This Morning on BBC Surrey Breakfast

BBC Surrey Breakfast 1st February 2010It’s Monday 1st February and my day started with a live broadcast on BBC Surrey Breakfast. It was time to sign-off Fatloss 2010…Nick Wallis’ quest to lose a few pounds of weight during January. After weighing Nick and measuring his body composition (% of fat) on 4th January, his mission was to lose approximately 8 pounds during the first month of 2010.

Using my body composition scales, Nick had managed to lose 1.5 pounds of weight and increase his bodyfat percentage by 1.5%! Ooops. At least the weight loss was heading in the right direction (he even took his jeans off to ensure that we measured to the nearest ounce!!!) Without going through a full and thorough analysis of Nicks’ actions during January, my guess as to why his bodyfat % had increased and why he hadn’t lost as much weight as he would have liked would be the following:

- If you stick to the same exercise routine without any changes or progressions, your body adapts and sits in the comfort zone. If you do the same thing over and over again, you can only expect the same results! If you exercise regularly (at least 3 x weekly as a required minimum) your body needs exercise progression every 4 – 6 weeks.

- Your daily food intake plays a huge role in any weight loss programme. Balancing each meal between complex carbohydrates, protein and good fats is vital and provides your body with essential nutrients. If we skip any of these food groups, there will be costs associated and weight loss becomes very difficult.

- Strength training is very important for building lean muscle tissue (along with the right balance of nutrients). Muscle tissue is more metabolically active than fat and burns more energy on a daily basis, leading to less fat being stored.

I congratulate Nick for his public effort!!  It was fun to read his blog and track his progress each week.  Remember that if you want something bad enough, it will happen!

To listen to the broadcast, click here (Fatloss 2010 starts at 2 hours and 21 minutes)

Surrey Personal Trainer Talks Live on BBC Surrey Breakfast

Did anyone catch me, a Surrey personal trainer talking live on BBC Surrey Breakfast this morning?  It’s Monday 4th January and Nick Wallis, the breakfast show host kindly invited me into the studio to chat about his ‘Fatloss 2010′ plan. 

Nick is on a mission to lose a few pounds throughout January, and what better way of being accountable for his actions than broadcasting his intentions live on air to thousands of listeners!  In my field of being a fitness and fat loss Surrey personal trainer, he asked me to attend this announcement and to give some tips on how to ensure he reaches his goal.  For anyone who didn’t listen in this morning, you can logon to BBC iPlayer and hear the broadcast (it starts at around 2 hours 18 minutes).  If you want to achieve long-term success without following a ‘fad and you’ll only piles the pounds back on when you finish diet,’ here are the main points that we spoke about:

1. Introduce a strength training schedule into your exercise routine.  This needn’t be lifting heavy weights as using your own body weight is a great starting point…as long as you use resistance to overcome gravity.  A squat is a great example of this.  Lean muscle tissue is metabolically active and will burn more calories leaving less to be stored as fat.

2. Perform bouts of high-intensity CV training, i.e. intervals.  This isn’t hours of mind-numbing cardio, it is short bursts of fast pace intervals in whatever form you choose to increase your heart rate to the right intensity, i.e. your effort should be 8 to 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.

3. Stay well hydrated by drinking 1.5 to 2 litres of filtered water each day.  Water is vital to the body for so many different reasons.

4. Reduce or even cut-out all processed foods and those high in sugar.  I didn’t mention this on air, but starchy foods, i.e. bread, pasta, potatoes are also culprits that helpyou to piles on the pounds if the healthy varieties are not chosen.  Eating these foods late at night will also have an impact.

So, now that Nick has taken up the challenge, what you are you going to do?  Our Total Personal Training team of Surrey personal trainers are here to help!

Go for it Nick!  I shall be listening in to hear all about your success :-)