Many of us have the aim and target of fat loss while riding our bike and getting ready for our events – especially those coming up in the summer –. What is interesting is that having a calorie deficit from exercise, non-exercise activity and nutrition is important, no, paramount in achieving this optimally. But are there other things that can contribute?

I present sleep!

Some great recent research looking at sleep and comparing 8.5hours to 5.5 hours of sleep on fat loss, muscle loss and metabolic markers.

Fat loss; 1.4 vs. 0.6 kg with 8.5 vs. 5.5 hours of sleep

Fat-free body mass loss; 1.5 vs. 2.4 kg with 8.5 vs. 5.5 hours of sleep

So, the low sleep group lost more muscle mass and less fat. They also saw a neuroendocrine adaptation to caloric restriction (slowing of metabolism), increased hunger, and a shift in relative energy use towards less fat.

This was done with non-exercising individuals; they didn’t monitor protein intake only calories and they didn’t exercise.

But the information we can take from this is huge! It shows that poor sleep habits in relation to a calorie deficit negatively impacts us in a magnitude of ways; less fat lost, more muscle lost, increase hunger and slowing of metabolism.

All the things you don’t want!

My advice would be prioritising that sleep more! Eat higher protein, keep active on your bike will all aid fat loss and reduce muscle loss!

Achieving an optimal weight is ideal for many aspects of life health foremost but it will really be felt in your runs too. That pounding on the road becoming substantially easier with every pound lost and every stride feeling easier.

That’s not to say it’s the be all and end all as health is always at the forefront – you won’t run quicker if you’re sick, injured or getting stress fractures from continually trying to diet.

So, here are a bunch of tips and habits you can do to aid you in your body composition goal, achieving it the right way!

1. Be in a calorie deficit – This might sound silly but if you’re ultimately not in a calorie deficit you will not drop the excess body fat/weight you want. Even if you run/train 10, 15, 20+ hours a week, if you have fast cake hands and you’re eating more than you’re burning it won’t come off.
2. Understand where you are – This could be one of the most crucial ones! If you don’t know what you’re having in general- let alone how much of it- how do you know what to change? Write a food diary for yourself for one week. You may be surprised as what you snack and just happened to forget about.
3. Be conservative – Knowing you need to be in a deficit is important and once you’ve seen how much you’re consuming you can start taking a few things out. Don’t drastically drop out all your food and have an apple a day- this might drop weight quickly but may not be all the right weight and you will find you may plateau quickly, will you then go to half an apple? Do it steadily and start with around 200 calories a day reduction and see how your weight is after one week.
4. Not all days are equal – Eat for the day’s activity rather than eating the same every day. If you’ve got a rest day and you’re going to have it nice and relaxed then you really don’t need to eat a huge amount and could probably have less because your energy expenditure is less. But if you’re going out for a big weekend run with friends or without for 2+ hours then you can definitely eat more calories.
5. Think weekly rather than daily – Carrying on from the previous point, rather than eating the same every day and focusing on daily intake think about your week and where you could do with more calories and less and plan accordingly. If you needed on average 2500Kcals a day that would be 17,500 a week. You could divide that weekly amount better in relation to your runs with less on lounging days and more on hard riding days.
6. How much should I lose – Your weekly weight loss should be around 1% of your bodyweight in pounds per week. This will change depending on how lean you are already. If you’re bigger you will find you have more scope to have a slightly bigger drop but if you’re on the leaner side aiming for 0.5% might be best. Why? Because the amount of muscle loss with bigger weight drops when you’re leaner can make up a larger percentage, so it’s better to go steady and lose smaller amounts than that hard-earned muscle.
7. Keep Protein high – This is an obvious one but when in a calorie deficit and trying to drop weight it’s important to keep protein high to prevent muscle loss during this time and it’s also satiating, keeping you feeling fuller for longer! Aiming for around 2g-2.4/kg/bodyweight would be ideal in this situation.
8. Carbs for performance – Dropping all your carbs out when riding lots is a no-no. You will quickly lose all your energy and feel tired, lethargic and probably end up bingeing when someone brings some cake into the office. Instead of eating fewer carbs and riding worse, why not fuel for your workouts or runs so you can work as hard as you can, get the most out of that session and in turn burn more calories because you worked harder? One study suggests that ingesting carbs before working out increases the post-exercise “afterburn” effect more than the fasted state. That means more calories burned throughout the day, not just during your sweat session, though not fully conclusive, some food for thought there
9. Fats for weight loss? – Having a high fat, low carb diet for dropping body fat gets mentioned a lot but is it right? Fat has 9Kcal per gram whereas carbohydrate and protein are only 4Kcal per gram. So you could quite easily over consume on fat and end up not being in your calorie deficit anymore PLUS you could have twice as much protein and carbohydrate than you could fat if comparing equal amounts.
10. Think long term – In relation to fat for weight loss, and when comparing two identical, calorie deficit matched diets between low carb high fat and high carb low fat, the latter has been shown to work more effectively BUT – here’s the big “but” – does that work for you! If you’re riding lots and lots and training hard then realistically, you’re going to struggle in your sessions, you will underperform in the intensity sessions and may get cravings causing you to ultimately binge two weeks down the line ruining your progress.
11. The best diet is the one you can stick to – The decision between eating more or less of carbohydrate or fat should be dependent on your activity and what you will actually stick to! If my special, amazing fantabulous diet here “diet special” would make you lose more weight but you absolutely hated it and felt rubbish on your run, the likelihood is that you won’t stick to it. As long as you’re in a deficit and eating a well-balanced diet with lots of vegetables and enough protein to stop muscle loss you will lose fat.
12. Fasted training – Research has demonstrated that fasted cardio does not increase fat burning over a 24-hour period. While your muscles adapt to using more fat when you exercise, you don’t actually lose more fat overall on the days that you exercise versus days that you don’t. If you’re wanting to increase your ability to utilise fat at a higher rate during exercise then it’s great but if you’re doing it just for increased fat loss you could be putting yourself through a harder session for no reason.
13. Tracking your food – If you’ve done a food diary and followed the tips above but are still struggling to lose the fat you want then here are some more tips. Keep another food diary for a week but actually weigh all your food or scan the barcode of the foods you’re having into a calorie tracking app which will give you an accurate measure of how much you’re exactly consuming. Then repeat the above tips of reducing your calories by about 200 a day or 1400Kcal over a week, keeping protein high and carbs adequate for training and see if you lose weight then.
14. Increase your non-exercise activity – What does that mean? Well if all your riding and any training your do is exercise activity we want to increase what isn’t that and our way of controlling it can quite easily be through step count. Setting yourself a step count means you will always have some level of calorie expenditure you can control and ensure you’re hitting, even on your rest days. This is a great way to increase your calorie deficit without reducing your food or adding another session in.
15. Use Volume – When dieting you’re going to be a in a calorie deficit and as such you can sometimes find yourself feeling pretty hungry. The best way to combat this is to have meals high in volume. Make the most of vegetables to create filling meals such as a noodle soup, tomato based curry sauce, stews and stir-fries. The number of calories in non-starchy veg, such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and bell peppers is very small so why not make the most of it and eat more?

Here’s a recipe that makes a low calorie, low carb ice cream that can really fill you up and curb your sweet cravings.

Protein Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS:

• 200g Frozen raspberries – Or any berry
• 30g Whey protein

RECIPE:

WHACK it all in a bowl

USE a hand blender to combine it all (this may take a few minutes, you can use a food processor but will need to stir frequently)

BLEND till smooth

DONE

Literally that easy and you will have made yourself an ice cream style snack.

The word protein is thrown about a lot in sport, fat loss and most nutritional topics to be honest, there Is a wide array of foods that can fulfil your daily quota of protein. BUT sometimes it’s nice to get a snapshot of why we need it and an easy recipe that will enable you increase your daily intake!

How much do we need?

If looking at daily amounts as active individuals we should be having anything between 1.6-2.2g/kg/bodyweight per day. The more active you are the higher I would go on that scale and likewise if you’re on the journey of fat loss.

This is because protein aids in the recovery of muscle and cells within our body and in the preservation of lean muscle mass when in a calorie deficit (which is needed in fat loss)

How often do we need it?

We should be aiming to have protein every 3-4 hours. This is because we have something called a net protein balance. Eating protein makes it positive, not having any for a while makes it negative and will impair our recovery.

How much per serving?

We should aim for at least 0.3g/kg/bodyweight per serving to sufficiently stimulate muscle protein synthesis (the driving force behind making a positive protein balance, leading to that recovery process).

It should be noted the older you are the harder this can be to stimulate and it has been seen amounts of 40g protein per sitting is a lot more beneficial to those over 50 years of age.

Smoky Turkey Mince Chilli

Ingredients (serves 4);

• 500g 2% Turkey Mince
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin Kidney beans in water
• 1 Onion
• 1tbsp Olive oil & tomato puree
• 2tbsp Worchester Sauce
• 1tsp chilli & smoked paprika and dried basil
• Salt & Pepper

HEAT oil

CRUSH garlic and chuck in oil

CHOP onion and add to oil and garlic

HEAT till golden

ADD turkey mince heat till mostly cooked through

ADD remaining ingredients

BRING to a simmer and leave to reduce ~20mins

DONE

SERVE with rice – use cauliflower rice if you need a low carb option

As many of you may have seen on my Facebook  I was recently travelling around Japan! And what an awesome country it was, but with all travelling and holidays sometimes you don’t have the facilities or means to be able to get to a gym yet training is still important!

Now I’m not going to say don’t enjoy your holiday but I feel it’s important to keep activity levels high, and still train your body for health and any goal you’re chasing! I think this is more important if  your trip is sitting by the pool kind of trip as we all love to eat and you can get to eat more without worrying if you train still.. WINNNNNNNNN!!

What I’ve done is just create a really simple program they’re all body weight exercises that require no gym! Now some moves may be a little advanced and if that’s the case regress them and make them easier i.e squat jump to just squat, pull ups to invert rows or negative pull ups.

3 workouts a week should be ample but if you want to do another add an extra sprint session or a long run if that’s what you like and if you’re stuck for ideas drop me a message on here or on my Facebook and get in touch always happy to help!

Principles of Fat loss

FAT LOSS! Around 99% of the people hitting the gym or exercising are in it to drop some fat, loosen their belts, jump without jiggle, and run Baywatch style without looking like a shar pei!

The principle is simple- it mainly just comes down to eating right and being more active which should be straightforward if you’re a normal healthy person.

So why is it so hard?!

Well I strongly believe it’s because there is such a high level of misinformation out there! With newspapers and 100s of books suggesting 5:2 diet or “no sugar diet” or paleo, Cambridge, dukan, rubbish after rubbish, all suggesting new magical ways to eat that pretty much all involve buying various forms of their products food, gadget, book related, or in the 5:2 diets case tells you just not to eat two times a week which will obviously work…. BECAUSE YOU DON’T EAT TWO TIMES A WEEK!!!

But ultimately all these diets follow the same principle – Calorie deficit

This leads on to my next point regarding the fact that none of them tackle the real issue of just understanding basic principles of how you should go about things, so I’m going to put down some tips and some things you could potentially incorporate into your lifestyle to see some changes.

1. Understand where you are – pretty basic but by knowing what weight, measurement, body fat % you are you can then get an idea where you need to be and know if you’re progressing.

2. Hydrate – Principle of fat loss is hydrolysis – a reaction that requires water- if you’re not hydrated you won’t use as much fat, and that’s just the beginning of its awesomeness, skin, energy levels, cognitive function so much is controlled by water, so drink up (some recommendations at the bottom)

3. Eat a rainbow – Eat loads of vegetables and some fruit, creating a rainbow of colours to ensure you have great fibre content and high levels of micro nutrients. Your plate and your stomach will feel a lot fuller than just if you just ate some iceberg lettuce.

4. Eat protein, fat and carbs – each meal should contain all of these macro nutrients, with protein metabolising and satiating, low GI carbs providing energy and keeping blood sugar level steady. All this whilst still allowing fat oxidation and fat keeping hormones and nervous system working to name just a few. Nothing in extreme- always things in moderation. Read THIS for more

5. Start working out – When just starting out just be more active get out doing something, a sport, walking, gym or even energetic housework! It’s only when you start to struggle to lose more fat you might have to think more about this but the main thing is to do something you enjoy! The number of people I talk to that tell me they’re running to burn fat but hate running so it’s not enjoyable so after a while they will stop.

6. Do it steadily – Don’t just drop your calories down to 500 a day eating an apple and a chicken breast a day or juicing (which is a load of crap by the way, read THIS for more). If you drop to 500 Kcals a day and start smashing the gym 5 times a week you will lose weight yes, but what happens when you stop losing? Do you start going 7 days a week; doing two sessions a day, eating 200 Kcals a day? NO do it bit by bit don’t even reduce calories to start with just start exercising that in itself will cause a deficit and help you drop fat.

7. Take a food diary – If you start to struggle just keep doing what you’re doing for another 5 days write it all down see what you’re having, maybe you will notice some things you could cut out, or add more veg in, do you still have protein at every meal, are you having some carbs and fat still.

8. If things still aren’t working – It’s more effort but weigh all your food and input it into a calorie tracker, see how much you’re actually eating, if you’re already training 3 times a week maybe train 1 more day, if you can’t drop your calories by 100 see if your weight drops.

My recommendations – A few tips that I feel really help in this area;

Protein – 2g per kg/bw

Fat – 1g per kg/ bw

Carbs – make up the rest of your calories

Do HIT training and resistance (weights) training

Drink around 2L water a day depending on bodyweight and activity levels

HERE is a free Results Tracker to help you on your way!

Also feel free to drop me a question happy to help!

WATER

Continuously I see and find that people just aren’t drinking enough water, everyone has some idea of how important water is yet feel the meagre amount of 1L a day or a few cups of tea will fill your quota well you’re sorely mistaken.

We don’t need to make a huge rant about this so I’m going to lay the “Rock Bottom” on this and slam it down in bullet points.

LIFE

Going GCSE on you’re A#S here, body is 80% water, it’s the principal of all life here on earth! If you’re not hydrated you’re not going to function as well as you could, which leads on to point TWO

FAT LOSS

This is the one I don’t get the most! As mentioned in a previous post nearly everyone’s goal is some sort of fat loss yet you hardly drink water! Why is it needed so much!? The principal action of oxidising (breaking down) fat and being able to utilise it is through “hydrolysis”…… HYDRO yes water, so if you’re dehydrated this is done at a reduced efficiency.

FATIGUE

How often do you feel tired, fatigued, with headaches and other little ailments?! Potential is that you’re dehydrated, you will be surprised how quickly some of these things are solved by more water.

CAFFEINE

I’m not going be like some fools out there and say the “caffeine dehydrates you” as it doesn’t! BUT it is a diuretic

Diuretic – “Causes increased passing of urine.”

So you will go to the toilet more often thus expelling more water and dehydrating yourself, ensure that water is replaced each time

TRANSPORTER

Water is essential for proper digestion, nutrient absorption and chemical reactions, as well as food to be metabolised and transported by the bloodstream. No less important is the ability of water to transport waste material out of our bodies.

COOLING SYSTEM

Obviously when you train you sweat! This caries from person to person as you could be a “sweaty betty” but going to the gym with no water or one of those tiny 200ml bottles I’ve seen is enough to make me laugh! HAHAHA………. But seriously you should be consuming around 500ml per 30mins of exercise, though this does depend how intense it is!

HOW MUCH

A good marker of how much water you should be having per day is 0.024 x BW/kg = Water in L

Remember to add your activity and how much you’re sweating to this too!

From Will, that guy who is also a Reservoir of water

Todays soundtrack – Luca Stricagnoli – Last of the Mohicans

The fundamentals! Let’s be honest there is a lot of misinformation out in that big’ol world and in the last 50 years or so we’ve been told that each macro nutrient (carbs, fat and protein) is bad for us!!!

Where does it end!? Where does the truth begin!?

Today I think it’s important to outline why we have each of these nutrients so you better understand saying “Oh I eat low fat” or “low carb” without any knowledge of what they actually do and taking that trusty evidence from the Daily Mail to back it up……… Because papers always tell the truth, right?

Protein:

This one is pretty standard and most people do try to get more in their diet, but what does it really do?

• Helps build and repair cells, hair, skin, muscle, blood and cartilage 
• Used to make enzymes and hormones
• It’s satiating – makes you feel fuller
• High thermogenic effect – the amount of calories cost to digest protein is considerably higher than that of carbohydrate or fat
• Muscle Sparing – helps prevent muscle loss

98% of the people that go to the gym their goal will be fat loss, in a calorie deficit it’s imperative to ensure protein intake is adequate most of all in relation to that last point to ensure you’re not losing any of that hard earned muscle while dropping weight, otherwise you might end up up looking like salad fingers….

And that’s not pretty ^

What do I recommend I would say a good starting point is around 1.8g/kg bodyweight, though this is an average and things like the size of your deficit, how active you are, type of training are all things that need to be taken into consideration if you’re not sure drop me a message on my contact page HERE

Oh and protein shakes won’t suddenly make you “hench” overnight.

Fat:

Easily misunderstood fat isn’t out there with a baseball bat waiting to force feed you into a chubbier, larger version of yourself, he’s your friend! Among its jobs are;

• Stored energy,
• Insulate us and protect our vital organs.
• They act as messengers
• Helping proteins do their jobs.
• Help control growth, immune function, reproduction and other aspects of basic metabolism.

The most important things here is the huge influence fat has over your immune system, libido, growth, metabolism….. suddenly eating “low fat” all the time seems a bit odd right! It is important to understand that fat doesn’t make you fat, over consumption of calories and reduction of activity is what makes you gain fat.

“It’s physiologically impossible to gain fat if you’re consuming less calories than it costs to run your body”

Fat does have the highest calorie cost per gram with it being 9 Kcals/per gram so by no means should you suddenly start chowing down on 200g of nuts a day, but going “full on” low fat usually isn’t the right choice.

0.6 – 1g fat/kg body weight would be a recommendation – lower for sedentary or endurance higher for strength power sports

It’s also at this point I would like to mention the fact that protein and fat both have “essential” fatty acids and amino acids, these are things that your body cannot produce and needs to get them from external sources unlike carbohydrates. not sure drop me a message on my contact page HERE

Carbohydrates;

Ahh the one everyone has probably been waiting for, currently the most victimized nutrient currently but that is no reason to!

• Main source of energy
• Needed to help grow muscle and aid in recovery
• Used in brain function
• Regulate the amount of sugar circulating in your blood so that all your cells get the energy they need.
• Provide nutrients for the friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract that help digest food.
• Assist in your body’s absorption of calcium.

All important factors, yes they need to be manipulated in your diet for your goals if fat loss you need to eat less, in muscle gain or performance sports you need to eat more. But they should never be cut out completely unless you have certain medical issues.

Only being 4 Kcals/per gram means they’re not as calorific as fat either.

Train hard and eat carbs it’s simple, it’s an energy source, go to the gym or whatever sport your do hit that session hard and enjoy your pasta, chocolate milk, rice knowing it’s fueling recovery, muscle growth.

How much you should have per day would depend on activity level and how many calories you need to consume.

To get an idea after you’ve worked out how much fat and protein you need the remainder of your calories would be made up from carbs but not sure drop me a message on my contact page HERE

*Another side rant* it should be understood that when carbohydrate is stored as glycogen it also takes water with it so when you have a day high in carbs and you weigh yourself the next day yes you weight will be higher but it’s not going to all be fat most of it will be water retention

What it comes down to is eating a variety

From Will, that guy who eats all the macro nutrients

Today’s track – Metallica – Fade to black