Flo - A Walking Success Story

The picture on the left is Flo's before picture, the other 2 pictures are what Flo looks like now

As many of you may know, Flo has been writing a weekly blog about her training with me and her efforts to shed as much Body Fat as possible. So the purpose of this blog post is to show you what anyone can achieve with the right knowledge and application.

I asked Flo several questions in her last session about her experience and this is what she had to say:


What results have you achieved?


Since starting training with Martin I have lost 8.5 inches, 2.6% body fat (from 29.1% to 26.5%) and 4 1/4lbs. I have also dropped from a size 14 to a size 12 and my confidence has gone through the roof.

I joined the gym in January 2012 and did the classic thing of doing really well for the initial couple of months, before dropping off a bit (ok a lot) when spring and summer came along. I managed to drop a few kilos and felt more toned than when I had started but didn't see huge results. It took one of my friends suggesting that we go along to Slimming World to realise that you couldn't half-heartedly go to the gym a few times a week and carry on eating whatever you liked if you wanted to get in shape. Having my diet in check, I started to lose weight and now wanted to get my exercise back on track as well.

When I started training with Martin, he gave me a lot of nutrition advice as well as the training. I've now got a much better understanding of the sort of food I should be eating when I'm doing a lot of exercise - to keep my energy levels up and to build up and repair lean muscle. I've stopped using the scales as the defining factor, as on paper 4lbs doesn't look like a huge loss but on the other hand, 4 inches from my waist does!

How have you found the training plan?

It's safe to say I found the training sessions a challenge. I had never done a hill sprint before in my life and that was what I spent my first session doing! However, when I came back the next week to do my next cardio session I could feel the improvement already. The session that was a real benchmark for me was just over half-way through the programme, when I did high-octane cardio at the quay. This involved running approximately 6 km in about 40 mins, interspersed with body weight exercises such as burpees, mountain climbers and squat jumps. I never thought I'd be able to do this!





What improvements have you noticed?

Apart from the obvious improvement in my body shape, there's a few other things I've noticed as well. I have better balance and my co-ordination has got slightly better! (I still can't tell my left and right, no matter how fit I get that is never going to change) I sleep better and feel much less groggy when I get up in the morning. I have more energy so feel more inclined to go outside on my lunch break and/or go to the gym after work.

 

What skills have you taken away from this experience?

I've learned a huge amount about the best ways to train when you're trying to lose weight and now use these methods when I'm in the gym or go to classes which I feel follow a similar vein (such as spinning and circuits). I also incorporate different equipment and movements into my workouts, such as kettlebells, ViPR and TRX.

I find Martin's Facebook page really useful for recipes and have incorporated some of these into my diet.


What have you enjoyed the most?


I've enjoyed trying out new things that I probably wouldn't have done. I'd seen the ViPR and TRX in the gym but never been brave enough to have a go with using them.

I've also really enjoyed the experience as a learning process - the science behind it really interests me and I've since been spurred to read more about fat loss and nutrition.


How did you find the nutritional side of the plan?

During my first session with Martin he gave me a welcome pack with some basic nutrition advice and also talked me through what sort of things I should be eating and gave me some ideas for meals.

I'm not going to lie and say I stuck to it all of the time, but it has worked for me to eat really well during the week and allow myself treats at the weekend. I definitely could have resisted some of the treats, but it's easier said than done!


What sets Martin out from any other trainer you have worked with?

You might think that personal training is just about the training, but Martin has given me an all-round programme with nutritional advice and also programmes to complete in the gym by myself. As you may only see a PT for a couple of hours a week, this extra information is amazing for the time that you're left to your own devices. His support has been amazing he has always replied to any questions i have within a short timeframe and has been there for me every step of the way.

He is starting to take all his clients to a state of the art private facility so he can get the best results possible. He wants each and every client he trains to be the best they can be and that reflects through his knowledge, passion and his training sessions.

I've never been as fit as I am now and that's because I've had someone there to push me that little bit further during exercise. I would normally easily give up if things got tough and painful, but having someone there to say you can keep on going or you can do another rep makes lots of difference.


Would you recommend Martin to anyone?


If anyone was considering getting a personal trainer, Martin should be the first person you call.


What would you say to anyone thinking of starting Personal Training?


To anyone thinking of doing personal training I would say go for it! The last few months have not only changed my body, but my lifestyle. I have learned more about fitness and nutrition and seen much more significant results in the few months that I trained with Martin over the year's membership I had had at the gym. If you are unsure about committing to anything, then you can speak to Martin for a free consultation before signing up to anything. Even then, Martin offers a range of packages to suit different needs.

I think people need to forget faddy diet and exercise plans and realise that this type of training is the best way of losing fat in the long term. Talking to a personal trainer is definitely the best way to start going about this.


I look forward to working with Martin in the future :)




If you have missed any of Flo's blogs then you can find them here

Eat Fats To Lose Fat!

For about 50 years now, we have been eating low fat (some no fat) diets and the funny thing is we have gotten progressively fatter and less healthy. Surley if we take away fat from our eating habits, we will lose any unwanted body fat?
 
Wrong!! Taking away fat is making our waistlines bulge even more. We need to eat more healthy fats!
 

 

Sounds pretty counterproductive doesn’t it? If you want to decrease your body fat, why in the world would you include fat in your fat loss plan? Well, there are certain fats that are ‘healthy’ fats, and they can actually ramp up your body’s fat burning ability and not only help you burn fat…but burn it faster! By replacing refined carbohydrates and sugars with this healthy fat, you can help your body to actually tap into those stored excess body fat reserves (your problem areas) and use it as an energy source.
 
But before you nip down to your local fast food joint, consider this: not all fatty foods are created equal. The foods you choose can mean the difference between a trim body and one plagued with obesity and disease.

 
Low Fat Diets Dont Work !!


Who ever said low fat diets were healthy? And more importantly, why does eating less fat mean you'll be less fat?
 
Well, I've done some research on this and have found very little science to back up the claims that eating less fat will keep you trim. I have also found many examples that totally dismiss this idea.

For example, the French eat significantly more fat than we do while there obesity AND disease and illness rates are quite a bit lower.

Another example is the Alaskan Eskimos. They consume as much as 70% of their calories from fat (whale blubber and fish) and they have one of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world.




The Truth

If you eliminate an entire food group then you will have to compensate by eating more of the other groups. Whilst this isnt a bad thing for Protein, it becomes a problem for Fat Loss when you overeat on refined Carbohydrates which is what most people tend to do when they go on an Anti Fat mission.

These foods promote Fat storage and whilst you may think by choosing the Low Fat option you are being super healthy you are in fact doing the exact opposite and can expect to gain more Fat!

 

'Fat Is The Enemy' ...... Apparantley

Not long ago, the low-fat/no-fat diet craze swept across the food landscape. Manufacturers marketed low-fat and no-fat everything, and everyone responded by chowing down. It’s healthy, right? Wrong. All wrong.

Fat was never the problem, everyone just wanted something to blame for the rising obesity rates!

Besides stripping our bodies of a much-needed nutrient, low- and no-fat diet movements have increased obesity rates.

Why? It turns out that fat provides a big component to the foods we love: Taste! When food manufacturers removed fat from their foods, they had to load the foods with sugar and salt, which are nutrient-free, to increase flavor.

 

(Above is a typical example of a lower fat meal. Per serving contains: 450 Calories, 6g Sugar, 11g Fat, 7g of Which are Saturated and 2.2g Salt)

 

 

Unfortunatley, dietary Fat still has this stigma attached to it, and to this day, its the first thing everyone removes when they want to lose Body Fat. This is only making the process alot harder!

 Why You Need Fat!
 
Dietary fat is very slow burning in the body so when you replace the fat with faster burning carbs you tend to feel less energetic, risk burning muscle tissue, and wreak havoc on your metabolism and hormones because your energy levels (blood sugar) are like a roller coaster.

Dietary Fats supply some of the best, and most stable sources of energy. So if you want to feel good all day long, you need to make sure you are getting enough fats, and the right types. The human body needs fat just to function properly, let alone achieve optimal health.

DID YOU KNOW? The Brain is the hungriest organ in the body, craving omega-3 fatty acids & using 25% of all absorbed glucose & oxygen, cut out Fat and you will be affecting more than your appearance!
 
Certain amounts of fat are also necessary for proper hormone production. If hormone production is off so will your metabolism be. Hormones regulate many things in the body including your ability to build and maintain muscle tissue, which is responsible for a large portion of your energy expenditure.

In simple terms, muscle burns calories 24 hours a day and if you eat a low fat or no fat diet you will have a hard time building and maintaining muscle.


The Wrong Fats!

Although fat contains more calories than protein or carbohydrates, the secret is in what fats actually do when they enter your body that makes the difference. Saturated and trans fats, especially when combined with high carbs will pile on the pounds. If you are already on a fat loss plan and trying to lose fat, you should know that there is a two step process involved in fat burning:

First, cutting down on carbohydrates ( Not eliminating them all together ) will release you from the grip of the ‘fat storing’ monster. Controlling carbs allows your body to return to its natural ability to burn fat. This is the first part of the process. As long as you are controlling your carbohydrate intake the calories from fat are immediately used for energy (which means they won’t be stored).

Now, the next part involves the fat you are consuming. Trans fat, found in pre-packaged foods and baked goods, and anything deep fried should be avoided like the plague. Anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is a pound packer.


What Fats Burn Fat?
Most of the fat that you eat—especially if you want to lose fat—should come from unsaturated sources. These good-for-you foods (like fish, seeds, nuts, leafy vegetables, olive oil, and, of course, avocadoes) pack tons of nutrients. Besides removing cholesterol from arteries and promoting a healthier heart, unsaturated fats can help you burn fat big time without cutting calories.

A 2009 study in the British Journal of Nutrition, found that participants who consumed the most unsaturated fatty acids have lower body mass indexes and less abdominal fat than those who consumed the least. Why? The unsaturated folks ate higher-quality foods.



More Reasons You Should Eat Good Fats

1. Fat Burns Calories

A gram of fat packs more than twice the energy of a gram of Protein / Carbs .When you don’t have any fat in your diet its like you don’t have fuel to burn calories.

The body requires energy to keep its metabolism properly functioning, research has proven consuming fatty acids can boost metabolic health.

What’s more, “old” fat stored in the body’s peripheral tissues—around the belly, thighs, or bum, can’t be burned efficiently without “new” fat to help the process. Dietary fat helps break down existing fat by activating fat burning pathways through the liver.


2. Fat Keeps You Full

Fat isn’t the easiest nutrient to digest, so it sticks around in the digestive system for more time than many other nutrients. Fatty acids may also help stabilize blood sugar levels. That means you feel full longer, and you won’t feel the stomach-growling urge to raid the fridge after mealtime.

In fact, diets with high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, a type of Fatty Acid that the body can only acquire through food, create a greater sense of fullness both immediately following and two hours after dinner than do meals with low levels of the fatty acids.

It’s no surprise that dieters who consume moderate levels of fat are more likely to stick with their eating plans than dieters who consume low levels of fat.

The result? More Fat lost.



3. Fat Makes You Happy


Everyone says that dieting sucks. Eating nice foods makes you happy, and it turns out low-fat versions just don’t do the trick for one surprising reason: We can taste the fat—not just the salt, sugar, and other goodies in food.


Our taste buds can detect fat in food, which helps explain why low-fat foods don’t curb our fat cravings. Fat may be an entirely different basic taste than what we’ve long considered the four mainstays: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.

On an even happier fat note, omega-3 fatty acids can boost serotonin levels in the brain, helping to improve mood, increase motivation, and keep you from devouring a large pizza like it’s your job. 3.5% of women and 2% of men have suffered from diagnosed binge-eating disorders, while millions more people are occasional emotional eaters.


4. Fat Makes Food Better For You

Many nutrients including vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble, meaning that the body can’t absorb them without fat. If your body isn’t absorbing nutrients properly, that can lead to vitamin deficiencies and bring on dry skin, blindness, brittle bones, muscle pains, and abnormal blood clotting.

These vitamins are also key to maintaining energy, focus, and muscle health, all of which contribute to a healthy weight. Vitamin E, for example is a powerful antioxidant and helps maintain your metabolism, while the body’s levels of vitamin D predicts its ability to lose fat, especially in the abdominal region.

 

So while you can pile your salad high with nutrient-rich spinach, tomatoes, and carrots, you really need to thank the olive oil for sending the salad’s vitamins your way.



There you have it, hopefully now you will have more of an understanding of why we should be eating more good Fats and how they can help your body, rather than the percieved opinion of why they should be avoided.

Include more of these in your eating and you will be well on your way to the body of your dreams.

For more daily fat loss info, recipes, workouts, motivation and facts then check out my Facebook and Twitter page.

If you have enjoyed this article then please check out my other blog posts and leave me a comment on one of the above methods.

How to stop Cravings

 

 

Cravings. We’ve all had them. They hit when you least expect them, and can completely ruin your progress if you let them. If you are dealing with cravings for foods with high fat or high sugar content late at night, you may be worried you won’t be able to lose the weight you want and gain the fitness results you are striving toward.Intellectually you know that gobbling down high-calorie food in the evening leaves you feeling frustrated, heavy and defeated. Yet, when those p.m. cravings hit, they’re often impossible to resist.  However, with a little understanding of what cravings are, how they are triggered, and what you can do to stop them, you can get back on track with your fitness routine and keep unhealthy food choices out of your body.

What are Cravings?

When you crave something, it is more than the normal hunger feeling you experience between meals. Cravings are intense yearnings for a certain type of food. While it would be nice if our body’s craved vegetables, the majority of the time these cravings are for food rich in fat and sugar, and eating anything does not usually make the craving go away. For example, if you are craving chocolate, eating carrot sticks is most likely not going to satisfy the craving.
 
Unlike normal hunger, cravings can be triggered by pleasant associations, situations, and your emotions. Your mind uses cravings because it associates them as rewards. Many times, this is caused by childhood occurrences. For instance, your parents might have given you some biscuits every time you finished your homework. Now, when you eat correctly and exercise to get fit fast, your mind may try to reward you by craving those foods.

What’s more, research shows that women tend to crave high sugar foods, like chocolate, biscuits and ice cream, while men tend to crave heartier food like steak, mashed potatoes, burgers, pasta and pizza.

Numerous studies have also shown that a craving does not indicate a nutritional need or deficiency. So sadly, we can throw that excuse out the window.
 
 
If you feel as if you need to eat something late at night, choosing low calorie, healthy alternatives will help you maintain progress.

 

Here’s why we crave:

• Learned behaviors and experiences - As mentioned above, as a child, you may have been consistently rewarded with a sweet treat when you had a bad day. The learned behavior of having something sweet to lift your spirits became a habit that is very hard to break.

• Hormonal fluctuations
  Certain hormones in your body help control appetite. Ghrelin is the hormone you produce that drives you to eat, while leptin is the hormone that signals satiety. Normally, these hormones act as a checks and balances system to keep your appetite in check. However, under certain physiological conditions, such as sleep deprivation, this system is thrown off because the hormones are not produced in proper proportion to one another. Estrogen, cortisol and serotonin can also play a role in food craving frenzies, and whether due to stress, sleep deprivation, or the normal hormonal fluctuations of a woman’s menstrual cycle, these hormones can drive you to seek out nutrient- dense, fatty, sugary foods.

• Environmental factors and sensory stimulation
  Studies have found that the sight, smell, taste, or even just the thought of favorite foods can lead to intense cravings. For example intaking a small amount of sugar could lead to intense sugar cravings, leading to a full on binge.  Experiences like seeing food advertisements on TV or passing a bakery and smelling the aroma of fresh baked bread can also initiate food cravings. Certain social settings, like a party or environmental factors, such as dim lighting in a restaurant, can fuel our drive to indulge.

 

Why are cravings so irresistible at night?

Nighttime may be the first time you get to relax after a long, structured and stressful day. You’re through with work and the kids are asleep; it’s finally your time. Whether it is behavioral or hormonal, the urge to treat yourself with sweet or savory food can be an overwhelming response from the body’s need for relaxation. In addition, you may be tired or emotional from the stress of the day, which makes it that much harder to fight the impulse to indulge. Plus, all those television food commercials don’t help!

Stopping Late Night Cravings

Whether your cravings are psychological emotional, or physical, there are certain steps you can take to prevent late night cravings and bingeing.

Eat Breakfast – When you eat breakfast within an hour of waking up, your body’s metabolism kicks into high gear. This helps you burn more calories throughout the day, and really is the most important meal you can eat if you want to get fit fast. Without breakfast, your body will burn calories at a slower rate and you will be left feeling hungry.


Don’t Store Unhealthy Food – Storing unhealthy food in your home is just asking for trouble. As the old saying goes, "out of sight, out of mind"

 

Eat Regularly – Consuming four or five small meals every day can not only help you get fit fast by keeping your metabolism going and regulating your blood sugar levels, but it is also a great way to reduce hunger and cravings.

Exercise - Sitting on the sofa watching television can actually make you crave food that is unhealthy for you. Get up and exercise. Doing so will release endorphins in your brain that can help improve your mood and fight cravings.

Relieve Stress – Because emotions can trigger food cravings, it is important to find way to relieve stress. Consider taking a walk or even fitting a meditating session into your fitness routine once a week.

Pre-plan and stretch your p.m. snack - People often “crave” what they’ve planned for. Plan for something healthy and you’re likely to crave it.

Drink water - If the cravings do strike, then drink about 2 pints of water, one after the other, this should offset them.

Keep yourself busy, in and out of the house - Downtime tends to be “craving central.” If you’re watching TV at night, find ways to distract yourself during adverts, particularly food adverts.  Check your e-mail, do crunches or pushups, plan your calendar for the rest of the week. It’s also a great idea to get out of the house a few nights each week aswel.

 
So there you have it, follow these tips and late night cravings will be a thing of the past or at least, you will be able to control it to such an extent that it won’t hinder your results any longer.



For more daily fat loss info, recipes, workouts, motivation and facts then check out my Facebook and Twitter page.

If you have enjoyed this article then please check out my other blog posts and leave me a comment on one of the above methods.

Carbs: The Truth

 

 

These days, it seems like everyone has their own specific philosophy when it comes to carbs. Some fear them and encourage others to avoid them like the plague. Some put limits on carbs, telling you to only consume them until 3 in the afternoon or to limit carbs in the evening. With all this mixed information, is it possible to learn the truth about carbs?

When you are trying to get fit fast and shed body fat, it is crucial to eliminate any pre-conceived notions about carbs. Carbohydrates are, in reality, essential elements in every smart persons diet. However, they must be consumed correctly in order to be beneficial to your fat loss plan.

The Different Types of Carbs

Before we discuss why carbs are an important part of your fat loss diet, you’ll need to be aware of the three specific types of carbohydrates.

Simple - Simple carbohydrates are digested quickly. Many simple carbohydrates contain refined sugars and  very few essential vitamins and minerals. People usually consider these as bad carbohydrates. Why bad?  These simple carbohydrates are actually smaller molecules of sugar unlike the long chains in complex carbohydrates. They are digested quickly because the individual sugars are ready to be absorbed immediately plus digestive enzymes have easy access to the bonds in the paired molecules.

You could say most of the work has been done for the digestive system! Foods like cake, pastries, biscuits, chocolate, etc (you get the idea) contain lots of “empty” calories. Because our cells usually do not require that amount of energy at that time of eating, the sugar must either be converted to glycogen (sugar storage within cells) or converted to fat.

Your body cells can only store a limited amount of glycogen, so in many common cases, taking too much food that contains simple carbohydrates may contribute to body fat stores. Simple carbs provide short bursts of energy that do not last for very long. (Examples can be found below)

Complex - They are simply sugars bonded together to form a chain. Because of its complex chain form, your digestive enzymes have to work much harder to access the bonds to break the chain into individual sugars for absorption through the intestines.
Because of that, the digestion of complex carbohydrates takes longer. The slow absorption of sugars provides you with a steady supply of energy and limits the amount of sugar converted into fat and stored!

Usually people consider complex carbohydrates as good carbohydrates.


Fibrous - Green and leafy vegetables. These items have fibrous carbs in them. These types of carbs help you feel full much longer than other carbs because the body takes them longer to digest. Have a look at the table below under vegetables:

Why Are We Afraid of Consuming Carbs?

When you eat carbohydrates, the body breaks them down into a substance called glucose. As glucose enters your blood, a hormone known as insulin is secreted from your pancreas. Many of us fear this process when eating simple carbs because the level of insulin in the body shoots up quickly and then drops just as fast. This causes the body to crave more and more carbohydrates which can lead to a vicious cycle of binge eating.

 For most of us, the words “binge eating” are the most deadly, so, in our minds we often say, “Carbs are bad. They lead to ruin. I’ll avoid them,” and we hardly give it another thought. But wait…before you banish carbs forever, keep reading.

One gram of carbohydrates contains four calories, making them a low calorie food that can easily fit into your diet. However, the trouble comes when large portions are combined with the insulin induced carb cravings. This combination can result in a seemingly never-ending cycle of eating more and more simple carbohydrates.

Because of these problems, many individuals consider carbs to be the enemy of any fat loss program. This couldn’t be further from the truth, however. When you remove carbs from your diet completely, your body suffers. Your body needs the insulin produced from eating carbohydrates to function. Without them, you may experience feelings of lethargy, headaches, and a general fuzzy feeling in your head.

So why do no-carb diets work for some? Actually, they don’t. Carbs hold water in the body. When they are eliminated from the diet, the weight lost is water weight which quickly returns once the dieter begins to consume carbs again. It is also pretty much impossible to maintain a no carb diet for very long, so it is not a real solution if you want to get in shape and stay in shape.

Carbs and You

Now that you understand the different types of carbs and why so many individuals are afraid of them, we need to discuss the impact of carbs on your fitness routine.

Carbs are essential to any fitness routine because they can:

• Provide you with the strength and energy you need to power through the toughest workouts- When you are working out and trying to lose fat, you need all of the strength and energy you can get to perform at your best. Complex carbohydrates provide you with that needed zap of energy for intense physical workouts. These types of carbs also take longer to convert to gluocose in the body, which means your blood sugar and energy levels will stay more consistent throughout your workout.

 

• Replenish the stored carbohydrates in your muscles after a workout- Your muscles can not work without contracting, and this requires the right fuel. This fuel is known as ATP, or adenosine triphosphate. This fuel is what allows you to run, throw a ball, or jump over an object. Once this energy source has been used, however, it becomes what is known as adenosine diphosphate, or ADP. ADP can turn into ATP easily, but this recycling process requires glucose. As we discussed previously, carbohydrates are broken down into glucose when they enter the body. Therefore, eating carbs after your workout routine can provide your body with the energy source it need to turn ADP into ATP and keep your muscles functioning well. You can manipulate this slightly though if you want to dig a little deeper into your fat store if your goal is weight loss by delaying your carb intake for 30 to 45 minutes after your workout. (Apologies for the poor picture quality)

 

Choosing The Right Carbs

While carbs are a necessary element in a good diet, many individuals become confused about what specific carbs to eat. And this is understandable. Eaten incorrectly, carbohydrates can reek havoc on a diet and produce negative fitness results.
The secret to keeping carbs in your diet involves which carbs you eat, when you eat them, and how much you consume.

• Which- Avoid man-made or processed carbs like sugary cereal, chocolate, sweets, fizzy drinks, energy bars, and white bread. Instead rely on a good variety of natural complex carbs like brown rice, sweet potatoes, and whole grains. Fibrous carbs can keep your digestive system running smoothly and have a negligible effect on blood sugars, so these are essential as well.

 

^^^^^^^^ Avoid ^^^^^^^^

• When- Fibrous carbs can be eaten at any time of the day, but the majority of your complex carbs should be reserved for right before and after your work outs and the first part of your day.

• How Much- Take care to limit the portion sizes you consume when eating complex carbs (they should take up a quarter of your plate, the rest should be filled with Protein and Veggies). Eating large portions of Complex carbs can have a negative effect on the body because there is only so much room for glucose in your body’s muscles. When the muscles are unable to house any more glucose for the ATP, the remaining carbs are turned into fat and stored in fat cells. Remember: Everything in moderation!

If you are trying to lose fat and get fit fast, don’t eliminate carbs from your diet. Carbohydrates are a much needed element that, when consumed correctly, can produce great fitness results by providing you with the energy you need to work out and lose fat quickly.

For more daily fat loss info, recipes, workouts, motivation and facts then check out my Facebook and Twitter page.

If you have enjoyed this article then please check out my other blog posts and leave me a comment on one of the above methods.

2 Completley Different Things: Fat Loss V Weight Loss

Weight loss is one of the hottest topics ever, you cannot escape it, wether its an article in a magazine or your friend is trying out a new diet. Everyone seems to be trying to shift the pounds. But what is the difference between weight loss and fat loss? People use both of these terms as if they are the exact same thing.

The purpose of this post is to explain the difference between weight loss and fat loss, as they are 2 very different things. This topic leaves a lot of people confused and is a message that often gets lost in translation especially in the mainstream media, and even more to the people the information gets passed onto.


On a personal note, I am also getting frustrated with how people are portraying these two things as the same thing. To give you a real life example, I was recently working away at a bootcamp, a woman who was of a slim build was attending for a few days, she was a woman who honestly, didn’t have any weight to lose, but she had a figure of half a stone in her head that she wanted to lose. Back home she was a regular gym go-er and loved exercise, so the bootcamp experience wasn’t a huge shock to her system.


Come weigh in day, she hadn’t lost a pound of ‘weight’ however she had lost over 7 inches from all over her body and could comfortably fit into a pair of jeans that she brought with her, jeans that she considered too small when she arrived. However because she hadn’t lost any ‘weight’ she left disappointed. This is a common occurrence in the fitness industry, in reality, she had everything to be proud of and should have left elated, but as she was weight loss driven, she left unhappy with her results.

This story – which is one of many, points out exactly why our perception on this subject drastically needs to change.


Ideally, I would like my insight to serve 1 main purpose:

 1. I think it’s a topic that a lot of people (especially women) need to hear more often, and is something I feel pretty strongly about, being a fat loss specialist.

 Far too often – at least in my experience – women get overly caught up on what the scale tells them. Weight loss can be completely subjective, and the truth of matter is the scale really doesn’t tell you anything.


If I told you to not eat for eight hours, you would weigh less.

If I told you to not drink water for a day, you would weigh less.

If I told you to cut off you right leg, you would weigh less.

In all three scenarios you weigh less, but does that really mean you made any significant progress?



NO !!!!!


                                         




Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss. What's the difference? Let's start by defining weight loss and fat loss so you know what I mean here.



Weight Loss. You want to lower your body-weight, the sum weight of your bones, muscles, organs, body fat and water in the body. Aerobic exercise helps you burn off fat calories by making your muscles work harder than usual for limited periods of time. Strength training exercises, on the other hand, help you burn off fat by increasing your body's supply of muscle tissue. This works because muscle tissue burns through calories relatively quickly, and increasing the size of your muscles amplifies your body's calorie-burning capacity. Participation in either aerobics or strength training can lead to weight loss. However, muscle tissue is also quite heavy, and individuals who lose fat through resistance training can potentially gain weight despite depleting their fat reserves.(This is not a bad thing)

Fat Loss. You want to lower your body fat, the amount of fat your body carries. Each pound of fat on your body contains roughly 3,500 calories of food energy. To lose this fat, you will need to burn off more calories than you consume in your daily diet. Typically, this goal is most easily achieved by making reductions in your calorie intake and increasing the amount of exercise you get each week.

Weight is good, not bad; you do not want to lose weight, and more importantly for your health, you do not want to lose muscle. Our weight is made up of tissue, muscle, bone, blood, fat, water, and the rest of our physical bodies. Muscle, like every other component of our physical make-up, is most important. What everyone dosent realise when they take on an extreme diet is that the majority of ‘weight’ they lose is in fact muscle and water weight. NOT FAT!. Fat is also a necessary, vital part of our physical make-up. Excess fat, however, is bad news and that is what you should focus on – FAT LOSS.



Problems with Weight Loss.

Il get straight to the point here: If you want to lose weight, it's most likely because you carry too much fat. There are people who must lose weight (for health reasons, athletes before competitions etc) but most want fat loss, ive yet to meet anyone that deliberatley wants to reduce their bone density or muscle mass to decrease their overall weight. If its Fat Loss you want then be honest to yourself, aim for fat loss, not weight loss, solution - stop weighing yourself !!!


Problems with the weighing in:

Unreliable. Your body-weight can fluctuate daily since it's influenced by your stomach/bowel/bladder content, water loss/retention, muscle loss/gain, fat loss/gain, You'll have no idea what's going on.

Irrelevant. 2 people with similar height can weigh the same, but look completely different because one has lower body fat than the the other. Check the picture below for an example.

The last point shows why the BMI standard is flawed: it doesn't take your body fat into account. Both guys in the above picture have the same BMI, but one is clearly healthier: his body fat is lower.



Here's How The Weight Scale Can Mislead You.

Clothes, mirrors and pictures don't lie. Neither do body fat callipers. But the weight scale can become your worst enemy by misleading you and killing your motivation. Examples:

Carbs + Water = Weight Gain. Carbs bind to water. So eating less carbs will make you lose weight: water loss. This is why you lose so much weight on a low carb diet in the first 2 weeks: it's mostly water. Of course, increasing your carb intake will make you gain weight again: water retention.

Muscle Gains + Fat Loss. You'll gain muscle while losing fat when you get into resistance training. But on the weight scale it will look like you're not making progress: your body-weight doesn't change. Track your body fat using a fat caliper and you'll see your body fat is going down.

Coming back to an earlier point about weighing less by not eating / drinking etc.

Sure, you weigh less……….but all you’ve really accomplished is to make yourself a smaller, weaker, legless, version of your original self. There’s no shape, form, or contour to the body. How most women (and men, too) approach weight loss is wrong. Many would bode well by changing their mindset altogether and start thinking in terms of FAT loss.

More to the point: to MAINTAIN as much muscle as possible (even better, build some muscle) and focus on fat loss.

One lb of muscle weighs the EXACT same as one lb of fat – the difference, however, is that muscle is more dense than fat and takes up less space.

                                              
Looking at the above picture, it should be clear to see how you can drastically alter your body composition without losing weight. This is the difference between having love handles and having visable abs. Yet your weight wont have changed!

Here’s a great example of why it’s often a VERY good idea for women to not only to throw the scales away but to not be scared of adding a little muscle to their frame as well:

Muscle is more dense than fat, and that’s why a woman who’s been training hard and, despite losing body fat, hasn’t seen the number on the scale change much, if any, because she’s built muscle, too.

This is one reason why building muscle is a very good thing for women.

Here’s a picture to show that you can look better even if you gain weight:

                                          

As you can see, she gained 9 pounds but looks leaner, more “toned”, and more athletic because she lost body fat and built muscle.



When it DOES come to fat loss, almost always, nutrition is going to be the biggest determining factor.



Unless you have a sound nutritional plan and are willing to see it through then fat loss isn’t going to happen! You have to find a plan that works for you, using foods you enjoy and foods that you could eat day and day out and not see the need to constantly ‘cheat’. What works for some people, will not work for others, so dont assume because your friend lost fat in a certain way, it will work for you. Everyone is different.

A fat loss plan shouldn’t leave you feeling hungry, nor should it completely remove certain food groups. If you constantly ‘cheat’ on your plan (every few days) or it leaves you feeling hungry, then you need to figure out why? And change it! This should be a long term plan and a lifestyle change, not get to your goal then revert back to pizzas and chips for tea every night.


Take things step by step to ensure long term success, for example, If you don’t feel overly confident about eating protein with every meal then what about two meals? Once you start making two meals a day a habit, then we can push it to four meals per day, so on and so forth until it becomes standard procedure.


But remember: YOU CANNOT OUT TRAIN A POOR DIET

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In case you were wondering, I used capital letters  and a picture so that you’d understand that this is kind of an important point!

 

It’s just not going to happen. I can write you the most kick-ass fat loss plan in history – training 4-5 times per week, throwing in any combination of circuits, finishers, or anything else we can think of that will make you hate life – but it’s not going to matter if we don’t tackle the nutritional side of things.


If we KNOW that fat loss is (more or less) determined by calories in vs. calories out, which seems to be a more efficient use of our time:

A) Spending upwards of 45-60 minutes (maybe) burning off 350-500 calories (depending on the mode, intensity, duration) exercising ?

Note to Everyone Reading: trust me when I say this, despite the machine telling you otherwise, you DID NOT just burn 700 kcals walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes at a 5% gradient.

Think about it. Unless you’re walking with a car strapped to your back, you’re not burning that many calories.



OR



B) Electing not to eat that bowl of cereal before bed?


If we were to take the simple equation that a lb of fat equals 3500 of excess kcals, we can surmise that subtracting 500 kcals per day (whether through diet or exercise, or both!) leads to a lb of fat loss per week. Give or take.

Again, from a time efficiency standpoint, and with FAT LOSS as the goal, nutrition is going to trump exercise in terms of better use of our time no matter what.


Heres the truth though: You know that eating a boatload of highly processed carbohydrates on a day where you’re less active probably isn’t the best idea. You know eating a full tub of Ben and Jerrys before bed isn’t going to do wonders for your waistline.You know ALL of this. So what’s holding you back?


It’s all about behavior change!



We need to have some sort of default “path” to help you succeed. You know in the back of your mind what isn’t good for you, it dosent take a nutritional degree to work it out.

Small changes will make the biggest differences in the beginning, so instead of hitting Dominoes or Pizza Hut at the weekend, try making your own pizza with fresh ingredients. Whilst this Is still not the best option, it’s a hell of a lot better than ingesting a boatload of saturated fat on a Saturday night.

The same can be said for trying to include more veggies, healthy fats etc. We need to find a “spot” where you feel confident you can be successful. If the thought of eating 5 servings of Veg is making your stomach churn whilst reading this, then start at 2 or 3 servings and build up to it. Experiment with it, try new things and sooner or later it will not be a chore, you will enjoy it.



How to Track Progress Efficiently.

You don't need to track progress weekly, changes wouldn't be drastic enough. Track progress every 2 weeks.



Stop Weighing Yourself. The daily fluctuations will mess with your motivation. Weigh yourself once every 4 weeks, not more.


Stop Looking in The Mirror. Self-image issues can skew perception. Shoot full body pictures and compare them with old ones.


Track Body Fat. Get a body fat caliper and track your body fat every 2 weeks.



Take Measurements. Girth measurements of your neck, chest, arms, waist & thighs and compare with previous measurements.


Shoot Pictures. Full body pictures from ankle to neck, front/back/side, every 2 weeks. Compare with your previous pics.


Listen also to what people say. They'll notice your body change more than you will.

Hopefully this all makes some sense, and more importantly sheds some light on why I feel weight loss is not where your head should be at at the moment.

Fat loss before weight every time – make sure you tell your friends this !



Good luck :)

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