10 weight-loss tips

I’m not a big fan of Christmas and New Years (ba humbug!). Well that’s not strictly true. I love spending quality time with my family and reflecting on another year gone by and what’s in store for the year ahead. As a Personal Fitness Trainer though it’s a disaster. Clients are basically hit for six over the festive period with many of them struggling to find the time to get to the gym and they are also faced with numerous social responsibilities where they are now faced with all types of bad foods and fluids, many of them hard to resist!

The biggest problem then comes after the New Year where it can difficult to just swing right back into things. Some of the chocolates and alcohol given to us for Christmas are still with us in our homes and we find it hard to get back to low-carb meals as we normally have had a good carb surge over Christmas and New Years and our bodies are craving them again!

I’ve listed below ten great weight-loss tips for 2010:

Set realistic goals

You should aim for 1-2 lbs per week and just looking at the bigger picture. I always show my new clients weight loss progress from my current successful clients and it’s a simple case of chipping away every day. One of my clients has lost two stone (28 lbs) and seven inches off her weight. She didn’t do this in 5 weeks, it took her 16 weeks. Some weeks she would weigh-in the same weight as the previous, some weeks she weighed a little less, and some weeks she put on a little weight.

It really is a case of chipping away every day and doing more to help you lose weight than to hinder it. Committing to exercising on a continuous basis and eating well on most days of the week. You will have your up and downs but keep fighting the good fight and in time the riches will be yours, don’t give up.

If you have 10 lbs to lose, set a target of losing it in 5-10 weeks, not 5 days! J

Read the food labels!

This makes a big difference believe me! Make sure you look at the weight of the food and calculate the total amount of calories, fat, sugar and salt. Some food labels are sneaky, it may give you the amounts for 100 grams and you may think everything seems ok, but your dish may be 300-400 grams! So if the label reads sugar 12 grams and you think it’s fine, it may be that the dish is actually 3-4 times more than this!

Try and have no more than 40 grams of sugar a day, saturated fat at 20 grams per day, sodium about 24 grams and try and get at least 100 grams of protein a day.

Get into your favourite music!

Listen to your favourite music whilst exercising. Music stimulates us, makes us want to dance, and it can generate powerful emotions. Spice up your IPod with great music, get right into it. Don’t listen to the same tunes you have been for months, new music, like new exercises can really liven up your workout.

You don’t have to stop eating bad food!

Just because you’re trying to lose weight it doesn’t mean you have to stop eating your favourite treats. As long as the majority of foods and fluids you’re putting in your mouth are helping you lose weight then you’ll be in a positive balance. It’s when you’re doing more harm than good on a consistent basis that your weight goes up.
So by all means enjoy some pizza or ice cream, just make sure these are not consistent indulgencies.

If you’ve hit a plateau then you need to change things!

If my clients have not lost weight in three weeks then we change things. Insanity as defined by Albert Einstein is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If you’ve hit a plateau, then change things, turn the heat up on your workouts, add more physical activity, or make a few changes to your diet, just don’t keep doing the same thing.

Know your numbers!

You don’t have to calorie count necessarily, but it’s good to know how many calories you’re aiming for on a daily basis. If you’re trying to lose weight are you shooting for 1800, 1600? Cycling your calories and carbs is a great weight loss method that I use in my ebook, where you have 1800 on certain days and 1600 on others, depends on a few factors obviously, but you get the jist.

Don’t beat yourself up over your crashes!

It’s inevitable that you’re going to crash and have a big night out and just let yourself go. If it happens then just acknowledge that you’ve had a blip and get right back on track. Remember it’s not what you do once in a while that matters, it’s what you are doing every day that counts.

If you don’t drink enough water you’ll retain it!

There are so many benefits to drinking water that I could be here all day writing about it. One myth that is around is that if you drink a lot of water that you’ll retain it and get heavier. This is nonsense. In fact the opposite is true. If your body thinks it’s not getting enough water then it will go into survival mode and hold onto it, so drink up! At least 3 litres a day.

Stick to the colours!

Maybe I should put it another way…avoid the whites! White pasta, bread, rice, etc. Stick to the colours, colourful fruits, vegetables, etc. the white stuff just contributes to big time fat storage.

Do not eat 2-3 hours prior to bed!

I like people to eat smaller meals more frequently, but if you’ve got some stubborn pounds to lose then have your evening meal and then eat nothing more 2-3 hours prior to sleep. Your body still has to work even when you’re sleeping so you’ll be burning energy during this time. If you can workout first thing in the morning with some caffeine you’ll be in a full throttle fat burning zone!!

The 5 ‘Must Know’ facts about Women and Weights!

1. Weight training will reduce the risks of osteoporosis

One thing that really frustrates me is the amount of postmenopausal women who are still performing a lot of cardio training such as walking on the treadmill, using the elliptical machine, or cycling. Billions (yes billions) of dollars are spent each year on medical care treating women with hip fractures. Women need to be doing a lot more weight training, or resistance exercise, in order to strengthen bones and increase bone density. What people need to understand is that bone tissue is just like any other live tissue such as the heart or the kidneys. It is constantly remodeling itself. You don’t have the same skeleton you had a few years ago, your bones are being broken down and built up again on a daily basis. The problem lies in the fact that the build-up process is less efficient than the breakdown process down known as “resorption”. Over the years bone mineral density becomes less and less, making your bones more and more fragile. With the reduction of the hormone estrogen in postmenopausal women, less bone is formed thus increasing the risks of osteoporosis. Weight training places quality stress on bone structures more so than just simple aerobic activity. Don’t get me wrong walking etc. is good also, but make sure you follow a quality weight training or resistance training program on a regular basis with a quality intake of calcium, approx. 1200 mg/day and also Vitamin D (400-800 international units) which you will need to absorb calcium.

2. Weight training will NOT produce large, bulky muscles.

Women cannot produce high levels of testosterone which is needed for large muscle gains; they simply do not have the genetic makeup for it. When you see a woman with very large muscles this is achieved through a combination of weight training, anabolic steroids, and a large calorie intake. What women will gain from weight training is lean, strong muscles, that burn more fat.

3. Weight training will reduce your risk of back and hip injuries.

By performing exercises such as squats and lunges, the muscles of the back and hips will become much stronger which makes women less susceptible to falling. The increase in bone density from weight training mentioned earlier will further decrease the risks of injuries.

4. Weight training produces greater fat losses.

Weight training will stimulate your metabolic rate far greater than aerobic exercise will. Once your aerobic session has ended there is little post-elevation of your metabolic rate. Weight training however raises your metabolic rate far higher and as you gain more lean muscle tissue your metabolic rate will increase also. Muscles have a high energy requirement, so even when your sitting or sleeping, your muscles will be burning calories for you, so the key is to develop quality lean muscle tissue, turning you into a fat-burning machine!

5. Weight training makes you look sexy.

By working with weights, women can develop sexy and curvy muscles, improving their physical appearance enormously. Well rounded shoulders, a strong and curvy posterior, and lean legs can all be achieved in a matter of weeks through correct exercise prescription. We lose approx. half a pound of muscle tissue every year after the age of 25 which explains why we put on weight, develop more body fat, and lose our physiques and figures. Weight training fights to reverse this process, so get off the cardio machines and ask your personal trainer for a fat-burning, body conditioning, resistance exercise program!

The 90/10 Rule for Fat Loss!

One of the major challenges individuals face with regards to healthy eating and dieting, is that almost every diet program just simply isn’t sustainable. They’re either too restrictive, or don’t allow you to consume your favorite foods and drinks. Can Personal Trainers expect their clients to immediately stop eating chocolate, ice cream, lasagna, pizza, or burritos? Behavioral change does not occur overnight and any diet that eliminates ones favorite foods is one that will set them up for failure.

Weight loss is all to do with balance and cycling your calories correctly. The 90/10 rule works well for allowing your favorite tasty foods and drinks whilst you’re still working towards losing weight. One of the best weight loss strategies is to consume regular smaller meals per day; 5-6 is very good and realistic. The 90/10 rule would work like this: 90% of the time you are consuming foods for health, energy, vitality and to make you look absolutely fantastic! 10% of the time you consume your favorite meals which are higher in fats, sugar and salt. You understand that these foods may not be too good for you, but because you are not eating them regularly, they won’t hinder your weight loss too much.

You are what you eat. You are what you repeatedly do. If you practice bad eating habits they will come back to haunt you in the form of weight gain or ill health, or both! If you were to consume 5 meals daily that would average out to be approx 35 meals per week. Using the 90/10 rule for weight loss, you would be able to consume three meals and one snack of your favorite foods. This however, doesn’t mean that the remaining 90% of the meals you consume are bland, boring, and should on the diets of farm animals. There are plenty of tasty healthy foods available and some tremendous substitutes for some of the foods you may be eating right now that will hinder your weight loss.

Burgers are a classic example. They are one of the worst foods you can consume. Very high in calories and saturated fats. Veggie burgers or soy burgers however, are an ideal substitute as they are low in fats and are a good source of protein. Pizzas can be cooked using thin based crusts, tomato sauce, lowfat mozzarella cheese, and can then be added with grilled chicken breast, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and any other healthy vegetable. We just need to be more organized and make healthier choices.

Plan your week ahead for the meals you will be having, and pinpoint days and times for you to consume 10% of your favorite foods and enjoy them to the full. You must however, balance those meals with a 90% diet of healthy and highly productive foods to have you looking and feeling absolutely fabulous!