Gluten Free: Good Or Bad?

Heyyyy,

Hope y'all are having a good day.

Today I wanted to talk about something that has been playing on my mind recently. There are a lot of different reasons why people go on a gluten free diet. Some out of choice and others it's not. I'm sure most of you would have heard about the Gluten Free weight loss fad thing. Now, I have nothing against people choosing to go gluten free for whatever reason it may be but, what does really get on my nerves is when I get told I'm lucky I have to be gluten free because it will help me with weight loss and such..... There are a few reasons why it grinds on me. Firstly, I don't count myself lucky to have an allergy and have no choice but to give up foods I love or pay way more for gluten free products. The second reason is because since becoming gluten free, I have also become a lot more aware of what ingredients there are in each food and how much fat, sugar, fibre etc there is in the product. Now the question I ask to you is, is cutting out gluten from your diet actually good for you be it to be healthier or for weight loss/control?

A gluten free diet isn't actually necessarily healthier for you and can often even lead to weight gain. From what I have seen and read, many gluten free products are high in processed carbs, fat and sugar. This can cause weight gain because they're the wrong carbs and fat your body actually needs. This means that if you're not having to go gluten free for health reasons, you would probably be better off shopping for a variety of high finer carbs, lean proteins and you're good old fashion fruit and veg along with the healthy fats.

Don't get me wrong, there are some pros of eliminating gluten from your diet. So, I thought I would bullet point some of them out for us to take a closer look at.

Pros: 

• If you have a gluten intolerance, you may have damage or inflammation in the intestinal tract. Going gluten free can help reverse the damage or inflammation relieving any symptoms you have.
• Because you read the labels more to check for gluten free or not, you become more aware of food and what is in the product.
• It will generally lead to a healthier diet in the sense that you will have less processed foods as most of them include gluten.
• It means you introduce higher quality grains such as quinoa into your diet.

                      Cons:

• You reduce your good carbohydrates intake because it is assumed they all have gluten in.
• You can end up lacking finer from the traditional sources which can lead to digestive problems.
• You can possibly gain weight because GF products often contain higher levels of fat and sugar.
• You can gain weight because your intestinal tract will renew itself and recover from any changes. As a result, it will also start taking in nutrients in the way it is supposed to which is good but also can cause you to gain more weight than you would normally.
• You can become deficient in needed nutrients such as iron, fibre, vitamins and folate which will make you lose weight but, not because you're getting healthier more so because you're not getting what you need to sustain your body.

What we need to remember is that Gluten is not harmful to our health and nor does it make us gain weight. Since so many foods are now coming in gluten free versions, it is so easy for us to think that they must be a better alternative which is definitely wrong. Gluten free doesn't automatically mean low calorie or healthy. In fact Gluten is found in a lot of whole-grain foods that have loads of vitamins, minerals and fibre which are all vital to a healthy diet. Not only that, people who eat 3 servings of whole grains a day are apparently 30% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

At the end of the day, it is down to us as individuals to decide what we eat and don't eat within our diets (allergies aside) but before cutting things out of our diets we need to be 100% sure it is actually better for us. 

In conclusion, although there are many benefits to having a gluten free diet, unless you actually need to stick to one, it is actually doing our health and body any better. It is just a myth that it helps you lose weight in a healthier way because that isn't actually the case at all. There aren't any health benefits in reality (obviously if you're allergic there is :) ). You'd be better off having a balanced diet and including gluten as your body will receive everything it needs in moderation.

What are your views on Gluten Free diets? Do you think they are better for you or not?

That's all for now

Until next time

Stay Strong

<3

Weight vs Muscle Weight

Hey Y'all

How are you doing?

Today I wanted to talk about something that I have been wondering about and researching recently. With all that is going on with my health, I have to keep an eye on my weight to make sure it's stable and not going down too low. Somehow, recently it has been stable and the scales have been going up - higher than ever before. I couldn't fathom out how this could be possible being that my eating isn't all that great and is mainly chocolate for energy. Then it occurred to me that I do so much cheer and exercise at the moment that muscle is obviously developing. Muscle means extra weight. So, what the scales are telling me aren't all that accurate. They aren't really helping me keep track of what my actual body weight is muscles aside.

The realisation of this then got two things floating around my head. Firstly, it made me understand why my 'weight' has been going up or staying stable and therefore leads to doctors really not taking much notice of me as they think I am coping just fine. Even when I'm not. :(

Secondly, everyone who is wanting that perfect bikini body for the summer or even to just lose weight, ever wondered why the scales are going up no matter what diet you keep to? What about those exercises you have been doing too? They've been giving you some good old muscle. That's a good thing.... it just doesn't help with accurate scale reading. 

When we are watching our weight and figure for whatever reason be it health or to get that bikini body, we use a combination of the mirror and the scales. The mirror shows us what we want to see or don't want to see and the scales tell us a number, but in reality... they're anything but accurate when you really think about it.
So, me being me decided to google this shiz and find out more. This is what I found out in words that hopefully is easy to understand. 

The Problems with Weight Loss/Keeping Track of weight. 
If you are wanting to lose weight, it’s most likely because you carry too much fat. There are people who must lose weight, like athletes before a competition, but most want fat loss. For every lb of fat you lose, you may gain a lb in muscle. So when you weigh yourself on the scales, it is as if you haven't lost any weight when in actual fact you did lose some fatty weight but kept it on with the muscle weight. So we should stop weighing ourselves for these two reasons: 

• It's Unreliable: Your body-weight can fluctuate daily since it’s influenced by your stomach/bowel/bladder content, water loss/retention, muscle loss/gain, fat loss/gain, … You’ll have no idea what’s actually going on.
• It's Irrelevant: 2 people with similar height can weigh the same, but look completely different because one has lower body fat than the the other. Look at the picture for example. 

The last point shows why the BMI standard is flawed: it doesn’t take your body fat into account. Both the guys in the picture have the same BMI, but one is clearly healthier and his body fat is lower.

There are a few ways to track your weight more accurately be it for health reasons or weight loss reasons. 
You don’t need to track progress weekly, changes wouldn’t be drastic enough. Track it every 2 weeks or so. 
Stop Weighing Yourself Daily - The daily fluctuations will mess with your motivation. Weigh yourself once every 2 weeks, not more. 
Stop Looking in The Mirror - Self-image issues can skew perception. Shoot full body pictures and compare them with old ones. 
Track Body Fat - Get a fat caliper and track your body fat every 2 weeks.

Fat Caliper

Take Measurements - Measurements of your neck, chest, arms, waist & thighs. Your waist should go down and the rest should go up. 
Take Pictures -  Full body pictures from ankle to neck, front/back/side, every 2 weeks. Compare it with your previous pics. 
Strength Stats -  Log your workouts. Strength going up means muscle gains and strength training prevents muscle breakdown. Listen also to what people say. They’ll notice your body change more than you will as they don't see it every day. Your clothes will also start to feel differently too which is a really good way to see fat loss.

So, in conclusion, weighing ourselves doesn't actually tell us how healthy we are. So when doctors ignore me pretty much because my weight is stable.... they're not taking into account the muscle weight that I have gained or is what is keeping on the lbs.

What are your thoughts on this topic? I'd love to know.

But for now.... that is all until next time.

Stay Strong

<3