As a certified personal trainer - I always tell my clients to follow my following  4 Core Competences to achieving optimal health. 

I. Patience: You must have patience. It is not easy to start and continue to maintain a fitness journey- because losing weight or achieving optimal health does not happen over night. It takes time and if you understand that from the start you will be putting yourself in a position to succeed. 

II. Goals:
a. Short Term: You need to think about short term along with long-term goals. Example: I aim to lose 5lbs in my first month 
b. Long Term: By this date, I will aim to lose 20lbs 

***The healthy way to manage weight is to lose around 1-2lbs a week. Some weeks you will lose more and some weeks you will lose zero.

III. Planning: without a plan- you will not be successful in achieving your goals. 

i. Planning your weekly menu (literally what you are going to eat per meal)

ii. Planning your workouts

iii. Planning "YOU" time

IV. Strength of Character: The state or quality of being physically or mentally strong! You are stronger than you think- YOU GOT THIS!!!!

 

By Chris Gilbert, personal trainer

 

Part one of a four part series...

So, you want to get rid of that body fat the one that's been sitting there for as long as you can remember. Whether its around your arms, your legs or the worst of them all, that's right belly fat. The one place we all wish to target first if we had the option but unfortunately fat loss doesn't work like that. When we watch our weight, we don't lose it in one spot, we lose it all over some places more than others. The same goes for when we gain weight, we gain it all over as a unit regardless of whether you believe you gain it in just your stomach first.

 

You may find yourself going to the gym anywhere from 3-5 days a week. Trying your very best, and I know it gets frustrating to put in all that hard work and see no results. It can drive you crazy or to the point where you say, "I'm done, I give up" we've all been there. Want to know what makes it worse? These new popular diets and easy fixes that guarantee outrageous results like 30 lbs. in a week eating whatever you want. Which I must say to some degree might work for a while but in the end, you'll probably gain all that weight right back maybe more!

 

Now if your reading this article you probably read a few just like it and or just want to burn fat and build muscle maybe there's something inside you hoping that someone just tells the truth for once and give you the secret to achieving your goals. Well you've come to the right place.

 

In this article I'm going to explain everything from what body fat is? How to burn it off? The best way to build muscle and what your nutrition should consist of. So, no gimmicks no lies and I'm sorry to tell you that it won't happen in 30 days but I can say with confidence that if you work hard, stay consistent and practice proper nutrition the benefits are extremely rewarding.

 

Let's begin, so what is body fat? It's important to know this because it's something everyone in the world is constantly trying to either get rid of your keep off. Body fat is basically store energy that your body accumulates over time with the food that you ate. As you may or may not already know when we eat food, base off the state our bodies are in we either store it for fuel to have later when needed or it gets used immediately as our energy source. For example, when we first wake up in the morning and have breakfast our bodies uses the energy from the food to fuel us. Now you may ask how do we know that it's not being stored? Well because during rest we obviously aren't eating our bodies are in a fasted state meaning no food. After a few hours of not eating while at rest which should be 7-8 hours a night our bodies has used up all the energy source we got from our last meal maybe even before you went to sleep depending on when you had your last meal and the portion of it. Now that it's been a few hours your body knows that upon rising labor work will be done and for that reason along with being in a fasted state it takes that first meal and supplies you with energy to kick start the day. It's just that simple.

 

Time for the real question, how to burn it off? 

Well as a certified personal trainer  with the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and from my own digging and learning I found a few different ways to target the endless fight vs body fat. You've probably heard the saying there's more than one way to skin a cat. Well the same goes for burning fat. Some people count calories, some just start exercising to expend energy (which is what body fat is, stored energy that hasn't been use yet) and others just changed their diet. 

Now in my opinion the proper way is all three. 

Now you're probably saying "really Chris"? Yup really and I'll explain why. If your someone whose just starting off you should count calories just to be aware of the amount you consume daily, whenever I come across a new client I always ask "how many calories do you consume daily"? And the answer is always "I don't know" sometimes not even an estimate. Knowing the number of calories, you consume can help you along the way. Let's say you're a female who consumes 2,200 calories a day and you want to manage your weight. In order for you to do so you will need to put your body in a calorie deficit which means consuming less calories than your daily intake. Having an intake of 2,200 calories if 2,200 is your maintenance (maintenance meaning your borderline between losing and gaining) will keep you where you are (no weight changes) but if you begin to decrease calories anywhere from 250-300 which is what I normally recommend then you will begin to see change.

Now you can keep decreasing calories or expand more energy by working out because if your anything like me than you love to eat so expanding more energy is probably your best bet because you don't want to go too low in calories and who knows how low you'll have to go before hitting your goal. That is why I feel that counting calories as well as expanding energy are two very important methods. Counting so that you are aware of your daily intake and expanding so that you don't have to go too low.

 

Obviously, exercises are important so you should already aim for the expanding more energy option also when you engage in physical activity whether its bike riding, d ancing, weight training, hiking and or running you will find that your hungry a lot more of the time and because of your physical activity you will be able and need to eat more to sustain your body with the right amount of macro and micro nutrients. As for the exercising, we all know that the benefits are endless other than decreasing body fat. 

You strengthen your bones, increase your good cholesterol and decrease your bad (hdl and ldl) your heart pumps at a more regular speed/rate. You increase the muscle mass on your body, your cardiorespiratory system improves, you have more energy and just overall feel better because your body is getting exactly what it needs. Remember the human body does not want nor need to be sedentary.

In the next segment, we'll tackle nutrition...

Can't wait?  Read the full article here

Want to know more? Contact Chris today!

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