Weight loss tips that work

Let’s start by putting “Weight Loss”· into context. When I talk about weight loss I am talking about fat loss at a healthy rate without sacrificing muscle tissue. With that in mind, I will put forward MY personal best ways to eliminate body fat.

Weight loss Diet

• Ensure that you are consuming 5-6 meals per day spread evenly, approximately 3 hours between each meal.

• Consume approximately 2.5g of protein per kg of body weight per day and spread these portions equally over the daily meals. For e.g. an 80kg person needs to consume 200g of protein spread equally over 6 meals, so aim for around 35g of protein per meal.

• Consume approximately 2.5g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight per day, but reduce the amount consumed later in the day, so that same 80kg person should consume the majority of the day’s 200g carbohydrate allowance earlier in the day. For e.g. Meal 1 would have 70g of carbohydrates, whereas meals 5-6 would barely contain any carbohydrates whatsoever and consist solely of protein and healthy fats. This Carbohydrate timing is crucially important and can make or break an otherwise excellent meal plan!

• Consume around 0.4g of Fat per day spread equally across the 5-6 meals, so approximately 30g of Fat for the 80kg person.

• Consume at least 2.5 litres of water per day; the importance of good hydration warrants an entire book by itself, but just to note that EVERY aspect of your health and wellbeing is improved with proper hydration!

Weight loss Training

Cardio training; my personal favourite is the Cross Trainer; I train long duration at a relatively low heart rate. There are many arguments for training at differing heart rates, higher rate for burning more calories and faster etc. BUT, as mentioned at the start, I am most keen to preserve my hard-earned muscle tissue, so this is why I choose to train at a lower heart rate for a longer duration, a 69% MHR is optimal, and I train for 75 minutes at that rate on a relatively empty stomach, so that I am not merely burning the food from my stomach, but encouraging my body to fuel the workout with its fat stores.

The objective here is to be able to stay in that zone for as long as possible and ensure that the majority of calories burned are from fat and not muscle tissue, so it’s a case of minimal (realistic] effort, in the perfect fat burning zone, for the longest duration that remains comfortable. I have personally performed far longer sessions on the cardio equipment, but it becomes a law of diminishing returns as you begin to eat into your recovery process and risk illness from fatigue!.. Remember it’s all just a balancing act!

How many times per week should you train cardio?.. Well, I like to go ‘on feel’, bear in mind that I train 4 times per week with heavyweights, so I have to be very careful not to overtrain. If I can, I will train cardio on Wednesday/ Saturday/ Sunday, at which point I alter the Heart rate Zones so as not to interfere with my recovery from the previous days’ weight session (but that goes beyond the scope of this article).

As mentioned, we’re describing ‘Fat Loss Cardio’ (Ifs important to remember that Fat Loss is our objective, I’m not training you for a sport or discipline here, so if your objective is predominantly fat loss, then bias your gym time towards these fat-burning sessions and perform them as often as you can, daily if possible, but definitely a minimum of 4 times per week!

As explained previously, I perform my fat loss training on a relatively empty stomach, normally just a protein shake (no carbs or better still, some BCAA’s to protect my muscle tissue. I also refrain from eating anything except for a hand full of BCAA’s for 60 minutes after I have finished my cardio session. This Hour is really a golden period in which you allow your body to continue to feed off its own fat stores. Use this time to cool down and perform some light stretching.

When you do eat again after 60 minutes, refrain from gorging yourself, even though your body is crying out for calories, simply go back to the prescribed portion sizes and eat accordingly. Strong discipline is essential, but the results are definitely worth it!

Supplements

A word on supplements; some people use them, some people don’t, I personally do use them and recommend them to all of my trainees. I use 3 basic supplements for weight loss and they are extremely effective in their own right, however, the synergistic qualities of all 3 make them my personal favourites. Firstly I use BCAA’s to preserve muscle tissue during my cardio sessions, secondly, I use CLA to encourage my body to use fat as my energy source, and last, but most importantly, I use a thermogenic fat burner, this keeps my body in a fat-burning state even during periods where I am not physically active when I combine these fat burners with my lean diet, the outcome is pretty profound, however, it is worth mentioning that the results are a part of the entire methodology listed above.

Expectations

Do NOT attempt to recreate some of the non-sense weight-loss claims that I read about online, and keep reminding yourself that this is FAT LOSS, not mere weight loss.

You are looking for a long slow burn here, NOT a rapid atrophic, dehydrated crash weight loss attempt that has you at war with your scales! Aim for around 1kg of fat loss per week, and I can tell you, that is actually a LOT, some people will lose weight faster, some slower (based on your current condition). But 1kg per week is a good aim, and if you aren’t hitting it, then merely reduce your food intake slightly or increase your cardio if you are not putting in the effort!

Psychology

OK, there’s always a caveat with these deals right?.. Well here is mine: YOU need to want to lose weight, YOU need to put the effort in, YOU need to be the disciplined one. I can advise you, I can help you, I can give you all of the information that you need to achieve your goals, but it must be YOU that does it! Remember, it’s simple, but it’s not easy!

Is there more to it than what I have listed above? Yes, but unless you are already training and eating (as I have mentioned in my previous articles and downloads* and Nutrition Plans on my website**) then the additional knowledge won’t help you at all, get the basics of nutrition and training for weight loss correct, lose a decent amount of weight, and then later when you begin to plateau I will show you how to lose those last few stubborn kilos of body fat!

Good luck!

Cindy Landolt