I am often asked how much exercise is necessary to actually lose weight and make a difference. This is not a simple question, but I will try to answer it as succinctly as possible.

Firstly, any exercise, even if we are only talking 5/10 mins a day will make a difference. Even if you are not exercising for long enough to burn that many calories, the exercise will have a boosting effect on your metabolism, i.e. you will burn more fat. So some is always better than none.

But if you are looking to make more large-scale changes and do it quickly,  a little more exercise is required. Losing weight is not an exact science, i.e. if you burn 3500 calories a week (1 pound) it doesn’t necessarily mean you will lose that much weight each and every week. But if you stick with it the numbers will balance out over time.

So let’s say the average person burns 500 calories per hour of exercise. It is certainly possible to burn more than this with hard work, but 500 is a good, conservative estimate. And let’s say your post workout calorie burn due to the workout is also 500 calories (this figure is dependent on your metabolism). So all in all that’s 1000 calories an hour.

1 pound of bodyweight is 3500 calories. So on this basis you would need to do 3.5 hours exercise to lose 1 pound per week. And if you did 1 hour every day, that would be a total of 7000 calories, and 2 pounds weight loss. Obviously this loss doesn’t take into account any loss you could be getting from improvements… Read more->

It’s the start of a brand New Year, so now is the time to start about reaching your fat loss goals for 2012. Here is my New Year Fat Loss Guide to set you on the right track to reaching your fat loss goals.

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Get rid of calorie dense foods.

I often work with people that tell me ‘I really don’t eat that much, I can’t understand why I don’t lose weight.’ Whilst portion size is obviously an important factor, it is not nearly as important as the TYPE of food you are eating. It’s all very well not eating much, but if what you are eating is calorie dense you are still going to have a high total calorie intake.

For example, a small chocolate can contain up to 100 calories. A small biscuit up to 200 calories. Think how easy it would be to go through a few chocolates and a few biscuits a day. You could be up at 1000 calories without even feeling like you have really eaten anything. And of course because they have no good nutritional value they will make your body crave more food rather than filling you up.

Chocolates and biscuits are just 2 examples. Cheese, crisps, cakes and of course alcohol are just a few other calories dense foods.

Compare these 2 sweet foods;

100 gram chocolate brownie; 400 calories

100 grams blueberries; 55 calories.

I know you may be thinking ‘yeah but I would rather have the brownie.’ Well that may be true, but the blueberries… Read more->

As much as I believe that December is just as good a time as any of get fit and burn fat I’m also realistic enough to know that for most people this month is about damage limitation. In my experience it’s not just the few days over Christmas where people overindulge, it’s the few weeks leading up to it as well! This is obviously a bit of a problem, because whilst there’s only so much damage you can do over the course of a few days, but A LOT of damage can be done over the course of a few weeks.

Here are my top 3 tips to avoid gaining weight this December;

1/ Avoid the nibbles. There a lots of parties, lunches, dinners, drinks etc. at this time of year. Of course you want to treat yourself a bit, but steer clear of the ‘nibbles’ as much as possible. By nibbles i mean stuff like crisps, dips, mice pies etc. For example most mince pies are 300/350 each! Add a bit of cream and you’re up at 500! That’s a main meal! So be aware of these high calorie, un-filling snacks and steer clear when possible.

2/ 2 drinks at a time. That sounds good doesn’t it! Well it’s not quite what you think I’m afraid. Whether you’re at home or out and have an alcoholic drink, make yourself drink a glass of water for every glass of booze you have. This will slow your drinking and help to stop you getting dehydrated and getting cravings.

3/ Work it off! Never is exercise more important that when your consuming more calories. If you’re taking in say… Read more->

What do I mean by ‘devils?’ I use the word devils due the negative, fat gaining/storing effect the substances I am going to talk about have on your body. Why do I call them ‘white’ devils? Quite simply because all the substances are white!

There are 4 main categories of white devils;

1/ White Flour

2/ White (table) salt

3/ White sugar

4/ White starches (i.e. bread, pasta, rice).

All the above foods are white for a reason, they have been stripped of all their natural goodness and have a load of nasty preservatives, e-numbers and other junk added to them. In their pure natural ‘brown’ form they are far better for you. (In the case of salt you obviously can’t get a ‘brown’ alternative,’ you should go for natural sea salt). 

This means that rather than the food being in its natural form and being of some nutritional value to your body, its totally refined and totally useless to your body. And because your body has no use for it, it will end up being stored as fat.

That’s not to say that brown sugar and brown flour are really good for you and you can eat as much as you like. That’s obviously not true as they are still calorie dense foods. But nevertheless they are FAR FAR better for you and your waistline than the horrible refined alternatives.

Today’s Takeaway -Avoid the white devils like the plague. Always go for the natural ‘brown’ option instead.