Now, to start off – visualise your body as a car. To make sure that your car keeps you moving from A to B, you provide it with the right fuel right – be it petrol or diesel. You top up the oil when needed. You fill the tires with air as they lose pressure. And if anything breaks, you get it fixed – or else it will cause bigger problems down the line. You keep the car moving, to stop it getting rusty. But you also park it and switch off the engine after a long ride to let it cool down and prevent excess wear and tear.

A car needs quite a bit of TLC. It needs the right fuel and the right treatment. Yet far too often we actually look after our cars better than we look after ourselves.

To keep our bodies moving from A to B, we need to fuel ourselves correctly, move regularly, rest sufficiently and get ourselves tended to if something feels off! We cannot let any of these key elements of self-care become neglected. Otherwise we put ourselves at risk of slowing down and crashing.

It is now time to pay attention to the fuel (aka food) you put into your body and the rest that you give it.  We need to do this to keep us moving from A to B full of energy and vitality!

So lets get started. What food should we fuel our bodies with to boost those energy levels?

The answer is: Calories.

Calories are the unit we use to describe the amount of energy that we find in foods. Calories in our diets come from the nutrients: Protein, carbohydrates and fats. And per gram of each of these, carbs and proteins give us 4kcal per gram, and fat gives us more than double – 9kcal per gram.

Our bodies naturally burn a certain amount of calories everyday. We do this through breathing, thinking, moving our muscles. In simple terms, if we eat the same amount of energy, or calories, as we use up, then we tend to keep our weights steady. If we eat more calories than we use up, we can store that energy for later use, and we gain weight. Now, if we eat less than we use up, we tend to dip into our body’s energy stores and lose weight.

So our bodies are very good at making sure that we will always have some energy available to us. Be it from the food we eat that day, or from some of the excess energy that we have stored. However, studies do show that people on very low calorie diets or on, for example, intermittent fasting diets may be at an increased risk of low energy levels. This is because our bodies have to work much harder to release energy from our fat stores than it does to release energy from the food we eat. So to boost your energy levels even when you are trying to lose some weight, you need to get enough calories from food each day to fuel your body correctly!

But are calories the only aspect of food that boost our energy levels?

Well, no definitely not! They may be the petrol to fuel your engine, but to keep that engine running smoothly, many other important nutrients are needed to oil those moving parts.

Our micronutrients, also known as vitamins and minerals, are vital in making sure that we can actually turn those calories we eat into the energy we use to keep moving and thinking.

For example, the mineral – iron – is needed to move oxygen around our bodies. We then use the oxygen to help us turn those calories into actual energy.

Your B-vitamins are used in many of the chemical processes that turn the calories into energy. They therefore affect how our brain and nervous system then use this energy.

The macronutrients in our food, yes those that give us calories, also have their own roles to play in boosting our energy levels.

Protein and boosting energy

Protein does give us calories for example, but we often don’t use up the calories in protein for energy. Normally we use protein to build our body’s tissues, muscles and immune system. Having low muscle stores can leave us feeling weak and deplete our energy levels. And if our immune system is not getting enough protein, we can become run down.

Fat and boosting energy

Fat is more readily used by our body for energy, but also serves as a great way for our bodies to store energy. We often store energy in our body in areas with adipose tissue, also known as fat. During times when we do not get enough calories from our food, we can then dip into our fat stores. But fat plays other roles in your energy levels as well. For example, essential fatty acids are key in keeping your brains and nervous systems healthy, which in turn keeps our minds sharp and focussed. However, some studies are showing that a high fat meal within 4 hours of going to bed can lead to poorer sleep quality. So keep the fat in your day to earlier meals.

Carbohydrates and boosting energy

Carbohydrates are like the premium quality fuel when it comes to your energy levels. This is because your cell’s power station usually runs on a type of carb called glucose. When we eat carbohydrates, they are digested and broken down into glucose.

There are three main types of carbohydrates; sugars, starched and fibre.

Each take a slightly different length of time to be digested. Sugar is the quickest to be digested and fibre takes the longest to digest. This means that the glucose from any sugar that we eat hits our system much quicker than glucose from starch or fibre. Therefor sugar gives us a much quicker burst of energy.

However, if too much glucose enters our system in one go, we tend to store it away as fat for later use. So while sugary food might give you a quick boost of energy, your energy levels will drop much quicker afterwards as a lot of that sugar will be stored away as fat. Meanwhile, while that high fibre starchy food may give you less of an energy boost in the short term, you will find that they keep your energy levels much more stable and steady in the long term!

And what about water? How can it affect our energy levels when it doesn’t contain calories?

Well, ever get that afternoon slump? Your eyes are geting tired, your brain is getting a little foggy and a headache is coming on? Its easy to forget to drink fluids while at work, but often a key sign of dehydration is feeling drained and fatigued. Did you know that up to 80% of your brain is made of water! No wonder your focus and energy levels go down the drain when we are dehydrated! We should be aiming for at least 2 litres of fluid a day to keep our energy levels topped up!

And do coffee and tea count towards my 2 litres of fluid?

Actually, they do! And not only do they boost our energy levels by helping us to stay hydrated, they contain caffeine, a stimulus used for many centuries to boost energy levels! Caffeine is found mainly in coffee, tea and energy drinks, and in small amounts in chocolate. Caffeine is considered quite a safe way to boost your energy levels. However, you should be trying to drink less than 400mg of caffeine a day. That is about as much as 2 to 3 coffees. While caffeine boosts energy levels in the morning, it can lead to difficulty falling asleep if you take it too late in the day. So avoiding those after-dinner coffees, and skiping that evening cup of tea may help if you have trouble falling asleep.

And much like timing your caffeine, it is important to time your exercise correctly to boost your energy levels!

Many of us are caught in a sedentary “trap”. We are too tired to exercise. And we are not exercising enough to get the energy boost that comes with physical activity! Yet so we remain inactive. And we remain tired. Yet exercising is great to get those feel good hormones flowing. Physical activity actually boosts our energy levels. And it can do so to the point where we are recommending that you avoid exercising within 2 hours of your bedtime! This is to to make sure you can fall asleep without all those energy-boosting hormones keeping you up.

Our bodies are finely tunes engines! So fuel your body with the right foods. And boost those energy levels by staying hydrated, drinking caffeine in moderation and exercising regularly. This way, you are giving your engine the TLC it needs to keep powering on.

Yet it is impossible to out-eat, out-drink or out-run a poor night’s sleep. In my next post I will be looking at the effects that our diet can play on our sleeping habits. And I will be investigating the effect that sleep may have on our diet!

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