The Programme, week 4: Nutritionist's comments on Alex

Matthew Lovell: Alex continues to progress. We haven't made any changes this week to the diet as he's well under way and we need to leave time for the new eating habits to settle before changing them again if we need to. He's enjoying working his way through the different menus supplied by us and is enjoying mixing proteins (ham and eggs, for instance, at breakfast).

We recommended Alex try cycling into work before breakfast in order to increase the energy he burns from fat. This is quite difficult but opens room in the muscles for faster release carbohydrates to be eaten at breakfast, these will then be stored as glycogen (stored sugar in the muscle) as opposed to fat. To this end Alex's breakfast will now include oats, milk, 1/2 banana and some maple syrup with a protein shake on the side. Note that there's only room for extra sugar if you've created it through exercise.