Lets cut to the chase, summer is fast approaching and I don’t know about you but  I want to look good when I strip off on the beach. Here are a couple of tips on how to maximise your results and get lean.

1. Nutrient timing

This means taking in carbs after you workout. If you plan on having something naughty, a cheat meal or maybe just some starchy carbs, (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes), have it after you exercise, and I am not talking a full on workout, a simple 10-15 min bodyweight circuit in your front room will suffice. If you have a kettlebell even better, knock out 100-200 swings, some squats and presses and you are golden. It doesn’t have to be a mammoth workout, 10-20 minutes is enough, make it intense though, this will change the hormonal environment in your body and ingested nutrients will be utilised better. Here’s the thing though, wait at least 30 mins after this workout and then eat. Let the fat burning hormones you just raised (testosterone and GH) do what they do first.

2. Consistency

To follow on from the above point, be consistent with your efforts. You are not going to see much change with only 2 workouts per week. Sessions don’t always have to be an event, 20, 30, 45 min workouts are actually better for you, you stay fresher, don’t get burned out and optimise those all important hormones mentioned earlier. Lots of short workouts will also keep your metabolism raised and so you will burn calories all day long. I like to split my workouts into am and pm sessions, they last 30-45 mins and have really helped me hack off body fat. Take in your carbs (as above) after these workouts and keep your other meals carb free. Doing these two things consistently will speed results like you have never seen. Try it!

Get these two tips into your routine asap, I guarantee you will see results. If you are looking for some help with an exercises routine contact me or join my class sessions.

Good luck!

Pete

Don’t get fixated on what the scale says when attempting to shift some body fat. Body composition changes cannot be detected by a scale on a day-to-day basis. Fat loss can be detected on a weekly basis, however, so if you can have enough discipline to only hop on once a week, then you have my permission to keep your scale.

This is very tough however- so if you start to notice yourself weighing yourself more often, then hide it.

Did You Know that Your scale weight can fluctuate up to 5 pounds in one day!

This is due to:

• Weight of food & beverages
• Water loss from exercise
• Water gain from menstrual cycles
• Water retention from high sodium intake
• Weight of non-voided bowel contentsThe scale is NOT the real barometer of progress.

  You may believe that “the scale does not lie,” and that the number is objective. However, you can get more objective, more in-depth feedback from other measuring tools.

  Here’s an easy way to do it at home: Be mindful of how your clothes are fitting. After all, it is pretty common for the scale “not to budge” for a person who finds she can suddenly fit with ease into a pair of formerly tight jeans.

  • Other effective measuring tools can be:
  • How you feel after rushing up a flight of stairs
  • Not tiring out as quickly when you play with your children
  • Your new found ability to change the water cooler bottle at work without any effort!
  • Diminished cravings for sugarThe scale can’t record these milestones. When you read the number on the scale, you will automatically associate that number with food. Yes, that’s right. If you don’t like the number, what thought pops into your mind? It almost always relates to food.

    The scale is a harbinger of food obsession, which includes counting every calorie, and carb and fat gram. Before you know it, you’ll be carrying a calorie counter with you everywhere you go.

    Focus on how you feel, milestones in your daily activities, improved muscle tone, better eating habits, and how your clothes fit, rather than an ambiguous number on a gadget.

    For help in escaping the scale’s stranglehold and learning how to make REALLY changes in your body, give us a call today so we can help you with one of our customized programs!
    Pete

5 Reasons why you are not losing weight!

1 . You are eating too little

This one is very common, eating too little will hinder your fat loss as your bodily processes slow  down to the rate of energy (food) coming in.  If 2000 calories per day is what it takes to maintain your body weight, 1500-1700 calories would put you into the perfect fat loss zone.  After reading that last sentence you might think, “well my weight has been stable for ages and I barely eat anything” that’s because your body is in starvation mode! It’s holding onto every last bit of stored fat in case of a famine, you are built for survival, start eating and it will take the brakes off and start burning up some stored body fat as energy.

2. You are eating too much

Fairly obvious this one, if you are the sort of person who rewards yourself after exercise with a big old fat piece of cheesecake and then continue to eat your other meals too, don’t expect to lose much weight! Alcohol, pastries, junk food and all processed foods have a very high calorie content and are low on nutrients. This type of food will ensure you stay in a positive energy balance (calorie excess) and not lose any weight, possibly even gain weight. Eat foods that are low in calories but high in nutrients (superfoods) like avocado’s, oily fish, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, berries, apples, cherries, kale, pomegranate, meats, beans, and lentils.

3. You are eating the wrong foods

If like most people you are eating carbohydrates all day long you are encouraging your body to burn sugar, not fat! When carbs are low so is the storage hormone known as insulin. Did you hear that word storage? That’s right, in laymen’s terms insulin will drive excess glucose (carbs) into fat stores where it will be converted to fat and stored for a rainy day! Great huh! Eat a balanced diet of protein, fat, fibrous carbs and some starchy carbs, vitamins and minerals, in other words, meat, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables and drive your body into fat metabolism (fat burning) through exercise.

4. Bad lifestyle

You could have your training and diet in check and you are still not losing weight. This could be due to the other factors surrounding your lifestyle, i.e rest, recovery and stress. If you do a job that pisses you off, has you running around like a blue arse fly all day with no time to eat, gives you tons of stress and generally runs you down, you will struggle to lose weight! Putting your body under this type of stress will raise cortisol and other hormones that are not conducive to fat loss. Likewise if you burn the candle at both ends, work all hours and stay up late getting less than 6 hours sleep you run the same scenario. Your body needs time to relax and recuperate, getting 8-9 hours sleep is one of the best things you can do to help lose weight, important fat burning hormones are released at night, (growth hormone mainly) did you know you burn fat whilst you are sleeping! Get some rest!

5. Medical reason

Finally if you feel you are doing all of the above and still getting nowhere, there could be some underlying issue that is not going to be clear straight away. You could have a hormone imbalance, an underactive thyroid, a food allergy, insulin resistance, or even depression. Only when you work with a nutritionist or doctor of some sort will you be able to identify this.

This is the top 5 reason’s I see with my clients and bootcampers for why they are struggling to lose weight. Identify which category you might fall into and address the problem with the above suggestions.

Alternatively contact me and I will put together a nutrition programme specifically to your dietary needs.

Pete

A problem I see a lot with clients and bootcampers who are training for fat loss is they don’t eat enough food to lose any weight! I know it sounds crazy but I see this time and time again. The fact is you can’t just exercise and not eat, it doesn’t work, and I have the clients to prove it!

Why does this happen? Well they are simply not eating enough to keep the metabolism fired up. Your metabolism can be the most important thing to focus on when attempting to reduce body fat levels, it can be influenced by the foods you eat and the exercise you do. Foods high in protein such as meats, fish, eggs, beans and lentils have what we call a high TEF (thermic effect of food) this means more energy (calories) is required just to digest and breakdown the food. The exercise bit is easy, just turn up to train with me or join the bootcamp. There is nothing better to raise the metabolism than a short hard kettlebell workout!

If you ignore your hunger because you are too busy or think that by not eating you will lose weight quicker, you are setting yourself up for failure! The body is a complex machine and cannot be tricked into losing weight that easily. When your daily calorie intake is low your body will slow down certain processes (metabolism) to save energy, after all digestion and food assimilation expends energy.  You may have heard this referred to as the body going into “starvation mode”.  If your metabolism slows down this means that fat loss will slow down, truly the worst case scenario. Don’t ignore your hunger, eat when you need to, satisfy your hunger and carry on about your day.

If you find that you are so busy you barely get time to eat, you need to eat foods that are nutrient dense but low in calories.

To lose weight most women should eat about 1500 calories per day and guys should aim for around 2000. Don’t get hung up on calories though, just listen to your body and if you are hungry eat. It doesn’t matter if you eat two, three or four times per day, what matters is the total amount of calories consumed over a 24 hour period. The often shouted eat small but frequent is not the best advice, food has a hormonal response that is not favorable for fat loss. I would recommend you eat 3 times per day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Keep it simple! If you are not a breakfast eater that is fine maybe just grab a piece of fruit in the morning but eat more at lunch time and dinner to make up for the missed calories at breakfast. One of my most successful bootcampers ate only twice per day, but those meals were a good 700-800  calories each.

Here are some idea’s to get calorie dense foods into your day.
Use avocado in any way you can think of, in sandwiches or make guacamole and dip raw carrots or celery into it.

Hummus is also nutritious and is a great dip

Home made three bean soup provides many nutrients and a good dose of protein too.

Buy a cooked chicken and strip off all the meat to dip into full fat mayonnaise

Yoghurt and walnuts (full fat Greek yoghurt, great source of calcium and natural fat)

Munch on nuts and seeds such as brazil, pecan, almond, walnut, hazel, cashew, macadamia, sunflower seeds, flax seeds or throw them on yoghurt as per above.

Organic peanut butter on toasted spelt or rye bread

Add a good olive oil to your salads

Salmon is both high in good fat and protein, it works really well with poached eggs

Boiled eggs either on own or in a salad, in fact add them to every salad you eat.

I hope this post helps you realise that what and how often you eat is more crucial to how much exercise you do if your goal is to lose weight. Implement the idea’s above and I guarantee you will start seeing results very quickly.

Good luck

Pete

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