Here’s how eating regularly can help you to lose weight or stay in the best shape of your life

I hope that you are feeling awesome!

Did you know that regularly missing meals can scupper your weight loss results?

Most people think and the press would have you believe that weight loss is a simple process of calories in and calories out but this is simply not true. If it were half of my client base would never have called or emailed me or even looked for my services.

I know lots of people who miss meals to lose weight and others who miss meals due to busy schedules or bad planning. I know all of these people because they are trying to lose weight, but most are struggling and many are moving in the wrong direction.

But why?

Why are they putting on weight or at best staying stable?

This is a question that I’m asked by these people all the time?

I want to share with you the reasons why, why people starve themselves and missing meal only to find that the scales are not showing them what they want to see.

To explore why calorie restriction does not work we have to look at our position on the planet and our evolutionary path to it.

We are the most dominant species on the planet, we are number 1 the top of the food chain. To get to this point we have under gone millions of years of evolution. During this time our ancestors have been through some real hard times such as ice ages, droughts and famines. To allow us to survive the trials and tribulations that nature throws at us we have evolved mechanisms to help us to cope.

When it comes to a lack of food the body has the ability to reduce its metabolic rate which means it can reduce the amount of calories that it uses for the various functions that are required for you to survive.

Your body also looks to store food so that you have reserves in case the famine is going to be prolonged due to seasonal conditions or natural disasters.

Missing meals and or dramatically reducing your calorie consumption leads to your body thinking that food is scarce and that you are in a period of famine.

So it slows down your metabolism and stores the food that you eat for later.

The next problem that you are going to face on low calorie diets or he regular missing of meals is the resumption of your normal eating pattern.

It will take a couple of days for your body to realise that you are no longer in a state of famine and food is now readily available again. During this time your body is going to store everything that you consume, especially as your metabolism is slow and you do not need the extra calories that you are now consuming. You therefore pile the pounds back on often becoming heavier then you were to start with!

It’s important for you to eat 3 meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner to make sure that your metabolism is running well and you are supplying it with all the nutrients that it needs.

Over the next couple of posts I’m going to talk more about the problems of low calorie diets or missing meal and I’m going to give you strategies to overcome your problems with meals.

The regular problems that clients bring to me are;

• I don’t feel like breakfast in the morning / it makes me feel sick / I’m not hungry
• I don’t have time for meal X because Y

So, eat 3 meal a day!

And I’ll be back with some more pitfalls and solutions for you.

Committed to your success

Keith

Step By Step

Sometimes what you need to achieve is just to bigger a mountain to climb.

Yesterday I was working with a personal training client one on one. He has a multitude of problems, some are structural, some are internal lifestyle related diseases, and then he has the weight that he needs to lose. All of these problems make it seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, it has been turned off and you can’t seem to be able to see the way ahead.

This client turns to me and says… ‘I feel like giving it all up’

I asked him what he meant and he told me. There are too many problems too much to do and I don’t know where to start with it all. Plus the usual problems in life when you have a family to support, a job and a girlfriend. It all seems too much.

You see,  if your body does not work well as its painful, but you need to lose weight, but your metabolism is messed up making it difficult to and then you have medication that also stops you from losing weight it’s almost a catch 22 situation.

Can’t exercise to lose weight as your body hurts, can’t lose weight because your metabolism has been knocked out of balance, need to exercise to get metabolism and blood sugar levels right, but can’t as it hurts!

You see how difficult this problem could get in someone’s head.

So what do you do?

In this case we are starting with the structural problems, with massage and some specific strengthening exercises; he can now walk round the field without his back seizing up.

This means that we can exercise and slowly as he gets stronger and more stable we can increase the intensity and therefore his metabolism.

At the same time we are starting to talk about diet and nutrition, so that we can get the internal environment right to increase metabolism and control blood sugar levels.

Once these two things are in place we can start to lose weight, as we’ll have a body that works inside and out.

But what has this got to do with your boot camp session?

Sometimes your weight loss or toning goal will seem like you have bitten off more that you can chew, it’s too much and it will take too long. Don’t let yourself succumb to these negative thoughts. Make sure that you know what you have to do every day, each week to get yourself the result that you want.

Make sure that you are doing all the small things every day and getting the basic right all the time.

What are the basics I hear you ask?

Step 1, get enough sleep
Step 2, only eat whole foods, nothing processed
Step 3, water water water
Step 4, have some you time! Relax, unwind and de-stress

If you are struggling then make yourself a flow diagram of what you need to do step by step. For instance if you want to lose weight, but have painfull areas box one in your flow diagram would be to address your painful areas, get them working, stable and strong. A brilliant way to start the process is to get a full body diagnositc done; http://absolute-training.org/body-diagnostic/

Your next box could be to address your lifestyle and diet. The personal nutrition course will address nutrition and lifestyle, helping you to build healthy habits. To focus on your lifestyle and food go here www.absolute-training.org/personal-nutrition/

Your next phase could be the introduction of……. da da daaaaar, exercise! There are two ways to go about this but both start the same way. Book yourself in for a free consultation and then you and I can work out whether you’ll get more out of a boot camp or more from personal / small group training. 

To find out more about the fit body boot camp go to www.fitbodybootcamp.co.uk

To find out more about Personal training go here http://absolute-training.org/personal-training/

Committed to your success

Keith