health | The Gymbox61

In today’s society many of us want to lose weight. When I say weight I mean fat! As fat loss and weight loss sometimes may not correlate. I could lose about 2lb of weight in a couple of days just by reducing carbs in my diet (My body composition may not even change). Anyways, back onto the title. Is weight loss easy? The scientific answer is yes. Scientifically weight (fat) loss is very, very simple. It’s primary school maths, It’s calories in – calories out. If you consume less energy than you expend then fat will be used as an energy source and therefore you will reduce the size of your “fat” cells. If you do this over a period of time then you will continue to lose fat. Remember all calories count (even the ones in alcohol unfortunately!).

If it’s this easy why aren’t we all running around looking like elite athletes. Psychologically being in a calorie deficit is hard, especially if you want a social life. When ever we are out we are surrounded by pastries, burgers, fast food, alcohol etc. These are all things that we enjoy and will start to crave (especially around Christmas). Below I have complied a few things we can do to combat this:

Know how many calories you consume a day
A lot of people have no clue how many calories they consume a day. With technology this has become easier than ever. A great app to use is “My Fitness Pal”. With this you can see how many calories you are consuming a day just by scanning or typing in your food. It also tells you what nutrients you are consuming and if you are deficient in any. Remember this is an app and may not be 100% accurate with its calculations as it doesn’t know your individual needs, but it’s a great place to start.

Exercise on the days you know you have social occasions
This is something I come across all the time. Most people socialise, drink and eat rubbish on the weekend. However they do not exercise on these days. The whole idea is to be in a calorie deficit. GET UP AND DO SOME EXERCISE! Don’t let that 1 day let you down, you will be right back where you started on Monday. Hit the gym hard on the days that you will consume a little more calories than usual. This will help massively as it may even balance out so that you consume the same amount of calories out expend on that day.

Eat before you go out
If you eat before you socialise you are less likely to give in to them cravings. The amount of times I have gone to the cinemas on an empty stomach and seen all the chocolate and just said “one bag won’t hurt”. Added to that bag of chocolate was nachos and a large coke. There I will have consumed between 1/2 – 3/4 of my daily calorie allowance. If you eat before you go out you are less likely to give into these cravings.

Choose healthier places to socialise
I understand this always can’t be the case. The amount of people that I see arranging nights at pizza & burger places when they are trying to lose weight baffles me. There are loads of restaurants that serve healthy dishes. The majority of them will serve either chicken, steak, veg etc. Pick healthier options when socialising.

Toughen Up!
You know this is what you have to do so let’s not hear the excuses. My favourite one is “I don’t have time”. As if it’s a lot quicker to eat a bag of crisps than to eat an apple (or any other type of fruit). It’s hard I know, but let’s just get it done you will feel better for it, I promise. If time is an issue then prepare your food for days in advance. Also don’t listen to your work mates/friends/family that are very negative when you are trying to lose weight. Most of the time they are like this because they aren’t happy with themselves. They don’t mean to be negative, however it maybe a subconscious reaction. Dig deep down and don’t eat rubbish.

A very common sight in the gym (especially with women) are people spending hours and hours of cardio a week trying to lose weight. This is fantastic and will help your overall health when you compare it to the opposite, watching endless netflix whilst eating a share size chocolate bar every night (been guilty of this a few times myself).

Will hours and hours of cardio prevent you from losing fat, the simple answer is no. HOWEVER just think will endless hours on the treadmill/bike and the 1000’s of burpees get you the body that you want? As well as this, are all the hours of cardio a week sustainable? With some people the answer is yes, if you enjoy putting your body through high amounts of pain everyday. Even with this, you will most likely end up burning yourself out at some point. This will lead you to feel tired and lack motivation to exercise. Most of us will become bored and unmotivated before we even get to this point. Cardio is good at putting our body in a calorie deficit. If your body is in a calorie deficit you will lose fat, but think about how you will look if you keep performing cardio on a regular basis. Elite Long distance runners have very low body fat, their body is designed to run long distances and are fantastic at doing so. Is your aim of coming to the gym to have a body like an elite long distance runner. If this is your aim then cardio is fantastic, however if you want the “toned” look then cardio everyday is unlikely to give you this.

So what can we do?

Change your training regularly
Don’t stick to the same routine all the time. Add some extra exercises in every 4-6 weeks to keep it fresh. Performing the same routine in the gym every time you go is likely to get boring. E.g. If you usually do 20 mins on the treadmill, try some HIIT (high intensity interval training) instead. Just type in HIIT workout in on youtube.com and there will be 100’s of workouts to choose from. Also if you usually do basic sets on your strength exercises, try some circuits, perform 3-4 different exercises without a rest.

Lift some weights
I am not saying you should start lifting heavy weights 5x per week. However adding a few strength exercises to your routine will have a number of benefits to your body. It will improve muscle size, reduce body fat, increase your metabolism, low impact on your joints (compared to running and jumping) and many more…. (Women you WILL NOT become “bulky”, you are very unlikely to have enough testosterone in your system)

Get a training partner
Training with another person will push you out of your comfort zone. If you are training with somebody else you are more likely to do the exercises that you aren’t confident with, also they are also likely to introduce you to new exercises. Once you have become confident with these exercises you can add them more frequently into your training routine and you are less likely to become bored. They will also give you that extra push to exercise on the days you don’t quite feel up to it.

Don’t stop cardio
Cardio is an important factor in order to live a healthy lifestyle. The point I am trying to make is that performing cardio all the time might not be the best way to achieve your goals. Still keep it in your workout routine, it is very important. Also cardio doesn’t have to be boring. I play 6 a side football twice a week. I can assure you that I am working twice as hard playing football than I ever would on the treadmill at the gym. So cardio can come through a hobby such as badminton, netball, football, running, swimming or anything that you can feel increasing your heart rate and your breathing rate. The main thing is to keep it enjoyable!

I think it’s fair to say that the majority of gym attendees are there to improve their body shape. Losing fat is a major factor in improving most people’s body shape, but why do we find losing fat so hard to achieve. Below I have listed 3 reasons why we aren’t losing fat and what we can do to combat them.

Be honest with yourself (be consistent)
Losing fat is hard and it takes dedication. If you are eating a healthy diet for 5 days and then consuming 10 pints / 2 bottles of wine, a fry up, a curry, 1 large chocolate bar and 4 bags of crisps on a weekend, then you aren’t going to achieve much fat loss. I understand the we all need to enjoy ourselves but we need a reality check. In 10 pints of beer we could be looking at 2500 calories, that’s what is recommended for the average daily intake for an adult male per day! To lose fat we consistently have to be in a calorie deficit. This means that we to consume less calories than we use. This isn’t just 5 days a week, your body doesn’t change at the weekend! You have to be in a calorie deficit for the whole week. To see any results in the week we should be looking at a calorie deficit of at least 3500 calories per week (500 calories per day). This equates to around 1lb of body fat lost. I guess you are looking at that and thinking all that work for 1lb. However think that if you kept this up for the whole year it would be 52lbs / 3st 7lbs / 23.6kg. That is a lot of fat to lose.
So let’s be consistent, cut the rubbish and be honest with yourself. Let’s do the exercise when you don’t totally feel up for it, eat that healthy meal instead of a pizza on a Saturday night. The results you will see will make you feel miles better than the junk food ever will. Setting small achievable goals will make it a lot easier to achieve and keep the momentum going. Also don’t worry when you “fall off the wagon” (everybody does) just get straight back on it ASAP and you will still see the results.

You are restricting yourself too much
This links in with my first point. I always see it, Monday-Friday people are in the gym smashing it 100% and being very restrictive with their diet. This is a recipe for disaster. If you restrict yourself too much then you are going to relapse, and relapse hard! Linking into my first point, we have to be consistent. Too many people will be in a calorie deficit of approx 4000-5000 calories 5 days a week and then be in a calorie surplus of 4000-5000 calories over the next 2 days (a lot of it through alcohol!). This leaves you exactly where you started last week. This will lead to you becoming unmotivated and therefore you are more likely to actually gain weight.
Fat loss does result from exercising and being restrictive (to a certain extent) with your diet. But don’t go at it too hard. Remember 500 calories a day. This sounds a lot but if your nutrition is made up mostly of good quality food such as meats, eggs, fish, rice, potatoes, veg, fruit etc, rather than processed food you be able to eat a good amount and still be in a calorie deficit. This isn’t to say you still aren’t going to be hungry. You will be hungry, as you are in a calorie deficit and you aren’t adequately fuelling your body. Long term consistency is better than short term intensity. Moderation is key. However we have to remember that moderation isn’t a full wee
kend of drinking and eating rubbish. Moderation is that curry every couple of weeks or that chocolate bar on a weekly basis.

You aren’t drinking enough water
I used to be one of them people that said “I can’t drink water”. Now I hate thissaying as I drink about 2 litres of water a day. We believe that we don’t like water, but when we do drink it we actually don’t mind it. So please never say to me “I can’t drink water”, just get over it and start drinking it, you will like it. It’s not too sweet, too sour, or even have a strong taste to it. I can understand when people don’t like certain foods as most foods have a distinctive taste or smell to them. What you don’t like about water is that it doesn’t have a strong taste or fizz to it. Water has no calories. This makes it great for fat loss as you can drink as you can drink as much as you like (well, enough that you don’t drown) and it will not contribute to fat gain.
Start drinking about 2 litres of water a day. Stop making excuses that you can’t drink it, you can I promise. It’s not bad at all. There is no other way to combat it than to start drinking more. Give it a go!

There isn’t any secrets on fat loss. The simple science is that if you consume less energy the you expend then you will use stored fat as an energy source and therefore you will have less fat stored. However if you would like to get a great body shape then there are more factors to contribute towards it. The “toned” look that people tend to desire will not be achieved just by being in a calorie deficit (unless you have fantastic genes, you lucky bugger). You have to alter your nutrition and exercise. Ways in which to achieve this will be coming over the next few weeks, so keep your eye out!

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