A couple of years ago I reached the heaviest weight I had ever been. I went from 70kg up to 84kg in about 10 months. I was training 6 days a week and eating pizza 2 times per week along with a weekly tub of ice cream. Why? Because I wanted to try to maximise my size as much as possible (muscle) but I got a bit carried away with the eating side of things and put on too much body fat with it. What me? A personal trainer got carried away with eating? Yes, I am human too. I was happy too, I was the strongest I’d ever been, I was the biggest I’d ever been and I was finally getting compliments for how much size I had put on. I even got asked if I was taking steroids which I won’t lie I was chuffed about, most of my friends always got asked this bar me. None of us were of course, but I was always the skinny one who struggled to add muscle so it was a huge compliment for me. I’d estimate I put on about 7kg of muscle and 7kg of fat (which is a lot of fat to accumulate). At the time I just didn’t see it, I didn’t see I was putting on so much body fat because, well you just don’t when you see yourself every day. It wasn’t until I lost all the weight that I thought shit, I put on a lot. It's very easy to get caught up in life and let yourself go a bit, it’s hard to spot and then also hard to correct as you’ve built up daily habits that caused you to put on weight. Yes, I was purposely trying to add size/weight but I got so caught up in it that I didn’t see how much fat weight I was putting on rather than muscle. I know its not the same story for you but it’s similar. Sure you’re not trying to put on weight but you’ve got caught up in life, stresses you’ve got going on, socializing and indulging with your friends a bit too often, sneaky snacks in the evening that you’ve now added some unwanted weight. However, it’s hard to spot and correct. So how did I lose the 2.2 stone (14kg)? In all honesty, I stopped training and just ate less. I hit a serious shoulder injury that no one could figure out, no Dr’s no physio’s, chiropractors the lot, they were all baffled, just my luck aye. So I had to stop training. Now I know your probably thinking “what, so you want me to stop working out?” But no I don’t. I’m sharing this story because despite stopping training I lost a lot of weight simply because I stopped eating so much and at the end of the day that’s how you achieve weight loss. I didn’t have to train to lose weight I just had to stop eating so much. I was eating around 3800-4000 calories a day every day to accumulate that weight and 90% of it was through healthy foods. Yes, I had a pizza twice a week, but the rest of it was all unprocessed so don’t think just cause you’re eating healthy you’ll lose weight, it’s all about calories in vs calories out. Once I was injured and could no longer train my food dropped from 3800-4000 down to about 2300-2500 and the weight pretty much fell off me. I cut out the pizza’s, I ate smaller portion sizes and I didn’t always eat everything on my plate just because it was there. Through doing this I was able to lose that 2.2 stone. However, like I said it was roughly 50% muscle and 50% fat because I couldn’t train I lost muscle too this is why you need to ensure you train whilst eating less. Not training whilst eating in a calorie deficit will more than likely mean you’ll lose muscle and fat, this is something you need to avoid. To lose body fat you do need to eat fewer calories and have good habits. That is why I was able to lose so much weight in a year because I ate less and I had good eating habits formed to fall back on. If you have bad habits that you don’t address you’ll struggle to lose weight because they will continuously creep up. The first thing you need to do is address them. That’s how one of my clients was able to achieve a fantastic transformation of losing 2.5 stone (of pure fat, not muscle). She was able to achieve this by following a tailored training routine and learning new heathy habits.
The biggest issue people face is not knowing how many calories they consume and that’s why I got her to start tracking calories just so she became aware of the amount of food she was eating. I told her “technically you can eat what you like as long as you stay within your calories, however, aim for this amount of protein. These foods as they will help you feel fuller, give you more energy and make the process easier. So ensure you fill up on them and then sprinkle in some treats on top”. And the same advice goes for you. From then on the weight started to fall off of her too, 2lbs here, 4lbs there, every weigh in we were seeing amazing results all from changing her eating habits and being aware of the calories she consumed. This process is simple but simple doesn’t mean easy, it will take hard work, you will have to sacrifice some things and there will be times when you’re hungry. Especially if you don’t choose the right food that fills you up. It’s important to choose the right training programme and the correct nutritional plan to ensure you make progress and that you can keep it up. To help guide you in the right direction there are 3 ways I can help you for free below. Free personal training - Come along for a week's free personal training in my fully private training facility and learn how to exercise and eat effectively for your goals. Click Here to book in your free week. Download and listen to my podcast for free I discuss ways in which you can improve your results by applying the simple tools I layout for you in each episode. Click Here to listen Download my complete beginners' guide to fat loss - This free guide will teach you what you need to know on how to lose fat and comes with a free training plan. Click Here to download.
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P.s my recipe book is now out if you’re looking for some delicious healthy recipes that will help you achieve your goals then click the link below.
P.ss the shorts are photoshopped on haha