The secret to weight loss - Part Two
Eat less move more part ✌️
So now we have worked out our calorie intake and set a suitable deficit, we have planned out our meals to ensure we hit our macros, get our micronutrients and have some treats to keep us on track. Perfect,
Next we should look at our move more component. We will break this into two sections. Exercise and daily movement.
Fun Fact: We burn the majority of our daily calories via breathing, pumping blood through our body and other internal functions.
Exercise
I am a big believe in exercising for the mind and to shape your body. If you exercise purely to lose weight you will have a bad time. Nutrition is your biggest and best weight loss tool. Exercise builds muscle, keeps you healthy and happy!
But how much should we exercise? The answer is as much as you can fit into your schedule without burning out. If you can train 4 times a week awesome! If you can only train twice a week that’s still good, you may just need to be smarter with your training and NEAT (explained very soon).
For your average gym goer the best bang for buck workout you can do is a full body session. Focusing on compound movements (multi-joint exercises) and adding some isolated exercises to stimulate growth in certain areas.
“But bra, what about chest day?” - OK, so this is how exercise works, you basically do your workout using progressive overload, damage your muscle, go home eat adequate protein to repair it and build it. This muscles “growth” stage can last 48-72 hours. If you are doing leg day, back day, chest and tris etc you are only working that muscle once a week, so there are 4 possible days a week that muscle isn’t getting any primary movement. Unless you have the time and can handle high volume of training I would suggest using the full body approach.
There are a couple of ways you can plan your workouts
Push pull legs - the old fashioned layout that every PT learns at school push = chest, pull = back and then legs
Plan by body parts + some people like to plan by moving around their bodies. Legs, back, chest, tris, bis, shoulders then finish with core - choosing a couple of exercises that work those muscles in each group
If you can get into the gym a little more regularly you could break the full bodies into 2 seperate workouts - day 1 legs, chest and shoulders day 2 legs, back and arms. If you go 4 times a week you are working those body parts twice a week.
Now, I could go on all day about training and session planning but as I need to condense this, if you have any questions or would like help with a training program you can always reach me o.hampton@hotmail.com
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Daily movement
You may or may not have heard about NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) or exercise you do that isn’t planned. This can be tapping your foot, walking around the house, cleaning, basically any type of movement you do that isn’t planned exercise. This may surprise some but you generally burn more calories a day through NEAT than you do planned exercise.
The thing with NEAT is, when we create a calorie deficit our bodies will try to conserve energy, so our NEAT will decrease subconsciously to help us save calories. This means that previously you may have been in a deficit and doing 10,000 steps a day, but if your step count drops that also means your deficit would drop. So it is important to always keep your NEAT up. Most phones and smart watches these days have step counters and fit bits are relatively cheap these days so majority of people can keep track of their movement.
Set yourself a daily step goal, the world health organisation recommends 10.000 steps a day. If you find you are reaching your goal easily, then increase it. The best part about daily movement is that unlike planned exercise you can do it anywhere anytime, the good old take the stairs instead of the lift, park a little further away tricks that get said again and again - they work. It might not seem like much when isolated, but added to a day full of other small movement changes and then teamed with a good nutrition and exercise plan that allows frequent training of all muscle groups and progressive overload - you will be smashing goals in no time.
My name is Olivia and I am a personal trainer and nutrition coach with 7 years experience. If you want to follow the simple principle of move more eat less, educate yourself around food and calories and do it on your terms, contact me now for customised meal plans involving real food based around meals you like to eat and your lifestyle.
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