One of the questions I am constantly being asked by clients is how do they know when they are in the fat burning zone and why it seems that the intensity is really low.

When training my clients at Fitness First in Manchester who want to lose weight I am not particularly interested in “Fat Burning” (well not totally). It is actually calorie burning that I concentrate on during my personal training sessions. While much has been made about the existence of a magical all consuming “fat burning zone,” it is actually one of the greatest myths when it comes to exercising and trying to lose weight.

The myth comes from the fact that when you are participating in lower intensity exercise, you are actually burning a higher percentage of calories from fat than from blood glucose (carbs). In theory this sounds great, but as most things that sound too good to be true there is usually a catch.

The first gap in the fat burning zone theory is that your body does not care how you burn the calories or what fuel was used in burning them. Your body gains or loses weight depending on whether or not you take in more calories than you burn or less calories than you burn. In other words, in order to lose weight, you must eat fewer calories than you use, because at the end of the day food is just fuel and body fat is just stored fuel that has not been burned.

Therefore, what we need to ask ourselves is:

Is it possible that we can burn more calories by deliberately reducing our intensity in the gym to make sure we stay in this magical “fat burning zone”?

The obvious answer to this is no, but how many people do we see in the gym walking, or on an exercise bike reading a book.  The simple truth is that you burn more calories by exercising for longer and at a higher intensity, not by slowing down.

The trick is to exercise at an intensity pace that challenges our bodies and, over time, increase the intensity as your fitness increases.

This will allow us to work harder over time and as a result burn more calories withing the same time frame in the gym. So getting fitter means you can work harder and you will lose more weight  faster.

The second problem with the fat burning zone theory is that even if it was true that it was more important to burn fat calories than total calories, the “fat burning zone” supporters would still be way off the mark.

Generally how this works is that when you reduce the intensity down to burn more fat you might burn 50% of your total calories from fat as opposed to maybe only 30% if you exercise at a higher intensity.

However, you also burn less calories in total; therefore you burn 50% of a lower amount of total calories!

To understand this a bit better take a look at the below figures for 30 min of cardio exercise for a person weighing 95kg:

Low intensity exercise 50% Fat burned
Total calories burned 120
Fat calories burned 60

High intensity exercise 30 %
Fat burned 30
Total calories burned 200
Fat calories burned 60

You can see that the higherintensity exercise wins on all counts,  both calories burned and the amount of calories from fat.

Tags: bodyfat, exercise, fat burning, personal training, Weight Loss
Posted in Fitness News, Weight Loss, Workouts | No Comments »

Interval Training
High intensity intervals otherwise known as HIIT training can significantly increase fat burning. When your body is recovering, the aerobic system uses oxygen to convert stored carbohydrate / glucose into energy. Several studies have shown that interval training groups lose more stomach fat in half the workout time when compared with regular steady state cardio workout session.

Only eat whole foods
Eating less processed foods that are high in fats, sugars and refined carbohydrates and changing to more natural foods is a great way of lowering total calorie intake. When it comes to wholegrain foods, go for produce such as for quinoa, which contains more protein than any other natural grain making it great for vegetarians as well. Quinona is an excellent source of manganese, which is a great regulator of blood glucose levels.

Set achievable goals
Finding ways to trick yourself into making positive lifestyle changes such as buying new clothes that are too small for you, is a great way of focusing your mind on the goals ahead. The direction is less ‘don’t eat this’ (negative) and more ‘I’m going to look and feel great’ (positive). The added bonus to this method is that you both get insape and you get a brand new wardrobe at the same time.

Tags: bodyfat, diet, healthy eating, personal training, Weight Loss
Posted in Weight Loss | No Comments »

Fast Food restuarants and chains have recently been making a massive effort to clean up their tarnished image by marketing so called healthier foods.

In fact one American fast food company (not trading un the UK) has recently launched their ‘Drive Through Diet’ and they have claimed that one of their customers lost an astounding 23Kg in just under 24 months by following this diet.

What we are asking here is should you really trust what these companies are saying to us via their advertisments? Or is this just a feeble attempt for them to cash in on the current rising levels of obesity that they are potentially responsible for?

To help you make up your own mind we have come up with six compelling reasons as to why we think you should avoid the marketing advances of thes companies

Fast food is highly processed and generally contains the following pretty unpleasant ingredients that you should avoid at all costs:

• Trans Fatty Acids - trans fats are a hidden killer and the main cause of heart disease in the western world as well as bein a cause of high levels of cholesterol in the blood.
• Artificial additives – Sweeteners & flavour enhancers such as Aspartame and MSG have been linked to certain cancers. These are found in drinks, sauces and many toppings. Chinese food especially is high in MSG.
• Reconstituted meat – Just because your burger says it contains 100% beef does not mean the best lean cuts of beef are used. Usually it is the high in fat cuts that are otherwise wasted that are minced to make up your burger.
• Processed carbs – French Fries, white burger baps and baked goods use highly refined flours with added fat, salt & sugar that have little or no nutritional value and willleave you feeling hungry again in no time.
• Processed sugars – Loads of highly processed sugars are found in milkshakes, soft drinks and desserts. These have little or no nutritional value whatsoever and are also high in calories
• High in Calories – The main cause of obesity is taking in more calories than you burn over an extended period of time. Fast foods are some of the most calorific foods available. So our advice to you is that if you want to lose weight, you need to avaoid fast food.

If your diet mainly consist of fast food, you will not only be sabotaging your fitness goals, but also your long term health.

Our advice here at NorthWest Personal Training Manchester is to follow a sensible eating plan consisting of mostly fresh lean cuts of meat, fresh fish (not canned tuna), dairy produce, whole grains and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Cook your meals from scratch and steer well clear of fast food and ready made supermarket meals.

Tags: bodyfat, diet, fast food, healthy eating, Nutrition, organic food, Weight Loss
Posted in Nutrition, Weight Loss | No Comments »

The recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day may not be enough to stop weight gain.

According to a US study of 34,000 women, 60 minutes a day of moderate exercise is needed to combat weight gain. The full story can be found on the BBC Website by following this link

Posted in Fitness News, Weight Loss | No Comments »

Marie came to see me in October 2009 at my gym in Manchester City Centre as she was concerned about her spiralling weight.  At the time she was finding it very hard to lose weight and was in fact putting it on at an alarming rate.  She did not like the gym and felt quite uncomfortable working out in front of other people.  Marie’s confidence was also very low at the time as she was very frustrated that her weight loss efforts and the way she was exercising did not seem to be working.

Weighing in at just over 122 Kilograms (19st 3lb) Marie’s Body Mass Index (BMI) was 42.7 which is classed as Obese class 3 or Morbidly Obese putting her at a very high risk of diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.  As a 24 year old this was a great concern to both her and myself and during our initial consultation where we sat down and discussed how we would address this especially taking into account Marie’s current levels of fitness.

Marie initially started to train with me twice a week for 30 minutes for the first few weeks and we worked on getting her fitness levels up. We also looked at her dietary intake by getting her to keep a food diary and got to work setting some goals and trying to keep her motivated.  After a few weeks exercise she was able to increase this to 3 times a week and by December 2009 Marie had upped her exercise to 3 x 45 minute sessions per week. Marie’s fitness has improved so much over the last 3 months that she is now able to exercise at a higher intensity for 1 hour x 3 times per week and she is even considering doing some additional studio classes in the gym.

During this time we have also helped educate Marie in regard to her diet and stressed the importance of having breakfast as this was one of the areas that we felt was an issue in terms of diet.

Tags: bodyfat, diet, exercise, personal training, Weight Loss
Posted in Weight Loss, Weight Loss Case Study | No Comments »