9 Reasons why the gym doesn’t necessarily get you fit

1.     1. You end up spending up to the equivalent of a workout getting there! The majority of people live at least 5-10 minutes away from their chosen gym, total this up over the week and you get at least an hour’s wasted travel time that could have been spent running in the great outdoors.

2.        

      2. Are you sure you have an effective workout? 9 times out of 10 the people that I see in gyms, either do the same thing every time they go into the gym and without variety and a challenge you will hit a plateau and your workouts will have no effect, or have no game plan go in and just wing it. A lot of thought should go into your workouts, with a full body approach, challenges and progression in every session.

3.        

      3. I’m super fit I can run at 14km an hour on the treadmill….wrong. For all you gym cardio demons, get outside!!! When training outside you work twice as hard, particularly all you treadmill runners. With the right trainers to take away the impact on your joints, there’s no excuse. The treadmill does half the work for you, due to the pull back of the belt, not only meaning you burn less calories than the treadmill tells you, but also putting you at risk of injury due to muscles imbalances particularly in the quads.

4.        

      4. It’s a waiting game. Take a stop watch in with you the next time you go to the gym, and total up on a busy night, how long you spend waiting for all the equipment that you need. Bet you actually spend about 20 minutes in total hanging around, so that hour long workout you told your friends you did was actually only 40 minutes.

5.        

      5. Just because you’re on a piece of equipment doesn’t mean you’re working hard. The amounts of people I see in the gym that don’t even break out in a sweat….what are you doing? If you’re not sweating even a tiny bit then you certainly not working hard enough! If you’re excuse is that you are super fit, up the incline and the speed I bet that problem gets sorted quick enough. Sweating is the body’s way of cooling you down when your heart rate has increased and the blood is pumping round your body, it’s also a way of showing that you’re working at an intensity that will have a health benefit for your body.

6.   

            6. Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition. This is the main part of a healthy lifestyle mainly because it’s the biggest. A twenty minute, high intensity cardio workout burns just over 200 calories. A bottle of orange lucozade has 280 calories. Drinking a bottle of lucozade while running on the treadmill for 20 minutes, you still have consumed 80 more calories than you have burnt off…..get my drift?

7.        

      7. Useless equipment. You pay that massive monthly fee because there is lots of fantastic shiny looking equipment that surely you will use. Truth is the majority of it is useless and can be done with free weights which get you to work harder and are better for you long term.

8.        

      8. Mirror syndrome. Mirrors mirrors everywhere. The majority of people train what they see. The result is bad posture that long term can result in severe back problems. A full body approach should always be used and you should never train what you can see in the mirror alone, remember we have back muscles that need strengthening people!

9.        

      9. Gyms don’t have me.

Exercise and Nutrition...one won’t work without the other

As a personal trainer I often find a lot of the marketed materials that are around for health and fitness. I get bombarded with questions from friends, family, clients and social media contacts, asking about either exercise or nutrition.

More often than not the question will be based upon the general scenario that an article or piece of advice has been put in to practice and not been effective. The question is usually why or what can be done to make it work. Here is where I go back and place emphasis on the fact that the question is about exercise OR nutrition.

One OR the other. The truth is one won’t be effective without the other.

Scenario 1: You take a fitness regime from Men’s Health or Zest, it looks spanking and is probably a pretty good workout, it guarantees results in 4 weeks. 4 weeks down the line you don’t really see or feel much difference.  

Scenario 2: You take a nutrition plan from Men’s Health or Zest, it looks great, tasty, nutritious, so surely the pounds will melt away like it says. 4 weeks down the line you don’t really see or feel much difference.

Conclusion: 4 weeks of either scenario 1 or 2 not working and you decide to scrap it and go back to the way you were. What a waste of time!

In the fitness industry there is masses of information about exercise and nutrition. Don’t get me wrong it is all in its’ own way right, but there is a gap in the education that people are receiving about how to live a healthy lifestyle. There are so many quick fix diets and exercise programmes being advertised, that people’s vision of a healthy lifestyle is either leaning towards diet or exercise.

The truth is that you can’t have an entirely healthy lifestyle if you are only focusing on one without the other. You will never see the true benefits of those hours in the gym if during your workout you are consuming a high glucose drink and then go home and have a meal that doesn’t have a balance of carbohydrate, protein and essential fats. You won’t see the true potential of all those painful hours poured over food labels and calorie counter books if you aren’t exercising to burn fat and build muscle.

Another truth is, that if you have a healthy balance of both, neither should be painful. If your diet is good 80% of the time and you exercise then that 20% is counteracted. If you only exercise for 30 minutes a few times a week but you have a fantastic diet then it is balanced out. Neither of them need hours of blood and tears put into the calorie burn and count because a healthy lifestyle is about finding a balance.

So the next time you spend three hours in the gym and restrict you calorie count to 1200 calories a day, remember that your body needs adequate nutrition to help see the benefits of all that exercise, and a low calorie diet is not the answer. Or you reduce your calorie intake and don’t exercise, remember that despite being slim, you can’t be toned and fit without building muscle through exercise.

One won’t work without the other.

I did it!!!!!!!!

So ladies and gentlemen! As previously mentioned in my blogs, I was attempting to get down to my racing weight, otherwise known as my optimal performance weight to improve my speed. Well let me tell you the body does crazy things!

The experiment is officially over, why you say? Because I’ve reached my target body fat percentage. EH?

Starting Stats: (when we made the faux pax, so I’ve just put my starting weight and BMI)

Weight: 62.2 KG / 9 Stone 11.2 lbs

BMI: 22.1

Starting Stats: (correct ones done a few days after the start of the experiment)

Gender: Female

Age: 21

Height: 5ft 6 inches

Weight:  61.69 KG / 9 stone 10 lbs

Total Body Fat Percentage: 19.9%

Fat Mass: 1 stone 13 lbs

Muscle Mass: 7 stone 5.6 lbs

Hydration: 59.8 %

Bone Mass: 5.4 lbs

Metabolic Age: 12

Visceral Fat Rating: 1

BMI: 21.9

End Stats:

Gender: Female

Age: 21

Height: 5ft 6 inches

Weight:  60.87 KG / 9 stone 8.2 lbs  
Total Body Fat Percentage: 17%

Fat Mass: 1 stone 7.6 lbs

Muscle Mass: 7 stone 8.8 lbs

Hydration: 61.7 %

Bone Mass: 5.8 lbs

Metabolic Age: 12

Visceral Fat Rating: 1

BMI: 21.64

How the hell did that happen?

Well I’m not entirely sure myself! The first idea is that I’m a machine, which I’m not going to disagree with. The second idea is based partially around the no sugar experiment as I think the clean eating that I have carried on has affected my body in ways I never anticipated. The final idea, protein shakes.

When you should consume Protein Shakes

I’ve been against protein shakes for many years, partially due to an initial bad experience with them in which I actually gained weight and fat over muscle. Reason, because I wasn’t training right and my nutrition at the time was poor, but based on a bad experience I have avoided them like the plague for as long as possible. Here is where the problem lies as I am a vegetarian and I have to say I found getting adequate amounts of protein in my diet quite a struggle. When I analyzed my food diary it became clear that I was trying to get my protein mainly from nuts and seeds and sadly my fat intake was through the roof! Although in the short term this won’t have affected my health I’m glad this issue was addressed earlier rather than later. So I started consuming to protein shakes a day (just one scoop) and the difference has been phenomenal. I was quite clever with how I went about deciding on my brand and type of shake, as I’m still trying to consume as little refined sugar as possible and protein shakes are notorious for being pumped with about 15 different types of sugar and the content per 100g makes me feel queasy! I found a brand called Phd Diet Whey which was perfect for me. It gave me high levels of protein with no fat or sugar and I could consume my carbohydrate from more natural forms of sugar like fruit. Yes they do have some sweeteners in, but beggars can’t be choosers and how clean my diet is currently, the sweeteners in the protein shakes will be having little effect upon my body. 

So not only has my recovery improved, my muscle mass has gone up and my fat down. Marveloos!

But you didn’t reach your target weight how are you at your optimal performance weight?

Good question! The problem with estimating your optimal performance weight, based on your starting lean muscle mass, is that it calculates your optimal weight assuming that your lean mass is to stay the exact same and all you are to do is loose fat. This is why I have reached my optimal body fat without having to lose as much weight! Basically what has happened is that being a lucky girl I have gained quite a bit of muscle with the help of improving my protein intake, and this has helped to improve my muscle to fat ratio, hence my body fat percentage now being fabulous!

Results:

 So since starting the experiment I have lost a total of 3 pounds and dropped almost 1 point off my BMI. The main point is that I have dropped my body fat percentage from 19.9% to 17% so lost a total of 2.9%. WOWAWEEWA! It happened fast and I didn’t expect it, but it makes sense when I think how my running speed has improved, as has my strength and endurance. Not to mention that I’m now in the 80^th percentile of body fat for females my weight, meaning that my body fat is lower than 80% of women my age.

What you going to do now then?

Simple, have a curry (I’m not kidding). I’m going to treat myself after almost a month and a half of experiments, and a nice big margin of body fat to play with.

On a more serious note, I will be upping my calorie intake to 2600 calories a day. This will allow me to keep my training the same (the most important thing) but stabilize my weight. Going any lower than 17% for someone that doesn’t compete in athletics is pretty pointless, as a female it messes with my hormones and is far too much pressure than I need, so now I’m going to kick back and relax! But of course still be nutritious and eat clean!

An afterthought: For all those thinking I’m crazy for eating clean and not having sweets etc. Watch Jamie’s Food Revolution Goes to Hollywood, episode 3. His homemade ice cream sundae made up of the real ingredients that go into those Sundaes will make you think twice before putting sweets in your mouth!

It’s what’s on the inside that counts….Visceral Fat

Body fat is not all what meets the eye, you can be skinny and still have a lot of visceral fat.

So what is visceral fat?  

Visceral fat is the internal fat that surrounds the heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas, and streaks through muscles; therefore, you can look skinny and still be fat. Furthermore, visceral fat doesn’t just act like normal fat; it releases toxic waste into the blood stream.

Who gets visceral fat?

Everyone that has a crap diet and doesn’t move about be you skinny or obese. However, to all you men out there that are so fond of your beer bellies, put the beer down. Middle aged men have a genetic predisposition to store visceral fat, so the next time you stroke your belly fondly just remember it’s killing you.

Causes:

• ·         High fat and high sugar diet

• ·         Excess calories

• ·         Little or no exercise

• ·         Obesity

• ·         Alcohol

• ·         Stress

• ·         Smoking

Effects:

• ·         Heart Attacks

• ·         Hypertension

• ·         Angiogram

• ·         High cholesterol

• ·         Type 2 Diabetes

(Nice visceral fatty heart yum!)

Another effect that visceral fat has is on mood. Not only do you feel down and have low energy levels and self esteem due to your weight; to whack a big bundle of depression on top of it, visceral fat has been proven to increase the levels of a stress hormone called cortisol and reduce levels of feel good endorphins.

To sum it up, it makes you feel like crap (if you didn’t already).

The good news….visceral fat has been proven to reduce relatively quickly with the right level of intervention, the obvious being move more, eat less and eat healthier. Over time visceral fat will reduce, your mood will improve along with your general well being, setting you on the right path to look and feel fantastic…hurrah!

 So how do I know what my visceral fat level is?

 Lucky for all you guys and gals out there, there are plenty of ways you can find out, the easiest being on a set of body composition scales. Electrical currents are sent through the body and then rate your visceral fat on a scale of 1-59.

A low risk area for visceral fat is 1-12 and anything above being classed as high risk. The lower the better though!

If you are concerned about your health or would like to know what your body composition is (including your visceral fat), don’t hesitate to get in touch and book a consultation!

Correct Stats for Race Weight Experiment

So I screwed up a bit and have been on the wrong setting on the scales! This may be a bit repetitive but here are my REAL stats!!! So why were they done wrong? Well basically every body fat monitor works in 2 different modes, normal (for your average Joe’s) and athlete (nuff said). I was wowed when I realized that I actually fall into the athletic category due to the fact that I have trained for over 10 hours a week for the past 2 years and I have a resting heart rate of 49 Beats Per Minute. (I like being able to say I’m classed as an athlete!!!)

So the reason why it makes such a difference on the scales is that the numbers are calculated in different ways due to the differences in my muscle structure and hydration. Overall my body is “denser” than that of an average person, and going on a normal setting would over compensate and lead to higher stats (which is what happened on the last blog).

I have coloured everything that is new in red and here is a bit of a reminder of what the last blog talked aboot:

Here are some general guidelines of endurance sports and optimal body fat percentages:

Cycling: Male – 6-11%

                Female – 12-16 %

Rowing: Male - <8%

                Female – 12-16%

Running: Male – 7.3%

                 Female – 12.4%

Swimming: Male - 10-12%

                     Female – 19-21%

Triathlete: Male – 6-10%

                   Female – 12-16%

Please remember that these figures are for peak performers and don’t go on any crazy missions to get your body fat ridiculously low!

Starting Statistics (The right ones)

Gender: Female

Age: 21

Height: 5ft 6 inches

Weight:  61.69 KG / 9 stone 10 lbs (I’ve lost a pound since the last time my stats were done!)

Total Body Fat Percentage: 19.9%

Fat Mass: 1 stone 13 lbs

Muscle Mass: 7 stone 5.6 lbs

Hydration: 59.8 %

Bone Mass: 5.4 lbs

Metabolic Age: 12

Visceral Fat Rating: 1

BMI: 21.9

At the moment, I’m, currently in the 65^th percentile with my body fat, meaning that my body fat percentage is lower than 65% of women my age. Being competitive with myself that’s not good enough and I’m always looking for ways to test how I can push my body performance wise.

I also thought for giggles I would put in my measurements just so you all have something new to read!

Measurements:

Chest: 33 inches

Waist: 25.5 inches

Hips: 35 inches

Thigh: 21 inches

So hereth is whereth the experiment comes in. I will attempt to get my body fat down to around 17.1% which will place me in the 80^th percentile area and will hopefully make me nice and speedy!

Goal 1: To get my body weight down to 131 lbs this should result in a body fat percentage of around 17.1%

With a decrease in body fat, it is predicted that for every 5-10 pounds lost, you remove between 31 seconds and a minute off your total 5K time.

Goal 2: To see whether my “optimal body weight” will improve my current 3 mile personal best of 21 minutes 37 seconds to around 21 minutes.

The Plan

So I hear you all ask, how will you get your body fat down, just drop weight? Sadly it’s not quite that easy and will require a lot of effort on my behalf to get my portions and nutrition exact.

As a rule of thumb, I will need to lose a pound a week (however I may gain muscle so this does come into account).

In order to do so, I will need a calorie deficit of about 500 calories a day. As my current calorie requirement is 2623 per day, I will need to consume around 2123 calories.

Again it is all a numbers game, being an endurance athlete I need to consume adequate amounts of carbohydrate to fuel workouts. For this I will go on the principle that 20% of my calories will come from fat, 17% from protein and 63% from carbohydrate.

So the question is, does it work?! Let’s wait and see!!

Fingers crossed for a half marathon time of around  1 hour 40 –50 minutes when I’m done.