diet for weight - gym for shape
EXERCISE IS A POOR TOOL FOR WEIGHT LOSS
There. I’ve said it.
It is, however, great for weight management once you have lost the weight you need to. In and of itself though, it’s not going to cut it if you are looking to cut some of your body fat.
Confused? Let me explain:
You’ve gained some extra weight recently and you have decided it needs to come off. You’re feeling:
Unhappy: Your clothes don’t fit well. You don’t feel attractive. You are feeling uncomfortable in your own skin.
Lacking in confidence: You don’t like what you see in the mirror anymore, you used to be “toned” and have a flat stomach. You think people are judging you. You can’t do the things you used to be able to do and - frankly - you just want to stay inside and not look for opportunities that might highlight where you have let yourself get to.
Worried: Your health isn’t what it was, the additional fat you’re carrying is making you breathless and you know it’s having an effect on your heart and other organs.
So, you get yourself to the gym and you start doing hours of cardio, thinking thats all you need to shed the weight. You’ll sort your diet out later, you tell yourself.
Except that the weight doesn’t fly off. You get frustrated. Confused even. Why isn’t this fat coming off? I am working so hard, why can I not see any results?
Chances are, the answer to that question lays in your diet. You’re not creating an energy deficit, which is needed to drop body fat, because you haven’t paid sufficient attention to the volume of food and the types of foods you’re eating.
Now please don’t misunderstand me here. That exercise will be having a huge benefit to your overall health. You’ll be getting fitter, and your heart & lungs will thank you for it. But unless you manage your nutrition appropriately, that goal you have of losing the extra weight?
Just not happening.
The best way we can look at this, is to understand and implement the following principle:
DIET FOR WEIGHT, GYM FOR SHAPE
Your nutrition is by far the driving force of body fat loss. Resistance training will supplement that by growing (“toning”) lean muscle mass, which in turn drives body shape change. Sprinkle in a little cardio on top for heart/lung health (and a contribution to your energy expenditure) and lots of walking outside the gym to ramp up your energy expenditure and you have the formula for losing weight AND changing your shape to a more lean, toned look.
Does that mean you need to eat rabbit food and feel starving every day? Absolutely not!
You can eat normal food, preferably a diet high in lean protein sources and a rainbow of fruit & veggies, but just with more portion control to ensure that you are in an energy deficit (aka calorie deficit).
Need some help to understand how to calculate how much food you should eat to elicit fat loss (this is different for everyone by the way, there is no magic number for all)? Shoot me a DM on socials or e-mail me on info@farrell-fitness.co.uk and I will get right back to you!
