Ever hear the advice: “Don’t eat carbs after 6pm because your body will just store them as fat!” Simple right? WRONG. I hear this banded around all the time and to be blunt, it’s getting a bit blooming boring. You don’t need to avoid carbs after 6pm to lose body fat. In fact you don’t necessarily need to avoid carbs at any time of day in order to lose body fat.
I recently posted in our membership site Fitter 365 about the importance of individuality when it comes to your nutrition and training. We can all be guilty at times of constantly comparing ourselves; our physique, our training achievements, the 'cleanness' of our eating regimes, the number of steps we've taken and it can all get a bit out of hand. Changes you once felt proud of suddenly don’t seem enough and you’re racked with guilt about not putting in enough time, effort and energy. You need to try harder!
I’m a self confessed exercise addict and I’ve touched on this subject in a previous blog on body image because that’s where my training journey started out. I felt miserable, tired and my trousers were too tight. I started jogging (if you can call it that, I only lasted 10 minutes on my first few attempts) and immediately felt happier, full of energy and my trousers finally fitted again. For me exercise was the solution to EVERYTHING. Over the years I came to rely on endorphins every single day as they transformed my outlook, personality and sense of positivity, to the point you really wouldn’t want to meet me on a rest day.
Most of us are turning to fat loss goals this week. As we lead such busy lifestyles it can be a challenge fitting work, training, family responsibilities, etc into one day! However, the one thing you should NOT skimp on is your nutrition. In fact the worst thing you can do is start reaching for convenient, processed foods. To hit your 2016 fat loss and health goals you just need to get a bit smarter and more organised with your food preparation. These top ten tips will have you whipping up tasty and nutritious meals for you and the family in no time.
It’s that time of year again when many of us renew our resolutions for the year. The easy thing to do here (and most common in our experience) is to come up with a fat loss goal; drop a dress size, get a six pack, fit into my skinny jeans again, blah blah. We always aim to steer people away from these goals as they're based upon a negative relationship with your body for a start, plus it’s no fun weighing and measuring your food and your waistline day in day out. In fact the harder people pursue this goal the more likely they are to fail at it.
Probably one of the most popular questions we come across this time of year is how to have your Xmas cake and eat it without piling on the pounds. This is completely understandable as there's so much more temptation around the festive period, a greater desire to let your hair down, not to mentioned some added stressors to cope with as we tackle the xmas shopping in the gloomy, wet weather etc, etc. One thing to emphasis here is that we are just like you. We have a few more treats than we usually do around December, crave comfort foods with the darker mornings and shorter days and it is Christmas after all!
If you have followed Fitter Food for some time now you'll know that we’ve been going on for years about the essentials of fat loss which include eating nutritious food, moving daily, exercising a few times a week, sleeping soundly and managing stress. All of these support optimal hormone health and the body's natural mechanisms for healthy weight management. Everyone needs to master the basics before they progress to more advanced protocols. However, we also acknowledge that some people's bodies need an extra nudge to get results or maybe your fat loss has stalled a little. The following are just a few simple steps you can implement that can kick your metabolism into action.
Does that title confuse you? I thought it might, so I will explain. You see many people are always looking for the best exercises for fat loss and we have always said that the one you can stick with will always get the best results. When you can find something you really enjoy it almost doesn't feel like “training” because you love it, time flies by but you get a killer workout at the same time. Winning combo, right?
You've probably gathered by now that we're a massive pair of foodies, but we also love training and something we're huge fans of and include in our own workouts and programs is HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). You've likely heard of it by now but in case you haven’t it involves switching between short bursts of high intensity exercise and periods of rest at a lower intensity. For example, sprinting full pace for 20 seconds followed by walking for 40 seconds and repeating say 8-12 times, that is interval training. HIIT is a great fat loss tool that gets fantastic results, in case you need a little more convincing here are my 4 reasons to get involved in HIIT today.
It’s nearly Christmas and I'm so looking forward to it! Spending time with loved ones, chilling out and enjoying some of my favourite treats including Yule log, short bread and mulled wine... yum. I can’t lie I'm a sucker for festive treats, they have sentimental value and as I'm just a big kid at heart I don't need much persuading to indulge.
At Fitter Food we've been in the industry a good few years now and had the opportunity to work with thousands of individuals both in person and online. We have helped people of all shapes and sizes with very different starting points, different goals and barriers to progress. This experience has allowed us to develop different strategies and approaches to ensure people get results, however, they all have one thing in common and start in the same place.
This week we interview Dr. Tommy Wood, he's a strength and conditioning coach (so he lifts!), he's also a brainy fella; after studying medicine at Oxford University he went on to work as a doctor in central London for two years. He's now completing a PhD in Norway researching neonatal brain metabolism. Tommy is also the Chief Scientific Officer for the Physicians and Ancestral Health Society and lectures across the globe on nutrition, lifestyle and chronic diseases.