Recently at FitterFaster I sent out a quiz to clients to see how much they have learnt/or know about healthy eating, training and just generally being healthier.
I was quite surprised by some of the answers, both with the knowledge you all displayed and also at the common confusion about a few of the questions.
Hence, this blog post. I’ll provide the answers to some of the 25 questions and follow up with the rest in further posts.
How many hours of sleep should you aim for on average?
7-8 hours.
How many serves of protein should you aim to eat per day on a ‘perfect’ day.
Female – 5
Males – 8
A serving being approx. 25g of protein. Or approx. 100-120g of any lean red or white meat, 2 eggs, 100g of low fat cottage cheese etc
What should all of your meals contain?
Protein and Carbs was the correct answer. This is assuming you’re following the FitterFaster Precision Nutrition Program and are eating 5 meals/snacks per day with an optional 6th one for males.
There was a variety of answers to this one, with lots stating Protein, Carbs and Fats. I recommend adding a serve of healthy fats to just 2-3 meals or snacks per day. Although we do require healthy fats every day, eating too much fat, even if its healthy will result in weight gain or inability to lose excess body fat, just like with any other macronutrient.
With the recent obsession with ‘Paleo’, this has become a common error and usually means a lack of results. While eating a Paleo based diet is highly recommended. (The FFPNP could pretty much be described as Paleo with a couple of adjustments)
Just because something is ‘healthy’ doesnt mean you can eat too much of it.
What’s the best oil to cook with?
Coconut oil for most uses. Other healthy oils are better for use in dressings etc as they lose their health benefits or are degraded by overheating.
List 3 things you could do to stop yourself from eating everything in sight when having cravings.
There are many, many ‘correct’ answers to this question. I’ve listed some of your ideas and some of mine below:
- Have a coffee instead
- Make a healthy snack that is part of your nutrition plan and eat it now, even if you’re not supposed to have your meal yet
- Get busy. Go outside, clean, go for a walk, visit a friend, hang out the washing, etc. There are heaps of ways to get busy and distract yourself.
- Do a workout. This could be a full training session, or just 5-10 minutes of activity to get you over your craving
- Have a herbal tea
What are the best indicators that your fat loss program is working?
The choices listed were:
- Body weight going down
- Tape Measure
- Clothes fitting better
- Comments from friends or family
- More energy
- Feeling fitter and able to do more
- Less headaches
- Sleeping better
There were lots of varieties of answers for this one. The correct answer was all of them, except the first one.
Scale weight is not a good indicator of your program working. Especially if its not moving. I’ve done so many assessments this week where clients were disappointed that the scales had only moved by 1-3 kg. Yet, after a full assessment, measurements and body fat percentage had moved considerably. Relying on the scales alone is not a good idea.
How do you determine how much training you should do each week?
There were once again a variety of answers and most of them were spot on. You should determine your training frequency by your recovery and your goals. You should be getting enough sleep and eating properly before in increasing to more than 3 sessions per week.
What are some signs of overtraining or under-recovery?
This leads from the prior question.
A variety of choices was given and are listed below:
- Sleeping really well
- Lack of energy
- Trouble sleeping
- Extra hungry
- Lack of hunger
- Getting sick often
- Headaches or other flu like symptoms
- Ongoing niggling injuries
- Unable to shift bodyfat
All of the above answers are correct except the first. You could be extra hungry or lose your appetite. You may have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. You may get sick more often or have niggling injuries that wont go away or keep recurring.
If you had to choose one supplement to recommend to the average person wanting to lose body fat and improve their health, what would it be?
The correct answer is fish oils or another Omega 3 supplement.
Quite a few answered ‘protein powder’ but this is incorrect. You do not need a protein supplement to improve health or lose weight. A protein supplement is simply a source of protein and has no health benefits or fat loss benefits(unless you are under consuming protein)
I hope this helps you with some of the confusing questions. Keep an eye out for more answers in another post soon