Over weight? It's not your fault!

obesity reoprt

Now call me crazy but unless you are being held at gun point and forced to eat junk food all day and not allowed to do any exercise then I have to disagree with this report.

Sure enough eating junk and sitting in front of the TV all day, every day will cause you to gain weight but unless you are incapable of moving your own limbs then I believe you are the creator of your own weight gain.

What society needs to do is stop looking for people to blame and start taking responsibility for there own health. Simply saying “oh it’s the government’s fault I’m over weight” or “it’s a consequence of modern life” is just utter rubbish.

Yes maybe the government should do more about educating people on what a healthier lifestyle is and maybe the food companies should make healthier food more affordable but at the end of the day we live in a free society and we all make the choices that affect our lives.

Make today the day you stop pointing fingers and blaming others and take responsibility for your own health.

Right I’m just going to step down from my soap box!

I’m now going to share with you 4 of my best tips to help you lead a fitter, healthier lifestyle.I use these tips with all my clients to get them in the best shape of their lives.

So without further ado, here’s my 4 tips:

1. Aim to eat 4-6 meals per day containing a portion of lean protein, a starchy carb and a fibrous carb.

Eating 4-6 meals per day means you will be eating every 3-4 waking hours. Food is to the body what coal is to a fire. If you add more coal to a fire it will burn hotter. Eating more often is like stoking your internal fire allowing you to burn more calories per day. Conversely if you fail to put coals on the fire it will eventually die out, the same happens if you starve your self, your metabolism will slow and your body will try to conserve as much energy as possible.

2. Perform resistance training 3 times per week.

Lifting weights builds and tones muscle and muscle tissue is the driving force behind your metabolism. By building an extra 1lb of muscle you can expect to burn an additional 35-50 calories per day even at rest. Add 5lbs of muscle and you can expect to burn up to 1750 calories per week!

There is 3500 calories in 1lb of fat so adding 5lbs of muscle will help you burn up 2lbs of fat per month. This is a safe amount to be losing, any more than this and you will most likely be losing water weight and some muscle tissue as is the case with rapid weight loss diets. Yes you may lose 5lbs a week but you cannot sustain that weight loss as sooner or later you will come off the diet and BANG the weight is back because you lost muscle tissue which in turn slowed your metabolism and due to a slowed metabolism your body stored all those extra calories in your fat cells!

If you are new to exercise hiring a good personal trainer to show you how to exercise is the best investment you can make in your health.

3. Perform some form of cardio training...

... for 20-40 minutes 3 days per week, preferably on the days between your weight training sessions. Cardio exercise is great for burning calories but due to the fact that the body quickly adapts to this type of exercise cardio lovers have to continually increase the time that they exercise in order to burn the same amount of calories, increasing the odds that the body will start to burn muscle tissue for energy instead of fat, this in turn will lower your metabolic rate.

Good forms of cardio include power walking, cycling, swimming, running and rollerblading. If you want to increase your fat burning potential from cardio try doing sprints or interval training. For instance if you were to perform intervals on the stationary cycle after a five minute warm up you would pedal as fast as you could for I minute and then pedal slowly for I minute to get your breath back you would then repeat this 5 to 10 times. You would then finish with a 5 minute cool down and stretch.

4. Allow yourself a cheat day.

By this I mean if you have been craving a piece of chocolate cake than go ahead and have some. If pizza is your vice then go ahead take some. Now I’m not suggesting you turn this into a food orgy and eat until you are sick but it gives you the opportunity to have a piece of your favourite indulgence without the guilt of “I’ve blown the diet” and thinking all is lost as after your cheat day you simply carry on with the supportive eating plan I’ve outlined for you.

There you have my four best tips on how to live a fitter healthier lifestyle. Start using them from today and take control of your health.

After all if you don't, who will?

Until next time,

Marc

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