In our modern culture as humans, we now revolve the majority of our life around food or beverages more than ever. Catching up with an old friend for drinks? Meeting someone for a coffee? Work lunch functions? This is all normal and part of life, however it can make it challenging to manage our total calorie intake if we are always eating out, as we’re never 100% sure what ingredients went into the dishes we consume.
Despite trying to make healthier choices when out, portion sizes have crept up considerably over the years, making it the new norm to consume larger meals without thinking twice about it. Despite going for the healthier option, too much of a good thing can still lead to weight gain or a lack of weight loss.
According to the Medical Journal of Australia1 a third of the Australian food dollar is now spent on foods purchased and consumed away from home. These foods usually have more fat than foods prepared at home or those sold in the past. A fast-food burger has 24–42 g of fat — about twice the level in burgers from independent shops 20 years ago. While a home-made burger made with lean meat can have as little as 7 g of fat. Similar problems occur with restaurant meals and takeaway foods.
If you haven’t already noticed, we are now surrounded by food more than ever with easy takeaway options on every corner and food delivery services at our fingertips. The world we live in now has many options and LOTS of them.
The obesogenicity of an environment has been defined as 'the sum of influences that the surroundings, opportunities, or conditions of life have on promoting obesity in individuals or populations'2. The environment in Australia typically encourages driving from A to B over commuting or walking, and many buildings fitted with lifts and escalators that are prominently sited with staircases hidden away.
Australians spend on average 26-62minutes commuting to work one way, per day according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics3. For the majority of us, we are time poor, and getting in 30-60minutes of exercise a day can be a struggle. Imagine if we used that time spent travelling to work as an active commute? A nice saying we always come back to is that we have 1440 minutes in a day, yet we struggle to allocate 30minutes for exercise… is it time to rethink some priorities and schedule in “exercise” as an appointment slot in your diary?
Lastly, as humans have evolved, we are now connected online for longer than ever before! Emails are constantly pushed to our devices and it may feel like we never ‘leave’ work, promoting a shift in work-life balance and pushing your fitness and health to the side. Additionally, the use of mobile Apps such as Uber Eats are so easy to order food without leaving the couch, and is becoming more and more common over home-cooked meals. Again these are typically higher fat options and generally portion distorted- so not helpful for weight loss.
Have a think about how your environment may be affecting your weight loss goals and see if you can make small changes for better outcomes.
References
Tap to call us at 1800 567 348
Fill in your details below and our team will be in contact shortly to answer your questions and get you started.
"*" indicates required fields
