first post, my weight has not budged within a 3kg range since 2010, despite following a paleo diet and exercising regularly. Everyone always tells you that muscle weighs more than fat, but does it really? Does this apply to me?
I’ve been going to the gym regularly for the last few years, and for the last year or so I’ve been doing CrossFit. My arms have distinct muscle in them that I swear didn’t used to be there, and I am making good progress on increasing the weight I can lift – so that would suggest I have more muscle than I used to. So if I do have more muscle, and it weighs more, how can my total weight still be EXACTLY THE SAME?
The naturopath had suggested I go and have a DXA (Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry; formally called a DEXA scan) body scan performed so I could see exactly what my body composition is. I was initially quite wary about the radiation, but apparently it’s the same dose of radiation as a short flight between Sydney and Melbourne. I take domestic flights often, this is important, so I figured it was worth it.
The DXA scan
Have you had one of these body scans? It’s completely open (I was expecting it to be enclosed, like an MRI scan) and not unlike being photocopied (I’d imagine). You lie on the DXA machine and it whizzes over you for about ten minutes whilst you watch an image of your body appear on the screen on the ceiling. I found it really confronting. Your fat mass is displayed in yellow. Lying flat on your back, no tailoring can disguise the yellow fat shown in the image.
I’m not ready to post my scan images just yet – it was enough to convince myself just to write about my weight loss struggle, let me tell you! The images in this post show some example DXA scans I found online. When I go back for my follow up scan in a few months, I will post both scans, side by side to show the difference and all of the statistics that go with it.
The image shows your bone in blue and your lean body mass (i.e. muscle & vital organs) in red. What amazed me was my skeleton. It is small – the “I’m just big boned” excuse can be completely dismissed. And how much would you expect your skeleton to weigh? Well mine is just over 2.2 kilos. Incredible. These DXA scans are also used to look at bone density, so I was pleased to see my bone mineral density is excellent (note to all those who’ve been told paleo doesn’t give your body enough calcium!). I also had slight variances between my left and right side, with my right side weighing fractionally more. Interesting – I wonder if many people have exactly the same on both sides?
In terms of muscle mass, the physiologist who conducted my DXA scan, and talked me through the results was surprised by how much muscle mass I have. He seemed to think I have about 10kg more muscle than an “average” woman of my weight and height would have. This was great to hear – and also surely must mean that I have in fact lost fat – it must just be a coincidence that my total weight number has not changed…
Unsurprisingly, my fat mass was too high – but only about 6% above a healthy range (I expected it to be a lot worse than this). The DXA scan clearly showed what I already knew, I store my fat around my hips (a typical pear shape). The danger zone is storing fat around your middle (the “central abdominal zone”, so I’m glad that’s one risk factor I don’t have. My estimate had been that I needed to lose about 15kg of fat, but the actual measurements, suggest I may “only” need to lose 11.9kg. It’s still a lot, but thanks to the bonus lean muscle mass, less than I expected.
Metabolism
The scan also calculated my Resting Metabolic Rate, which has opened up a whole new avenue on my journey of discovery…. metabolism, it turns out, is absolutely crucial in weight loss.
The DXA scan measured my resting metabolic rate as 1639 kcal a day. That means just to exist with absolutely no physical activity, my body needs 1639 calories a day…
I’m going to talk a lot more about metabolism in my next weight loss post – and share with you what I’ve found out – and what it means.
Before then, please share your experiences below. Have you had a DXA body scan? What did you find out?
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