Real Health Podcast: Why you really can’t out-train a bad diet with registered dietitian Sophie Pratt

Most will have heard the phrase ‘you can’t out train a bad diet’ and the key to healthy fat loss is 80pc to do with what you eat and only 20pc on the exercise you do.

It’s a difficult one to get your head around, especially if you have started back running or going to the gym and can already see results.

Avoiding that dreaded plateau is where diet comes in and this week, I’m delighted to be joined by registered dietician Sophie Pratt to tell us why exercise isn’t enough to get you the results you want.

Sophie says you don’t have to be taking on extreme forms of exercise to be conscious of what you consume:

“When we go out and we go for a jog...we probably push the food aspect to the back of our mind because it's only a walk, it's only a jog with friends. But actually, we probably need to look at it a little bit more detail and think about what we are putting into our mouths. If we break it down, it is essentially carbohydrates for our energy, protein for our muscle growth and repair and then healthy fats for insulating the absorption of vitamins and minerals."

If we need to improve our diet to see results, does this all come down to protein? According to Sophie, having more protein than our body can absorb is pointless.

“We only need 20 grams of protein within 30 to 90 minutes post exercise. Any more and there's no benefits...We will simply excrete it out. If we're buying protein powders, if we're buying five steaks a day, we are pretty much wasting our money.”

For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-real-health-podcast/

And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and realhealth@independent.ie.

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The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.