Top 3 Weight Loss Tips.

Whenever people say to me ohh I hate being big or I want to loose weight, I tell them that there is a way in which they WILL loose weight without changing anything they eat. All they have to do is the three following things:

Eat Breakfast!

Breakfast is the single most important meal of the day. For some people this is really hard and I’m one of them people. The last thing I wanna do when I get up is eat straight away. But when you think about when your last meal was, it could be up to at least 12 hours ago so your body needs that fuel badly!

Eating breakfast will give you all the energy you need to kick start the day and if you eat the right things will leave you feeling fuller for longer. Porridge, berries and nuts are perfect. Served with honey and/ or natural yogurt will give you everything your body needs.

I’m training at the gym to get lean muscle and so want more protein. I leave fruit for snacks and eat 3 eggs scrambled every morning. This fills me up and packed with all the essential protein i need.

Drink More Water!

This one is a no brainer. People don’t drink enough water. Simply drinking a glass of water before every meal will help you reduce the amount of food you consume and therefor the amount of calories you are consuming.

Stop Eating Before Bed!

Your body needs time and energy to digest food properly. Going to bed on a full stomach may well provide you with the time but by eating food you are refueling, therefore giving your body energy when you don’t need it. It’s like fueling a fire when your trying to put it out!

Stop eating at least 3 hours before you go to bed.

If you cant be bothered to change your diet and hate exercise, doing these 3 simple things will have a positive effect on your weight!

Try it for a month or even two weeks… you WILL see results!

Fat Facts!

When it comes to exercise, lets face it, most people wanna get rid of the fat! Or ‘de-heffing’ as me and my friend Laura like to call it!

There are a few things you should know though if you are on a serious fat loss program or just want to loose weight. Most people don’t realise that there are different types of fat and i hold my hands up, i was one of these people. So I spoke to my friend Google to see what the situation is.

There are two main types of fat subcutaneous and visceral.

Subcutaneous Fat is basically 80% of your bodies total fat.l and is the stuff just beneath the skin! All the things you hate about your hips, bingo wings and thighs is made up of this type of fat. It’s distributed all over your body and while it is less of a direct health risk, it doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

Any form of light exercise like jogging, walking and aerobics will help reduce this types of fat.

Visceral Fat is the stuff that will do you some damage and for you gym fans is the stuff that is hiding your rock hard abs! Also known as ‘abdominal fat’, visceral, is the stuff packed between your organs and all round the abdomen. Effectively hugging your insides. Excess visceral fat has been shown to have direct links with increased insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes amongst other things.

This type of fat is harder to shift. High Intensity Training (HIT or HIIT) has been shown to effectively reduce this type of fat… just depends how much you can stand! haha

High Intensity Training

High intensity training or HIT as it has come to be known is a way of exercising by which you perform an exercise to the point of ‘momentary muscular failure’. Basically working out like a mad man lifting the heaviest weights you can, or running (for example) as fast as possible in the shortest time possible.

While watching ‘The Truth About Exercise’ on BBC iPlayer Dr Michael Mosley explained how people spending excessive periods of time in the gym when, potentially, they do not need too.

It’s premise is that short bursts of exercise should be interspersed with less intense ones. For example having a steady jog then a fast sprint (HIIT High Intensity Interval Training), or lifting the heaviest weight you can for fewer reps, rather then more reps and lighter weights.

I’ve used gym for years, on and off, and one thing I have had a love/ hate relationship with is the treadmill. Running is something that I’ve tried to love and at times, when I was seeing results, did really enjoy it! I would run for up to an hour sometimes and mostly felt exhausted afterwards. Granted, I would loose weight but it gets to a certain point when you think, I’m going to have to run like this for hours every week to maintain my new trim figure. For some, this works… and I am a firm believer that any form of exercise is without a doubt one of the best ways to de-stress.

However, I’m a busy guy and don’t have hours of free time to spend in the gym. I’d read things in the past about interval training and I never thought I was physically fit enough to fully benefit from this form of training. Though from doing lots of running I had strengthened my ankles and legs while improving my running technique. Just FYI… I’m far from an Olympic athlete but I always try to maintain good posture and form when I run.

So, about a month ago I started including HIIT into my gym routines and I have most certainly seen results from it. As well as improving my running technique I have increased muscle mass in every part of my legs, hips and lower torso. I now have incredibly defined calves and thighs which, I’m not gonna lie, look amazing in a pair of skinny jeans! I am also starting to notice other benefits in the form of decreased muscular aches and pains I used to suffer from. I used to have terrible issues with my knee joints but these seem to be decreasing, I’ve reduced body fat and it all takes just 30 minutes a week.

Each time I go to the gym I do 10 minutes of HIIT that consists of running on the treadmill. I do a light jog for 3 minutes, run as fast as possible for 1 minute then do a 2 minute jog, 1 minute sprint and so on until the 10 minutes is up.

I have only just started doing this about a month ago but the results (to me anyway) are obvious. I enjoy running but frankly 10 minutes HIT is far more appealing then 60, especially if I’m getting better results!

If you were thinking of taking this on then you could increase the interval times to start with so perhaps do a 5 minute jog in-between three 1 minute sprints. Then eventually as you improve decrease the jogs to 4, 3, 2 or even one minute.

Some reports have shown that this method of training is more effective at aiding fat loss as it speeds up the metabolism which in turn continues to support weight less even after you have stopped working out.

I am not a fitness expert or health official so please do feel free to do you own research before undertaking this form of exercise, im just expressing what I know has worked for me! Happy Running!!!