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Categories Lifestyle

You might not be ready yet


Author Shaun Categories Lifestyle


 but I’m here to plant the seed.

I got an email the other day from someone saying that they appreciated the honesty of some of my posts and that they would like to know a little bit more but just weren’t ready yet to take the jump and work with me. My response was “no, problem… that’s great!” A lot of what I write, record, mention is with the hope to inform and that’s it. It might be corny but I’m genuinely not here for the finance of it, I run a successful charity, that’s my income, this is simply a passion. I want to be able to offer the information/advice that I wish I could have found when I started out on my journey. The amount of money I would have saved on BCAA’s (don’t think about it Shaun!). I thought I hope nobody else feels that way, please feel free to read and take any content that helps you.

The reason why I appreciated the email, other than being told that they liked my content which is always nice is that they said “not yet
” not yet means they’re working on getting to somewhere. They’re actively looking at making changes and if by looking on here, reading my content going on to read the references I make and helps them be more informed then I’ve done my job, I’ve planted those seeds.

There’re enough people out there looking to make money out of the health game by keeping people confused and removed from the key principals of weight loss and health. The old phrase you can give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day but teach a man to fish and he’ll eat forever couldn’t be any more apt in this industry right now. Keep the consumer at arm’s length, keep it complicated and they’ll keep paying and coming back. Show them how to do it for themselves
 why would anyone want to do that (cough cough, slamming world).

Categories Lifestyle

I’d rather weigh myself than my food

Author Shaun Categories Lifestyle

One of the things I hear all the time is “I don’t want to track Shaun and really not fussed about weighing out food, I don’t want to be obsessed, I’d rather do it intuitively”

Oki dokie!

I little bit about me here, I was that person, I used to say that all the time. My favourite thing to say when people asked if I was tracking was “I’m not a scientist I’m an artist!” I thought it was witty anyways. It was when I decided enough was enough and that I had to do something different to achieve what I wanted to that ditched that attitude because when I looked really hard at myself the reason I used to say those things was because if I did start tracking, if I did start weighing my food and it didn’t work what would I do then! I was a lost cause
 so I reckon subconsciously I was keeping that in the tank just in case because I need to, I needed to believe that I still had an option that if all else failed me then I could ‘track’.

Well, Shauny boy, time to give it a go I thought and I reckon if you’re reading this now you’re probably in the same place. I appreciate that it genuinely isn’t for everyone and to be honest for certain people it isn’t necessary immediately, there are certain things we can look at straight of the bat but I wanted to get you thinking that if you are going to get to where you want to be at some point this is going to have to happen, after all, eating intuitively got you to where you are now.

Make small changes to your diet, instead of those 4 biscuits after dinner have 2. Try to have one slice of toast instead of 2 but what happens when you’ve done as much of that as you can do, you contact me. That’s what you get when you work with me, tailored support to guide you through a part of the health journey you may have never gone down before.

This time instead of paying your £5 a week to get weighed and asked “so, where did you go wrong” why not weigh what you’re putting into your body than have Marjorie weigh you at the local working man’s club? If we are what we eat then I would preach that you weigh your food and not yourself because when was the last time that you cried after weighing some peanut butter?

Categories Fitness, gym, Health, Lifestyle, Protein

Why a high protein diet?

Author Shaun Categories Fitness, gym, Health, Lifestyle, Protein Leave a comment

I was told for years by friends who were gym buffs “get that protein in” and I’d always reply I eat chicken
 “that’s not enough” they’d always threw back at me and I never really understood why. What is protein and why is it so important?

As things are now I can’t walk down an aisle in Tesco’s without seeing a Protein alternative to childhood favs, ‘Protein Mars’ or ‘High Protein Shreddies’ it’s almost as though Protein has become the word in health
 but why? And why would I advise clients to be on a ‘high protein diet’.

Most if not all the people who contact me for help are looking for one of two things, weight loss or muscle gain and both are aided with a high protein diet.

For weight loss Protein has what’s called a high thermogenic effect which basically means your body needs to use more energy to heat it up and burn through it whilst in your body. Ever had meat sweats after a mixed grill or a carvery, that’s thermogenesis. Your body is literally heating up to work through the food you’ve just consumed, cool right! Also, you get a lot of bang for your buck with protein and per 1g equals 4 calories compared to fats which per 1g equals 9 calories which means more food! 😉 Goooood! Protein is also high is something called satiety which is how boffins in white coats judge how filling something is. So protein burns more calories to consume, allows you to eat more and is more filling and if you ask me that’s perfect for weight loss!

For muscle gain, it’s a little more complicated and comes with certain timing requirements but it’s summed up by something you probably haven’t heard of since year 10 Chemistry, nitrogen. Along with other things like amino acids the level of Nitrogen in your body determines tissue growth or tissue loss. But why am I talking about Nitrogen when I’m rambling about Protein? Well Nitrogen can only be found in protein sources and though our body will happily burn through it, it can not create it itself, it needs to be ingested. By being in a positive balance we grow, but a negative one will mean losing tissue and usually, that’ll be the most expensive tissue in the human body, muscle!

It also helps with many other things, connective tissue, hormones, feeding your brain (literally). Ideally, if you can aim for 1.5g per kilo of body weight you won’t go far wrong.

Categories Fitness, gym, Health, Lifestyle

TDEE – Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

Author Shaun Categories Fitness, gym, Health, Lifestyle Leave a comment

So TDEE, what is it? It stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which the total amount of energy (calories) our body uses to function, whether that’s scratching our nose, running to the car or making dinner. Each and every activity our body does requires energy to do so.

The way we expend energy is broken up into three different categories; BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate), NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) and EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis).

BMR – This would be made up of our day to day functions like standing up, scratching our noses, twitching in our seats, etc. Because different people have differing recurring habits than others everyone’s BMR is different. We can hazard a close guess based on height and weight, after all, you imagine having to lift those guns up to scratch your nose… That’ll take some energy to do so. There isn’t really much we can do about this immediately, there is work we can do regarding meal timing, etc. but speaking broadly your BMR is your BMR and is a constant.

EAT – I’m sure you won’t be surprised that this is the energy you burn during exercise. Like most people if you’re into your exercise you’ll have a set regime of time you put to it, maybe 1 hour a day for 4 days = 4 hours a week. If you do not currently exercise this is a great way to supplement a weight loss diet and create a larger calorie deficit and if you are exercising that I would imagine you’ve already hit your max allowance in the gym (After all you still need to have a life!).

NEAT – I’ve left this one till last as possibly this is the most important part of our bar chart! You might have noticed I mentioned in the other two that these were ‘constant’ and what I meant by that was that your metabolism is what it is, we can manipulate it slightly but it isn’t going to change a significant amount. The exercise you do is governed by the amount of time you have spare to throw at it and for most people that spare time a week is constantly the same. NEAT, however, is the one that allows for variation, the one piece that can move up or down on our chart. There is plenty of work going on at the moment looking into how the other two areas (BMR + EAT) effect NEAT but also just how important getting your ‘NEAT up’ can be. That can be things like parking your car as far away from the shops as possible (maybe even as far as your house! 
 Joking, kind of
) or instead of taking the dog to the end of the street and back going for 5, then 10, then 15 minute walks, building it up each time and this way with each walk building up your NEAT.

Categories Fitness, Health, Lifestyle

What is Starvation mode?

Author Shaun Categories Fitness, Health, Lifestyle

I’ve seen this thrown around a lot lately, “oh you’ve got to have breakfast otherwise your body will go into starvation mode”. Does this sound familiar? “If you don’t eat your breakfast your body will store fat for when you’ll need it, so if you eat your body knows to let go of those fat stores because it knows it’ll get fed”. It sounds familiar to me, I was one of those folks who used to say it! Forcing porridge down my partner’s neck needlessly. If only I could have said to her “not hungry? Don’t worry about it”.

First and foremost, let’s get this straight out the way
 your body does not hold onto anything when it’s hungry! That is just false, nope, not right!

If we look into where the genuine notion of where starvation mode may have come from, there is some correlation that if we were to skip breakfast then we are more likely to reach for something quick and easy on the way into work. Studies have shown that “less health seeking individuals” miss breakfast which means that generally, people who skip breakfast aren’t as concerned with their dietary health of someone who does. But as always, I would never say anything without evidence and this is no different there was shown a study done back in 2015 where they tested just that and the conclusion was the same, after all, it’s just common sense right? (1)  However, correlation is not the same as causation, so just because MOST people who skip breakfast are likely to eat rubbish that does not mean that just because you skip breakfast you will eat rubbish.

“But Shaun, what about the children in Kenya they all have bellies and they eat nothing, Debra down the fitness club told me that’s because they don’t enough food and they’re fat!”

Tell Debra to pipe down! Those kids in Kenya are not fat, they’re malnourished, the reason for the belly is they have a condition related to a protein deficiency called Kwashiorkor (oh yes, this boy knows his stuff! Ha).

I’m not saying don’t eat breakfast, I have breakfast every morning and love it! What I am trying to say is you don’t need to if you don’t want to. You should be allowed to make your own choices, the best diet is one you can stick to. You want breakfast then get scrambling that egg, prefer to save those calories and have a bigger evening meal then go for it!

  • Uemura et al 2015
  • Bath Breakfast Study – Betts et all 2014
Categories Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, Protein

Personalised Nutrition – DNA or Whey ;)

Author Shaun Categories Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, Protein

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately on Facebook or Instagram about something called ‘Personalised nutrition’. This is a new trend where companies are offering for a ‘small fee’ (£100 isn’t small to me!) to look at your DNA and tell you exactly what your body needs to achieve certain goals like muscle gain, potential intolerances to food or what “might be making you gain fat”.

Whilst the premise makes sense, I mean after all the things they can do with science now is incredible so why couldn’t I swab a cotton bud in my mouth, send it to a lab and it tells me what I need to do to lose weight. But there isn’t actually any research or evidence to back this up.

In my other life I work closely with scientific researchers at the Imperial College in London (have white coats, goggles, the lot!) and they’re working on some cutting-edge work looking into ‘Personalised Medicine’ again, similar premised, they take some blood from patients and look into how it reacts with certain chemicals determines whether their body would react better to paracetamol rather than ibuprofen for example. It’s a really exciting area of medicine, imagine not having to go to hospitals and not having to hear the words “if this doesn’t help in 3 weeks, come back” they’d know straight away that this would help you, it’d be personalised! However, even this with millions of pounds worth of backing, investment and plenty of boffins working away this is very much in its infancy and will be years away from being able to make a difference.

Personally I now wouldn’t go near these DNA testing kits but in the past I know I would have, searching for answers everywhere and anywhere so if you’re not convinced and want to give them the benefit of the doubt then when you enquire ask them “what guarantee do I get that these results are accurate” I would bet my house on you getting a politicians to answer or one that makes you scratch your end and say “huh!”

Categories Health, Lifestyle

Mindset first, always!

Author Shaun Categories Health, Lifestyle

“Your weight may not be you fault, but it is still your responsibility”

– Shaun Clayton

In a world where we’re looking for quick fixes, fad diets or the next great diet. Constantly scouring for the person who’s finally going to give us answers to that age-old question “why me?”.

I was no different, I spent years thinking the reason I wasn’t happy in my own skin was because of the job I had (free vending machine + call centre = disaster), the genetics I was dealt or because I was lazy and didn’t want to do anything about it, but that when I did want to change that it’d be easy! It wasn’t!

Everything was always because of the situation I was in or because of the cards I’d be dealt and part of that may have certainly been true.

How I needed to hear those words years ago “your responsibility” and maybe you need to hear them now. When I sit and think about what was the one thing that instigated this self-journey into health it was the realisation that no one else was going to fix this problem for me, it had to be me. So, I’m going to do it for you, stop wasting time thinking up different reasons why you’re not succeeding at your goals, stop blaming things that are out of your control, those things are always going to rear their heads it’s how we deal with it that is important. Take that responsibility and say no, not this time, enough is enough. If that’s you and you have joined Slimming World for the 48th time don’t blame the ‘leader’ saying they’re rubbish, make the decision to stick to it in spite of that. Deciding that this Monday is the one and by Tuesday thinking it’s time for a cheat meal, give yourself a chance and say no! Only you can do it, take the bull by the horns and seize this chance you’ve given yourself. Who knows, the might just be the last first step you ever have to take and wouldn’t that be something?

If you can do it, if you can get yourself into that mindset that this time you will succeed I guarantee you it’s so much easier, that internal resilience that no matter how many times people try to put temptation to slip into old in your way you’ll be armed with the weapons to say no and mean it!

That’s what I try to instill into anyone I work with, that fortitude that together we’ll get them to where they want to be but it’s them that makes all the difference!

Categories Health, Lifestyle

Flexible Dieting, what is it?

Author Shaun Categories Health, Lifestyle Leave a comment

We’ve all heard it, some of us have probably even sad it “It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change”… be honest! You have


I firmly believe that there is a diet out there for everyone it’s just finding what works for you as an individual. So I thought I’d throw this one into the mix, Flexible Dieting.

Flexible dieting is the premise that there isn’t one set food or food group that needs to be consumed only that the two key components are maintained. Those are your calories are not exceeded (unless you want to gain weight, but that’s for a different post) and that you receive ample protein, roughly 1.5g per kg of body weight with the rest being up to you. If you’re more of a pasta and bread kind of person then hit those carbs hard, just don’t go over your calories. If you’re much more of a cheese and milk then you enjoy your Brie, just don’t go over your calories! Sounds too go to be true right… but it gets better (I feel like I work for QVC!). What if I told you that you could work your calories out over a week and not a day, I know right! Mind blown!! Suddenly everything is an option, a flood of possibilities are open to you. Being able to go out on a weekend with the lads is ok, just dial back those calories over the rest of the week to compensate. Going out with the family and don’t fancy taking a packed lunch? No problem, just make sure you eat slightly the less in the days running up to allow for a bigger excess of available calories that day.

Dieting is by far one of the hardest things to do but can be one of the simplest. Unfortunately, though there’s no money in simplicity so that’s why this diet doesn’t get much air time. But times are changing.

Categories Health, Lifestyle

Flexible Dieting in Action!

Author Shaun Categories Health, Lifestyle

In a past life I paid a chap to do a meal plan for me, the aim? Be ripped for our holiday to Fuerteventura! This led to me eating 7 meals a day for 5 months which sounds great on paper but these were the same 7 meals, every day. Let that sink in; Salmon, Chicken, Greek Yoghurt and Steak every day it cost me a bloody fortune and if I ever see one of Aldis Salmon pieces again it’s too soon. Long story short I failed to achieve my goals, the diet was just too strict, there was no flexibility at all. What about if I wanted to go out with friends or take Becki out for dinner? God forbid go to the cinema and have nachos! Because of that rigid approach when I did fall off and binge I really, really binged! I always spout on about how the best diet is one that you can stick to and that just was not a good diet.

I’m already speaking about Flexible Dieting before but I wanted to show you what flexible dieting actually looked like, how you could still live your life and lose weight


So here we have Denise. After chatting with Denise about her daily habits and taking into consideration her height, weight, and age we know that to put her in a Calorie Deficit she can take in 1,600 calories a day or 11,200 a week. Here are three ways Denise could use her calories and maintain being in a deficit and therefore lose weight.

Absolute Machine

Mon TueWed Thur Fri Sat Sun
1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600

Total Calories consumed = 11,200

Weekend Warrior

Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun
1,300 1,300 1,300 1,300 1,600 2,200 2,200

Total Calories consumed = 11,200

The Booty Pump

Mon Tue Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun
1,500 1,700 1,500 1,500 1,800 1,500 1,700

                       Lift Weights                                             Lift Weights                       Lift Weights

Total Calories consumed = 11,200

The possibilities are endless, like Denise you make the calories work for you and never the other way around! Stop having your curly wurly and grapes at night (if you know what that means, you know ;)) and give yourself a chance at succeeding.

Categories Health, Lifestyle

Cheat Meals? Or work them in?

Author Shaun Categories Health, Lifestyle

“Sundays are for Carbs, Cuddles & Cheat Meals”

Or are they??

One of my clients messaged me the other day asking if he could have a cheat meal, he said he’d worked really hard, been really strict with himself and deserved it.

This chap is working with me to lose some body fat so I wanted to know first of all why he thought he needed a cheat meal. I reckon he’d been way too strict with himself and was at breaking point. I pulled him up straight away and asked why on earth he’d let himself get here. He told me that he thoughts what dieting was, starve myself and then reward later.

Hell no! That’s why most diets fail, had he spoken to me at the beginning of the week my advice would have been to pull the calories back ever so slightly over the week and then enjoy whatever it was that he wanted to go have. He was absolutely right he did deserve a reward, guy had smashed it but not like that. He’d wound himself up so tightly that the thought of having a Nandos was taboo so we had another chat about how so long as he doesn’t exceed his weekly allowance of calories and maintains his protein intake per day he could go get that butterfly chicken with peri peri chips (I’ve made myself hungry now) and not feel any guilt or that he’d cheated at all!

So, if you’re wondering about having to give up your favourite foods by working with me, think again! I firmly believe in the individual approach, no one person is the same and treat them as such will only mean it won’t work for them. We’ll make it so you’re living your best life, enjoying food and not feeling as though you’ve sinned, “gone wrong” or cheated anything.

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