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FatLoss

Most clients come to us with the main goal of losing bodyfat. For example, let's say a client wants to lose a stone in weight, which basically means they want to lose 14 pounds of bodyfat.

  • Here's some simple maths for you:
  • 1 gram of fat = 9 calories, so 1 kilo of fat = 9000 calories.
  • 1 stone equals 14 pounds or 6.4 kilos.
  • 1 stone of bodyfat equates to 6.4 kilos x 9000 calories, which equals:
  • 57600 calories of stored energy.

So, there's a bit of work needed to get rid of that lot and lose a stone.

When training for fat loss we recommend clients aim to lose around 0.5-1 lb of fat a week. This can be achieved with planning and effort on the client's part.

Let's be conservative and go for the half pound of fat a week. That means you've got to burn off 4500 calories more than you take in over the course of a week or 650 calories a day in order to lose half a pound of fat per week.

Alternatively you could aim to lose a quarter of a pound a week, and eventually 1 pound of fat per month. You'd need to burn off 325 calories a day.

Regardless of how often you want to workout, to lose fat you have to raise your daily activity levels enough to burn off the calories stored as fat on your body.

Ideally you need to be active everyday whether it's a long, two-hour stroll or short, 20 to 30-minute intense interval run or circuit-training session.

You need to be realistic when it comes to reaching a fat loss goal. You'll need to make time to work out and fit in up to 45 minutes a day EVERY day of accumulated exercise if you want to reach your ideal weight. When I say accumulated, I mean it could be 2 x 20-25 minutes a day, if 1 x 45 minute session is unrealistic for you.

There is an ideal dose of exercise; 31-7 hours of accumulated exercise per week. This figure is
influenced by how fat you are, how much you want to lose and how quickly.
If you exercise for LESS than the required amount, you'll know why the scales haven't budged. Make small, gradual lifestyle changes to give yourself time to train more and work less.

Both weight-training (important for muscular strength, muscular endurance, healthy body functioning and many other health benefits), and cardiovascular exercise produce the necessary energy
expenditure for weight loss. Muscles count and that's why you need to lift weights if you're serious about reaching your ideal weight. Muscle is some of the body's most metabolically active tissue. The more you have, the more calories you burn during rest and exercise.

Speaking of calories, they do count to a degree. There are no free foods. Even if you exercise enough you can't eat as much as you like and still expect to lose bodyfat.

You need to focus on consuming foods that are nutrient dense (like vegetables) instead of junk food that calorie dense and virtually devoid of quality nutrition. This simple adjustment will enable you to obtain the nutrition you need, whilst simultaneously creating a calorie deficit.

The easy way to do this is to dump ALL the processed food from your diet, minimise or eliminate your intake of grains and sugars (pasta, rice, bread and watch out for certain fruits that are high in sugar too), and start eating right for your metabolic type using organic food as much as possible.

You'd also help yourself immensely by dropping alcohol, tea and coffee from your diet as much as possible and substituting water in its place. What you eat is important, as eating processed foods can produce low levels of inflammation in the body. This can lead to obesity and other health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and arthritis.

If you're new to exercise, start out easy and use moderate intensity exertion (6-7 out of 10 in terms
of effort) during training, but the bottom line is you need to create an energy deficit.

By this I mean burning off more calories than you consume on a daily basis in order to eat into your own fat stores. Note: it's better to train more than eat less. Don't starve yourself! This will slow your metabolism down as the body thinks it's going into starvation mode. You also end up cannibalizing your own muscle to fuel your activity, which slows down your metabolism even further.

If you're not losing weight then look at your exercise program. Are you really getting in enough
exercise? One of the main reasons a weight loss program fails is because people are simply not
exercising consistently enough.

Alongside this, the power of the mind and your mental attitude can't be underestimated. If you tell yourself that you can't lose weight, then you won't. If you don't love to exercise then experiment with different activities until you find one or some that you do enjoy. Workout with a partner for moral support and find support from family, friends or work colleagues.

Surrounding yourself with positive people to help you reach your goal can be a great help, especially when enthusiasm wanes and you feel like giving up. If you want help, consider using a fitness trainer, but make sure they are well-trained and certified with the Register of Exercise Professionals or National Register of Personal Trainers.