ElliotHarris Evidence Based Fitness

“Let's do Blue-Steele first!”

Chris and Chris get married 😂
A wedding for the ages ❤️

The basics being.

- Sleeping 7+ hrs
- Exercise daily (Walking counts)
- 1 glass of water with every meal
- Protein with every meal
- Surround yourself with good people,
not ones who drain your energy 👌
- Don’t listen to fu*****ds on the internet that
tell you everything you're eating is killing u..

Start there legends 👊

P.s. If you're looking for help with your nutrition I'm giving away FREE evidence based meal guides.

Check the link in my bio. Get 3 days worth of DELICIOUS simple meals for your specific calorie needs ❤️

We need to encourage people to ensure they're getting ENOUGH protein, not scaring them away from it.

What's enough?

Well depending on your activity level.

My recommendation based on the current state of the science is for 1.6–2.0 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. The upper end of that range if you’re very active, the lower if you’re more sedentary.⁣

I.e a 70kg individual would want between 112g-140g 👊

Have you heard this myth?

If you have PCOS, specifically insulin resistant PCOS you should try this 👌

“Yeah you need to detox for gut health!”

Sweeping your body of toxins and cleansing your system is flat out BS.

Eat more whole foods, 100%

But your body will naturally rid itself of “toxins” because you have a liver and kidneys.

NO ONE. Needs a juice cleanse.

It doesn’t flush the body.

It just makes you s**t liquid because there is no food mass to hold together after it’s digested.

You might feel “lighter” and lose some body weight. Not necessarily fat mass. That's if it puts you into a calorie deficit.

But definitely not because your body was “holding onto its fat stores” because of the undefined “toxins” running through it…

Funny how no one can define what “toxins” you need to get rid of 😅

Anyway. Steer clear. It's a money grab.

Much love ❤️

🍏 Ditch the fear! Words like 'toxic' and 'poison' are just buzzwords playing on anxiety.

Don't buy into the hype!

Influencers and ‘nurition experts’ like…


^wanker

…pushing these terms often have supplement affiliations. 🤔

What's 'clean eating'? Food isn't 'clean' or 'dirty'—it's about balance. 🍕

There's no bad foods, just bad diets.

Every effective diet: More whole foods + Exercise = Feel Better! 🌱

"

Dairy is pretty boss 🤷‍♂️

It's a hotly debated topic. The association between dairy consumption and inflammation, especially for women with PCOS. But fear not, lactose lovers, because the research udderly disagrees...

Lets talk some facts:
1. DASH-ing Through the Misconceptions:
* Remember the DASH diet? In a surprising turn of events, studies have shown that dairy, when part of the DASH diet, actually plays nice with hormones and antioxidant status in women with PCOS. Inflammation? More like, health-lammation...(1)

2. Low Starch, Low Dairy, Full-Fat Cheese Please:
* A low starch/low dairy diet with the inclusion of full-fat cheese is not just a dietary strategy – it's a success story! This study demonstrated successful outcomes in treating obesity and co-morbidities associated with PCOS, giving us all the more reason to say "cheese!" (2)

3. Reviewing the Dairy Drama and Diabetes:
* A meta-analysis investigated the relationship between dairy consumption and diabetes incidence. The results indicated a dose-response relationship, highlighting that moderate dairy intake may have a protective effect against diabetes, a condition often linked with PCOS. It seems pretty clear dairy plays nice with our bodies when part of a balanced diet – take that, Almonds! (3)

*
4. High-Protein, and Dairy Fiesta:
* Research exploring the benefits of a high-protein, low-glycemic-load diet in overweight and obese women with PCOS showed positive outcomes. This diet chose to embrace dairy rather than shun it, participants saw significant strides in their weight control journey, debunking the myth of dairy as a villain in inflammation.

Studies in comments ❤️

Have you heard that dairy causes inflammation?

This might sting, but you aren’t too busy to exercise.

In fact I’m sure you know someone busier than you, who actually exercises consistently. So when you allow yourself and others around you to give up the excuse of “I’m just too busy”, you’re lying to yourself.

And I get it, I’m guilty of it also.

But the scary thing is by telling ourselves “we don’t have time”, our brain subconsciously is going to find every reason to justify why we don’t have time. Since our brain will eventually believe whatever message we’re constantly feeding it, telling ourselves that we’re “too busy” only becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This doesn’t JUST relate to exercise either.

So what do you do?

Make fitness a priority.

If you think you’re too busy my number one tip is always get a workout down FIRST thing in the morning.
1. It takes away any excuse of things coming up in the day
2. It’s sets you up with a massive win and you FEEL SO MUCH BETTER

And if you can’t...

There are opportunities for movement and fitness hidden in every day. It's just a matter of finding them and being decisive.
Remember, working out doesn't have to look like running for two hours on the treadmill, (In fact, that fu***ng sucks, unless you’re training for an endurance event, don’t do that...) it just has to be consistent if you want results.

Bottom line. We're all busy. Let's start seeing that as a reason to take care of ourselves, not an excuse to neglect our physical health and mental wellbeing.

If you need some accountability, there's a link in my bio to see if we’re the right fit to work together 👊

Scales can still be helpful and used as data to see overall all trends. But don’t get caught up in the daily changes!

If you’re seeing a consistent increase on the scales over weeks and you haven’t been strength training regularly. Then yes, you may be gaining weight.

But again day to day fluctuations are NORMAL.

There are many ways to tell if you're making progress 👊

We really don't need to complicate things…

Resistance training should be almost the same.

P.s. I have two 1-2-1 spots left for this month! Apply now for details ❤️

“The more glucose spikes you have the faster you age.” - Jessie Inchauspé

In the ever-expanding world of health and wellness misinformation, one must be vigilant against the allure of quick fixes and miracle cures.

This however, appears to be one of the worst contenders in the market - self proclaimed Glucose Goddess's latest supplement, the so-called "Anti-Spike." A product claiming to moderate glucose spikes by up to 40%, yet as you will see, it becomes evident that this might be the biggest scam circulating this year.

https://www.ebfitness.com.au/articles/b/unmasking-the-lies-of-glucose-goddesss-anti-spike-supplement

Unmasking the lies of Glucose Goddess's "Anti-Spike" Supplement

In the ever-expanding world of health and wellness, one must be vigilant against the allure of quick fixes and miracle cures.

Today, we’re shining a spotlight on what appears to be one of the worst contenders in the market - Glucose Goddess's latest supplement, the so-called "Anti-Spike."

A product claiming to moderate glucose spikes by up to 40%, yet as we delve deeper, it becomes evident that this might be the biggest scam circulating this year.

See the breakdown via Link in stories and bio.

Sick of these people getting away with this s**t. It needs to be stopped.

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Spoiler, it's jot as s*xy as…
This isn't as s*xy as…
“Sugar is rUiNiNg your gut microbiome.”
And I can heal all your problems with my supplement range.

But it is a part of the S**T THAT MATTERS approach that actually gets you results.

If you found this helpful, please help me out by liking, sharing or commenting below!

Even fructose isn't bad for you…

Where fructose becomes an issue is in highly palatable things like sugar sweetened beverages which is super easy to over consume and can lead us to over consuming our daily calorie needs.

Some mis informed individuals may say that fructose is also “BAD” because it can’t replenish muscle glycogen (energy stores) because it can only be stored in the liver. But what this does is then spares other carbohydrates. So no, it won’t “rob” your muscles of muscle glycogen.

‘Processed’ doesn't automatically mean ‘toxic’ for the body.

In a world of fear mongering around nutrition it's hard to know what to do.

If you want to know the s**t that actually matters when it comes to your health follow me for more tips ❤️

Do you drink coke zero?

So what does it tell us 😮

Well, we know that total protein over the day is going to be the most important thing, but we don’t know if having one huge bolus of protein is going to be enough to completely maximise 24 hour muscle gain. Because we do still see it slowing down between the 4-12 hour marks.

A couple of things to be mindful of from the study is they used a milk protein that was mainly casein not whey and they have very different amino acid profiles.

1. Casein is much slower digesting so the release of amino acids is much slower than whey protein which could have affected the overall time of muscle protein response.
2. We also need to consider that the protein concentrate may be different from consuming other protein sources like meat, eggs, plant proteins etc.
3. And the last point is this was done in untrained individuals, so it bears the question would we have seen a difference in people who were consistently training. As we know in athletes for example the amount of protein required to maintain muscle mass or not be in a negative nitrogen balance (Nitrogen balance is used as an index of protein metabolism. When more nitrogen is gained than is lost, they are considered to be "in positive nitrogen balance" and a state of overall protein anabolism) is much greater!

SUMMARY:
* There appears to be no identifiable limit to the amount of protein your body can utilise if you extend the time frame long enough.
* Even 100 grams of protein ingested in one sitting won’t lead to amino acid (protein) oxidation or, in plain terms, wasting.
* If you don’t have the luxury of eating many small protein-rich meals daily, GOOD becasue it’s not optimal.
* You’re better off hitting a consistent daily protein intake.

The anabolic response to protein ingestion has no upper limit. Trommelen et al., 2023, Cell Reports Medicine 4, 101324. December 19, 2023 © 2023

I was wrong about protein intake…

And our PROTEIN recommendations as evidence based practitioners is going to change.

So, what’s changed?

Well, a new study has come out which gave it’s participants 100g of protein in one meal after exercise and the results have come back showing the response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has NO UPPER LIMIT…

Wait what…

So what does this mean?


You can literally consume 100g of protein and you will continue to accrue MUSCLE protein over a 12 hour period.

WHICH IS CRAZY!
�Why?��Well, for a while there was this notion that there was no point consuming more than 25g of protein in one meal because the body would just waste the rest and you’d p**p it out.

Which was then debunked, and since that point we thought that anything over about 25g of protein wouldn’t be wasted, but any excess amino acids would be used for other processes in the body other than muscle building, like hair, skin, nail and digestive enzymes.

BUT NOW, omg this is exciting…

…this paper has shown us using 100g of a milk protein concentrate roughly 80% casein and 20% whey protein will continue to incorporate into the muscle 4 hours, 8 hours and 12 hours after ingestion. The incorporation of protein into muscle does slow down between those time frames. But it’s crazy that it still continues to go up up to 12 hours after consuming the 100g!

So it’s an absolute nail in the coffin for the idea that you can only absorb and digest 25g or so of protein at a time. And it definitely tells us that it’s not optimal to eat little and often when it comes to protein.

So what does it tell us.

Well, we know that total protein over the day is going to be the most important thing, but we don’t know if having one huge bolus of protein is going to be enough to completely maximise 24 hour muscle gain. Because we do still see it slowing down between the 4-12 hour marks. It does mean if you’re a one meal a day type person theoretically you could just have one massive serving of protein and still gain muscle not just retaining it.

So, to maximise muscle we still need to stimulate muscle protein synthesis again between 4 and 12 hours after initial ingestion.

But I’d say based on this research that if you’re trying to optimise your 24 hr muscle gain 2-3 meals is going to be enough provided your total protein is managed.

So for example a 70kg individual eating 1.6g protein per kg of body weight 112g could split this into 37g for 3 meals or 66g over 2 meals.

And pragmatically for myself and clients it gives further permission to have a protein shake alongside a high protein meal after training to bump up that bolus and maximise muscle building and recovery.

With all that being said, THE most important thing however, is that you find away to get your total protein in across the day that suits you! Because adherence to a diet is the only thing that’s going to work long term.

A couple of things to be mindful of from the study is they used a milk protein that was mainly casein not whey and they have very different amino acid profiles.

1. Casein is much slower digesting so the release of amino acids is much slower than whey protein which could have affected the overall time of muscle protein response.
2. We also need to consider that the protein concentrate may be different from consuming other protein sources like meat, eggs, plant proteins etc.
3. And the last point is this was done in untrained individuals, so it bears the question would we have seen a difference in people who were consistently training. As we know in athletes for example the amount of protein required to maintain muscle mass or not be in a negative nitrogen balance (Nitrogen balance is used as an index of protein metabolism. When more nitrogen is gained than is lost, they are considered to be "in positive nitrogen balance" and a state of overall protein anabolism) is much greater!

That being said this is a wild study that has changed my opinion on protein consumption!

SUMMARY:
* There appears to be no identifiable limit to the amount of protein your body can utilise if you extend the time frame long enough.
* Even 100 grams of protein ingested in one sitting won’t lead to amino acid (protein) oxidation or, in plain terms, wasting.
* If you don’t have the luxury of eating many small protein-rich meals daily, GOOD becasue it’s not optimal.
* You’re better off hitting a consistent daily protein intake.

Meant nonsense… but I said what I said 😂

“So how do I keep muscle and lose fat??”

1. CALORIE DEFICIT
2. Lift weights 2x per week - AND get within 1-3 reps of failure during sets when training.
3. Aim for 2g of protein per kg of body weight per day (if you've got a lot of excess fat then eat your height in cm ie, 170cm =1 170g of protein.
4. Increase your NEAT (non-exercise activity) to 10 000 steps per day.
5. Repeat

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Day 10,117 swallowing carbs, broccoli and seed oils, still not dead 🥲

How it started vs how it ended…
Was probably the sEeD OilS!

Single fin season 🎅🎄

“Oh no hun, you definitely shouldn't be skipping breakfast as a women, it’s bAd fOr yOuR hOrMoNeS.”

Real comment from self-proclaimed nutrition guru for womens health 🫠🥲

To put your mind at ease regarding fasting approaches and women's hormones.

This is an excerpt from one of the latest studies on humans 🙎‍♀️

“We’ve observed thousands of pre-and post-menopausal women through different alternate-day fasting and time-restricted eating strategies. All it’s doing is making people eat less. By shortening that eating window, you’re just naturally cutting calories. Much of the negative information on intermittent fasting reported has come from studies on mice or rats.” - [Faiza Kalam 2022]

The takeaway?

Intermittent fasting can be a great tool for fat loss and weight maintenance.

Am I telling you SHOULD do intermittent fasting.

No.

It's not something that necessarily works for everyone.

But if you are a women who enjoys intermittent fasting and you feel like it makes it easy for you to maintain your health.

Then you don't need to be afraid of it dAmAgInG your hormones ❤️

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Gluten, alcohol or stressed out belly isn't a thing…

“I want to lose stubborn fat from my belly specifically. How can I do that?”

If I were a naturopath, I’d probably give you a magical herb or tell you to cut out all carbs to do so…

But despite what some practitioners believe, there’s only ONE magical thing you can do to lose stubborn belly fat. And that is…

You'll have to realise that your body will only start focusing on burning off your more stubborn fat cells for energy when you’ve lost enough fat cells from other areas of the body

Genetics, and whether you are biologically male or female, **does** influence our hormones and therefore determines where we are more likely to store our fat.

Without getting TOO ‘sciencey’ when it comes to our genetics, we do have different combinations of FAT CELLS. Specifically, Alpha and Beta Fat cells.

Think of these as little ‘switches’ that determine how these fat cells are used. 

- Alpha, as in “awful” receptors, tell the cells to store fat for later use ☹️
- Beta, as in “Boss” receptors, tell cells to break down and release fat for immediate use 😎

“Where do we have the highest density of these awful alpha receptors on the body?” You may ask.

That depends on our biological s*x:

Males— Belly fat and love handles (to protect our internal organs)
Females - Hips and waist (for child-bearing purposes)

We also see that some individuals are ‘lucky’ in the sense that they may store more fat around their rear 🍑… as opposed to their abs. Therefore two individuals. May have the same body fat percentage, but one may have visible abs, and the other may not.

“Well, that kind of sucks.”

Unfortunately yes.

But the good news is, it means ***this isn’t going to significantly change how you diet if you aim to lose body fat.***

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"Is intermittent fasting bad for women's hormones?"

Short answer: NO.

Read on if you’re interested in why it’s not the case.

This idea seems to come from previous studies of very unfortunate rats starved half to death, sacrificed (R.I.P) and then researchers looked at what happened to their reproductive system. - S Kumar · 2013

We are not rats. Unless you are a rat reading this, and in that case, I’m sorry. You might want to consider not starving yourself.

However, if you are a human, you’re probably doing one of two things...

If you are undertaking intermittent fasting or a time-restricted eating protocol. i.e.
24-hour fast - Not eating for a day
16:8 or 20:4 or 12:12, even 23:1 - Fasting for insert number of hours and then eating within a window. Commonly known as a ‘windowed eating’ approach
Or put more simply…skipping breakfast.

To put your mind at ease regarding fasting approaches and women's hormones.

This is an excerpt from one of the latest studies on human females who are human🙎‍♀️
“We’ve observed thousands of pre-and post-menopausal women through different alternate-day fasting and time-restricted eating strategies. All it’s doing is making people eat less. By shortening that eating window, you’re just naturally cutting calories. Much of the negative information on intermittent fasting reported has come from studies on mice or rats.” - Faiza Kalam 2022
The takeaway?

Intermittent fasting can be a great tool for fat loss and weight maintenance.

But if you find it hard to stick to or feel s**t after not eating for extended periods of time. Don't do it. Use a different tool for managing your health. :)

Questions from the 14 Day PCOS Toolbox

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Nutrition essentials for PCOS

These are just some of the essentials to include in your diet if you suffer from PCOS.

It's hard to fit a lot of information in an Instagram post…

So for more details head to my bio 👌

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!

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Looking for a different, simpler approach to your nutrition and fitness routines?

The fitness world is already full of complicated, confusing programmes, and that’s before having PCOS!

The last thing we need is another list of foods that we should or shouldn’t be eating. Or misleading advice.

That’s why I’ve created a 14 day experience that you can take part in (totally free!) where I'll teach you the exact methods I use to help my clients who have to deal with PCOS.

Over the 14 days, we’ll go through a simple, enjoyable and effective way to manage your nutrition, training and lifestyle in a way that you can sustain.

Here’s some of the questions I will be answering:

1⃣“I know nutrition is essential for my PCOS, but what type of diet is best for PCOS-related weight loss?

2⃣“Do I need to cut out gluten and dairy because it's causing me inflammation?”

3⃣“What role does exercise play in PCOS-related weight loss, and which types of exercises are most effective?”

4⃣“Can certain medications or supplements help with weight loss in PCOS?”

5⃣“How do I create a training plan that I enjoy but also works for my goals?”

6⃣“How do I CREATE motivation rather than rely on it to get going?”

7⃣“How do I prevent weekends from becoming a series of obstacles?”

PLUS, Q&A and coaching: You can ask any questions that you may have during the 14 days and get coaching from me.

AND there are some bonus resources up for grabs. With a surprise gift at the end of the 14 days!

The goal of this programme is simple…

To help you gain clarity on what exactly you need to do in order to reach your goals despite having PCOS without the fuss and overly complicated rules that most plans ask of you.

Interested in taking part?

14 Day PCOS Toolbox! More Info Ebfitness

The reason life feels like its going so quickly is because you’re paying less attention.
-

Don't believe me?

Think about last time you went on holiday, I bet you remember almost every detail. Every experience on holiday becomes novel again.

We forget the mundane. Our daily routines are repetitive and therefore the interactions that go along with them are repetitive and often not experienced with any true presence.

We're ‘listening’ and talking but we're not really engaged.

Take a moment to stop and take in a routine experience you know you will have tomorrow morning.

It could be as simple as pausing and appreciating the aroma of your morning coffee, grateful for the subsequent buzz it will give you to kick off the day.

Or take an extra minute to appreciate waking up next to a loved one (soz if you're currently single…) 😂 maybe appreciate your pet instead.

Point is. Bringing an awareness to the things you enjoy in your day that have become mundane from repetition, will subsequently ‘slow down’ time and you’ll enjoy the day a while lot more.

BROOME came at a perfect time 👌

P.s. Keep a look out for a new 14-day free PCOS toolbox coming out in the next couple of weeks.

I can't wait to share what I've been working on!