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How To Lose Weight With PCOS Naturally
This is a huge topic. Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome. Because there are a lot of women out there who are really struggling with it, this means that many many people in my industry have jumped on the bandwagon and have out some really very confusing information about the topic.
Which just makes everything harder.
And I don’t think that is fair.
This has also led to women not only struggling with understanding what PCOS is and how it works, but it also means that they are struggling specifically with their weight with this condition.
In this article, I will tell you how to actually lose weight with PCOS.
You could argue that having specialist knowledge about PCOS is out of the scope of your Personal Trainer.
But there are so many women out there struggling with this, and clearly, the Medical Profession is doing its best, but they are leaving women like you behind on this topic. Partly because many Doctors just aren’t specialized in this condition. Or they aren’t specialized in Weight Management. Let alone combining the two.
And if they are…
Good luck getting an appointment with them.
So here I am.
A humble Fitness Professional who has helped a number of women with this condition (and other hormonal conditions like pituitary issues, thyroid issues, and insulin issues) all lose weight.
But I had to sit down, learn all about the Menstrual Cycle first, then learn about how PCOS can interact with that…and then put it into the context of fitness.
And that is what this article is going to do for you.
At one point, when I was figuring all this out, one of my clients called me “The Menstuaration Guy”
Don’t worry. I’m not changing my brand over to that.
Before we get started, I would love for you to become my friend; as your friend, I will email you things. Sometimes they will be educational, sometimes they will be inappropriate, and sometimes I might just want to know how you are; either way…it means we can be friends.
So just fill in the form below and send me a friend request…
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR “HOW TO lOSE WEIGHT WITH PCOS NATURALLY”
If you would like to listen to an episode of The Fitness Solution Podcast on this topic, then check that out right here:
How does Your Menstruation affect your fitness?
In this article, I will keep it short and sweet.
For two reasons;
It's not entirely why you are here (you just need context)
I have already written a very helpful article on this topic right here
Let me start with a graphic:
In short, Week 1 and Week 2 are the weeks upon which you will most likely have more energy and be so much more adherent to your fitness regimen and equally as important, your nutrition.
This is known as your Follicular Phase.
During this phase, you have the highest count of testosterone in your system the closer you get to Ovulation, Day 14 of your cycle, and more testosterone means more strength for working out.
Once Menzies is over (around Day 5) your energy should be high, cravings low and this it the time of the month to really maximize your ability to stick to your nutrition and training plan.
Once you are out of your Follicular Phase and you have Ovulated, then Progesterone kicks in.
This is known as your Luteal Phase.
During this phase, things get tougher. Your body is using a lot of energy each day to help you build your uterine wall to prepare you for pregnancy (even if you aren’t pregnant!).
Because of this, cravings can increase, energy can be lower and adhering to a Calorie Deficit will be all-around a bit tougher for you. During this time I normally suggest increasing calories to your Maintenance Calories.
Read my Blog that has helped hundreds of people establish their maintenance calorie level
Your Luteal Phase comes with it some physical issues in terms of exercise as well. Progesterone can cause a slightly higher risk of injury as your joints might be looser, and therefore I wouldn’t expect you to hit PBs and feel your strongest in this phase. Focus on the quality of movement, not the quantity of movement.
Your Cycle is split into two 14-day phases.
And I think if you want to manage your fitness and fat loss with your cycle, then splitting your training up into two phases could be useful as well.
Phase 1 (Day 1– Day 14): Resistance Training with stronger lifts and more energy (especially Day 7- Day 14) and higher adherence to your Nutrition.
Phase 2 (Day 15 - Day 28): Resistance Training (but no PBs) and Maintenance Calories respecting your body and listening to its energy.
This is all very important to understand as PCOS can cause issues with the regularity of your cycle combined with other physical symptoms affecting the way your cycle might work.
How does PCOS affect you physically?
PCOS can come along with many different physical considerations [1].
An imbalance of the Female Sex Hormones Progesterone and Oestrogen
Increase in Testosterone and Androgens
Insulin Resistance
Cists upon the Ovaries (but this isn’t always the case)
As you can imagine. Each one of these can have a factor in your Fitness and especially your weight loss. I will go into this further in the next section.
But let's see how these conditions can affect you physically outside the context of weight loss.
An imbalance of the Female Sex Hormones Progesterone and Oestrogen
This typically causes a longer luteal phase (Day 15-Day 28) of your cycle where Progesterone is more dominant. This is because the cysts on your Ovaries are not allowing an Egg to be released therefore triggering Menstruation and the release of Oestrogen into the body again. [2].
Basically, your cycle will be all a bit stretched out in the latter part of the cycle
Increase in Testosterone and Androgens
If you have PCOS you will have more Androgens which are sex hormones. The most common Androgen is Testosterone, and this is prevalent in someone with PCOS. Testosterone is thought of as a Male Sex Hormone, although women naturally produce it anyway. Those with PCOS just produce more of it.
The higher amounts of Testosterone will lead to physical factors like acne, more body hair and an increase in weight.
The increase in weight occurs because of the relationship between Insulin Resistance and Testosterone. Testosterone increases your insulin resistance. [3], and insulin resistance can adversely affect your weight.
Insulin Resistance
This is a topic that seems to get hotter and hotter in terms of debate month on month.
If you are Insulin Resistant this could lead to weight gain. This doesn’t mean that because you are insulin resistant doesn’t mean you cannot lose weight.
Now to make this as simple as possible.
Imagine Insulin is a key to your cells. When you eat food this will increase your blood sugar levels, insulin is then released from the Pancreas, and makes your cells to open up to absorb the blood sugar.
Insulin basically tells your cells to let the sugar in your blood into your cells so that it can be stored until you need to use it as energy. [4]
If you are Insulin Resistant your cells can’t open as they are full already and therefore the Sugar gets stored as Body Fat [5].
Cysts upon the Ovaries (but this isn’t always the case)
Despite the name — Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome. Not everyone with PCOS actually has Cysts on their Ovaries. And this just leads to the mystique of the condition. That being said. It is there, it could be there and it might be affecting you.
From what I can establish the cysts on the Ovaries help delay the release of Oestrogen into your system, which therefore causes a delay in Menzies. This is why many women with PCOS experience a longer Luteal Phase of their cycle. So as you can see there is a lot to consider, and looking at that list it is no wonder that if you have PCOS you can often feel overwhelmed and at a loss about how to then go about losing weight.
If it was me, I know I would feel like the deck is stacked against me. And if you feel like that…then I’m here to tell you that it’s ok. And I am about to lay out an action plan for you that you can follow that will undoubtedly help you achieve your goals.
PCOS Weight Loss Diet and Exercise Plan
In this section, I am going to take each physical symptom of PCOS and give you workable solutions to help you work with your condition as well as move you towards your goal of fat loss. But first I want to show you how possible it is. Here is a graph of one of my friends and Online Clients weight loss journey who has PCOS.
And here is a screenshot of a text conversation I had just this week with one of my clients on The Strong & Confident Program - who has lost weight whilst dealing with PCOS (please excuse my french in this photo — but it’s damn appropriate)
The PCOS condition may make weight loss harder.
But both of these clients have adhered to the overriding principles of Fat Loss: a Calorie Deficit.
That is truly where their results lie, and PCOS can give you some advantages when it comes to losing weight, and it can mean we may just need to manage expectations a little more and adopt more patience and understanding.
But no matter who you are…you can lose weight with PCOS.
Increase in Testosterone and Androgens with PCOS
When I see this as a symptom of PCOS. I see the opportunity.
Testosterone will mean greater strength.
Greater strength will mean the ability to improve on a Strength Training programme much easier.
You need to use this to your advantage. Increased testosterone means you will have more strength and be able to lift heavier weights in the gym.
The extra Testosterone and Androgens are your superpower. You have this extra advantage that other women don’t have. It’s awesome. God has given you some stardust to kick ass in the gym lifting weights.
If you don’t do that…then it’s like being a superhero and not using your power.
Following a programme that is designed to improve muscle mass as opposed to just help you lose weight will achieve three things:
Burn more calories at rest and help you get into a Caloric Deficit
Improve body shape by having more muscle
Will make you feel like a bad-ass because you are lifting weights and taking control of your fitness.
Get A Weight Loss Workout For PCOS here:
Insulin Resistance and PCOS
In my experience, the best way to improve Insulin Resistance is to increase Daily Activity and follow a well-structured training programme.
Insulin Resistance is caused by a number of factors.
The first being a lack of activity. You need to free up space in your cells so that the sugar in your blood can enter it and then be used for energy. One of the easiest and most accessible ways to do that is to move more. Many people who are at risk of the effects of Insulin Resistance are just too sedentary.
They aren’t creating enough space in their cells through movement to allow the next load of glucose to enter the cells.
This is why it then gets stored as fat.
So let’s get moving, and by moving I don’t mean “training”. Prescribed fitness training will, of course, help you, and you should do that (utilising your Superpower) but movement means everything outside of that.
It’s whatever falls under the category of NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) and means:
Walking more
Standing more
Fidgeting more
Stop sitting at your desk for 8 hours a day and start scheduling in some walking lunches. Stand up when you have a phone call. Park your car further away from your office. Stand up on your commute. Climb the stairs when there is an ad break on the telly.
You will hear the term 10k steps a day. And it’s a nice figure. But if you only do 4k a day on average then it’s going to be hard to get to 10k. So try and focus your mind on steady increases over a period of time. Set yourself a bar that is achievable, but not defeating.
Best Diet To Lose Weight With PCOS
There is a whole host of research out there that backs up the fact that if you are Insulin Resistant then you need to use your diet to help you with that. The Diet is there to achieve two outcomes in this order of priority:
Help you lose weight
To keep your blood sugar in check
Weight loss will help you with Insulin Resistance because when you lose weight you will begin to lose fat from around your vital organs. This will then cause a knock-on effect of opening up space for the Glucose in your blood to be stored in the cells.
By reducing higher sugar foods, and moving away from foods that spike your blood sugar to a more controlled Glycaemic Diet you will keep everything more in check and it will allow your body to start normalising the role of the insulin in your system.
I can sit here and list the foods you should eat.
Foods you shouldn’t eat.
Particularly when it comes to dealing with Insulin Resistance
But let's face it. The restriction isn’t going to get you anywhere in a manner that is simple, straightforward and sustainable.
And the number one priority here is to lose weight…that is why you are here reading this.
So the key to doing this is the good old Calorie Deficit (Diet).
Take your Goal Bodyweight..this being a weight you have weighed before, something you know is achievable for you, and/or is something you feasibly believe you can get to.
This isn’t where you end up. This isn’t a pass/fail situation.
Goal Bodyweight is just a guideline for you.
Set your Calorie Deficit by taking your GBW in LBS and x12
This is your Upper Caloric Window. Your Lower Caloric Window should be set at your BMR (Basal Metabolic Weight).
Then you just need to land your calories each day between the two numbers.
This will give you flexibility, and sustainability, and it’s nice and straightforward for you to follow.
Getting your calories into this window will be made a lot easier by eating whole foods, more grains, more protein and more veggies.
Less of the sugary foods and simple carbohydrates will be useful, as they generally pack more calories and contain less volume.
And having a diet lower in more calorie-dense foods will help you control your Glycaemic Levels, but you can still lose weight eating foods you enjoy, as long as you keep within your Calorie Window.
Added to that, by eating more whole foods, and reducing sugar and more simple carbohydrates from your diet you may see an improvement in other symptoms such as Acne.
Ovarian Cysts
If you have this symptom of PCOS then it is likely that the Cysts will cause you to be in your Luteal phase for a longer period of time.
Dealing with everything this brings up is really very personal to each person.
From earlier on in this article, you will have seen that I have suggested the following for this phase:
Increase your calories to a Maintenance Level (find out how right here)
Focus on quality of movement not the quantity of weight in the Gym
You are likely to be a little more restless, tired, and drained during this phase…and the longer that goes on the more difficulty losing weight will be for you.
I’m sure you are very familiar with the usual cravings for chocolate that come along when you are about to Menstruate.
This is clearly going to have an effect on your ability to adhere to a Caloric Deficit.
I want you to avoid feeling like a failure at every turn.
Restricting yourself will lead to a binge.
Trying to do a Calorie Deficit during this time will lead to you not managing it and then again feeling like a failure.
So give yourself permission.
Give yourself permission to increase your calories during this time. Yes, it might slow down your weight loss, but it will be controlled, inside your plan and you will be able to stick to it for a much longer period of time.
This will keep you out of the cycle of trying to diet, and constantly slipping up every time cravings come along.
And besides, if you are still in the gym, with your extra testosterone superpower, then maintenance calories is really going to help add muscle, get strong, and improve your Gym performance.
You may have to be a bit more careful in the Gym during this time due to the effect Progesterone can have on the joints. But that doesn’t mean what you do can’t still be effective.
Does PCOS Make It Harder To Lose Weight?
This condition is always about managing your expectations. Because of the link with PCOS and the thyroid gland, then it does make weight loss harder.
Many people who have hormonal conditions believe that the condition is ceasing their ability to lose weight. I find a lot of these people have “tried everything” as well.
And that’s the problem.
They try. They don’t execute. They don’t “do”.
Doing takes time. Weight loss takes time — a lot longer than you honestly think.
In fact, weight loss is all about managing expectations.
The number of people I see that set their expectations far too aggressively because they come from a point of helplessness, and then end up failing even more because they don’t know what real, true weight loss looks like, is far too plentiful.
I see it with my Online Clients, I see it on Facebook Groups, I see it on Instagram.
If you follow the advice in this article then I have no doubt you will lose weight.
But it will not be fast.
It will not be magical.
It will not be instant.
But that is what we want.
I’m suggesting to you that you should think more about building muscle. I’m suggesting you should increase your calories for at least a quarter of the month.
These two things alone will interrupt your Weight Loss progress in the short term.
But it will allow you to be adherent and consistent in the long term.
And consistency will create results beyond your expectation.
But it might take a year.
It might take longer.
And it will be an up-and-down journey like all things are.
But it is possible I promise you that.
Here is my beautiful fiancee who has been following my online coaching for a number of years now. She focuses on her resistance training. She allows herself freedom with her diet but understands the principles behind what she needs to do.
And she has PCOS.
Her results have taken years. Years of ups and downs. Her physique comes and goes. But she stays the course. She works very hard on herself and is always very aware of what is going on within herself. She can be hard on herself.
To me, she looks strong, empowered and above all she is very happy. I’m so very proud of her. It’s easy for me to say, sat here, as her fiancee, but if you knew how dedicated to herself she truly is, you would be proud of her as well. She makes hard decisions, she allows herself freedom but the real secret to her success.
Is that when she goes awry, she doesn’t focus on it. She draws a line under it and moves on as quickly as possible. Gets back on track, and that is how she has been as consistent as she really should be.
Moreover, if I was to get you to guess her weight…go on…pick a number…right now.
What do you think she weighs?
Got it?
I promise you…it’s more than you are thinking.
The truth is…when this was taken…
She weighed: 77.3kgs
It looks very different from what it actually is, doesn’t it?
This is why having a target weight is important, but allowing yourself to accept the way you look compared to what that number says can make all the difference.
The scale is just one way of judging your progress…and it can very often be misleading between the number and what you see. Your challenge is to really see what you look like without letting the number interfere with your own personal thoughts about yourself.
I’m not saying at any point, you will look like this.
But it proves you can definitely lose weight with PCOS so long as you remain consistent with what you are doing.
I say to all of my friends and online clients who are trying to lose weight, that we don’t need to focus on how much and how fast. We need to focus on consistency and context.
You shouldn’t care if you lose 0.5lbs a week or 2lbs a week.
One is not superior to the other. Because at some point you will both end up at the same place: a feeling of achievement and accomplishment.
There is no rush. The speed at which you lose weight is the speed at which you lose weight taking into consideration all factors like:
Your home life
Your professional life
Your social calendar
Your health conditions
Your finances
Your mental wellbeing
These are all factors that aren’t created equal in anyone's life.
And they are all factors that help or hinder weight loss.
Conclusion
So how do you actually lose weight with PCOS?
Well, my biggest message from this article is the following:
You can do this
You need patience. PCOS can play havoc with your ability to adhere to a Caloric Deficit, not your ability to be in one.
It’s really important that you work with what your body is going through, allow yourself breaks when you need them in the Luteal Phase of your cycle. This might be longer than 14 days but that’s ok.
Allow yourself to be in a Caloric Deficit for your Follicular Phase.
Eat foods that help with your Blood Sugar Levels, not hinder them. But allow yourself some flexibility so that you can stay in this for the long haul. And move.
Get your NEAT up to make sure your cells are burning the glycogen in your blood and in your cells.
And go to the Gym. Get off the Treadmill and Stair Climber. Get under a Barbell. Give yourself goals based on what you can achieve in the gym.
Focus on Production of the body, not reduction of the body.
It will take time. There will be some months that go a lot easier than others. There will be times when you don’t need to increase your calories in your Luteual Phase…and that’s ok.
But above all stop thinking that your PCOS is the reason you can’t lose weight.
I’m no endocrinologist. But whenever I have ever looked into how much weight a hormonal issue can be attributed to and it usually comes out to around 5–10lbs.
Hormones do not cease weight loss.
They just make it a bit harder for you.
And that is why I have written a 3000-word article to try and help you with it as much as I can.
It requires understanding, education, and a plan of action.
And now you have all of that.
Good luck and don’t forget to let me know how you get on!
Did You Find This Useful?
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Just send me a friend request below:
I hope you found this article useful and that my tips help you improve your eating habits.
I cannot wait to see you again soon…
Coach Adam
References:
Healthline. 2020. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS): Symptoms, Causes, And Treatment. [online] Available at: <https://www.healthline.com/health/polycystic-ovary-disease#causes> [Accessed 14 September 2020].
Pennmedicine.org. 2020. 5 Myths About Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) — Penn Medicine. [online] Available at: <https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/fertility-blog/2020/march/five-myths-about-pcos> [Accessed 14 September 2020].
Sensitivity, <., 2020. Testosterone Increasing Insulin Sensitivity. [online] Diabetes In Control. A free weekly diabetes newsletter for Medical Professionals. Available at: <http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/testosterone-increasing-insulin-sensitivity/> [Accessed 14 September 2020].
Wa.kaiserpermanente.org. 2020. How Insulin Works With Glucose | Kaiser Permanente Washington. [online] Available at: <https://wa.kaiserpermanente.org/healthAndWellness/index.jhtml?item=%2Fcommon%2FhealthAndWellness%2Fconditions%2Fdiabetes%2FinsulinProcess.html> [Accessed 14 September 2020].
Harrar, S., 2020. Insulin Resistance Causes And Symptoms. [online] EndocrineWeb. Available at: <https://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/type-2-diabetes/insulin-resistance-causes-symptoms> [Accessed 14 September 2020].
5 Easy Ways To Do A Calorie Deficit Diet Without Working Out
I call these my Five Awesome Rules for Fat Loss Life.
They have been my guiding anchor for the entirety of my career.
And they haven’t ever let me down yet. Every single human that I have worked with has followed this plan and it is responsible for a lot of the results you see here.
Each and every one of the people that I work within my Online Coaching Program gets this as Lesson 1. It is a really simple, easy to follow set of actionable steps you can do every day that will ensure you start getting the results you truly want from your Weight Loss Journey.
But before we get started it would be wonderful if you got onto my email list.
I’ll email you things. Sometimes they will be educational, sometimes they will be inappropriate, sometimes I might just want to know how you are; either way…it means we can be friends.
So just fill in the form below and send me a friend request.
Oh, and I will also send you some free fitness goodies to help start our new friendship off on the best foot possible.
When it comes to the Calorie Deficit Diet there is one guiding principle that you must acknowledge before we go any further.
“A Calorie Deficit is simple, but its not easy”
I have written on the topic of what a Calorie Deficit is many times before.
Here in fact: What is a Calorie Deficit Diet Plan?
And you are welcome to read it…once you have finished with this story first.
I am sure I will write about a Calorie Deficit at least once a month for the rest of my life because it is that complex.
Now I need to cue some irony because I am going to try and make the Calorie Deficit as simple, as accessible, and as easy for you to follow as I possibly can.
But please remember this. When you get to the end of the article, you will be pumped, inspired, and excited to get started.
But this is still difficult to adhere to consistently and patiently to allow yourself the real-time that fat loss needs.
This is an amazing starting point, and this should be your constant solid foundation, your comfort blanket for Fat Loss results.
If you want the video version of, 5 Easy Ways To Do A Calorie Deficit Diet Without Working Out, you can grab that right here:
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #2 - Three Litres of Water A Day
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #3 - Protein and Veggies At Every Meal
These are in no particular order of importance. They all require as much time and attention as the next one, and if you favor one over the other then you are very much cheating yourself out of success.
But first let me answer this:
Can You Lose Fat In A Calorie Deficit Without Exercise?
Yes.
In fact, whenever I work with a client online, and they have a weight loss goal, then I encourage them to not view their exercise as a tool to help make that happen.
When you only view exercise as a means to burn calories, you destroy your relationship with exercise, and it is a surefire way to lose all motivation for working out.
If you are trying to lose weight, please view the balance of exercise and diet his way:
You work out to get strong.
You eat to a calorie deficit
If you can do that, not only will your diet improve, but also your ability and desire to see movement for what it is in your life will improve dramatically too.
I don’t encourage clients to just lose weight without any movement, as there are drawbacks related to doing just that:
It could effect your metabolism.
You will lose strength.
You won’t feel empowered in your new body.
You will focus too much just on the scale.
You could effect your relationship with food negatively.
Exercise is a great tool to protect you from all of the above as well, and exercise does not often have to conform to the ideas you think it might to support your weight loss journey.
So please bear that in mind as well.
Now onto the Five Awesome Rules for Fat Loss Life:
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #1
You need to be in a Caloric Deficit.
Every rule hereafter will help you be in a Calorie Deficit.
But you cannot lose body weight, burn body fat, and try to change that scale number if you are not being adherent to a Calorie Deficit.
So how do you know if you are indeed in said deficit?
The crucial understanding for this is the principle of Energy Balance.
This dictates the following:
Energy In = Energy Out = Calorie Maintence
Energy In < Energy Out = Weight Loss
Energy In > Energy Out = Weight Gain
Therefore by understanding this you can manipulate your Caloric Intake to make sure that you keep your calories where you want to achieve your goals.
Personally, I suggest tracking your calories each day using an app like MyFitness Pal.
However there a few considerations you need to have when using MyFitnessPal.
The Caloric Goal it will set you is too aggressive for long term sustainable weight loss. So please ignore it. Instead, use the following formula:
Goal Body Weight in LBS x 12 = Caloric Deficit
2. Calories are the most important for your goals.
3. Secondly its Protein, however, Protein doesn’t have to be your biggest Macro Nutrient. Yes, Protein is important, but that doesn’t mean it has to be the biggest part of your diet. Then your Carbohydrates and your Fats. These are all just targets. Not pass/fail markers. If you don’t manage to hit your targets, don’t worry as long as your Calories are still in the right place.
4. Ignore Calories Burned from exercise. MYFP will take into account the calories you are expending from exercise, and then it will encourage you to add that against your calorie targets. Please do not do this. The whole point of your movement is to help you get into a Caloric Deficit, if you eat it all back…then what are you gaining if you are after Fat Loss? Added to that MYFP pulls in that Data from your smartwatch and these have been proven time and time again not be very accurate at calculating calories burned from aerobic exercise.
5. Remember you will never get it right. It is quite literally your best guess. All the time. Breaking down your homemade meals is a pain and it can become time-consuming and frustrating. Bear in mind you are using it as best guess, that its never going to be perfect will help take the pressure off you.
6. You only have to do it for a month — six weeks. This isn’t, and nor should it be a lifelong sentence for you to track your calories. All you need is to get yourself more calorie educated in two departments: Portion Control and Calories in your favorite foods. Once you have spent time educating yourself on these things then you will have a much better idea of where your calories are at each day.
7. It will take time out of your day. But don’t forget the big picture. 10 minutes a day for 6 weeks is little time invested compared to years of half arsing it and struggling along because you haven’t taken a moment to get educated and understand the process enough.
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Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #2
3 Litres of Water A Day
Water has zero calories in it. As does Diet Soda.
The reason I am saying to you to drink more water is not because of the nonexistent calories in there.
It’s because Water will help you with a number of “negatives” that you might get when you start a Calorie Deficit.
Being in a Calorie can and will cause hunger as well as ever so slightly lowered energy levels.
Being hydrated will without a doubt help you curb your hunger, which in turn helps you stay adherent to a Calorie Deficit.
But it will also give you energy. The difference between you being hydrated and not being hydrated will become clear…when you become hydrated. A lot of people think that 3 litres is too much water, and can find it hard, to begin with. I understand that, so build up to it. Take it steady, and add 500ml of water each day as you build slowly until you hit your 3 litres.
I had a client once who told me she would drown if she drank 3 litres of water a day. She also told me that she would get water intoxication.
I bargained with her. It will feel like a huge change and a large amount of liquid. But you will always look for reasons to not do something. You will always fight drastic measures to a degree. And you are right to do so. But in my 5 years of working with people…I have never had anyone say to me that this is a negative aspect of their work.
I told my client to give it a go, build slowly, and see what happens. She went on to lose 10kgs working with me, and she drank her water.
It's not a magic number. Everybody is different, and everybody is different. But it’s a good baseline. It’s a number that is high enough to make you increase where you are currently at, it’s a good amount so you can get the benefits from it, and is achievable.
Here are some tips to help you get that water intake up:
Start early. Wake up and get 500ml into your system from the off.
Get a water bottle you enjoy drinking from and is at least 750ml big.
Build slowly.
Drink clear water on top of other liquids throughout the day. Don’t include Coffee, Tea, Juice as part of your 3L.
And here is the best bit.
You will be drinking more. Which means you will be going to the loo more.
When this happens and interrupts work etc…
Just remember Elmo…
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #3
Protein and Veggies at every meal
In truth, I don’t care what you eat if you are working on a Calorie Deficit, as long as you are sticking to your numbers.
But…and this is a big wallopping Kim Kardashian “but”
What you eat will make your life on a Calorie Deficit either a lot easier…or a hell of a lot harder.
There’s a fantastically huge amount of people out there who will set your deficit too low, tell you to eat Mars Bars and Donuts, and still lose weight.
Sell you the perfect dream.
You will lose weight, and they will get some great Work In Process Pictures from you. But they quite simply are not caring for your needs, and if you are willing to submit yourself to such torture, then you aren’t caring for your needs either. All these trainers want is a great photo of you, so they can move onto someone else based on your hard work.
Then once it is all done, and the 12 weeks are over…well…they don’t care about how much you have binged, or how you feel mentally or physically. They got your photo that proves they got you a result.
Not quite such a perfect dream is it?
This is why I don’t ever dictate to clients what foods they should be eating…but ask them to stick to some guidelines. And one of these guidelines is the following: Protein and Veggies at every meal.
Build your plate wisely.
I want you to feel the best you can whilst trying to lose weight, both mentally and physically.
This means eating protein because protein is satiating, it will help you preserve muscle and is always a good thing to eat.
There are many theories out there on “how much” protein you need. With this, like everything, do your best.
Whether its 1g per lb of bodyweight. Or 2g per lg of bodyweight.
Don’t lose sleep over it. Just remember, a lot like getting in 3L of water a day, we need you to aim for something more than you are currently doing, and whatever you achieve will be great. The percentage of Protein in your Diet will very rarely be higher than your Carbohydrate intake — that's ok.
Then let's add Vegetables. A good solid source of Carbohydrates, they are extremely nutrient-dense and don’t carry with them lots of calories.
From there…I always say that Carbs can come long for the ride. You can sprinkle in some rice, bulgur wheat, couscous, pasta, bread, or whatever. Sprinkle it in once you have your plate built with Protein and Veggies first. This way you will really give yourself a big tick in terms of portion control.
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #4
10,000 steps a day.
Good old FitBit. Good old activity trackers. Good old 10k steps a day.
I’m sure you are starting to see a theme here.
10k steps a day is not a magic number. If all you do right now is 1k steps a day…then getting you to 10x that is wholly unrealistic.
But the benefits of increasing that are still huge.
The technical reason this is in there is known as your NEAT; your Non-Exercise Thermogenesis. This basically means all movement you do which isn’t prescribed training. Which isn’t lifting weights.
This is the part of your Metabolism that you have the most control over…and is part of your Metabolism that many people don’t pay enough attention to.
For more information on your Metabolism and whether or not it is “broken”. Then read this article of mine that has helped 100s of people understand what to do in order to keep their metabolism burning body fat: https://www.thegymstarter.com/blog/is-your-metabolism-broken
I want you to move more. I want you to allow movement to become part of your life. Whether that means doing the gardening, climbing the stairs at work or parking further away at the Grocery Store…if you do all of them then you are well on your way to increasing your NEAT.
Don’t feel defeated if you don’t hit the magic 10k.
As long as you are increasing and building this up from the moment you started your Calorie Deficit from where it was before…you are winning.
Awesome Rule For Fat Loss Life #5
7–8 Hours Sleep A Night
Sleep. The final frontier.
If you fail to make Sleep something you are willing to focus on when trying to lose weight, then you are basically doing the following to your success:
I fully appreciate and understand that sleep is harder to come by for some people due to little children and young families.
And I empathize. I really do.
But if you want to make Fat Loss as easy as possible then you need to understand that making sleep a priority is really really important.
Without the re-charge. Without the deep NREM sleep that you can achieve you aren’t going to wake up with enough energy for the next day.
And that energy isn’t just to workout.
It comes down to your willpower.
A tired person is a hungry person.
A tired person is a caffeine reliant person.
A tired person is a more stressed person.
A tired person is a person who’s calories will increase.
That's the be-all and end-all.
If you are tired. Your calories will increase.
So how do we manage your tiredness? Well like most things, prevention is better than reaction, and improving your Sleep Hygiene will be a huge win in your column.
I am going to write a list of optimal behaviors for your sleep. You don’t have to follow them all…but again, that's up to you. If you do follow them all you will be in a much more advantageous position than if not. But I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m here to empower you to make the best choices for yourself.
Electronics off at least 60mins before bedtime.
Dim the lights of an evening
No caffeine after midday.
Meditate Daily
Listen to a Sleep Story
Try to get to sleep before midnight
Don’t drink alcohol
Exercise during the day
Get the sun on the skin
To be able to sleep you need to inspire your body to send Melatonin through your body. This comes from the Pineal Gland and is sent through the bloodstream. Melatonin is released when the body realizes it is indeed bedtime, and there are many cues that can occur for that. Having a pattern of behavior really helps your body sense the signals to release Melatonin into your system.
This is why bedtime habits are really important, and in your day defining the difference between Night and Day really helps.
If you start implementing some better habits around your bedtime then you will start to sleep like a baby.
Conclusion
This is it. Five ways to make your Calorie Deficit Diet easy without working out.
And, just because you can lose weight without working out doesn’t mean you should.
The benefits of looking after yourself physically in this manner are far too plentiful for it to be ignored.
If you want the best results possible, then combine this list of Rules with a very well-thought-out Strength Programme.
Stick to what I have outlined in this article and you will do really well.
But remember these five rules aren’t really rules.
They’re more like guidelines…
Did You Find This Useful?
Well, I am an Online Coach who has helped thousands of people work through the challenges in this article.
And it would be my pleasure to help you too.
My program, which is personal one-to-one online training called the Strong & Confident Program.
If you have ever wanted to achieve the following:
✅ Escape the constant dread of dieting?
✅ Release the guilt you attach to eating certain types of food?
✅ Learn to stop worrying about “the pesky last few pounds” and focus on all your body can do?
✅ Become truly happy with what your body is and what is capable of?
✅ Enjoy the feeling of being stronger and fitter as opposed to trying to reduce your size all the time?
✅ Achieve all of this and still lose body fat at the same time without huge restrictions and slavery to a fitness regime?
✅ Do it all on your own schedule, in your own way, with a program specifically designed for you?
Then please click on the button below and fill out an application form to start working with me.
I have plenty more articles about weight loss for females on this website.
Here is a selection I think would make great further reading for you:
Thank you so much for reading my work, and good luck on your weight loss journey.
I cannot wait to see how you go!
Coach Adam
I've Been Dealing With Imposter Syndrome My Entire Life
Have you ever heard the phrase:
“Jack of all trades…Master of none”
Well, that’s me. Or rather that’s what my own brain thinks of me. I think it’s also the story I have been told throughout my life as well.
I have done many things:
Worked as a Magician
Worked as an Actor
Been a Semi-Pro Soccer Referee
Worked in Finance
Worked as a Personal Trainer
Worked as a Marketer
Worked as a Voice Over Artist
Worked as a Sports Writer
Worked as a Film Producer
Worked as a Stage Manager
Been CEO of a Theatre School Company
A lot of things and I’m only 33 years old. In and of themselves they have all had success. They have all bought me happiness and an element of fulfillment. But, except for Personal Training, none of them have ever met up to Society’s norms of success for their field.
I was always that likable kid. But never THE kid. I would always be third or fourth last from getting picked for the playground football team. I remember at College we had a students vs teachers Basketball game. I made the bench. I played for a total of 7 minutes.
Let’s look at my High School Grades; I got straight B’s in 12 subjects.
I joined a Cricket Team. I was only ever trusted to Bowl to the 11th Batsman…and was known as the “That fielder guy”.
At Drama School, I graduated with a 2:1. My biggest achievement there was Olly Gomm saying to me: “You had a great third year. I really thought you would get a 1st”
Olly got a 1st. Alas, I didn’t. I’m not a “1st kind of guy”.
I was also told at Drama School from my head of acting that my roles in the profession would be; I can remember Annie saying it to me now, “Rodney from Only Fools and Horses, Adam, you’re the best friend, the guy next door”
I’m a steady hand. The middle of the road. The guy you can rely on. I’m Benvolio, not Romeo. I’m Rosencrantz, not Hamlet. I’m Fabian, not Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
FYI…Fabian is the best part I have ever played.
I do have some achievements in my life; I was Head Boy at school, which is no mean feat, but so was Alex Hocking the straight-A student who I always played second fiddle to in the eyes of my peers and teachers (not Alex, he’s a lovely man).
I got into Drama School at 18 years of age. That is pretty much unheard of. But what it did to me was pretty rough, as I was one of the youngest, one of the most in-experienced actors in the year and felt well out of my depth for at least 2 years of my 3 years at Drama School.
I tell you all of this not because it’s fun to list my minor achievements and failures, but because understanding the person I am, and the narrative that has been throughout my life as the “nearly guy” the “nice guy” is crucial to understanding what my Imposter Syndrome is, and how I have to deal with it, hopefully giving you some ideas on how to keep moving forward when you get attacked by this anxiety.
I learned from an early age that greatness was not something I was destined for. I’m not sure where that lesson came from, but I knew it to be true.
However, I never listened to it.
I never gave in.
When I set my eyes on going to Drama School there wasn’t a soul on the planet that was going to stop me. I became very hedonistic, very stubborn, and very determined to achieve what I openly set out to achieve. Many, many people told me not to. Many, many people told me to “get a proper job” however the other voices I could hear in my mind were those of the bullies that had plagued my life.
Telling me things like:
“You’re not good looking enough to be an actor”
“You’re not good enough to be an actor”
“What makes you think you will get into Drama School?”
“Are you serious? You’re not even the best actor in our year”
And I wasn’t about to let them win.
So I worked.
Hard.
I didn’t work just a little bit. I worked like a pig. I read every book I could, I saw every play I could, I watched, listened and absorbed as much information about how to become an Actor that I could possibly get my hands on. I wasn’t going to relent. I practiced my Monologues on Christmas Day, I used self-affirmations for my dream each and every day, I designed my life from the moment I made being an actor my goal, I designed my life to make that dream come true.
I was like an athlete. Up early, training each day, not going to Social Events, and getting caught up in things that didn’t serve my goal.
I was razor focussed
There wasn’t anything that was going to stop me. Especially my bullies.
And this theme of working hard. This theme of being relentless is the thing that keeps my imposter syndrome at bay, and I notice it creeps up on me every time my workload drops.
I now work as an Online Personal Trainer and I have to say that being in a much more public environment has definitely caused more imposter like feelings.
Let me take you back to Hamley’s in Regent Street when I first started working as a Magician. I learned magic at the age of 16 on the film set of “About A Boy”, film sets are very boring places with a lot of waiting around and I happened to pick up a deck of cards and start learning how to manipulate them. Once Drama School was over, I decided to use this as a backup to earn some money. I so happened to start hanging out with a little group of Magicians based in Kent, who are without a doubt some of the top close-up magicians the UK has to offer. These guys were being flown all over Europe to perform at very exclusive parties for some very rich people.
I have always wanted to live my life by this one rule:
“If you’re the best person in the room at what you do, you’re in the wrong room”
So I tried to cut it with these Magicians. But I was well out of my depth, and I knew deep down I would never get to their level. I felt like an imposter, and I knew I couldn’t work my way out of it this time…
Because I didn’t want to. I was crippled by my Imposter Syndrome. I didn’t think I could ever work hard enough to get as good as these people.
So I gave up.
I let myself down.
And now as a Personal Trainer, I still live by the same rule.
But I’m not going to let myself down.
At Drama School, I worked my butt off. I worked my butt off before I got there, and when I got there. We had to do 6 days a week, 12 hours a day for three years.
I had two days off in three years, both for Hospital Appointments for my Heart Condition.
As a Personal Trainer, I surround myself by the best in the business. I get them as Guests on my Podcast, I listen to their Podcasts, I read their books and I go to them for help.
But this is a double-edged sword.
Because when I hear them speak, when I hear them coach others, I have this very loud thought in my head:
“You will never be as good as them. All you do is repeat what you hear and copy what they say. They are better than you will ever be. What’s the point?”
Sometimes this thought drills me to a standstill.
Sometimes I can pass it off as nonsense and carry on with my day.
But one thing it will never do is make me give up.
I know that hard work. Not just being tired. But relentless, obsessive hard work will one day shut that voice up. I don’t know when I don’t know how, but I know that it will.
And I know this to be true because I did get into Drama School.
I did stand on the Olivier Stage and speak Shakespeare.
I can achieve what I want when I lose my ego, and knuckle down.
Yes, I might be a jack of all trades, but I also know that whenever I apply myself to something, I make it work, through passion, confidence, and being honest with myself and those around me.
Being a “Jack of All Trades” isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you have a job that requires extreme empathy and understanding of other people in many many many different situations.
In fact, I’m learning to turn my weakness into my strength. Being a “Jack of All Trades” is helping me learn how to be a master of one.
I might not reach greatness.
But I don’t need that. What I do need is to make sure that to those around me I remain humble, I remain honest, and I remain nice.
It’s nice to be nice.
And we all know that ‘nice guy's finish last’.
I’m ok with that.
Because in the same way, I would tell someone who wants to lose weight that there is no time limit, there is no rush.
That you only fail when you give up.
I too am telling myself that I am not going to fail this time. I might well be Mr. Mediocre. I might well be Benvolio and not Romeo.
But hard work always pays off in the end.
And my pay off will be when that voice no longer screams:
“You’re not good enough”
I don’t need it to say:
“You’re so brilliant at what you do” either.
Silence will be more than enough.
Afterall;
“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy” — Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare
Did You Find This Useful?
You can Join The Fitness Collective which is my Membership Group. In there I give Monthly Updates, Live Q and A’s, I provide you with new workouts each and every month, and write guidance on your fitness journey.
To find out more about The Fitness Collective you can click here: The Fitness Collective
Please share this with your friends and anyone else you may know who is worried about training in a gym, and feel free to follow me using the links below…
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And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam
When Panic Attacks; Methods To Help You From My Personal Experience
I’m not a panic attack guy.
Well, more to the point…I’m the kind of guy that helps others with their mental health concerns, I’m not the guy who gets them himself.
Until I was.
Here is what happened to me:
Last Saturday there I was swimming in the pool at my Gym, minding my own business, in my lane with one other person.
Socially Distancing I might add.
When two men decided to park themselves right in the middle of this lane and start chatting. Without a care in the world for anyone else, but themselves. The lane isn’t wide enough for four people to keep at least 1m apart.
So I got out of that pool, and into the indoor pool a little miffed about the situation, because it was a nice day, and I was in the pool first.
Then in the indoor pool, the same thing happened. As I was completing some lengths I started to become very aware of my heart rate. I leaned over the side of the pool and counted my pulse…it was 100BPM. That’s ok…but I was still feeling tight…worried…concerned…panicked.
I was short on breath, and I knew something was wrong.
I tried another length, to see if I just needed to focus on something else, but I soon realized I needed to get out of the pool. I climbed out as quickly as I could, got to the locker room, and sat there…for about 10mins trying to figure out if I could have a shower or not.
I sat on the bench with my towel over my head, trying to just slow my breath down as much as possible. I’m no stranger to Meditation and Deep Breathing Exercises, so I just put myself into my world and worked on this.
After about 10minutes I felt strong enough to have a shower, but I still didn’t feel right. I got dressed, went to the cafe, grabbed a Green Tea, and decided to do some more Meditating in the Cafe. Right there…so I could drive home safely.
The whole ordeal, until I felt strong enough to drive home, took me about 2 hours to overcome.
Until I felt myself again…probably more like 48 hours.
I’ve had two panic attacks before in my life…two I remember very clearly.
Number One was on a School Trip in the Mountains of Austria. Now I was no stranger to being bullied at school, and this trip was no different. One of my bullies decided to get me in a headlock at altitude…and he was compressing my Adams Apple into my throat…which sent me into a very odd panic attack. My then PE Teacher, Mr. Stallard, who was a very old school PE Teacher was the man who found me, and I half expected him to just tell me to get up and stop being a wimp…but what he did really surprised me. He marched me down to a bench, and gave me a carrier bag to breathe into, and explained that I was over Oxygenated, and I just needed to re-balance my breath. I felt better almost immediately.
I’m not sure on the science…but it worked.
Number Two was when I was swimming again in Devon. I was in a Hotel Swimming Pool doing a Scuba Diving Lesson. The pool was not even two meters deep, but I lost my oxygen source when swimming and went into a spin. It all happened very quickly and I don’t remember much else other than it occurring, and recovering very quickly again. I carried on with the lesson and all was ok.
My most recent panic attack episode has taught me a number of things and I just wanted to share them with you…to hopefully help you if you ever experience them in the future, or know someone who does.
I’m not a Doctor, if you think you need to see someone about Panic Attacks, then please do. Visit your GP or contact Mind.org.uk.
This is just a few things I have come to realize, and I’m hoping they might help you in some way too.
The Breath Is Key
The breath really is underestimated by far too many of us.
“The Quality of our breath expresses our Inner Feelings”
That quote comes from TKV Desikachar, one of the great Yoga teachers.
I think in the modern age, we take far too much for granted, and our breath is one of those things. Our breath is our life force, and that life force needs to be nurtured, understood but above all used correctly as a tool to help you with what it is you are going through.
When I was sat on the Bench, in the locker room last week, I knew I needed to reconnect with my breath, and I was aware that my breath was the thing that was mainly out of control when I was having my panic attack.
If you can spend time being mindful about your breath if you can develop go-to techniques that will help you if you ever end up in a situation like I was in, it will make the whole experience a little less stressful.
The reason I believe this must be worked upon each day is that it’s important to make sure that when you are at a height of stress, you have the neurological pathway already built so you can just get straight to it. If you’re unsure of what to do…that might make the whole situation a little harder…and you don’t need that at times of panic.
A breathing technique I use is the following:
Count how long your inhale takes.
Then work on extended your exhale for double the amount of time you inhale took.
Then for the next breath…try and make your next inhale longer than the last.
And repeat.
Controlling your breath will allow you to regain control over yourself, and that is what you need when having a panic attack.
Talking About Panic Attacks is Important
Even if you have never had one, I urge you to talk about them. Some people are disposed to having Panic Attacks more often than others, however, this doesn’t mean that you aren’t ever going to have one.
There is no warning. There is no reason. They just are.
This way having a body of experience around the topic is going to help you. I knew full well that I needed to get in control of my breath, not because of my own personal previous experiences with Panic Attacks, but because I have had some very useful conversations around them with my clients.
It’s not uncommon for myself to train people who deal with anxiety and depression, in fact, most of my clients have had mental health issues in their lives.
I remember a client coming to me and we spent an hour chatting about an attack she had on the London Underground. We spoke about it, discussed it and I learnt a lot from her about these situations. She was also very happy to discuss with me the therapy sessions she had after this attack happened and the techniques that she was being recommended to use.
That’s how I knew that controlling my breath in the situation I found myself in was the way to keep everything under control.
My client told me.
Now if I had never had that conversation with her, I may have never realised this, as my body was starting to panic. I was able to think of her in this situation and it wholeheartedly helped me.
Another reason for talking about it is useful is because they are a lot more common than you think they are. If you get panic attacks, you aren’t broken or need fixing. You are just reacting to the world around you. I put a post up earlier this week about my experience and the number of people who reached out to me to tell me that they get them semi-regularly and that it’s something they deal with showed me that I wasn’t in any great existential crisis. I was just being a human being reacting to my surroundings which I found too stressful at that time.
There was a comfort in knowing some of my closest friends have them too, and that hopefully they too can now come to me if they need a chat about the situation because we have common ground there.
You Never Know When It Will Strike
When I look back on the last 12 months of my life, I am aware, at a cerebral level, it has been stressful. Here’s a list:
Built a Visa Application for Migration to Australia.
Submitted Visa Application, and found out I wouldn’t be in Australia until it was confirmed, potentially 24 months away.
Had to realize that I would be spending X amount of time away from my fiancee as she had to head home to Australia for work.
Coronavirus shutting my business down and having to rebuild.
Lockdown.
Dealing with close friends and relatives who caught Covid-19.
Moving out of my Cottage for safety as my fiancee was working in East London as a Paramedic, and I have a heart condition.
Moving back to my Cottage for a couple of weeks until I said goodbye to my fiancee.
Moving back out of the Cottage as our tenancy was over, and packing up our house to go to Australia.
Saying goodbye to my fiancee until I get my Visa.
Adapting to living with my parents again.
Running a business through all of this.
Having Surgery.
Losing Furlough money and not being able to get any additional Government help.
Now if a client gave me that list I would totally understand that their life has been very stressful, and it’s going to take a toll on them.
But I never felt like it was taking a toll on me. I just knuckled down and carried on. I just see it all as part of the process. Everything is just another step forward to my ultimate goal of being happy and living my best life with my future bride and the family we want to build.
But stress is a funny thing. Recently I have had some health issues I have been having to figure out all adding more stress to my life.
The thing is with stress, is often times you aren’t aware of the toll it is taking on you until something more drastic comes out of nowhere. Your body is very effective at dealing with it in the moment, and then when the dust settles, things start to go wrong.
This is why a panic attack can come out of nowhere. You will never know when it will strike, and you could very much be in a situation that you find very normal.
If you do have a Panic Attack that is related to stress, which not all of them are, you may well experience that Panic Attack after a lot of the things that are stressing you out have calmed down.
There seemed to be no direct reason I experienced mine. There was no trigger relating to the amount of stress I have been under.
It just was.
They Can Effect Anyone
As I said in the introduction. I’m not the kind of guy who gets panic attacks.
And then I was.
There are no health markers that cause them, and they aren’t directly related to any Mental Health issues.
They just are sometimes.
Like I’ve mentioned time and time again in this article, I would not consider myself as someone who would get a Panic Attack. There is no order to who suffers from Mental Health issues, it doesn’t discriminate against certain people over others, it just is.
It Takes Longer To Recover Than You Think It Might
I was really surprised that even 24 hours after my attack, I was still a little bit fragile. I didn’t feel myself. In the immediate aftermath, I expected to feel a little bit fragile, and that is why I continued to meditate once I had made my initial recovery.
But even the Sunday following, I was still unsettled.
Talking about it with others certainly helped me get back to feeling to myself, and I think that is a very important step in recovering. Sharing your experience and discussing it through with more and more people, as it helps
More People Have Panic Attacks Than You Think
When I shared my experience I couldn’t believe that the very first person I spoke to, the lady making my Green Tea at the Gym, said that she gets them very often too.
Then when I shared my story wider via Instagram, I got DMs and WhatsApp Messages from followers and clients all telling me that they go through them too.
It really encouraged me.
It allowed me to not feel ashamed.
In fact, I was overwhelmed with the love and compassion I received from others, some complete strangers, telling me to give them a call or to chat with them if I needed it.
Knowing that they are more commonplace than I originally thought was a comfort to me, it was nice to know that what I went through is something that I can use to help me empathize with someone else and that there's nothing inherently wrong with me…we all have moments of fragility.
And that’s ok.
If you have any questions or want to discuss anything about Panic Attacks, I will be more than happy to help.
I’m a Personal Trainer, not a Doctor or qualified Mental Health Worker, but it’s always great to chat.
Did you find this useful?
You can Join The Fitness Collective which is my Membership Group. In there I give Monthly Updates, Live Q and A’s, I provide you with new workouts each and every month, and write guidance on your fitness journey.
To find out more about The Fitness Collective you can click here: The Fitness Collective
Please share this with your friends and anyone else you may know who is worried about training in a gym, and feel free to follow me using the links below…
And if you want to get updates on when I publish new articles, publish new podcasts or anything else then please remember to sign up below
And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam
How To Find Your Calorie Maintenance Level
I always feel like Calorie Maintenance gets a bad rap in the Fitness Industry.
It’s the one that gets forgotten. The reason for this is that we cannot sell Calorie Maintenance.
Imagine if you saw an advert for The Fitness Collective (my coaching program) and it said:
“I will teach you to keep your weight exactly where it is, so you can saty exactly as you are”
You’re going to look at it like this:
And I understand why.
But if you think that maintaining body weight is not something you should be concerned with…then you need to read on…because in taking a moment, hitting the pause button and understanding the role that Calorie Maintenance can play in your fitness, health and above all your Fat Loss, is crucial.
Yes.
I did just say that Calorie Maintenance can be crucial in helping you to lose weight.
But don’t worry. I haven’t gone mad and abandoned my Calorie Deficit principles…so let me show you what I mean by this.
But before I do just that… it would be wonderful if you got onto my email list and we became friends.
I will email you things. Sometimes they will be educational, sometimes they will be inappropriate, sometimes I might just want to know how you are; either way…it would be delightful to connect with you.
Just send me a friend request by filling out the form below…
Oh, and I will also send you some free fitness goodies to help start our new friendship off on the best foot possible.
Table of Contents for “How Do You Find Your Calorie Maintenace Level”
If you want to see this Article explained in Video Format then watch this YouTube Video:
What is Calorie Maintenance?
Time for a quick science lesson recap about your Metabolism.
I promise. It will be quick.
As you can see from the infographic your Metabolism is made up of four components:
Basal Metabolic Rate
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis
Exercise Activity Thermogenesis
Thermic Effect of Food
All combined these four things make up your Total Daily Energy Expenditure or TDEE.
Simply put that means how many calories you burn each day.
Once we know your TDEE we know how many calories you need to eat to be in Calorie Maintenance.
If you want to understand your Metabolism so much more, and begin to understand why you can’t break your Metabolism then please do more reading and join 100s of other people by reading this: https://www.thegymstarter.com/articles/is-your-metabolism-broken
There you go.
I told you the lesson would be quick.
The issue we have with just looking at our TDEE, finding out the calculation and going from there is that the factors are variable.
For example, you may not exercise, you may not eat foods that have a good TEF like High Protein Foods, you may not keep your NEAT high enough each day.
So knowing your TDEE is one thing, and it’s a great starting point…but when figuring out Maintenance Calories we need to be a little bit cleverer than that.
I will come back to this point later.
How Do You Find Your Calorie Maintenace Level
When should you go into Calorie Maintenance?
At this point, it would be useful to tell you that there is another term out there for Calorie Maintenance…and it comes from Jordan Syatt (who is basically my Coaching Idol)
He calls Maintenance the following:
“Momentum Calories”
And this is important when we are figuring out when to move into a Calorie Maintenance phase.
In my experience with clients when we bring this topic up they think it is a comment of failure. When I say to them, I think we need to start considering a move into Maintenance, they look at me all puppy-eyed and plead me not to say it.
This is an actual photo of one of my clients
There are two overriding reasons this reaction occurs when talking to someone about Calorie Maintenance:
You think that because you aren’t at “Goal” weight I don’t believe, as your trainer, you will ever get there and therefore I want to just “try something different”
You are petrified you will “put it all back on”
Neither is true.
The truth is you cannot Calorie Deficit forever. It’s too stressful, it can be too restrictive and it’s just a downright pain in the backside.
If it’s not the hunger annoying you….
It might be a lack of energy…
Or the lack of improving strength you can build in the Gym…
Or the simple fact you want to enjoy the Holidays.
All perfectly valid reasons to get frustrated with something.
This is where Jordans “Momentum” term comes into its own.
Because you are simply taking a moment, giving yourself some time to pause, relax and gather up the energy you need before you go again.
The analogy I like to use in this situation for you is the following: Every professional Sport in the World has seasons. Off and On. The reason these are in place is that demanding certain things from your body creates stress and we all need a break from that stress.
It's perfectly normal. And if professional athletes need it, then we can bet your bottom dollar its probably a good idea for you as well.
As for being petrified, you will “put it all back on again” this is a very understandable worry.
But Calorie Maintenance isn’t a free pass. It isn’t an excuse to go and eat whatever the hell you want.
Yeah sorry about that.
Its a controlled break from the Calorie Deficit and Weight Loss, one upon which you slowly but surely figure out how to stabilize the scale and enjoy the benefits that brings to you before you decide what to do next.
Added to this is that we know Fat Loss isn’t linear and using Maintenance as a way to accept that more might be just what you need. By cycling in some Maintenance moments over a much longer time frame for your Fat Loss Goals then you are going to be able to be so much more consistent for a lot longer.
So truly at what point should you go into Calorie Maintenance/Momentum?
Well, you have to first earn the right to do it.
This isn’t an excuse for you to step away from your Deficit because you want cocktails with your friends each weekend. It’s not what the “Cheat Meal” has become where people just eat what they want and excuse their behavior not being congruent to their goals with two simple words.
If you want to truly lose weight you must be in a Calorie Deficit. You must also be truly consistent with that Calorie Deficit and give it the due care and attention it deserves.
You cannot simply move into Maintenance when the going just gets a little tough, and you’re finding it hard to figure out.
I personally would say this: You can move into Calorie Maintenance once you have been in a Calorie Deficit for at least three months, hitting your Calorie Deficit numbers at least 24-26 days out of 31 in each month.
That is a consistent Calorie Deficit following the 80/20 rule.
I do think many people can sustain a Calorie Deficit a lot longer than that…and you probably should if you are still not getting towards your Weight Loss Goals.
Others moments when you should go into Caloric Maintenance are:
You are truly exhausted of the Calorie Deficit, you are irritable and more and more you are noticing that you are really struggling to stay within your numbers.
When you have reached your Goal Weight and want to start figuring out how to get greater flexibility in your diet at that weight.
Your goals are changing and you want to focus more on strength and PBs on the Gym Floor
There is a high Social Calander on the horizon…like the Holiday Season…and you need more flexibility in your Calorie Allowances.
When you feel like you need a little more Brain Space for what life is throwing at you…for example times of higher stress.
When you want more energy on a day by day basis.
When you want to experience less hunger each day and you have noticed it increasing.
These are all perfectly good reasons to move into Calorie Maintenence and maybe a few of them have rung true for you.
This is also a wonderful path away from Yoyo Dieting.
How many times have you lost weight, and then put it all back on again, because you couldn’t figure out the flexibility and the parameters you needed to exist in since your body has changed so much?
Yeah. Me too.
How Do You Find Your Calorie Maintenace Level
What to expect when you do go into Calorie Maintenance
The first and most important thing here is that:
The Scale Will Go Up:
Now please don’t freak out.
You must keep in mind four things.
One, we know it's going to go up, we know the scale will increase and you are entering into this knowing that is the outcome you want.
Two, you aren’t stopping your fat loss journey. You are simply hitting pause to explore new options, and go back into a Calorie Deficit anytime you like.
Three, there is no time limit on when you need to lose weight and there is no rush. So taking a pause will be great, and allow you to move further forward in the future.
In a lot of technical things sometimes you must regress in order to progress.
Four, you aren’t increasing your calories by that much really. It’s going to be a slow build of adding in about 27kcal a day for a few weeks.
It’s hard to say how much the scale will go up, because we are looking for that moment on the scale where it stays true. It will always fluctuate up and down and that will probably be anywhere between 1lb-5lbs.
You Will Have More Energy:
You are eating more! That means more calories, which means more energy!
Obviously the extra calories should still come from foods congruent to your goals for health. So just helping yourself to an extra 200kcal a week of Haribos might not lead to more energy overall.
Your Strength In The Gym Will Increase:
You know that in order to gain muscle you have to be in a Caloric Surplus. Therefore any increase in calories will help you with the goal of gaining muscle.
You won’t look like Arnie.
But you should notice your workouts feeling a bit more full of energy and strength, and that progressive overload is a touch easier obtain.
You Will Have More Brain Space:
A calorie deficit is stressful and tiring. That takes up CPU power in the brain. But the truth is that by removing the pressure to lose weight for a small period of time, by renewing your focus and changing your goal for a brief period it will give you more vigor and motivation.
How Do You Find Your Calorie Maintenace Level
How Do You Go Into Calorie Maintenance?
The first and most important thing here is that I recommend you do this after a phase of being in a Calorie Deficit. It makes life easier once you know what you need to eat to lose weight, to then increase from there.
You will need to figure out your numbers. For which there are three methods I recommend. The first Method is the way you should do it…but its not the most simple or most effective.
Method One:
Once you have decided to go into Calorie Maintenance then, you need to start adding in 200kcal per week. From there, you will see the scale increase.
Don’t forget to weigh daily, because without that you will never know whether the weight has stabilized, dropped, or spiked for no reason.
If you want to improve your relationship with the scale then head right here to my article which has helped hundreds of people learn how to use the Scale Every Day: https://www.thegymstarter.com/articles/2020/5/2/your-scale-strategy
Then just keep building your calories up, until you have regular weigh-ins that hover around 1–5lbs above your starting Maintenance Weight: that is the window we are aiming for.
Method Two:
Download my Calorie Calculator right here: Free Calorie Calculator and other Weight Loss Goodies
Fill out all of your Data on there and then follow the guideline laid out for “Maintain Weight”. This is basically a Free TDEE Calculator for you.
Method Three:
Bodyweight in LBS x 14.
Just take your current body weight in pounds and times it by 14. You will get a fairly rough estimate of where you need to be.
In truth, its probably wise to do all three, and figure out your averages, and what sits best with you. That way you are keeping well educated and in touch with your body.
How Do You Find Your Calorie Maintenace Level
Conclusion
Remember if you decide to come away from your Calorie Deficit and come into a controlled period of Calorie Maintenance then it doesn’t mean any of these things:
That you have failed
That you can’t lose weight
That you aren’t focussed on your Goals
What it does mean is this:
You need a little rest
You are assessing new possibilities
Your goals have aligned differently
You are finding balance in the Calorie Deficit process
Calorie Maintenance is hard to get right because your Daily Activity will change from time to time. So it’s like an ongoing and fun experiment.
The scale will go up, but that's ok, as it’s part of the plan and its nothing to freak out about, plus you won’t lose all you lost again because you are putting your extra calories and extra energy into the Gym and what more the body can do.
I genuinely believe that Calorie Maintenance is the answer to “what now” once you hit your Goal Weight, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it as a tool to help you continue working towards your goal weight and your Fat Loss if you aren’t quite there yet.
Calorie Maintenance is where to go when you feel lost, confused and frustrated with the constant yoyo of what modern-day dieting has become.
It can help give you balance all the way along the journey.
And as we know, balance is the most important word in the English Dictionary and in Fitness it is important to exercise it at every opportunity you get…because that creates consistency.
And consistency leads to success.
With a healthy dose of balance too.
Did you find this useful?
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Here is a selection I think would make great further reading for you:
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Why “Eat Less, Move More” Is Causing The Problem, Not Curing It
It’s incredibly frustrating.
When I hear the term “Eat Less, Move More” I am reminded of my days as a Football Referee. Days that were hounded with the extreme oversimplification of the “Offside Law” combined with incredibly subjective biased opinion in favor of someone's team compared to the opposition.
The truth is…90% of Football Fans do not know the Laws well enough to comment.
And the second I, a very qualified referee, a man who had studied the topic for years and years and had exercised the Laws of Football with Authority at least 3 times a week in front of crowds of fans and pitches full of players, the second, I tried to re-educate people on the issue at hand, I was in the wrong.
I was the bad guy. Because my opinion didn’t fit their very bias narrative.
Truth and facts are irrelevant in situations like this. If the said person had an opinion on it, no matter how wrong, offensive, and downright out of order that opinion was, the truth just did not matter.
And the same can be said for the term “Eat Less, Move More”.
Because we all have a body…because we all spend a portion of our lives being aware of our “Body Weight” people think that they know how it works.
Without study, or reading the literature. Without actually coaching someone.
It isn’t good enough. And all you are doing is causing the problem, not curing it.
You see, Obesity isn’t the problem of the person who is Obese.
It’s the problem of society.
And terms like “Eat Less, Move More” are causing that problem within society even more. To those who believe this is all weight loss is and that it is the “Final Solution”, you could not be more wrong.
You are overlooking far too many other factors that are interwoven into the fabric of society, things like Depression, Poverty, Lack of Job Security, An Economy that prays on keeping people feeling inadequate.
“Eat Less, Move More” is a form of Weight Stigmatization, make no mistake.
Weight bias is defined as negative attitudes towards, and beliefs about, others because of their weight. These negative attitudes are manifested by stereotypes and/or prejudice towards people with overweight and obesity. [1]
I am not denying the fact that in order to lose weight you must be in a Calorie Deficit and this is the foundation for “Eat Less, Move More”.
But as Martin MacDonald says:
“A Calorie Deficit is as simple as Calories In vs Caloires Out, its juts that Calories In vs Calories Out just isn’t that simple”
And it really really isn’t.
Listen more about Body Positivity on The Fitness Solution where I chat with Amy Snelling all about Body Positivity right here:
Why “Eat Less, Move More” Is Causing The Problem, Not Curing It
Why it is more than simply to just; “Eat Less”
When you Fat Shame. When you tell someone to just stop eating…
Have you considered the following:
1. The person might actually be using their weight as a defense mechanism due to previous sexual abuse.
Justin Faden et al (2012) put together a study that found:
73% of patients undergoing psychiatric hospitalization following gastric bypass have a history of sexual abuse. [2]
and
As these patients undergo weight loss, they may experience significant psychological distress [2]
2. The person due to their Obesity is bored as it’s very difficult for them to be anywhere other than home?
California State University (Edward E. Abramson et al) conducted a study where they took a group of Obese Individuals and people who are rated as “Normal” on the BMI scale. They were fed until satiated, then asked to complete an interesting and boring task…whilst the food was readily available to them. The results were:
That the obese consumed significantly more food than normals, and that boredom markedly increases food consumption for both obese and normals.[3]
3. Where they live is causing their obesity and impacting their food choices?
A study in 2009 looked into the relationship of where people live and the foodservice outlets that were in their neighborhood and concluded:
The lower the ratio of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to grocery stores and produce vendors near people’s homes, the lower the odds of being obese. Thus the proximity of the obesogenic environment to individuals appears to be an important factor in their risk for obesity. [4]
Furthermore, we live in a very stressful environment.
Now more than ever.
In the UK alone we are predicted to lose 6.5million jobs due to the current pandemic, according to the University of Essex [5].
Whenever the TV or Radio or Paper is turned on, something that someone who is bored is more than likely to do…not only are they exposed to more stress, but they are also re-exposed to more weight stigmatization via these media outlets. Ever heard the term “Obesity Crisis”?
If someone said to me the condition of my body is a “crisis” then I would be in panic mode. It would be full-blown stress…and stress leads to calories.
To then avoid this stress from mainstream media they might turn to Social Media, which might also help curb this boredom. Social Media is another stressful place to be…looking at images of people who have the ideal body which may well trigger someone into a cycle of emotional eating or binge eating which in turn results in an increase of calories. As the person looking at their feed will just feel totally inadequate.
The International Journal of Eating Disorders published a study in 2019 and found that:
A clear pattern of association was found between Social Media usage and Disordered Eating cognitions and behaviors with this exploratory study confirming that these relationships occur at younger‐age than previously investigated.[6]
And I haven’t even mentioned Poverty. It’s extremely easy for someone who has never had to worry about where their next meal is coming from to spout the advantages of eating a nutritious meal. However, someone who is worried about where the next paycheque is coming from, or keeping a roof over their head, or even whether they will have a meal to eat or not, is not going to worry about the quality of that meal.
You have no right to tell someone who is in poverty what food they should be eating. All you should be doing is worrying about whether they have food or not in the first place.
Jesus didn’t feed the 5000 to a Chorus of “What about the Mercury levels” and “Carbs make you fat because of insulin”. He fed them to a chorus of pleases and thank yous, of gratitude and helpfulness.
As opposed to telling people to “Eat Less”. How about we give them something to be thankful for instead so that they can see hope and love in the world.
Listen to this Episode of The Fitness Solution to really comprehend an awful lot more about why Eat Less, Move More is a term that harms more than it helps:
Why “Eat Less, Move More” Is Causing The Problem, Not Curing It
What about “Move More”?
When you Fat Shame. When you tell someone to just get off the couch…
Have you considered the following?
The person might not be able to get off the couch without help.
The person might be embarrassed to get off the couch in front of people, let alone exercise in public.
The fact the person managed to get onto the couch is their huge win for the day, and just getting out of bed was as hard for that person as they could be dealing with poor mental health.
I think it's a little too obvious for me to sit here and tell you that Obese people struggle with exercise.
Because in fact, it’s not even the physical act of exercising alone that is the main struggle.
In the Gym, working as a Personal Trainer I have had at least three clients tell me that they can’t work out in front of the mirrors because they can’t stand to look at themselves.
And this feeling is backed up by a study by Wicklund and Duval in 1971, upon which they found:
Viewing oneself via mirrors has been shown to increase levels of objective SA via self-evaluation, leading to increased awareness of the discrepancy between an individual’s current self and his or her “ideal” self [7]
These clients weren’t overweight, or obese.
I have had clients squeeze my hand so tight it was painful when they first walked into the Gym because of how scared they were, and then ask that we go for a walk instead and “maybe next week I will feel a bit better about that environment”.
Again, these clients were not overweight or obese.
But it’s how they felt in society.
Now imagine how they might feel if they were overweight or obese.
Actually, it's hard to because you can’t imagine actually being in the gym as an overweight or obese person. I know I can’t. I can’t even pretend to comprehend how they feel. It’s literally beyond my comprehension…and I would consider myself very empathetic to other people's feelings.
But again the Science backs us up here.
A study at Syracuse University in 2008 found a correlation between Weight Stigmatising someone and their motivation to exercise.
These findings suggest that weight stigma (through its impact on avoidance motivation) could potentially decrease physical activity levels. [8]
We all have a sport we dislike participating in. For me it was Rugby…when I was growing up I really didn’t want to get hurt when playing. I felt too small…too weak and far too intimidated to step foot on the Rugby field.
What was your sport? Running?
Imagine if the world told you that the only way to stay alive was to go for a run every day.
Would that inspire you to run...or would it fill you with dread and fear? With worry and again….stress?
We all skipped Gym class at school. And it wasn’t because we were playing truant…it was because that day you were told you were going to get beaten up by your bully, or that you looked fat in your PE Skirt, or that you were so rubbish at Sports the Teacher would just stand next to you blowing his or her whistle whilst screaming at you to do one more burpee.
You skipped that class.
Because the environment wasn’t one that you enjoyed.
What's the difference?
Conclusion
Throughout the article, I have put some words in Italic Bold. The purpose of that was to create this list:
Weight Stigmatization.
Weight as a defense mechanism.
Is bored.
Where they live.
Stressful environment.
Totally inadequate.
Poverty.
Without help.
Might be embarrassed.
Dealing with poor mental health.
Can’t stand to look at themselves.
How scared they were.
How they felt in society.
When you see this list, you can see how complex a web Obesity is. This is without even looking into the Medical side of the condition and how that might affect someone's ability to work on their weight.
The cure to Obesity does not lie in a poorly educated Personal Trainer, Doctor, Government sitting there and telling someone to “Eat Less, Move More”.
To treat Obesity is to treat society. Is to overhaul our economy, our Media, our Health Care messaging around the issues.
When you look up the causes of Obesity on the NHS website it states:
“Obesity is generally caused by eating too much and moving too little” [9]
It’s not good enough.
When you look at the list of causes of Obesity I have outlined in this article do you really think the mantra that the NHS is putting out there is truly good enough?
It's too simplistic. It’s too shameful. And the world needs to do better.
Last week I was lucky enough to have a discussion on my Podcast, The Fitness Solution, about this with someone who was on National Media here in the UK as she said: “I will not work with Fat people”.
The discussion we had was one of great respect and education. We moved the dial forward in her mind and her attitude towards what she said and what she will say in the future.
They are hard discussions. The problems are beyond complex and that can mean that it can almost be too overwhelming to try and tackle and change.
It’s easy to say that a Calorie Deficit is a way forward and that can be summed up simply by “Eat Less, Move More”.
But if it was that simple it would have worked by now. To say Eat Less, Move More is to bury your head in the sand, its to lack empathy, understanding, and the desire to actually create change.
My wish for this article is that whenever you see someone post the words “Eat Less, Move More” you just send this to them.
We need more discussion around these topics, and we need more empathy for those who need it most because that is the only way we will ever get on top of Obesity and truly help those who need it.
Did you find this useful?
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And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam
References:
Euro.who.int. 2020. Weight Bias And Obesity Stigma: Considerations For The WHO European Region (2017). [online] Available at: <https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/obesity/publications/2017/weight-bias-and-obesity-stigma-considerations-for-the-who-european-region-2017> [Accessed 28 July 2020].
Faden, J., Leonard, D., O’Reardon, J., & Hanson, R. (2013). Obesity as a defense mechanism. International journal of surgery case reports, 4(1), 127–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijscr.2012.10.011
Abramson, Edwaed E., Stinson Shawn G., (1977).
Boredom and eating in obese and non-obese individuals,
Addictive Behaviors, Volume 2, Issue 4, 1977, Pages 181-185 https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4603(77)90015-6.Spence, J.C., Cutumisu, N., Edwards, J. et al. Relation between local food environments and obesity among adults. BMC Public Health 9, 192 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-192
The Independent. 2020. More Than 6.5 Million Jobs ‘To Be Lost In UK Coronavirus Lockdown’. [online] Available at: <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-lockdown-job-losses-unemployment-recession-university-essex-study-a9472966.html> [Accessed 28 July 2020].
Patricia A. Cavazos‐Rehg, Ellen E. Fitzsimmons‐Craft, Melissa J. Krauss, Nnenna Anako, Christine Xu, Erin Kasson, Shaina J. Costello, Denise E. Wilfley, Examining the self‐reported advantages and disadvantages of socially networking about body image and eating disorders, International Journal of Eating Disorders, 10.1002/eat.23282, 53, 6, (852–863), (2020). Wiley Online Library
Wicklund, RA, Duval, S (1971) Opinion change and performance facilitation as a result of objective self-awareness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 7: 319–342. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2055102915598088#bibr54-2055102915598088
Vartanian, L. R., & Shaprow, J. G. (2008). Effects of weight stigma on exercise motivation and behavior: a preliminary investigation among college-aged females. Journal of health psychology, 13(1), 131–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105307084318
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
If you have got this far, I would imagine you haven’t considered whether you are inspired for your fitness journey.
Or that you even should be?
Because all we talk about in Fitness is: Motivation.
Seriously…its all anyone focusses on when it comes to starting their fitness or carrying on with their fitness. The number of people that tell me they are lacking motivation, or they have lost motivation…
So how does Jacquie, who is 46, and that person you always see at the gym, no matter how infrequently you attend, how does she always seem to be there…how does she keep going if we know motivation fails people and shouldn’t be relied upon?
Well, I believe that motivation fails you if you don’t add inspiration to what you do when working on yourself physically.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the great Russian composer said this:
“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.”
In this article I want to address the following so that you can go away from here lit up and ready to keep going for the amount of time you need to keep going for to be a success at what it is you want to achieve.
Table of Contents for: “How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?”
3. 6 Ways To Find Your Fitness Inspiration
4. Conclusion
If you want to watch my YouTube Video that accompanies this blog then please head here:
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
The Difference Between Motivation and Inspiration
The wonderful Humanitarian Leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar describes it thus:
It has also been described like this:
“Motivation is a push factor,” he explained. “It’s an outside force that is compelling you to take action, even if you don’t necessarily want to. Inspiration, on the other hand, is more of a pull or driving force. It’s something that comes from within that gets us to proactively give our best effort. When someone is inspired, they’re with you for the long haul.” — Sam Taggart
I find both quotes interesting.
In Fitness the topic of Motivation is a very prevalent one. It's the go-to word that people use when it comes to describing the state of their fitness.
You fall into two camps:
Motivated
Not Motivated
It is completely linear. The majority of people see that if they fall into Camp 1 (Motivated) they are then taking action and doing the things they need to do to get to their goals.
If you are in Camp 2 there is no point at all. And that's that.
The much-misunderstood truth is that there is a Third Camp:
3. Motivated and Un-Motivated
Which is what every single human being in the world is. No one ever has the perpetual motivation and no one ever has perpetual un-motivation (I’m sure that's a word…leave me alone!).
The human condition is a blend…like with everything else.
Now we know that the best way to find your Motivation is the following:
You follow this Loop.
Start with Action, then you get Results and then you find your Motivation.
Or a simpler way I like to put it is: Do, Track, Repeat
However…if you know Motivation will fail you…how do you bolster that part of the loop? How do you make sure that when you hit Motivation you then are able to restart the Loop with Action again?
As Sam Taggart says in the quote above:
“Motivation is a Push Factor”
“Inspiration is more of a Pull Factor”
Now if you have followed me for a long time you will be very aware that I am a proponent of Balance in your Fitness journey.
I am sure you have seen someone with a Kyphotic Posture in their life? A very over-pronounced upper spine tilting someone's head forward.
This Kyphosis occurs, presuming there are no other health issues at play, the Kyphosis will occur if someone has spent too much of their life “hunched over”. It could be someone has worked on a laptop for 20+ years, it could be they have hunched over a Games Console for too long, or they just stand that way as they lack strength.
My point is it comes from an imbalance.
To correct this in the Gym we would have to strengthen all of the back muscles using many Pulling Motions and stretch out the shortened chest muscles. We would have to work on counterbalancing the body.
So, if Motivation is a Push…
…and if all you do is Push you create an imbalance in yourself.
We need to create a Pull in your life.
Just like we would create balance in your workouts in the Gym.
And that Pull is your Inspiration.
You need to turn your Motivation Loop into a Success Loop:
You must do both: Repeat AND Learn.
You need to find your Pull and your Push in order to be able to stay in perpetual motion towards your Goals.
With my clients in The Fitness, Collective success is always attributed to those who work on their inspiration. Motivation and Inspiration are very close bedfellows and one thing they do have in common is they must both be worked upon.
Neither of them will just appear or turn up, they will require you to work on them in order to allow them to have the correct effect.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
What Is Inspiration in Fitness?
Personally, I think I came a little late into the game when it came to Instagram Fitness Inspiration
Or should I say #fitspo
And I am eternally grateful because I had I have joined the industry maybe 4 years previous I might have fallen foul to the bandwagon, but instead I have found clarity and my message which is miles away from the selfie hell that #fitspo truly was and probably still is.
A quick search on the good old Instagram and 70.7million hits of Fitness Inspiration show up and they look like a pile of sick:
Please read this next bit really carefully: THIS IS NOT FITNESS INSPIRATION
This is Fitness Self Indulgence. This is a bunch of very fit people trying to make a bunch of unfit people feel very very shit about themselves.
It causes eating disorders, poorer self image and can really really harm those who look at it.
As I outline in these TikTok Videos which I created after the awful news of Nikki Grahame’s death from Anorexia Nervosa:
I’m not saying they are doing it intentionally, but that is the effect and the result of this horrible practice and anyone who utters the word “Fitspo”.
70.7million photos of unachievable physiques, highly edited photos, and extremely lucky genetics have caused a failure to you. It has caused many people to think that Inspiration is the perfect body, unachievable results and beauty that can only truly be achieved by Adobe Photoshop.
Looking through all of those photos…I personally do not find a single one of them inspirational.
They just make me feel rubbish about myself…and I wonder if you feel the same?
The good news is this: Fitness Inspiration doesn’t exist on Instagram.
Inspiration for Fitness comes from within, not an external source. It comes from your own desires, beliefs and wants from yourself.
Inspiration in Fitness is Learning. It’s the studying. It’s developing your “fitness brain” and figuring out how it interacts with your life. It's learning how you manage under heavyweights, it's feeling your Glutes fire, it's walking out of the Gym feeling strong.
It’s finding out about how much you are struggling with it and how much the professionals struggle with it. It’s the understanding of your humanity in the field of Fitness.
I know that sounds like a lot…I’m not saying just because you are trying to become fit you need to become a PT…believe me you really do not need to do that.
What I am saying is you need to be a little more immersive in the subject.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
6 Ways To Find Your Fitness Inspiration
At Drama School, we had to keep inspired, and just like Motivation, I found the harder I worked the more inspired I became.
When we would get a new script…it was like learning a new language. A script doesn’t come alive until you have read it at least 8 or 9 times…and you need to do that before…well before Day 1 of Rehearsals.
The reason it reveals itself slowly to you is because of all the other research you do around it. You find out the History of the time the Play was set, you find out the stories of the people who lived during those times, you listen to Music and look at Art from the period to try and help make the world believable to you…make the world seem real to you.
Many people dislike Shakespeare because they quite simply “don’t understand it”. When I first pick up a play of his…I don’t either. But the more I work on it, and the more I read it, and view it from different angles…the more it reveals to me.
The difference is that I give Shakespeare an 8th and 9th chance. Most other people don’t give it a second chance.
And Fitness is the exact same. You have to delve deeper sometimes, you have to ask insightful questions and you have to allow it to reveal its work to you.
If you just go to it with a standoffish attitude, then you can expect standoffish results.
So here are six strategies to help you find your Fitness Inspiration…and spoiler alert…
…None of them are “Check Instagram”
They will all help you move towards the Learn aspect of the Success Loop. You don’t have to do all of them, but I do recommend you do as many as you can take on without feeling stressed out about them.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
CONNECT TO A HIGHER PURPOSE
When you set your goals, I don’t want you to think too much on topics like:
I need to lose 2 stone
I need to look good in this top
I need to get into those jeans
I think they are quite materialistic goals, but I do know they will let you down eventually and will not fulfill you fully if at all.
What you should look more towards is:
I want to be a role model for my family
I want to prove to myself I can change
I want to feel more alive than I do right now
With the second set of goals, you are looking more “Intrinsically” than “Extrinsically”.
Edward Deci in his book Why We Do What We Do says this in relation to Intrinsic Goals:
“…strong aspirations for any of the intrinsic goals — meaningful relationships, personal growth, and community contributions — were positively associated with well-being. People who strongly desired to contribute to their community, for example, had more vitality and higher self-esteem. When people organize their behavior in terms of intrinsic strivings (relative to extrinsic strivings) they seem more content — they feel better about who they are and display more evidence of psychological health.” [1]
And this in relation to Extrisnisc Goals:
“The researchers found that if any of the three extrinsic aspirations — for money, fame, or beauty — was very high for an individual relative to the three intrinsic aspirations, the individual was also more likely to display poorer mental health. For example, having an unusually strong aspiration for material success was associated with narcissism, anxiety, depression, and poorer social functioning as rated by a trained clinical psychologist…[1]
Here we can see that you can literally inspire yourself…and as a by-product, it will make you happier as well.
Think how many times in the past you have used an Extrinsic Goal like “get into that pair of jeans” and you achieved it. Are you now…months or years later still able to get into that pair of jeans?
If they were your sole aspiration…I would give a fair bet that you have gone through cycles of yes and no with that.
If you wanted to get into those Jeans to feel a lot sexier, and it makes you feel more alive and healthy when you do….chances are you are wearing them right now…
Connecting to your intrinsic values will educate you on yourself, it will help you look at what is driving you forward and what and who you really value in your life.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
2. FOLLOW INSPIRATIONAL PEOPLE
Don’t follow them on Instagram…i mean you can…but can you actually follow them on more meaningful platforms too?
Do they have a Podcast? Do they have a book? Do they have a blog? Do they have a website? Do they have a YouTube Channel?
All of these longer-form contents will inspire you a lot more than a quick flick and tap on the old IG.
A list of humanoids I find Inspiritational in terms of Fitness and the content I find of their’s most inspirational is the following:
Achieve Fitness Boston (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/achieving-fitness/id1294470614)
Jordan Syatt (https://www.syattfitness.com/blog/)
Mike Vacanti (http://www.mikesmacros.com/)
Tony Robbins (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Awaken-Giant-Within-Immediate-Emotional/dp/0743409388)
Richard Nicholls (https://www.richardnicholls.net/podcast/)
Dave Cottrell (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/master-the-mind-master-anything-with-dave-cottrell/id1287141836)
Mike Matthews (https://legionathletics.com/blog/)
Simon Sinek (https://www.ted.com/speakers/simon_sinek)
Mark Manson (https://markmanson.net/books)
Dan John (http://danjohn.net/)
Dr. Spencer Nadolsky (http://drspencer.com/)
Or there is you know…
Me and my new Instagram page: @the_gym_starter
I may have found some of these initially on Social Media, but without a doubt, their longer-form content is what has inspired me the most and actually that is what I will go back to most when I need that inspirational lift. Not their latest post on Twitter.
Some of them are uber famous, some of them aren’t, and that is the beauty of the list. I gravitate towards people who speak my language. Your list could be extremely different.
This is also just my inspiration in terms of my Fitness and part of that is running my business. Your list could have musicians on there, playwrights, artists…
And that brings me to my next point…
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
3. ENGAGE IN ART
I’m sorry. Coronation Street just doesn’t count. Eastenders is not Art.
In the same way, I think Long-Form content form inspirational people can help you more than their Social Media feeds can, I too think that Art can help you stay connected to your Intrinsic Goals.
Find the things that light a fire up inside you.
For me, it’s the Theatre. For you, it could be Robbie Williams’ “Swing When You’re Winning” or Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.
Art has a wonderful way of making us understand the human condition. When someone can pluck a phrase or a lyric and sum up exactly how you are feeling at that moment, and finds just about the right words, and puts it in a way that speaks to you like you never knew something could…
That lights you up.
And to be inspired…being lit up is very important.
When I am feeling my lowest I would jump on a train and head to London to do two things.
I would walk past my Drama School and listen to Jackson Brown’s “These Days”
Head to Trafalgar Square to go and stare at paintings in the National Portrait Gallery.
Yup. I’m a rock star.
(I challenge you to find another Fitness Blog that uses Bob Ross this effectively)
These were two strategies that have always helped me feel alive. They have made me understand my condition as Adam, they have guided me and connected me with who I believe I truly am.
There’s a lyric in These Days that says:
“Don’t remind me of my failures, I have not forgotten them”
It drives me forward. It teaches me compassion and empathy. It allows me to reconnect to some of the most inspirational times in my life…and I just love it.
Find your song that does that. Watch Movies that aren’t about Superheros beating each other up but that are about real humanity.
Art can and will keep you inspired. Inspiration isn’t linear. If you can get inspired about life that will bleed into your Fitness. It will help you reconnect with your higher purpose.
I was always taught: “You must fall in love each day”
Do that…because it will reconnect you with your Intrinsic Goals and educate you on your own humanity — which is something none of us do enough of.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
4. BECOME PART OF YOUR FITNESS COMMUNITY
Being part of a community can improve Mental Health. One very significant reason for that is that you begin to feel connected.
Connections in this day and age are getting more and more lost in the world of WhatsApp and Email. We don’t talk as much.
And when you have a community you communicate.
Communication is one of my big must do’s for a client. I won’t work with someone if they aren’t willing to communicate with me. They must also communicate with others.
Recently I overhauled my Private Facebook Group and I was really surprised that when I messaged people that I would have to revoke their access unless they joined The Fitness Collective for just £20/month how many of them said thank you to me for allowing them to be in the group for the period of time they were.
They said that although they hadn’t commented much they still got great value from it.
I was astonished.
The words Community, Communication have the same Latin Origin: “Communis” and this means: to share.
Ever heard the phrase: “Sharing is Caring”
If you find a Fitness Community, you will find a place where you can communicate, where you can share and where you can care for yourself and for others.
The Gym floor is this place for many people. Online Fitness Communities are that for others. When you see stories from people, whether you personally know them or not, but when you see their stories, and you spend time with them it’s amazing what kind of an effect they can have on you.
You can learn a lot from other people and especially if those people are just like you. They will share your struggles, your beliefs and your energy…and it will keep you inspired when you see them both succeed and learn.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
5. LONG BOUTS OF LISS
This is a fancy way of saying “go for a walk”.
LISS means Low-Intensity Steady State Cardiovascular work.
This doesn’t just mean Walking though. It can be a light jog…but stay with me.
You can also do all kinds of things like:
Canoeing, Stand Up Paddle Boarding, Mountain Biking, Tandem Biking, Mountain Climbing, Hill Walking, Beach Surfing, Rock Climbing, Rafting, Kayaking.
The list can go on, and I appreciate that some of them aren’t that accessible to do regularly.
But they do all have one thing in common.
Nature.
And nature can be so moving it hurts and it can be so much fun!
Nature also teaches us insignificance which is a terribly humbling thing to go through. Have you ever been stood in a Mountain Range and felt like a speck of dust?
When we are humbled by nature it gives us perspective on our lives, and perspective is something that you very much require in Fitness.
Find out more about how Perspective influences your Fitness in this Article: Your Scale Strategy
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
6. ACTIVE VISUALIZATION
The first thing a Professional Golfer does before hitting aTee Shot is visualise the shot. Where is the ball going? How will it land? How will the swing feel?
Professional Athletes visualize everything they do. They see how their race will go, they see how that pass will look, they use their imagination in this way for two reasons:
To create a consistent outcome
To drive them forward for success
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you have sat there and imagined how it might feel if it would ever happen?
The imaginative version of try before you buy.
Well, when you visualize your ability to create something you also learn to sense what it will feel like. This will teach you control and understanding, this will train you how to react when things won’t go wrong, you are helping increase your hours of practice in what you are doing.
There are very few things that teach us better than practice.
Afterall; practice makes permanent.
Therefore when you spend time in your imagination, thinking about what it is you are working towards you begin to develop sensual and behavioral responses.
These are known as Manifestations.
When you want something, and you think about it, you visualize it, you sense it…you feel it in your body you then will find the behavior change you desire for that outcome a lot easier.
Because you have mentally practiced for it.
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
CONCLUSION
When you can get Motivation and Inspiration into your Fitness Journey everything will become easier.
Both require action, to be able to get there, but they have slightly different pathways.
Motivation is a Push Factor. Its what drives you to do something.
If all you do is Push in your life, whether that is in Fitness, Business or anything else you will become imbalanced.
To fix that balance you require a Pull.
This is Inspiration.
In order to find inspiration for your Fitness Journey, you need to allow yourself to learn. Learn about the subject of fitness by following inspirational people who will teach you, you need to form an opinion, you need to question why you are doing what you are doing.
It’s almost not enough to just “Do” fitness. You have to allow it to permeate your life…if you want to learn to be ruthlessly consistent and achieve your goals.
I wrote this a few months ago…and I think it sums up this article quite well…
How Do You Get Motivated To Lose Weight and Exercise?
What’s Next?
I have plenty more articles about Motivation in your Exercise and Weight Loss Journey right here on my website.
Here is a selection I think would make great further reading for you:
If you struggle with motivation for a Home Workout then read this:
How To Stay Consistent with your Fitness and why it’s important
How Long Will It Take To Lose Weight with Diet and Exercise?
You are also invited to get a bundle of Fat Loss Goodies from me including:
Get yourself a free month of workouts (Home and Gym-based options)
Get yourself a free copy of my e-book ”27 Ways To Faster Fast Loss”
Get yourself a free customized Calorie Calculator
And a Free Month of one to one Coaching…
Straight to your Inbox
All you have to do is put your email address in below:
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
The other day on Instagram I was asked this lovely question:
How Do I Maintain Consistency?
This is something I see so many of my clients struggling with time and time again, and as my clients are exactly the same as you, I figured this would be a helpful topic for everyone…not just my social media following.
Which if you do not follow me…then it would be awesome to connect with you - because I like making new friends.
In fact…send me a Friend Request right now. If you do, I must warn you: I will send you things. Things that are funny, things that are educational, things about my life, and probably things that are inappropriate…
But that’s what being friends is right…
To send me a friend request just put in your details below - and I’ll send you some freebies right away…
Thank you.
Now back to the topic:
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
The first quote I think I ever came across when it came to the topic of Consistency was this:
I think I read it in a book by Jamie Alderton…or a Podcast I was listening to once upon a time and it has always lived with me.
In my life, there are three huge achievements that I accredit to consistency and others accredit to luck and fortune.
How I keep my physique
Being in one of the most successful West End plays of all time
The Strong & Confident Program and my Personal Training Business.
What people always seem to miss when it comes to these three topics in my life is my diligent ability to understand what Bruce Lee said.
I have built all of these things with the principle of consistency being more important than intensity:
The fact I have never gone more than a month without a workout in my entire life as a minimum, and I stick to my caloric allowance at least 80% of the time and I hit my 10k steps at least 6 days a week.
No one saw the 3000 rejections it took in my acting career and showing up to the auditions day in and day out to get my dream job. No one saw the toll the rejections had on me and my relationships.
People don’t see the fact I post on Social Media at least 3 times a day and have done for 4 years, or the emails I send at 11pm just to make sure I check in with you, the person reading it, or the 9 hours it takes me to write, edit and upload an article like this. This is on top of all my actual Coaching hours too.
I’m not bragging. Not at all. I love and adore my job and seeing the positive effect it has on my clients is truly amazing.
But this is the difference between Intensity and Consistency.
This is the difference between what I actually do…and what people see me do.
And that is what consistency truly is.
Doing the stuff that no one sees over long periods of time. Doing the stuff that the only person that sees the benefit is you - whether that is from mental health benefits by feeling productive and creative - financial benefits - or health benefits.
Consistency is the single place where your results lie.
Table of Contents for 6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise:
Step 1: Have no time limit on your goals
Step 2: It’s got to be hella fun
Step 3: Make sure your goal is achievable
Step 4: Create Bright Lines
Step 5: Have Structured Accountability
Step 6: It’s got to be hella fun
Why is Consistency so important?
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
These 6 Steps have no real order…or rather they have no priority. They are all as important as the next and equally as important as the last.
You have to embrace all of them if you truly want to continue on your path for a period of time that will truly change your life.
They will also help you with consistency in weight loss, business, or anything else you are struggling with in terms of being able to do something you need to do to reach your goals on a more regular basis.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
Step 1: Have No Time Limit On Your Goals
Time Limits suck. They suck so much that they will play havoc with your ability to be consistent.
Nothing in this world comes quickly.
Sorry…nothing that is associated with long term success comes quickly.
And if you set out on a Health and Fitness Journey with a time limit attached to when your goal must be achieved you have fallen foul to two things:
Even your most conservative estimate for what is achievable is still too quick.
Your results will never come quick enough to you.
This isn’t necessarily your fault. The Fitness Industry has sold you “quick results”, “fast progress” and 12 week transformations by the dozen load and it has skewed everyone’s belief in what is actually possible.
As you progress through the weeks on your new fitness program, with the goal of being done in 8-12 weeks, the realization that it's all taking a little bit longer than you had hoped will slowly play on your mind, and then it will only take a week of no movement towards said goals, or a plateau, whether in Fat Loss or trying to get heavier weights on your lifts and bang.
You will miss a Gym session.
You will skip your diet.
You will not be as adherent as you could have been in the first period.
This isn’t because you aren’t good enough, or don’t want it enough - this is just the course of life for most adults. Family, Work and all other kinds of stressors do and will get to you.
And that will mean missed moments - on a very very tight schedule.
And the significance of these missed moments will get larger and larger and larger the more the days tick past…and the more sessions you need to miss.
And then you will begin to realize that your goal is even further away now, but the deadline is the same…and you will grind to a halt.
I bet you are sat there…reading this going….my goodness…GET OUT OF MY BRAIN ADAM!!!!!
Especially if you have ever tried a 12-week Fat Loss Program!
I’m not in your brain. I say this to you because it's one of the most common traps people fall into.
Its because I see this every day - and I am truly blessed that the people I work with on my Strong & Confident Program seem to comprehende this really quickly, and convert themselves to adopting an active lifestyle as opposed to trying to “shred to get wed”.
Therefore by releasing yourself from the time pressure of your goals you will be more focussed on the journey, more focussed on the process and you may even have time to take stock and actually enjoy what you are doing, rather than think its waiting for you like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Whenever I am having this conversation with a client I always remember this quote:
“Becoming is better than being”
You will hear many many many Personal Trainers on the internet refer to “enjoying the process as opposed to focussing on the result”.
That is very very easy to say - and very hard to do.
But this is the first step to learning how to enjoy the process. Forgetting about the result.
When would perform Shakespeare I had to adopt the same process here. You have to learn the words of Hamlet, Othello or my personal favourite character: Benvolio and then when you are on stage you have to just forget that you know the words. When it comes to the performance - you have to just breathe and enjoy the ride. The second you start to think about the words you have to say - you forget them. When you hear actors talking about being in the moment - this is one very crucial aspect of that.
On stage we never think about the performance - the result - we just step on stage and let rip.
Its an incredibly freeing feeling - and you too must do the same with your fitness journey.
I actually have an episode of The Fitness Solution Podcast which is dedicated to this entire principle - with my dear friend Jodie Walker.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 2: ITS GOT TO BE HELLA FUN
Adherence: “The attachment or commitment to a person, cause or belief”
Sorry to be “that” guy. You know…
“The Oxford Dictionary defines Adherence as….”
But here we are…anywhooooo….
One of the many reasons I managed to go through 3000 auditions as an actor and get rejected from them, one of the many reasons I have been able to write non stop content for four years on Personal Training, and one of the many reasons I am able to keep my calories in order is because all of those things bring me joy.
Let’s take my acting for example. You may well be thinking to yourself that I’m crazy.
Which is fair.
I am sitting here openly telling you that I enjoyed being rejected 3000 times.
I didn’t.
But I loved my days in London Auditioning. The result was inconsequential to me. Of course, I wanted to get the job. But that didn’t stop me enjoying the day I got going through the experience of trying.
For me, it was a day away from my office job. It was something new to talk about. It was exposing myself to an opportunity of improvement, of challenge, and of new experience.
It was a moment to grow.
It was also a moment to fail.
Not that I wanted to walk into the audtion knowing I would fail - believe me - every job i have ever been up for I have given everything I had for it.
But learning from that failure is a joyful experience. Its a badge of honour. I had the courage to risk failure, i felt that fear, did it anyway and opened myself up to vulnerability and strength.
Plus, who cares that I failed. I lost nothing except maybe a little bit of pride - and the opportunity of what I might gain one day form all of these experiences adding up is something that the micro fiaulures along the way are worth going through.
If you can attach this reframing of “failure” to your fitness journey you will be better off than the far majority of everyone else in the world.
80% of diets fail - this isn’t because diets are broken - its because dieting is really really hard - and one of the hardest aspects of them is being able to see the opportunity in the failures along the way.
I can honestly say that out of my 3000 auditions…I truly cared about getting the job maybe 3 or 4 times, and I know that now because I can remember those auditions:
Notes On A Scandal, Eastenders, BT Commercial, Hollyoaks and Kick-Ass.
That was it. Those Auditions were the ones that hurt when I didn’t get them…because I was extremely attached to the goal behind them. I really wanted that job. I truly believed those were the jobs that would change my life. They were the jobs that would have killed my ability to expose myself to it time and time again.
All the others…I can barely remember. But what I do remember is enjoying the process. Enjoying learning new plays, learning new speeches, and discovering new characters.
I didn’t enjoy it. I bloody loved it.
And if you aren’t having fun…there is no way you will be able to carry on doing it for long enough to get the results you want.
I call this the Adherence Loop:
Fun → Adherence → Consistency/Action → Results → Motivation
Make fun your priority in everything you do.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 3: MAKE SURE YOU ARE TRYING TO STICK TO SOMETHING THAT IS TRULY ACHIEVABLE
By now you should be seeing a common theme with consistency: when you don’t see the results you re after that's what stops you from taking action.
And not setting yourself up for failure is critical to that.
As a personal trainer I see people setting the bar too high all the time:
Setting Calories too low.
Trying to exercise 4–5 times a week.
Lifting such heavyweight to the detriment of form.
Trying to do too much cardio ontop of lifting.
Spending too much money on quick fixes and shortcuts that they can’t keep it up.
Jumping constantly onto the “next big thing”
All of these will result in you not being able to remain consistent - and then ultimately giving up.
This is predominantly the fault of the internet and media - where in fitness we learnt that the quicker the fix - the more you will pay for that product.
And then when you don’t see the results - we aren’t accountable to you financially - you already paid - you already agreed to that “element of risk”. The most classic example of this you will see is something like:
“If you do exactly what we say, you will get the results you want or we will refund you”
And the trianer saying that knows exactly that no human ever will do exactly what they say - because no one can hit their calories each day perfectly. No one can track their food perfectly each day. No one can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they did “everything that was asked of them”.
Therefore, no one will ever be able to claim their money back.
The whole premise is a lie to make the trianer look good - and to coax you into the sale - because when you sign up you either believe you will do everything that is asked of you, or you are naieve to what is actually required.
You must make sure that what you are setting out to do is achievable but the problem is…how do you know if it is or isn’t without experiencing failure from time to time?
You might not be able to avoid that. Failure is always part of the process and every path to success is paved with it, my 3000 rejections for example.
One way of insuring yourself against this is to give yourself micro-goals.
So as opposed to wanting to lose 10 stone in 4 months try this:
Do everything you can to lose 1lb in 4 months…and repeat.
As opposed to trying to run a 5km in 20mins
Do everything you can to just complete the distance…and repeat.
“Practice makes progress”
Through the repetition of achieving such small goals over and over you will give yourself a feedback loop of success…and the big picture will take care of itself.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 4: CREATE BRIGHT LINES — What is a Bright Line?
A bright-line rule (or bright-line test) is a clearly defined rule or standard, composed of objective factors, which leaves little or no room for varying interpretation. The purpose of a bright-line rule is to produce predictable and consistent results in its application [1]
Jokes aside - how wonderful is it that Britney Spears has managed to get out of the conservatorship.
Back to the topic at hand:
Now is the time for you to get strict. Not restrictive.
A lot of people when they set up a Bright Line in search of consistency they set it up overly restrictively.
A common Bright Line we see in fitness is something like this:
“I’m going to give up Carbs”
It’s a Bright Line: No Carbs for the rest of your life.
But it is also very very restrictive and will, therefore, cause lots of angst and potentially lead to higher intakes of Carbs…you know…“I can’t have it so I want it” syndrome. Whenever you take something completely off the table, you become more obsessed with it.
A better Bright Line in this instance would be:
“I will limit eating Chips to the weekends only”
Let us test it:
It has a clearly defined rule which aligns towards your bigger goal of wanting to lose weight: Limit eating chips.
It’s made up of an objective factor: You can only eat the chips at the weekend.
There is no varying interpretation: You either ate chips during the week or you didn’t.
Will it create a predictable and consistent result? Yes. Because you are eating chips only at the weekends.
A Bright Line doesn’t have to be about restriction though. It could be:
I will eat five different vegetables with every dinner I cook at home.
or
I will go to the Gym at least 2 times every single week
They aren’t pass/fail tests. If you miss a gym session in a week it doesn’t mean you failed completely, it means you just missed out on that one bright line.
This is why it will be wise each week to set three or four bright lines. If you miss one, you can then still find success in the other three, and you know what the priority for the upcoming week is.
I used to think brought lines were strict - but they aren’t - they are there to inspire discipline. I wish I could tell you that you can have total freedom and still achieve your goals - or rather - you don’t need to do any work and still achieve your goals.
But you can’t. There has to be discipline attached to your actions over time.
The key for you to being able to stick to your Bright Lines is making sure they don’t restrict you…but empower you.
One of my favourite phrases when it comes to weight loss is:
“Focus on production, not reduction”
Meaning:
Look at everything you can do to achieve your goal, not what you have to miss out on. Many many many people see weight loss as not having their favourite foods, not being able to enjoy alcohol, and not being social with their friends.
But the truth is, if you focus on production, if you focus on being more active, if you focus on eating as much as you can within your caloric window, if you focus on drinking more water, on going to the gym you live in a world of abundance towards your goals.
And that is more inspiring, than closing things off.
And it allows you to still do the things that might have originally been “off the table”.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 5: HAVE STRUCTURED ACCOUNTABILITY
In my near 10 year career in this industry I have always worked online and in person.
Without a doubt - those who are more successful are my online clients - because they have to build their own structured accountability - and this empowers them.
You see - when people see me in person, they think that is being accountable enough. They put the ownness on me to create their result. Whereas online - the ownness is on them - and I find that empowers them to achieve so much more.
Tracking your consistency is one thing that is really going to help you keep consistent.
I know it sounds obvious…but you would be amazed at how many people think they are being consistent with their process…and then actually are not.
I almost promise you…that you are not as consistent as you think you are.
In the same way, you underestimate the number of calories you are truly eating [2] you’re also overestimating how consistent you are being.
And this is where structured accountability comes into the fold.
A huge part of what I provide to my clients is structured accountability. But this is far less effective for my clients than accountability they develop and maintain themselves.
Again - I want you to be empowered.
One of my go-to systems for clients is this:
Get a Big Wall Calendar
Stick it on your wall
Set up three-four Bright Lines you are going to do daily and weekly.
Track your consistency on these Bright Lines every day.
If you stuck to the Bright Lines put a big Red Circle on your day:
6. If you don’t stick to the Bright Lines put a Double Exclamation Mark on the day (different colour would be preferable)
Then over the months, you want to be hitting the 80/20 rule. Because remember consistency is more important than intensity and consistency doesn’t mean perfection either.
So for a month, you should have 25 Red Circles — meaning you are consistent - and will be hurtling towards your goals far quicker than if you took one of those “quick fixes”
Ironic isn’t it?
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
STEP 6: ITS GOT TO BE HELLA FUN
Yes. I know this was Step 2 as well.
But it's important. REALLY IMPORTANT.
What you do must be enjoyable. If you don’t enjoy it you will never stick to it.
And I’m not sure that point can’t be said enough.
6 Easy Steps To Stay Consistent With Diet and Exercise
Why is Consistency important?
Consistency is so important as it is your guiding light when it comes to balance. It is your buffer against you failing. If you can be consistent in the ways I have laid out in my 6 Steps then when a slip up occurs you will have so much other information that makes you feel proud of yourself.
Consistency reduces the significance of missed moments - and enhances your sense of overall achievement.
The other joyous thing about consistency is that it grows with you. The more consistent you are, the better it feels, and it just keeps going round and round and round. Then what took effort, soon becomes habit and that allows you to try and be consistent on something that is a level up to what you were dong before.
Understanding that you need to be consistent also allows you to understand that you must have flexibility and balance.
Consistency does not mean you need to be perfect.
Perfection is the enemy of consistency. It is the opposite.
I have many people tell me what their fitness wishes are, and very very often people will say to me:
“To be consistent with diet and exercise”
At which point I ask them: “What numbers are you attaching to that? How often do you need to do it in order to be consistent?”
“Every day” they respond with.
“Thats perfection” I remind them.
And you can see the weight from their shoulders lift immediately. Suddenly what seemed overwhelming is now achievable.
That is a big deal.
My friend on Instagram was talking about how she had an upcoming family holiday and wanted to pack all her stuff to go to the gym whilst she was on holiday. She was very worried about the voice in her head, her voice that was saying
“You are failing if you miss your sessions”
I explain to her that she has control over her thoughts and that she needs to start treating her “thoughts as things”. The only reason a thought becomes important is the weight we give it and whether or not we choose to focus on it.
So we had this chat:
If you take one thing away from this article please let it be this.
Perfection is not necessary and the quest for perfection will eventually lead to you giving up on yourself because it isn’t possible.
Consistency and Balance are possible, and that's what you must always strive for.
So if you are worried about whether or not you are not “being good enough” or whether a day off will wreck your progress ask yourself the same two questions I sent on Instagram:
Is this thought worth thinking?
Does this thought fit into my narrative of consistency over perfection?
And if the answer is no to both, then forget about it and move on with your day.
Consistency will be the ultimate answer for your quest for success in any field.
Business, Relationships, Fitness, Fat Loss.
It doesn’t matter what you want to succeed at you must be consistent and consistency isn’t sexy.
It creates regularity and helps form habits day in and day out. It is the foundation of habit formation. It takes conscious effort to being with, and then develops into something that is more automated.
You brush your teeth every day not because you know that by doing it one day you will stop your teeth from falling out, but because doing it every day will stop your teeth from falling out.
You save your money not because you know £50 one week will help you in the future, but doing that every week for 10 years will pay for your child's university fees.
Your child will never see the £50 a week. They will only know that you are paying for their tuition. There is nothing glamourous about £50 a week, but over a decade £26,000 is a lot of money to anyone.
I’m sure you have seen this in the past:
But its always worth reminding yourself of what success truly looks like.
There is also something wonderful about being consistent each and every day, and that is the concept of compound interest.
Once you begin to be consistent, once you turn those consistent behaviours into habits, and once they become just what you do…then the more room and space you will have to keep learning and trying to incorporate new things.
And that constant picking up of new ideas, habits and behaviours is what will change your life.
If you refuse to allow consistency to rule the roost in your journey you will always be stuck at phase one of your goals, and you can only focus on that for a certain amount of time until you get bored, frustrated and then eventually give up altogether.
What’s Next?
I really hope you found this article useful, and you feel a lot more comfortable about how to keep more consistent with your diet and exercise.
I also have some other articles you might find useful to help you navigate your Fitness Journey:
Added to all of that, if you would like a Free Calorie and Macro Calculator then just put your email in here:
Thank you so much for reading my article.
Speak Soon
Coach Adam
How Do You Track Weight Loss With Progress Photos? And are Progress Photos useful to use?
The infamous “Progress” Picture. Some of this Article will sound damn obvious. Some of this article will shock you to your core.
But the overall aim of this Article is, like so much of my content, designed to change your perspective on two things:
How you feel about your own “Progress” photos
How you feel when you look at other people’s “Progress” photos.
One of my favorite progress photos is the following:
“I finally had the courage to upload my Progress Photo…it wasn’t easy but I managed it”
The reason I love this Meme so much is that it sums up the entire point of this Article.
Table of contents for: How Do You Track Weight Loss With Progress Photos? And are Progress Photos useful to use?
How Do You Track Weight Loss With Progress Photos? And are Progress Photos useful to use?
What is a “Progress” Photo?
I’m sure you have heard about them…or seen them. Even if you are ever so slightly interested in fitness or have ever logged into Facebook or Instagram I am almost certain you will have come across a Progress Photo.
A “Progress” Photo is a picture of someone on one day in time, typically when they started a new program placed right next to the same person a few months on when the program has finished.
And you are “expected” to see a difference between Photo A and Photo B.
They are also sometimes called “Before and After” photos.
I dislike this term more because it gives a finite beginning and end, which I don’t think is helpful for you.
Now it's great for the Personal Trainer that made you do it in your 12-week program and wants to exploit you and your pictures to try and get more clients…because as far as they are concerned it is Before and After.
Before you ever knew them.
After you are finished with them.
They now don’t give a fuck about you because they have their marketing photo. Its a classic, use, and abuse. In and Out. Kick to the curb.
And it disgusts me.
Disclaimer: I have been known to use my client's photos for marketing purposes. But none of them has ever done a 12-week shred with me. None of them have been with me as a client for less than a year. And they all understand that its a part of the sad world I exist in. I have also never edited a progress photo in order to create a better image of the result. But I am definitely in the minority.
I wish I could sell Personal Training without them. I really do. And I try to use them as little as possible. I very rarely use my own photos to sell how good I am as a Trainer because just because I can get a ripped body for myself doesn’t mean I know how to coach someone else to that end.
And that is a very important point. If you are choosing a Trainer based on how they look…then you are falling for a very easy trap. Anyone can follow a plan and get results themselves…the art of coaching is to be able to get someone else to do that, someone who isn’t you, who has a very different life and who needs very different guidance not just from who the trainer is, but also from all of their other clients too.
You are an individual.
And this is part of the problem. The market decides what sells…and you…yes…you…I know you have judged someone’s training experience based on a “Progress” photo you have seen of them. You have made a snap judgment on their trainer…and a snap judgment on the person based simply on a once in a moment photo.
And that is what sells.
I also think we all have a responsibility when posting them. Whether it is myself to try and garner business or yourself to demonstrate your hard work and to show how you have changed.
I always think…whenever I chose to use a “Progress” photo…I always think what effect will this have on someone somewhere?
Will one of my clients who is struggling right now see it and feel worthless?
Could someone see it at the wrong time of day and it means that they sink further into darkness?
Could it inspire someone to make a change?
I generally do not give a flying hoot about what I post and if someone is offended by what I say…I know they can move on, and I certainly can.
But a “Progress” photo has slightly different energy…and I have a responsibility to make sure that they are used in a more progressive way…and if you are reading this…I would like to think I have stopped and made you think about that too.
And this is based in reality. A trainer I used to work with created an online program that was based around a 6 Week Fat Loss shred. The image they used of their “client” (personally I had never seen them work with them and there was no Social proof for this either over the 5 years I had known said person) was of “this client” looking “large” and then “small”.
The tag line was “6 Week Transformation”
The advertising for this was huge. This woman was almost life-like in size on the website and the online ads and Social Media pictures were in your very in your face. But what really got to me about them was the following: It was all a lie.
This “client” did not do this program.
This “client” did not change her body that much in 6 weeks.
The people who did do this program never got results like that in 6 weeks — so imagine how they must have felt when all was said and done?
Luckily, I never worked with the trainer personally…we were just both in the same industry in the same town. But this is what really hurt most about it.
I was in a session with a client. A client who has struggled with weight her entire life. The issues with her weight have permeated through into her Mental Health and for the first time in her life she felt like she was learning and beginning to get to where she wanted to get to.
She was targeted by this advert online and the posts…she sent them to me…feeling very lonely late one night and asked me:
“Is that true?”
I told her the truth that the whole thing is a lie and the transformation took a good four or five years, and her response was this:
“That makes me feel really sad. That makes me feel so small and so unworthy. I’m so glad it isn’t true, but that picture makes me feel so angry because for a while I thought it was true…and it made me feel horrible”
We have a responsibility. We need to do better. We need to stop putting finances above people’s mental health in an industry that is about Health. We must stop selling lies and impossible truths just because we have egos. It's not helping you, and it's not helping your clients.
The worst bit…the program did really well in terms of sales. The results? Well, I’ve never seen a “client” who actually went through the system on any campaign from this trainer since….nor have I seen any of their progress photos on social media.
This brings us quite nicely to…
How Do You Track Weight Loss With Progress Photos? And are Progress Photos useful to use?
How Should You View “Progress” Photos?
Let me be clear. As much as I think they can be bad for the majority of people to see…they do have a place and can be effective for you in tracking your goals. I think they are a terrible way to draw clients in due to how untrustworthy they really can be.
It's more like the “Progress” photo itself isn’t the problem…but like with all things it's the way we personally view them.
When I was at Drama School we would be constantly working on a play. And every so often different people would come into rehearsals and critique the play. Whether that was a Movement Director, a fellow student, a Fight Director, a Voice Coach, a Casting Director, a Producer, the productions Composer and the Lighting Designer. You also had the Set Designer, Costume Designer, Script Writer (if they were still alive…alas I never met Shakespeare). Oh, then there's the whole Stage Management Team as well.
All in all about 30 people.
That wasn’t involved in all of the rehearsals They just had to show up and go away again. But every time they would show up an interesting phrase kept creeping into the rehearsal room:
“It’s a work in progress”
I used to view this as an excuse in case the people watching thought it was totally rubbish…and we would have time to make it better.
Then I was in Twelfth Night…and our Director, James Kemp, spoke to us about how a play is never finished. How a Production is never finished. How every night you must keep digging and digging, you must keep finding new things to discover because that is how you keep a play alive.
And no one wants to sit through a very stagnant three hours of Shakespeare.
You see, this is what your “Progress” Photo is.
It's not a beginning and an end.
Your fitness, if you have taken it on, and want to improve it should never exist with the concept of a beginning and an end. You must always be searching, always be digging, always be developing and letting your experience reveal new truths to you as you go.
There is no end. Just exploration.
A “Progress” photo doesn’t do that. A “Before and After” photo doesn’t do that.
Therefore I think it is a lot more healthy for you to view these photos as
“Work In Process”
Not just your photos, but those of others you see on the internet as well. They are just Work In Process.
I take a photo of myself after every single training session.
And yes…I do have narcissistic tendencies, but that is not why.
Its a lot like my article on “Your Scale Strategy”
Read my article that has helped 100s of women improve their relationship with the scale right here: Your Scale Strategy
The more you expose yourself to a picture like this then the less pressure you will feel first when you see it of yourself, and secondly when you see others. Yes, you might not notice progress as much…but who cares? Like with everything in Fitness…there is no end game. There is no finite; just exploration.
All Work In Process photos must be taken with a huge pinch of salt because they are quite literally just an image of someone frozen in time.
The drawbacks of what you see in a Progress photo are huge.
How Do You Track Weight Loss With Progress Photos? And Are Progress Photos Useful To Use?
What are the Pros and Cons of “Progress” photos?
Well…as we are here…let's start with the Cons:
Some of the biggest cons are that you have no idea about these elements of the subject's health:
Their relationship with food
Their mental health
Their hydration levels
Their physical health
Their relationship with exercise
All of these things could be very much affected…and the more “drastic” a “progress” photo is…and the more professional the photos look the more extreme we can assume the pendulum swings.
I know of BodyBuilders that get to a point where they can only drink what they pass when getting ready for a photoshoot — they also can’t get health insurance…due to the state of their livers.
Yes…that is the extreme side of the equation. But it all counts. Because every time you flick through Instagram and see a very shredded person…it still makes you feel like crap. Even a little. It makes you say “I’d never be able to achieve that” and that isn’t good enough.
Some more cons:
It is well known that people have had their own “progress” photos stolen to sell products and programs they never participated in.
The use of lighting can affect a huge amount of the way you look when they are taken (there is actually a thing called “anabolic lighting”)
They can easily be edited to make the subject look a lot better than they are.
Here are two photos…one on the right I edited on my phone…and the other is the original.
Please excuse the towel…
You can see my Pecs look a lot bigger in the edited photo due to the enhanced shadow, and the coloring looks a little off…but you are comparing like for like. How many “Progress” photos do you see where the subject is comparing all things the same?
I used a specialist app to edit this photo and these are some of its features:
Reshape — including Detail and Bloat (this might sound defunct but it makes your muscles look so much bigger if used well)
Retouch — teeth whitening, smoothing.
Brighten / Darken (very useful for anabolic lighting)
Tall — yes, you can actually make yourself taller
But my favorite feature is the following:
Stickers — Male Ab Stickers, Male Chest Stickers, Female Ab Stickers, Collarbone Stickers, Cleavage Stickers (yes, you can actually put someone else's breasts on your photos — I use this feature personally a lot)
I was going to put a funny photo in here of myself with that feature…but some things just can't be unseen.
In the photo above, I have managed to increase my arm size, my pectoral size, and I was able to darken my Abs so they looked so much more defined, and so that I look a lot more muscly and ripped than I actually am.
It took 5 minutes. Maybe less.
And…this app…is totally free.
Other Cons?
They build pressure on you
They can de-motivate you when you don’t see any progress
They can feel like a much bigger deal than they actually are
They can be very exposing and scary if you have never done them before
If you don’t know how to look at them, and what to look for you may never see the progress in them. I have had a number of clients submit photos to me and despite huge differences, they just don’t see them. Being subjective towards them can be very diminishing. I’ve had full-blown discussions with clients to try and show them what I can see in a photo…they just never believe it.
And this is why I don’t think they are an effective way to draw clients into programs either…
Let’s say I took on 100 clients into a 12 week program and made them all eat 1000 calories or less each day. I would get some amazing before and after photos…trust me. Especially if I only took on clients who had a BMI of 25+ for this program.
Now only about 10% of that number would actually get to the end. I now have 10 clients.
Of these 10 clients, lets say…maybe 5 or 6 of them remembered to do their photos at the beginning, and maybe 2 or 3 remembered to do them at the end.
I had 100 clients. I now have 2 or 3 that I have amazing photos of…to then use to sell the advocacy of the program to you.
You are buying into a program that has revealed 3% of its truth.
If I gave you a 3% chance of success in any program would you want to spend £100s on that?
Hardly seems honest, does it?
97 people, who failed. 97 people who you have no idea about and 97 people who the trainer can’t even remember their names.
On the internet also…there are many accounts that produce these comparison photos…and I kid you not…they don’t even use the same person in both photos. This is no joke. I promise you.
When I saw this it got me thinking of a checklist you should probably ask yourself every time you see a “Before and After” photo. It's really important you protect yourself from stuff like this. So always use the following filter when you are looking at photos of this nature:
Are there any Pros?
Well, yes. There are.
Photos can be and should be used as another way to track your Work In Process. They can reveal a lot. They can reveal things that the scale might not reveal.
They can build huge confidence in people, as they can be challenging, and overcoming a challenge can move you into growth.
And when they reveal development…it is a great feeling.
It really is a nice feeling. But that is chased with trepidation because I’m sure in the past you haven’t seen progress from one photo to another…and it has stopped you in your tracks.
How Do You Track Weight Loss With Progress Photos? And Are Progress Photos Useful To Use?
How Should You Take A “Work In Process” Photo?
There are rules on how it should be done…and in all honesty mine are a terrible example for a number of reasons — which when I explain below you will understand more.
I would also like to take this moment to TELL YOU TO DO IT.
But only if you agree to the following:
1. Its a Work In Process photo and you remember that at all times — there is no end to the process.
2. You understand that its only one method of tracking your work in process — the scale, measurements, the way your clothes fit, and what other people say to you are all huge indicators of progress too.
3. You will only compare every two to three months (you can and should take them much more regularly so you get to practice and used to taking the photos)
4. You follow the best practice as laid out below…
If I had a dollar for every client that said to me…
“I wish I took photos at the beginning”
In fact just this week one of my clients in The Fitness Collective said just this. Word for word.
Get my enitre library of resources and learn how to Build Confidence, Burn Fat and Build Muscle by Joining the Fitness Collective right here: https://www.thegymstarter.com/the-fitness-collective-sign-up
And I understand why you don’t want to when you start.
You feel scared of failing, and you definitely don’t want a photo to remind you of another moment where you failed. Plus…you’re in this to lose weight…because deep down there are parts of your body you hate…and a “reveal all” photo to send to your trainer when you can’t even make love with the lights on just isn’t happening. Full Stop.
It is a challenge. And a photo isn’t mandatory. But if you have someone who believes in you, as much as I do. If you have someone who is your number one cheerleader then of course you aren’t going to fail and that photo could be something you are immensely proud of and giving yourself that opportunity could be life-changing.
So this is how you do it:
1. Always take your progress photos at the same time of day. Mornings are preferred…as much fewer variables are in play ie: how much food you have eaten that day and therefore how bloated you are.
2. Try and use natural lighting as much as possible. Go outside and get the photo as it is going to be a much truer reflection.
3. Use the same clothing — never change your clothing. It's ok to have a progress photo in a T-shirt, but remember that won’t tell you the whole story…but if you need that comfort that’s ok. But always where the same one!
4. Use the same phone, and put it in the same position! Do not change lenses, do not change angles and do not do it like a selfie. In fact the phone should always be lower than you think. Usually, the best position for the phone in relation to you is about in line with your belt buckle.
5. Put the phone about 6 feet away from you so you can capture your whole body from toe to head on the screen.
6. Keep the phone completely parallel to your body. Do not angle it upwards or downward as it is a variable you will not be able to repeat.
6. Stand naturally…no flexing, no tensing, and no worry. Just be you. Because you are all that matters.
7. Try to put the gridlines evenly across your body, and make sure you stand in the center three boxes. Like this:
And that’s it.
Nearly.
Now the photo is taken…
You then have to wait a minimum of 8 weeks and then repeat the process.
Then…and this is probably the most important part of Work In Process photo.
Send the photos to a professional who can look at them objectively.
I promise you…you won’t see what they see…and what they see is what is really going on. You will be hell-bent on seeing a reduction in your belly, but you will ignore all the differences in your posture, your muscular development, the difference in confidence and so much more.
It takes practice and work to really see what is going on in photos…and that is something you do not have experience in.
I tell you what…if you got this far in this article…email me and I will look at them myself for you…to help you…just email me on adam@thegymstarter.com
How Do You Track Weight Loss With Progress Photos? And Are Progress Photos Useful To Use?
Conclusion
I really hope your biggest take away from this article is the following:
Stop viewing these photos as “Progress” photos or “Before and After” photos. Looking at them in that mindset is helping people manipulate you into buying into very large untruths about their work and the effectiveness of losing weight.
I want you to start realizing they are a “Work In Process” photo.
There is no end. It's just where you are at over this last two to three month period.
A Work In Process photo is useful, but it only reveals one very small and slim side of someone's story. It doesn’t tell you their relationship with food, what drastic measures they have had to go through to get the photo in the first place.
Its just two photos…two or three months apart. You have no idea how happy that person is…and I bet even though they lost some weight…they still aren’t happy.
Because this is the kicker: Losing Weight doesn’t make you happy.
The work and focus on the process of looking after yourself might. But reducing the size of your body will not make you happy…so stop thinking that it will…and above all stop thinking that the people you see in these photos are happy.
If they look happier on one photo compared to another its because they have manipulated it that way…they have slouched and sunken in the first one and stood up straight in the second one.
There’s more to this than you think.
So let's get you focussed on the Process. On the work. On the toil.
And let's get you viewing these photos with a more critical eye when you see them….
And let's get you viewing your own ones as quite simply…
A Work In Process.
Because that is beautiful. Just like you.
Did you find this useful?
You can Join The Fitness Collective which is my Membership Group. In there I give Monthly Updates, Live Q and A’s, I provide you with new workouts each and every month, and write guidance on your fitness journey.
To find out more about The Fitness Collective you can click here: The Fitness Collective
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And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam
Is Emotional Eating Your Biggest Problem For Fat Loss?
I normally start an Article like this with a funny meme.
You know, a picture of Joey from Friends eating Pizza with a humorous caption to the effect of: “It's not my fault I can’t lose weight…it's my emotions”
But actually I was quite surprised by what I saw when I typed into Google:
“Emotional Eating Memes” because what actually showed up was “Stress Eating Memes”
And I think that is really what is going on with a lot of Emotional Eating.
In this article we will discuss the following:
Is emotional eating something that affects only me?
What is emotional eating and why does it occur?
How do you begin to change your behaviour with emotional eating?
Can I lose weight whilst working on my emotional eating?
Conclusion
Before we go any further I need to run a few disclaimers. I’m a very experienced Personal Trainer in the field of Female Fat Loss.
I am not a Psychotherapist, Eating Disorder Clinician or Doctor of any kind. If you are currently suffering from an Eating Disorder or feel like you might have an Eating Disorder akin to anything like Bullemia, Purging, Anorexia Nervosa or any other kind of Disordered Eating then please contact your GP immediately, or contact the fantastic Charity BEAT: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/
Is Emotional Eating something that affects only me?
Many of my clients think that their emotional eating is significant to them, that they are the only person who turns to a Glass of Wine or a Bar of Chocolate to help them feel better about themselves.
And I’m sure you think that about yourself too.
But here's a thought…what if it is more normal than you originally thought? What if more women than you knew were actually emotional eaters…it's comforting right? That you're not alone. That you're not broken. That it's not something that is only wrong with you.
People find a lot more comfort in the knowledge that there is a sense of “normality in numbers”. When a client first comes to my Gym and starts working with me, they are normally nervous as hell…until I tell them that actually everyone is nervous. Everyone in this building is nervous, which is why they are here in the first place. All my clients are scared their first time, but they got through it…and you will too. They then relax, they calm down. It's now not “just them”. They are now not singled out in their minds. Social Psychologist Robert Cialdini in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion says the following:
“Whether the question is what to do with an empty popcorn box in a movie theater, how fast to drive on a certain stretch of highway, or how to eat the chicken at a dinner party, the actions of those around us will be important in defining the answer.”
We find great comfort in following the crowd. But we must always know that the crowd exists first. When you type “Emotional Eating” into Google you get About 397,000,000 results (0.44 seconds).
It's a popular topic. You aren’t alone and it's certainly not the case that you are broken.
In short, …it is a normal behaviour pattern [1].
What is emotional eating and why does it occur?
I couldn’t write a whole article without a meme now, could I?
Emotional Eating is closely related to Binge Eating, however, Binge Eating is classed as an Eating Disorder, and Emotional Eating is not classed as an Eating Disorder due to the fact that as discussed above, we all do it.
I’ve eaten chocolate to feel better, I’ve got horribly drunk after I split up with an Ex and I have also eaten Pizza until my heart is content because something wasn’t feeling right inside of me.
You are jumping straight to the “Eating”And not looking at the “Emotional” with enough scrutiny.
The Pizza didn’t help. Nor did the Alcohol. Nor did the Chocolate.
The reason? The eating wasn’t the reason I needed comfort. The emotion was.
You will go through an emotional moment and then move towards an item of highly palatable, calorific food or drink. We all do it.
How Do You Define Binge Eating? <<< Read my article on how to understand if you are Binge Eating…
What we don’t all do however is look at the reason why we went to the food. You jump straight to the food being the problem because it doesn't align with the physical goals you have set for ourself.
You are jumping straight to the “Eating”, and not looking at the “Emotional” with enough scrutiny.
As a Coach I’m guilty of this as well. In the past, I have only focussed on the “Eating”. Clients tell me that they want to lose weight, and I will jump straight to the calories, without thinking about their Emotional state soon enough, or putting in enough measures to help them make sure that they are working on their emotional environment and behaviour as much as their physical one.
According to HelpGuide.org [2], these are the triggers that cause Emotional Eating:
Stress
Stuffing emotions
Boredom or feelings of emptiness
Childhood habits
Social influences
Then these triggers work themselves into the following cycle:
Its a continuum. It's a cycle that you cannot work yourself away from because you keep returning to the places that the triggers exist, and then you reach out for the food that comforts you.
Emotional Eating also presents very differently physiologically. You get hungry far quicker than normal, it is associated with specific cravings, you then eat quite mindlessly (watching television or a film, flicking through Social Media etc), you are never satisfied once the moment is over, and you experience feelings of guilt, shame and powerlessness when you experience it.
These are all very different to the feeling of physical hunger, which you can be satiated from, it is controlled by hormones (Grehlin and Leptin), it can be held off, you will eat a wider variety of food and you don’t experience such intense or any self-loathing after a meal that is regulated and makes sense to you in the traditional sense.
Its not all negative either. We can also eat emotionally to reward ourselves. Ever gone out for a Cocktail because you got a promotion at work? Or landed a bonus and celebrated with a bottle of bubbly?
These are behaviours that also constitute Emotional Eating.
How do you begin to change your behaviour with emotional eating?
With emotional eating, you must start focussing more on the “Emotional”. You need to develop your ability and practice your ability to manage your Emotional Wellbeing and state.
The reason you Emotionally Eat is not because of your genetics, your physiology or the fact there is something wrong or unfixable about you.
Its because you are stressed and fearful of what is happening to you.
“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” — Bertrand Russell
Now there are times that Emotional Eating is totally understandable and you should treat yourself with empathy when it happens. Those moments will be subjective to you.
But you must also develop two other things to get a handle on it.
Emotional Resilience and better coping strategies for when you are stressed.
We can do this by [3]:
Selecting self-efficacy: take ownership of the problem that is causing disbalance in your life, don’t run from it, as you are likely to run towards a less favoured behaviour.
2. Emphasise Empathy: allow yourself to understand what is happening to you and treat yourself with compassion
3. Practising Patience: you can teach yourself to be mindful in difficult situations, and chose to move away from the stressful moment. Give yourself time and space to comprehend what you are going through.
4. Create Capacity: we can choose these moments to work upon our discipline and desired behaviours rather than turn to the destructive behaviour you are trying to move away from
5. Perceiving Possibilities: from all moments of stress and emotional upheaval, there is always an outcome that can be positive. It might be hard to find, but if you can visualise it, and think upon the positive then you will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
How Do You Deal with Stress?
There are many positive behaviours you can implement to help you cope with stress in a much more positive way…rather than returning to what you want to conquer.
There are many different types of stress, and each one and each person will need a different response to the stress they are feeling.
But we know the following will help you immensely:
Eat in a more nutritious manner
I’m not saying “eat better” or “eat good foods” or “avoid good foods”. I am saying eat nutritiously. Sometimes that will mean eat a Cookie, a Donut or have an Espresso Martini. But it also means building your plates with protein and vegetables, drinking 3 litres of water a day, make positive choices that align with your goals both physically, emotionally and mentally.
2. Exercise
Exercise is one very important aspect of dealing with stress. Whether that is hit the gym and follow a good Resistance Programme (Grab a Free Month of Workouts right here: Free Month of the Be Confident, Be Strong Programme) or go for a Swim, Jog, Yoga or even just a 10 minute walk. Exercise reduces levels of the body’s stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators. [4]
Find out why Resistance Training is great for Fat Loss right here: What is the most important thing for Fat Loss…Resistance Training or a Calorie Deficit?
3. Sleep
Sleep is the most powerful tool in your ability to control stress. You need to be getting 7–8 hours a night. When we sleep we allow our brain to process the day you have just experienced and it will give you much better willpower for the day ahead. Think of sleep not just as a restful time to recover from the day, but time to prepare yourself for the day ahead — like warming up before you exercise. Also, make sure you are creating a good sleep environment for yourself. For example, you should limit caffeine at least 8 hours before you sleep, you should reduce screen time as much as possible, and if you have to be on your phone then use your Night Shift Filter to limit your Blue Light exposure (I have mine on all day every day — and its great!)
If you need help sleeping try listening to one of my Sleep Stories:
4. Meditation
Meditation and deep breathing is also an extremely powerful way to manage your stress. A lot of people give up on Meditation as they believe that they should magically be able to quieten their mind naturally. But it takes practice and is something just like fitness that needs to be worked upon. Also by engaging in Deep Breathing you connect with your Parasympathetic Nervous system which produces a relaxing effect [5]. You can also Meditate anywhere in the world, at any time in your life. it doesn’t have to be at Sunrise on a Beach or listening to Birdsong. Although being in Nature is one of the most relaxing things as humans we can do. You can do it on the Tube, or as you are walking. Try some of my 10-minute walking meditations and see how you get on:
5. Connect with others
By connecting with others and talking things through with your friends will help you solve problems and find the answers you need to figure out what is stressing you out. Plus its comforting to talk to those you are close to. Don’t text them. Speak to them or see them in person. Texting is not an appropriate human connection to help with your stress levels.
6. Give to Charity
There are few things higher up that we can do to improve our sense of self-worth than give to charity. When you help someone else, it makes you feel good, really good, and it helps put your problems into perspective a little more.
Can I Lose Weight Whilst Working on my Emotional Eating?
Let me be clear from the off; anyone can lose weight — all you need is Calorie Deficit:
However, if you are aware that you struggle immensely with Emotional Eating, then a calorie deficit will be an extremely hard thing for you to stick to, as you will constantly be stressing yourself out.
Lets run this through an example:
You have started a new diet and exercise programme and are feeling good for the first few days. You have a little bit of a busy day at work, and feel a bit let down by your colleagues. They haven’t done anything wrong per se, but they just didn’t feel supported. Your boss has hit you with a deadline, and although achievable…in truth its the last thing you want to do right now.
You get home and try to talk to your husband or boyfriend about it. He's only half interested, can’t wrap his head around your point of view and just says something like:
“Well just work hard and you will get it all done. Don’t worry about it”
(Men? Am I rite?)
It brings back all the feelings from your day, from your Boss and your colleagues and you then think about dinner. Feeling a bit low, you notice the Pizza in the freezer rather than the Meal Prep you made.
Pizza it is. You indulge in it. You begin to realise what you did and how that behaviour doesn’t match your new “healthy” regime. However, its ok because you know you are allowed flexibility in what you eat — no ones should be that strict on their diet.
However, you still seem hungry after the pizza. It's not quite done its job. You're not satisfied because you need emotional satisfaction, not physical satisfaction.
There’s Ben and Jerry’s in the fridge…
You get to bed. Sleep not as well as you would like, due to the stress from work, and as you wake in the morning you realise the calories you ate last night exceeded your deficit for the whole week. You now start to feel down on yourself again, and despite knowing all you have to do is follow the Four Step F*** It Philosophy as detailed thus:
STEP 1: Acknowledge you went off plan and why.
STEP 2: Say F*** It.
STEP 3: Draw a line under it.
STEP 4: Move on.
You can’t shake the feeling that you have now let yourself down. You feel your stress levels rising again. Work is just as stressful as before and it's now Karens Birthday. There's Krispy Kremes in the office. One or two won’t hurt, and you need it. You’re feeling low again.
And then the stress increases again because you aren’t matching your Diet to your desired behaviours.
And it goes on and on and on. Until you eventually give up on your diet, give up on your exercise and your goals seem further away than ever.
My point here is that you can’t build a house on a foundation of sand and with three walls. A Calorie Deficit is really simple. But it doesn’t mean it is easy, and to attempt to achieve one in order to lose weight and get a bit “healthier” is going to be extremely hard if you aren’t willing to work first on improving your relationship with food.
You can’t build a house on a foundation of sand and with three walls. Your relationship with food must be postivie before attmepting a Calorie Deficit.
You need to first learn to be able to draw a line right under it and truly move on. When you can achieve that as a habit, without guilt attachment and without you feeling like you are a failure, then you will find being in a Calorie Deficit so much easier.
In the midst of all of this to you will have to learn how to balance your hormones to your expectations. I find that my clients eat a little more during certain times of their cycle and that they need more flexibility in those moments. This is another part of your diet you will need to fully comprehend and understand to help you manage your stress a lot better, and therefore your relationship with food.
How Does Your Menstrual Cycle Effect Fitness and Fat Loss? <<< Read my article on this topic right here
Conclusion
Emotional Eating is a normal, human thing to do. We all Eat Emotionally and this can be both in negative moments of our life and positive moments of our life. Understanding this is crucial because it shows that your behaviour of emotional eating is standard practice and that you aren’t “broken” or “need fixing”
A lot of negative Emotional Eating comes from being in as Stressed state. When the hormone Cortisol and Adrenaline are running rampant in your body, you are much more likely to indulge in foods that do not match the behaviours you want to have in order to reach your goals.
If Emotional Eating is a particularly prevalent behaviour in your relationship with food you need to focus your efforts in the Emotional part of the equation. Not the Eating part of the equation.
Look at the things in your life that are causing you high stress and learn better ways to manage that. Through better nutrition, Exercise, Meditation, Connection with others, giving to Charity and getting out into nature.
It is possible to lose weight whilst being an emotional eater. But it is making your journey a hell of a lot harder. Try and work on your relationship with food before you engage with a Calorie Deficit as fixing your relationship with food will make the weight loss journey more successful and more sustainable.
Above all remember the following: You are not alone, and although this all seems quite daunting, you can totally do it. I know you can. And I believe in you more than you probably believe in yourself. If you got this far through the article, this is clearly something you want to understand more and work upon…and you are already ahead of 90% of the people who have read this.
Stop worrying about the food. Start fixing your stress levels and you’ll do just fine.
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Coach Adam
References:
Medainc.org. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.medainc.org/binge-eating-vs-emotional-eating-whats-the-difference/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
HelpGuide.org. 2020. Emotional Eating And How To Stop It. [online] Available at: <https://www.helpguide.org/articles/diets/emotional-eating.htm> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
Bogdanos, M., 2020. 5 Steps To Help Build Emotional Resilience. [online] World of Psychology. Available at: <https://psychcentral.com/blog/5-steps-to-help-build-emotional-resilience/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
Publishing, H., 2020. Exercising To Relax — Harvard Health. [online] Harvard Health. Available at: <https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax> [Accessed 4 May 2020].
André, C., 2020. Proper Breathing Brings Better Health. [online] Scientific American. Available at: <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/proper-breathing-brings-better-health/> [Accessed 4 May 2020].