HOW STRENGTH TRAINING CAN IMPROVE YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE?
Our bodies were created to be able to move freely without limitations. When you think back to the early years of life, you were able to crawl, roll, twist, and more without even having to worry about what muscle you might pull. So where did we lose this gift of movement?
As you progress through life it almost becomes the norm to spend a large portion of the day in sedentary positions. Many working environments leave you seated in front of a desk for anywhere between 6-8 hours a day. Not to mention the long work commutes, time spent in front of the tv and on your devices.
For a vast majority of people, this leaves only a small portion of the day spent in any intentional or unintentional movement activity. As you stop spending time using these movement patterns they begin to cause muscular imbalances within the body.
If your someone who spends a lot of time in sedentary positions, you may have noticed that your shoulders tend to be rounded forward and the movement of your hips becomes very limited. This isn’t just old-age at play as we most commonly like to diagnose it, it’s a lack of time spent counteracting the imbalances caused by those positions.
These imbalances can go on to cause aches and pains that you experience in everyday life, leading to movements becoming very uncomfortable and challenging to get into. So the questions becomes, can you get back to a point where you have freedom of movement?
In most cases, Yes - movement should be seen as your bodies medicine to leading a healthier and better quality of life. The more time you spend applying the practice of it, the more rewarding your quality of life will be.
In the context of your training, this is where it becomes more valuable to build your programme around movement patterns, rather than just individual muscle groups.
THE 7 MOVEMENT PATTERNS
1. PUSH
This movement generally consists of pushing a weight away from your body or a fixed surface. To aim for optimal movement with this pattern aim to use both vertical and horizontal push exercises, such as:
Chest Press
Shoulder Press
Incline Press
Press Up
Dips
2. PULL
This movement generally consists of pulling a weight towards you or pulling yourself towards a fixed object. To aim for optimal movement with this pattern aim to use both vertical and horizontal pull exercises, such as:
Bent Over Row
Lat Pulldown
Seated Row
Upright Row
Pull Ups
3. SQUAT
The squat movement is very similar to the motion used when sitting down on a chair and getting back up. For all squat variations the hip and knee joints will be mainly responsible, to aim for optimal movement ensure both joints are being used to some extent during the movement. Variations of the squat you could incorporate in your training programme include;
Box Squat
Front Squat
Back Squat
Bulgarian Split Squat
TRX Squat
4. HINGE
The hip hinge movement is controlled using the hip joint, whereby the spine stays neutral and the hips hinge backward into a flexed position. There will be a small element of flexion at the knee joint, but always keep the movement situated around the hip joint. This is most commonly performed during exercises such as;
Deadlift
TRX Hip Hinge
Roman Deadlift
Single Leg Deadlift
Kettlebell Swing
5. LUNGE
The lunge is a movement whereby one foot steps either forward or backwards, bending both knees to lower the body towards the floor. In this movement the knee and hip joints are mainly responsible, either can be made to work more dominantly through the use of different variations such as;
Dumbbell Lunges
Reverse Lunges
Lateral Lunges
TRX Split Squat
Walking Lunges
6. ROTATION
The rotation movement pattern is commonly seen when your torso has to rotate during an exercise. To increase the intensity of such exercises you can use cable machines or resistance bands, that force you to exert more effort as you rotate the torso. This includes exercises such as;
Cable Woodchops
Russian Twist
Medball Rotational Throw
Rotational Swings
Rotational Lunges
7. WALKING
The most underrated of the 7 is any movement that requires you to walk. It sounds pretty simple but you’ll be surprised to find out how little people walk in a day. Statista.com provided research to suggest that even in the most active of age groups, on average people walk less than 1 mile per day. (Roughly about 20 - 25 mins of walking). Getting out for a walk is the most inexpensive type of exercise available but also can be incorporated into exercises such as;
Overhead Walk
Power Walk
Weighted Vest Walk
Farmers Carry
Stair Master
HOW TO BUILD THIS INTO YOUR TRAINING PROGRAMME
Yes, I know you may be thinking this is a lot to take in, but by no means was this created to make you feel overwhelmed. The purpose was to give you the means to be able to work towards a healthy body that serves you and moves freely.
The exercises listed help to set out a good starting point that will allow you to start taking back the control of the 7 movement patterns, if programmed progressively and safely.
If your still unsure about where to start, you can download my free workout plan attached below. The plan is designed around all of the movement patterns mentioned above, and will help start your journey to a redefined body.
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HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD YOU BE EATING FOR FAT LOSS?
I’m pretty sure you’ve heard the word ‘calories’ thrown around many a time when it comes to the health & fitness industry. We’re always told you need to be in a caloric deficit or surplus to hit your goal, and it’s all good hearing this, but do you really understand it?
Our understanding of any topic in life, allows us to be better informed about the decisions we will make. In this case, better decisions around our food choices and how to make them work for your personal goal.
So by the end of this I hope to leave you with confidence in your understanding of calories, and the tools to be able to make better decisions when it comes to your food choices.
No matter what time of the day you eat your meals, a calorie is still a calorie. In the simplest of terms a ‘calorie’ is a unit of energy. Your body requires these units of energy in order to be able to perform everyday tasks, functions of the body and exercise.
When you consume food, your bodies begin to break it down to absorb the nutrients it contains. During this process is where your body begins to use up the calories within the food as a source of fuel, how much it uses will be dependent on your level of activity.
Any calories that your body does not use as a source of fuel, will then be stored within your body’s fat cells for later use, if needed. This is what we call an excess of calories, where you are consuming more than your body needs in a given day.
Doing this repeatedly over time, will cause your body's fat cells to expand in order to make room for the constant excess of calories that you are eating on a daily basis. Leading to an increase in some cases weight, but mostly body fat.
The key point to remember here is that this doesn’t happen based on an excess of calories eaten over one day. This is something that you will have been doing on a consistent basis, that equates to your weekly calories being in a caloric surplus.
(Caloric Surplus = the amount of calories you consume is more than the amount you burn)
However, like all areas of life, there's a silver lining to be found here. If you feel like this is you or you’ve been in this calorie excess for too long, you can start working to reverse this and get back on track.
How you do this is by creating a consistent caloric deficit, allowing your body to use these fat stores for energy. As your body won’t be getting enough energy from the calories you consume it will look to the stored fat cells as a source of energy, in turn leading to a reduction in body fat.
(Caloric Deficit - the amount of calories you consume is less than the amount you burn)
Sounds easy right? The frustration only begins to settle in when we don’t see the results as quickly as we would like. But always keep in mind, the excess fat stores didn’t happen overnight, so neither will the reduction of them.
I know maybe I shouldn’t say this but facing the reality, allows us to make an honest change, where needed. You consistently stuck to the ‘no-limit’ plan which led to an excess of body fat. So try sticking to the caloric deficit plan for the same amount of time, if not longer and the rewards will eventually begin to take shape.
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HOW TO LOSE FAT & STAY ON TRACK, WITHOUT THE SCALES!
When you’re working towards fat loss, you want to be able to look at the scales and be pleased with what you see each time.
You go in with an expectation of, even though you had the odd snack it surely can’t change that much.
But in that moment when the scales show a number that takes you a few seconds to digest, has it accurately managed to tell you whether you’ve lost body fat or not?
The amount of body fat you carry at any given moment in time only equates to a certain percent of your overall body weight. Factors such as muscle mass and water retention can massively impact the number you see on the scale.
By the end of this article, I hope to be able to leave you with a good knowledge of how the scales should be used, when it comes to tracking your fat loss journey.
1. What is fat loss?
The vital thing to note is that there is no ‘if I do this one thing perfectly, then fat loss will happen’. There are many factors that will affect both the ability for fat loss to occur and the rate at which it happens. Such factors include nutrition, sleep, recovery, water intake, activity, and stress levels.
A certain level of body fat is needed as humans, for the role it plays in regulating body temperature and protecting the internal organs & joints. Too little or too much body fat can lead to longer-term health issues, if not managed effectively.
For every bit of food and drink you consume, they will all contain a certain amount of calories (the unit used to calculate the amount of energy a food has). By totalling the amount of energy in the food and drink consumed over a day, you will get your total energy intake for that day.
This intake of energy is then burnt as fuel for exercise, daily activity, and other bodily functions. This process of burning calories can be measured and is often referred to as energy output. If your energy output is consistently greater than your energy intake, (meaning you are burning more calories than you’re consuming) it is likely that fat loss will occur.
The common mistake at this point of the journey is depending solely on the scale to tell you how much body fat you have lost. To know the best methods of tracking your goal, it must be very clear what your goal is. Often people place weight loss and fat loss under the same hat, which tends to cause more confusion when it comes to measuring progress.
Weight loss is mainly driven by a focus on dropping the overall amount of total body weight a person carries. Whereas fat loss focuses on decreasing the amount of body fat, with the goal of building a leaner physique.
In most cases of fat loss, there will be a reduction in overall body weight as a by-product of the fat loss, however this is not the primary focus. There is no right or wrong out of the two just a choice of which will be more beneficial for you.
2. Why scales can’t be used solely for fat loss
There are a number of reasons as to why the scale weight will fluctuate from day-to-day. Rather than bore you with all the different reasons, I will stick to 2 of the more common ones; muscle mass and water retention.
Muscle mass is the amount of muscle tissue found within the body. If your following a progressive weight training programme, over time this could lead to an increase in the amount of muscle mass within your body.
For fat loss this is great, as an increase in muscle mass has been shown to improve the rate at which your body can burn energy (calories), providing a better foundation for fat loss to occur. However, despite no changes in body fat, this growth in muscle mass will show as an increase in total body weight on the scales.
Does that mean you’ve put on weight and need to sabotage your efforts so far?
Water retention occurs when there is a build-up of excess fluids within the body. This could be caused by a number of reasons such as; inactivity, changes to your diet, underlying health issues or hormonal changes that occur during a menstrual cycle.
Because of this, on any given day the scale could be either slightly higher or lower than normal. In most cases, if managed properly the water retention will subside and your weight will return, but this goes to further explain why the scales will not always be reliable for tracking fat loss.
3. How to track fat loss?
In order to get the truest picture of your fat loss journey, you must keep track of other factors alongside scale weight. Think of it in terms of calculating your profit margins. You must first be able to track all of your sales and expenses, to get the true picture of your net profit.
There are a few different ways to track this, with some methods being slightly more accurate than others. However, for anyone starting out here are the 3 basics I would suggest using, to get a truer picture of what your journey looks like.
Body measurements (I’d suggest taking weekly measurements of your neck, chest, upper arm, belly button/stomach, hips, thighs, and calf.
Progress pictures
Daily/weekly calorie intake & output
Ensure that you take the measurements and progress pictures as close as possible to the same time and day of each week. The more accurate you are with reporting your metrics, the more confident you can be with the results.
The last point to mention that often leaves people feeling deflated is their expectations. So to help you set the card straight, fat loss is not linear. This means after a period of time you will not see direct progress every week.
This doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong and need to jump ship. In order to get rid of the stubborn layers of fat, you must stick with the calorie deficit over a prolonged period of time. What that might be for each individual will be different. However, it would be worth investing in a coach at this point, to help keep you accountable and focused.
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DO YOU NEED TO TRACK CALORIES TO LOSE BODY FAT?
You’ll be surprised to hear this, but you don’t actually have to.
Why?
This might go against everything you’ve heard before, but hear me out.
After tracking calories for some time, you will eventually have enough knowledge to know roughly how much a typical portion of rice equates to.
You would have a rough idea of which foods tend to be more calorific, and which ones provide fewer calories.
Alongside this, you would have built up a good idea of how active you’d need to be a week, in order to create a sustainable calorie deficit.
Now let’s say you have planned to go out this weekend for a meal and drink with friends.
You’ll know based on previous experience, that this is where calories can go through the roof.
So, in response to this, you decide to choose to have breakfast with foods that you have identified as having fewer calories.
Leaving room for you to enjoy your evening meal without guilt.
Because you have the knowledge, you can now make educated choices around your nutrition rather than guestimating.
However, this level of freedom doesn’t come without doing your homework first.
Almost think of it like learning to ride a bike.
Upon the first few attempts, you probably weren’t as confident as you are today.
So to help you overcome that feeling of nervousness, you’d often start off with some stabilisers.
The stabilisers give you the ability to focus on your technique, without having to worry about your balance or falling off the bike.
As you begin to practice more and more, your confidence in your own ability also grows.
After some time you will feel confident enough to remove the stabilisers, and maybe if you’re daring enough even ride free hand.
It’s the exact same process when it comes to eating for fat loss.
Often people will try to skip the stabiliser stage, and move straight on to trying to eat whatever they want, and hope that fat loss will occur as long as they work out enough.
I’d love to be able to tell you that would work, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.
It takes time to feel confident in your decision around nutrition.
Although the thought of counting calories, can at first seem overwhelming, the life it helps you create is so much more rewarding.
Being able to enjoy more of the food you love, in moderation because the majority of your choices are in line with your individual goal.
This sounds like a great theory in context, but where do you go from here?
Almost all packaged products contain their calorie information on the back of the product.
You could keep a physical diary jotting down your calories across the day for each of your meals.
This again can be time-consuming, but helps you to have somewhere to refer back to at any point in time.
Alternatively, you can download my free guide, which teaches how to do this from your phone, save over half the time you would spend writing everything down, and guarantee fat loss in the next 4 weeks.
All you need to do, to get your hands on a free copy, is click THIS LINK below and you’ll be on your way to becoming a nutritional guru, and cracking away at your goals.
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THE BEST CARDIO FOR FAT LOSS
When it comes to cardio for fat loss, running tends to be the first point of call for most people. If programmed at the right time, for the right individual this can yield amazing benefits. However, there are some considerations to make when deciding if running is the best form of cardio, for you right now.
The purpose of this article isn’t to put you off running, but to help you start asking the questions that will give you the answers you’re looking for. This approach can also help you move away from the need to feel one exercise is ‘best’, but more so which is better suited for your individual goal.
Although running is not considered to be a form of weight training, your legs will be responsible for carrying your body weight throughout the exercise. This means that with each stride (gait) there will be a considerable amount of stress placed upon the knee and surrounding joints.
This is to be expected, but the level of stress placed on the knee can be the difference between strengthening the knee joints or causing unnecessary damage. Things such as the type of running shoes you wear and your running technique can both help to minimise this impact.
But, what happens if you have both of these and you still finding that running is causing pain in your knees?
It’s common to see people just grind through it, with the mentality of ‘no pain, no gain’. I’ll be the first to tell you that this is a one-way ticket to injury, that in some cases may even cause you to regress. If you find yourself experiencing knee-pain when running, in the first instance you should always check in with your health professional to eliminate any serious underlying issues.
Outside of those who may be affected by other conditions, the main contributor of knee-pain has been identified as obesity. At a walking pace, your knee takes about 1.5 times your body weight with each step. For a person who weighs 200 pounds, each step would equate to 300 pounds of pressure placed on their knee with each step.
In running the force taken on each knee can be anywhere between 4 - 8 times your bodyweight. This means for the same person weighing 200 pounds, each step could equate anywhere between 800 to 1,600 pounds per step. Over time, this amount of strain will cause excessive wear and tear on the knees and surrounding joints.
Does this make running a bad exercise?
Definitely not, but in order to create a sustainable plan, there will be better alternatives for you to start off with. Walking as mentioned, places a lot less strain on the knee than running, making this a better option to start with. It is also a great way to build strength in the muscles and ligaments that would be used during running.
Aside from walking, some of the most important factors that will support your progress are;
Following a full-body, progressive weight training programme.
Keeping a closer eye on your energy balance, in order to create a calorie deficit.
Managing your stress.
Improving your sleep.
Increasing your daily water intake.
Additionally, there are other cardio machines that will minimise the amount of strain placed upon the knees. These include cross trainers, rowing machines, stationary bikes or the stair master.
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WHY MANAGING STRESS IS IMPORTANT FOR FAT LOSS
When people think of fat loss the two main focus points tend to be training and nutrition.
And rightly so, as without a consistent strength training programme and a calorie deficit, the chances of fat loss occurring will be very minimal.
Whilst these two play a key part in your ability to lose fat, they can not be singled out as the only two things that your efforts should go towards.
Over the years, I’ve seen many cases of people training consistently and eating ‘healthy’ majority of the time but still struggling to lose body fat.
Why?
Because as soon as stress hits, an overindulgence of food & other poor habits tends to be the answer.
Here’s a few examples that you might even have noticed across your journey.
Because it’s been a high-stress day at work, people may often feel like they deserve a treat/day off. Which usually results in an evening binge of eating whatever they want, without being mindful of their choices.
A stressful situation has happened within their personal life, and the easiest way to ‘deal’ with it is by delving into distractions. So instead of still making time to exercise, they may spend the evening in the rabbit hole of social media.
As much as you may be committed to losing body fat, if you’re overlooking the way you react to stress, I can almost guarantee that your efforts will eventually feel wasted.
Learning to manage stress, doesn’t mean choosing to ignore the fact that stressful situations will occur in life. Rather being able to look at those situations objectively and choose how you want to respond and whether that response is actually helping or hindering you.
In doing so, you can quickly begin to identify the root cause of your lack of progress and start working on it, rather than beating yourself up for the results you’re not seeing.
It may seem like such a small factor, and I’m sure you might even be reading this, thinking surely it can’t make that much of a difference. But I can guarantee that in my experience of working with people, managing stress has been a game-changer not only in people’s results but also their level of happiness.
Outside of the external reactions to stress, it can also cause issues with your internal system. This makes fat loss seem 10x more difficult than it needs to be because rather than your body working with you, it’s working against you.
Experiencing long periods of stress can eventually cause disruptions in your sleep, meaning that getting a full night of quality sleep becomes a problem. Where before you may have been able to sleep for 7 - 9 hours undistracted, you might struggle to get 3 hours of unbroken sleep.
During the time in which you sleep, there are a lot of hormonal changes taking place that allow you to perform at your best both physically and mentally for the day ahead.
Two hormones especially that affect fat loss are Ghrelin and Leptin. Ghrelin is often referred to as the hunger hormone, as it helps to control your hunger. Whilst Leptin is related to feeling full.
Assuming you get a full night of quality sleep your body is able to stabilise these hormones, in a way that will allow you to make better choices for fat loss. Studies have shown that a lack of sleep increases the levels of Ghrelin in your body and decreases the level of Leptin.
No matter how much willpower you may have, trying to fight against the urges triggered by your hormones is a losing battle. Eventually, you can end up eating more than needed because of increased levels of Ghrelin and not feeling as full due to decreases in Leptin. Both of which are not conducive for someone with the goal of fat loss.
Hence, the importance of coming back to the root cause, stress. If every time a stressful situation occurs it limits your ability to get a good night’s sleep over a period of days, you will feel like you’re constantly hitting a brick wall.
The second point I want to bring your attention to is the internal stress on your body caused by dieting or long periods at a go. Whilst fat loss occurs when you are in a calorie deficit, the aim should not be to spend the rest of your life there.
Consuming less energy than your body needs for basic functioning over long periods of time, can actually do more harm than good when it comes to fat loss. Outside of losing fat, your body requires food for a number of different reasons from supporting your health, immune system and basic everyday functions.
Staying within the extreme end of a calorie deficit over a prolonged period can cause spikes in the hormone Cortisol. Increases in Cortisol have been shown to increase your appetite for sweet, high-fat foods and retain more body fat than necessary.
People often stay in a deficit too long for a number of reasons. It could be not understanding the effects of it, wanting results to happen straight away or even not being happy with the progress so far.
All of which are perfectly understandable reasons for wanting to continue dieting. However this is where it pays to be long game minded. Switching between phases of being in a deficit and then reverse dieting up to maintenance calories will actually help you continually make progress, rather than getting the results you want only to end up back at square one in 6 months time.
Whilst these two give context to how increased stress makes it harder for you to lose fat, the list of why poorly managed stress hinders fat loss goes on further than this.
Learning to better manage your stress both internal & external may just be the ‘magic-pill’ you’ve been looking for that will help you see sustainable results. If this is something fairly new to you it may be difficult and in some cases may require the help of a professional.
In the meantime, I have put together a set of questions to reflect on the next time you feel stressed.
Identify 5 positive things that will come as a result of this situation?
Are you reacting to your stress or choosing how to respond?
By choosing this response, how will you feel about yourself and your goals tomorrow?
Looking further down the line, if you continue to respond to stress in this way will it be helping or hindering your goals?
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ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP?
Last week I conducted a small survey, to find out how many people actually get a good night’s sleep.
And here’s what the findings reported...
You might be thinking that 7 - 9 hours is almost impossible to achieve, given the number of things that you have to do every day.
However, it doesn’t change the fact that without a good night’s sleep, you will always be operating at a sub-optimal version of yourself.
For a very long period of time, I too fell into the trap of pushing sleep right down to the bottom of my list of priorities, getting by on 4-5 hours of sleep on a good day.
In all honesty, a lot of this came from the mindset of “hustle now, sleep later”. I didn’t recognize the importance of sleep and therefore neglected it as something that I should prioritise.
Because of this, I want to share a small insight into why sleep is probably one of the most important things for your health and mindset.
Ps, let me not forget to mention the role sleep plays in helping you progress with your gym & body goals.
So, where do you start?
The first point I want to draw your attention to is something called the Circadian rhythm. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry too much. Most people haven’t so here’s a little bit of context.
Simply put, it’s your body’s internal 24-hour clock. This clock is responsible for controlling the hormones that make you feel sleepy as it gets later in the day, and more awake as the sun begins to rise.
As the day gets darker, your body clock responds by signalling your brain to produce a hormone called melatonin. Its purpose is to help put your mind and body into a more relaxed state, thus creating a better environment for you to fall asleep in.
You’ll be surprised at just how much goes on within your body, during the time in which you sleep.
Your brain begins to consolidate any new information learned throughout the day, which is useful when learning or studying a new topic and also creating memories.
Your pituitary gland (a small gland that helps to regulate your metabolism, general wellbeing, and many other bodily functions) releases the growth hormone, which helps your body grow and repair itself. This is key when weight training, as it helps to maximise muscle growth, and favour fat loss over weight loss.
The hunger hormone (Grehlin) also decreases, which is useful in helping you manage your cravings. A consistent lack of sleep can cause a rise in Grehlin, which increases your hunger and appetite over the following days.
On the opposing side, as the sun begins to rise and the day gets lighter, your body stops producing melatonin. This is a way of letting your body know that it’s time to wake up.
In an ideal world, this rhythm would allow your body to go through enough cycles of deep sleep to reap the associated benefits. However, this isn’t the case for most people today.
Due to many different lifestyle factors, the body’s 24-hour clock gets disrupted, and the ability for you to be able to get a good night’s sleep is diminished.
In some instances, people have become so used to functioning on less than 7-9 hours of sleep. However, this doesn’t change the evidence that points to all the long-term health issues that can be developed through a lack of sleep.
Here are some of the more common issues and some suggestions to help you get into a better sleeping pattern.
The most common thing for people to do before bed is to spend time in front of screens (TVs, laptops, mobile phones etc…). As relaxing as this may feel in the moment, these screens emit a blue light which actually stops the production of melatonin. In turn, pushing your body’s clock back and despite you falling asleep shortly after, your mind and body are still not in a state of actual rest. 1 - 2 hours before bed, aim to avoid screens and get the room to be as dark as possible.
If you don’t have a set time that you go to sleep, it’s more than likely that the amount of time you sleep will also vary. Like most things in life, unless you plan for it to happen, it generally won’t. Create a set time for sleep and stick to it.
Any stressful activities/work that you do closer to the time in which you go to sleep will cause an increase in the hormone, adrenaline. Adrenaline is necessary for when we need to be alert or in the ‘fight or flight’ mode. But as I’m sure you can imagine, you’ll find it very hard to sleep in this state of alertness. Where possible
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WHAT'S THE BEST EXERCISE TO LOSE MY BELLY?
If you’ve ever asked or searched this question, trust me you’re not alone.
Many people like you are looking for that one exercise, that will help them shift that gut.
Only to find that countless reps of sit-ups aren’t providing them with the results they expected.
So the question that stems from this approach is, is there more to losing belly fat than just doing a particular exercise?
As you read through this article, I hope to lead you towards an answer that will work best for you as an individual, and provide you with a better insight into the link between training and fat loss.
WHAT CAUSES AN INCREASE IN BODY FAT?
In order to fully appreciate fat loss, it’s important to understand how an increase in body fat occurs.
When you consume more energy (calories) than you burn over a period of time, your body begins to store this as excess energy.
That might be great if you have a marathon coming up in the next coming weeks. However, if you continually consume more energy than you burn, your body has to find ways to store this excess energy.
To do so it either does one of two things;
Enlarges your existing fat cells within the body to make more room.
Create’s more fat cells for extra storage.
Depending on a few variables, where your body predominantly stores most of this fat will differ from person to person.
Some will find that they tend to store more fat around their gut, and be led to believe that performing ab exercises repeatedly will help.
Others may find that they store more fat around the upper body and arms, and also be led to believe countless reps of pushups and pullups will rid them of this excess body fat.
Whilst exercising in general plays a part in helping to increase the amount of energy you burn, thus moving towards a calorie deficit.
This approach alone will not have a direct effect on losing belly fat, due to there still being an excess amount of energy being consumed through food.
WHY EXERCISE ALONE WON’T SHIFT BELLY FAT?
The first thing to note is that whether you can visibly see them or not, you all have abdominal muscles.
Muscles in the abs are a part of everybody's makeup. They provide the ability to move, function, support the core and hold your organs in place.
Here’s a quick way to test this.
Place your fingers at either side of your rib cage, but closer towards the front of your stomach. Whilst your hands are firmly pressed, bend your upper body from one side to the other.
What you will feel is a shortening & lengthening of the oblique muscles, which also make up the outer layer of the abdominal muscles.
WHAT IS ACTUALLY NEEDED TO LOSE BELLY FAT?
This is the bit that you’ve most likely been eager to get into.
So let’s look at all the varying factors that will work towards you being able to decrease the amount of body fat you carry.
As mentioned above, if you're continually consuming more energy than your burning, this will lead to an increase in body fat.
To combat this you will need to be in a calorie deficit (a state whereby you are consuming less energy than you are burning).
Often people tend to go a bit too extreme with this approach leaving them feeling burnt out and exhausted.
To ensure that you can decrease body fat, but still enjoy all the health benefits associated, I’d suggest working at a calorie deficit of about 10 - 15%. If you’re not sure how to calculate this, click this link to use my calorie calculator.
The 2nd thing to point out is that fat loss is different from weight loss. With weight loss you may be solely focused on your scale weight alone, but this won’t tell you whether you are losing body fat mass or muscle mass.
As you start working towards your goal, you want to ensure that the majority of what is being lost is actually body fat.
To maximise fat loss, you want to retain as much muscle as possible throughout the process. In doing so the end result will be a much leaner composition, as opposed to a ‘skinny-fat’ composition (slimmer limbs, prominent stomach).
A better approach to accommodate these changes in your composition, will be a full body strength training programme accompanied with adequate protein intake.
With an increased amount of muscle mass the body becomes more efficient at burning fat, whilst at rest. This is where most people tend to go wrong with focusing solely on ab exercises.
It’s not just about the amount of fat your body burns during a workout, but throughout the entire day. A good way of looking at it is, building your body to be more optimal at using your body fat for fuel, rather than trying to burn as many calories in one given training session.
As you build more muscle mass, the muscles require more energy to maintain them. At this point they begin to use fat as an energy source, hence making fat loss more likely to occur.
If you’re struggling to put together a full body strength training programme, then my 3-day gym programme would be a great starting point for you. Click this link, to find out a bit more about which exercises to include and get your free copy.
HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO YOU NEED FOR FAT LOSS?
As I’m sure you may have heard many a time, exercise is only one part, but nutrition is an even bigger contributor. For many this tends to be the biggest struggle.
So let’s break this down into easily digestible information for you to be able to apply, no matter what level you’re at on your understanding of nutrition.
In order to maximise muscle growth, your body needs a certain amount of protein which will be dependent on you as an individual.
A typical western diet for most people only provides somewhere in the region of 60 - 80g of protein, which is sub-optimal for muscle growth.
Aside from the added benefits for muscle growth and fat loss, protein is also needed to support health and many of the body's functions.
As a starting point for muscle growth, I’d advise having somewhere between 1.6 - 2.2g of protein per kg of bodyweight.
Let’s say Jimmy weighs 85kg and is looking to lose body fat. Here’s how we would calculate how much protein he would need.
Body weight is 85kg x 1.6 (minimum) = 136g of protein per day
Following this amount of protein, coupled with a strength training programme would set Jimmy on the right path to losing body fat.
Keep in mind 1.6 as a multiplier of his body weight is a minimum. So you can see how far off this is, from the average most people are currently getting.
By now I hope that you have a better understanding of why there is no specific exercise alone that will help you to lose body fat, and a better picture of the role it plays in fat loss.
With the tools provided in this article you should now be able to start taking the first steps towards losing belly fat, and creating habits that serve you in becoming your best self.