For an accessible version or to translate, visit:
https://tinyurl.com/2hx4fwak

NHS

Scan to view online

Session 6

Body Image and Healthy Eating

Session 6

Energy & intuitive eating

  • Share this page
  • Download this page
     Download
  • Leave feedback
0%

Track your progress

Reset this module Reset this session

Please note: Answers & notes will be reset

  • Q1
  • Q2
  • Q3
  • Q4
  • Q5
  • Q6
  • Q7
  • Q8
  • Q9
  • Q10
  • Q11
  • Q12
  • Q13
  • Q14

Quiz Time!

Warm up

Name the food or drink brand



You got: 0/0

Walkers
Hellmann’s
Pot Noodle
Cornflakes
Blue Dragon
Doritos
Burger King
Cathedral City
Starbucks
Nandos
Tango
Birds Eye
Twister Ice Lolly
Dr Pepper
Answers

Energy

Lightbulbs use electricity
as the energy source
to make light.

Like a lightbulb, our bodies need
energy to work and function.
Humans get energy
from food and drinks.

Unlike lightbulbs, our bodies never turn off, therefore we need a constant supply of energy to cover tasks day and night.

Energy Balance

Food and drinks
containing calories

Young people are often not aware that the body is constantly running and therefore needs fuel even at rest.

They may believe that what they eat needs to be burnt off with exercise to be in balance, which is not the case. The body would be in an energy deficit if all intake was used for exercise and daily activity.

Our bodies use energy:

• To maintain 24/7 basic functions that
keep us alive, such as the
heart, lungs, organs and brain.

• For exercise.

• To digest food eaten.

• For general movement in the day.

Our bodies like balance and work hard to stay
in balance. Overeating...

Your body's response to eating above your energy needs

• If you overeat in one sitting, the body will increase the metabolic rate to use the excess energy in the body. You may notice feeling hot, sweaty, restless, and slightly nauseous.

• Consistently eating above your energy needs will result in storage of excess energy as fat and weight gain.

Our bodies like balance and work hard to stay
in balance. Undereating...

Your body's response to eating below your energy needs. The body will:

• Slow down functioning in the body to conserve energy (reduced metabolism).

• Increase hunger signals (fat loss reduces leptin, which is the fullness hormone, triggering ghrelin, the hunger hormone, sometimes nicknamed the ‘growl’ hormone!).

• Increase preoccupation around food (due to restriction of usual variety and quantity of food).

• Increase risk of overeating at next meal.

The above reasons are why restrictive diets often do not work for sustainable weight loss!

Factors affecting how much
energy our body uses

Sex

Males have higher energy needs than females, generally speaking, due to higher muscle mass and larger bodies.

Amount of energy

needed for your body to digest, absorb and metabolise food.

Weight

Larger bodies mean greater mass and cells requiring energy, therefore larger bodies actually have higher metabolic/energy needs compared to smaller bodies.

Muscle mass

Muscle requires greater energy due to it’s active nature of protein synthesis and breakdown.

Growth

Adolescence and puberty is a period of rapid growth and increase in weight and height, requiring additional energy to feed additional mass.

Anxiety

Increases cortisol, stimulating greater fat and carbohydrate metabolism to produce energy – essentially to provide sudden energy to 'fight or flight', if required!

Hormones

Chemical messengers, therefore they signal for increased or decreased energy needs.

Activity levels

Greater exercise or movement in the day requires greater energy.

Important energy output:

Regular exercise can:

Make you feel rejuvenated.

Improve social connections.

Improve mood.

Improve cardiovascular health, bone strength and muscle strength and stability.

Current physical activity guidance for young people (5-18years) is to aim for at least
60 minutes moderate to vigorous intensity activity per day.

EXERCISE

Helpful exercise

Rejuvenates the body.

Can make the body feel tired, but not run down or exhausted.

Allows for rest whilst exercising.

Allows for rest days based on how the body feels.

Promotes positive emotional and physical outcomes.

Allows for variety of movements and activities.

Allows varied intensity of movement e.g. lighter activity days and more intense workout days.

Promotes positive social interactions.

Exercise within government recommended health guidelines.

Is enjoyable!

Harmful exercise

(excessive, driven, compensatory)

Leaves the body feeling exhausted (over exercising).

Extended bouts of exercise >60 minutes/day for multiple times in the day (*This may not apply for some young athletes).

Doesn’t allow for breaks.

Increased stress, anxiety and low mood in relation to not being able to exercise.

Increased guilt if not able to exercise or with reduced intensity of exercise.

Exercising as a punishment for eating or to allow you to eat.

Exercising in secret.

Inability to change type of exercise session or intensity of sessions.

Still exercising when ill or unwell.

Still exercising while injured.

Inability to have a rest day (compulsion to exercise more).

Exercising to give yourself permission to eat.

Exercising to cancel out calories from food intake.

Exercising more and more to achieve the same desired effect.

Helpful
versus
harmful exercise

Young people with high exercise
and activity levels

On the last slide, we discussed when high levels of exercise with the purpose of weight loss can be an example of 'unhealthy exercise'.

However, some young people who are competing in sports may regularly participate in training or competitions lasting multiple hours.

If you compete for a sport that has high training levels (multiple hours a day), it is important to remember that your body will need a lot more fuel (food) to avoid having low energy.

Low Energy Availability (LEA) is when there is not enough energy to cover basic body functions and so the body needs to slow down to ensure the most essential processes still occur (e.g. our brain functioning, heart pumping).

Long term low energy availability can lead to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDS), which is a term to describe the effects low energy has on your physical and mental health. (See the image for the various aspects negatively affected if you have REDS).

You can learn more about REDS on the Sport Ireland Institute fact sheets: www.sportireland.ie/institute/performance-service/nutrition/red-s

For young budding athletes, having a regular, structured intake of meals and snacks to fuel your sport is necessary.

Body systems affected by REDS

Energy in

Our bodies get energy from foods and drinks

Quiz! Factors that impact energy levels

Select whether you think it is an internal or external factor

Internal
External
Answers
  • Nutrient stores in the body

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Hormone signals

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Social setting

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Nerve signals 

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Expected taste from food

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Volume of food in the gut

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Body fat levels

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Smell of food

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Sight of food

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Blood glucose levels

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • The time

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box
  • Eating habits

    I think this is...

    Drag one of the options into this box

How do I balance my
energy input and energy
output to be healthy and
well?

This is why concepts of intuitive eating and mindful eating were developed!

Intuitive eating is trusting your inner body wisdom to make choices around food that feel good in your body, without judgment and without influence from diet culture.

Mindful eating is an approach to food that focuses on being fully present while you’re eating. It also increases awareness of your thoughts, senses and feelings during and after you eat.

What is intuitive eating?

Rejecting diet culture

Listening to your body's
hunger and fullness signals

Avoiding food rules

Permission to eat all food

Not dismissing food as 'good' or 'bad'

Eating flexibly with trust that your
body knows how much food it needs

Eating a variety of foods

Permission to eat a food
because you want it

Being aware of your types of
hunger (emotional, physical etc.)

Understanding the balance of your
body with exercise

Can you think of another
example of intuitive eating?

What impacts eating intuitively
and confuses hunger signals?

Can make it harder for the brain to make rational and clear decisions.
Can slow signalling in the body e.g. hunger and fullness signals are disrupted.
Stomach content removed, when the body was preparing for digesting and using the food.
Confuses body signals and disrupts energy systems.
Can lead to deficiencies.
Disrupting hormone regulation (hormones are the chemical messengers in the body).
About food that can override listening to body signals.
Athletes will have very high energy needs due to their sporting demands, which might mean intake is needed even when not feeling hungry.

Let’s look a closer at how restriction confuses hunger signals

Restriction of food
e.g. skipping meals,
irregular eating or
cutting out food type.

Increased psychological
hunger for avoided food and increased
physical hunger.

Increased thoughts about food,
fatigue, difficulty thinking,
irritability, craving for
higher energy foods.

Overeating or eating
avoided foods.

Guilt from overeating or
from eating certain
avoided foods.

Eating patterns and the impact to our energy levels

We want to encourage regular eating patterns, particularly in, young people with disordered eating behaviours.

Restricted eating:

Reduced energy.

Often a reduction in mood due to limited fuel going to the brain.

Regular eating:

Is an intake pattern of approximately every 3-4 hours.

It provides regular consistent top up of energy as it starts to dip. More efficient use of energy in the body.

Better hormone regulation for hunger and fullness signals.

Irregular eating patterns:

Skipping meals leads to low energy and physical hunger within the body which can increase cravings and over-eating, often on more refined foods for fast energy.

Leading to erratic energy levels which can impact mood.

Examples of diets promoted within social media for weight loss

There are many diets promoted within social media for weight loss.

Dukan diet

Paleo
diet

South beach
diet

Keto diet

Atkins diet

The Zone diet

5:2 diet

Intermittent
fasting diet

South beach
diet

What are the effects of diets promoted within social media for weight loss?

- They promote restriction and control of eating, which can lead to starvation or malnutrition and disordered eating habits.

- They label foods as 'good' or 'bad'.

- They reinforce societal messages that being a thin shape and lower weight is the ideal body, rather than overall health and wellbeing.

- They often have little long term evidence to their benefit.

- They create a sense of failure if someone isn’t able to follow the rigid dietary rules.

- There is often limited research within varied population groups e.g. ethnic minority groups, adolescents, those with varying medical conditions etc.

How do I work toward being more intuitive with my eating?

Intuitive eating starts with curiosity and mindfulness!

  • Being aware of what your body is saying when around food.
  • How you feel physically, emotionally and socially.
  • Listening for internal and external cues.

The hunger scale

Mark where are
you on the hunger scale right now?

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10

Types of hunger in the body

Eye hunger:
Do you see food and therefore want to eat?

Nose hunger:
Do you smell food and therefore want to eat?

Ear hunger:
Do you hear food cooking or being eaten and now want to eat?

Mouth hunger:
Did you just taste some food and are now wanting to eat more?

Stomach hunger:
Is your stomach feeling empty or growling, increasing your desire to eat?

Mind hunger: Did you realise it was a certain time of day or think that you “should” eat more of a particular kind of food and therefore want to eat?

Emotional hunger:
Do you feel sad, lonely, or anxious and therefore want to eat?

Types of hunger in the body

Physical
hunger

- Increases overtime.

- Means any food will satisfy the hunger.

- Is a deliberate choice to eat out of awareness of hunger.

- Is a response to definite need and you will still be hungry if you wait 15 minutes.

- Distractions will not decrease the craving.

- There is a sense of satisfaction after eating.

- No guilt with eating.

Psychological
emotional
hunger

- Appears suddenly.

- Is a want for a certain type of food, usually an apple will not satisfy.

- It is a want for food immediately with sense of urgency or panic.

- Eating is used as a coping tool with impulsive food choices, eaten quickly.

- It is a response to feelings (boredom, sadness, tired). Food is a companion.

- Lots of guilt with eating.

- Person is usually left wanting more food, or a different type of food as does not feel satisfied.

- Distractions usually decrease craving.

Deprivation
hunger

- Occurs when person has not had access to desired foods.

- Results from dieting, restriction or weight cycling.

- Can escalate from following a specific medical diet.

- Can occur as a result of labelling foods 'good' and 'bad'.

- Can lead a person to feeling out of control. Person is often looking for structure when their life is unstructured.

- Lack of trust in own judgement to self-manage eating and food.

Mindful eating
Food and its link to mood

Carbohydrate intake

Carbohydrates help transport tryptophan into the brain

More serotonin can be made

Mood boost

Are brain power! Carbohydrates (complex and simple sugars) such as grains, cereals, rice, pasta, fruits, vegetables and milk provide glucose. Glucose is the main fuel for the brain. The brain needs about 20% of our daily energy needs to function optimally.
Foods rich in protein contain tryptophan, which aids to create serotonin in the brain. Carbohydrates support the uptake of tryptophan in the brain. There is some evidence that eating a low carbohydrate diet, may contribute to lower mood.

Well Done!

- Completed
You have
Loading...

References or Creators Credit

Loading...

My Notes

Supporting Videos

The Fight, Flight, Freeze Response

If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?

Mindful Eating