There’s a lot of nonsense written about fat loss through exercise, so here’s the expert facts from someone who knows. I’m really happy to welcome top trainer Tim Drummond, of Sexy In The City, as a guest blogger. Here’s his expert views on the principles of fat loss:

Okay I see that this article may be starting off looking and sounding a little “sciencey” but please it’s not, just give it a read and it could make your journey to weight loss much, much easier and way less frustrating.

You’ve got your Slimpod which is number 1. But this is about what to actually do with your motivation and change of mind-set to achieve fat loss. You could say your “how to” guide. It works on several levels, all of which depend on correct nutrition:

You see in this article I’m going to dispel one of the biggest myths which not only the general public believe, but unfortunately still gets espoused by so called fitness industry experts – that cardio is the best exercise for fat loss and weight loss.

Well it’s not!

SO WHAT IS CARDIO?

First I want to define what I mean by cardio. For simplicity’s sake cardio is steady state long, slow duration aerobic exercise…so running on the treadmill for an hour at the same slow (relative to the person) pace.

This type of workout is what I see every day I go into the gym; and is often all people do, perhaps five days a week. But it is proven it doesn’t work.

Read below and I will tell you what are in fact the practical steps to fat loss, and in what order they come.

CORRECT NUTRITION
Calories are not the most important thing, eating real food and making the correct macro-nutrients (e.g. Fats, carbs, proteins) choices are. Eat meat, fish, nuts, eggs, fruit and lots of veg. It is a de-motivating and thankless task attempting to out-exercise a poor diet.

ACTIVITIES WHICH BURN CALORIES, MAINTAIN/PROMOTE MUSCLE AND ELEVATE METABOLISM.
WEIGHT RESISTANCE TRAINING – The fundamental training stimulus when seeking body-fat loss. Not only does this elevate Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC, more of this later) for up to 36 hours it elevates your RMR (Resting Matabolic Rate).

This RMR accounts for approximately 75% of calories burned during the day. By developing lean muscle, and encouraging those muscles to work harder, your RMR can be raised. For every pound of lean muscle you develop, your body expends an extra 50 calories just for that muscle to sit there.

HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING (HIIT)
No. 2 in our fight towards fat loss. These activities burn calories while training but the magic of them is that they also significantly elevate Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).

This is the calories burned after the training session has finished. HIIT does this for many hours. Simply put this is a period of intense effort, followed by a period of slower more comfortable effort. This ‘interval’ is then repeated.

ACTIVITIES WHICH BURN CALORIES

(But don’t maintain/promote muscle and elevate metabolism – steady state aerobic)
While steady state aerobics (jogging, cycling, cross-trainer) at a slow pace do burn calories during the sessions, metabolic resistance training and HIIT also do, so no added fat loss benefit there.

However, there are only so many sessions of the higher intensity work that benefit the body so these can work as ‘active rest’ days for those who want to train on another day.

So as you can see from the above resistance training trumps all other when it comes to fat loss. Plus there are all its other benefits such as bone density, stress reduction, muscle ‘tone’, injury prevention and not to forget improved strength.

So if you have two days to train make them both weights workout as these give you the ‘biggest bang for your buck’. If you have a third add some variety by completing a short but intensive cardio session. A fourth day? Either one will do, whatever you fancy that week.

My advice for a fifth day, well you could rest! Or if you want to train you could do some yoga or tai chi, or some steady cardio is fine. But remember the steady state is the last option to go for, not the first.

Good luck with your fat loss!

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