Name: Nicky Hubble

Weight lost: 3 stone

Comments: My middle aged spread, or what I thought was middle aged spread, was definitely getting the better of me. Having spent years ‘yo-yo’ dieting I decided enough was enough. I thought I was averagely fit but knew that my diet wasn’t great and I enjoyed my wine!

I started with Kelly in March 2011 with the goal of slimming down and getting fitter, I didn’t set myself a target weight, just a goal of being slimmer by June. We started off with 2 sessions a week – each session Kelly would talk to me about my diet and offer nutritional advice along with a workout of some sort (I never knew what to expect) The first week I had the option of doing a 7 day detox which was a really great kick start to the whole programme – it was only 7 days after all. I was weighed and all my measurements taken – that was quite a shock!
From then on Kelly supported me not only in the sessions, but also sending recipes and nutritional advice via email along with some suggested workouts that I could do on my own ( I have about 8 of them at the moment up on my wall!)
The workout sessions were great – Kelly made sure that she pushed me just enough and slowly my fitness, stamina and energy levels increased. The weight loss was immediate and constant, but steady. As my fitness improved Kelly would push me just that little bit more (but never too much). The sessions were varied – circuits/power walking/weight resistance/cv work and we used all sorts of different equipment to keep the sessions varied – I never knew what equipment I would be using. Kelly devised all my workouts around the degenerative arthritis that I have in my hip and was always careful to ensure that all the exercises worked around my condition – a definite highlight was the stretching at the end of each session
Because I had my appointments booked with Kelly, I never backed out or made an excuse not to work out. People commented on how well I was looking and Kelly would regularly check my measurements and weight – all good incentives to keep going.
By June 2011 I had lost 3 stone – my daughter returned home after 16 months abroad and didn’t recognise me!
The hardest part for me has been maintaining the weight loss – I still see Kelly once a week – it really spurs me on. I go up and down a bit – but if I have a bad couple of weeks there are no recriminations – I just pull myself into check and with Kelly’s support, advice and guidance I am fitter, stronger and an awful lot slimmer.
Kelly offers a great service – diet and fitness but with an ability to talk to me in such a way that I never felt demoralised – I was, and continue to be, supported with great advice and workouts and would whole heartedly recommend Kelly to anyone looking to lose weight, improve their fitness, or in my case both!

There are some very basic reasons for this and some really easy things to do to combat this problem.

1) Firstly you must reduce your intake of refined carbohydrates. This means white breads, pastas, cakes, biscuits and sugar! When you eat refined carbs your body produces insulin to transport glucose from the blood into the cells. The more carbs you eat, the more insulin you produce. High insulin levels actually prevent the body from burning fat!

2) Eat Plenty of fibrous carbs. This means vegetables! Not grains. These will fill you up and still give you enough energy.

3)Eat a breakfast that promotes fatburning.. Contrary to popular belief a breakfast high in protein and fibrous carbs will force the metabolism to start burning. Try an omelette with spinach and mushroom or if you’re short for time grab a boiled egg with some smoked salmon slices.

4) Avoid legnthy cardio sessions of moderate intensity. Long slow cardio is very stressful on the body and produces a hormone called cortisol that breaks down muscle mass. (You may remember me mentioning this last week)..

Instead replace with Short bursts of intense exercise such as Interval Training promote fat burn but also conserve lean muscle mass. It also encourages the production of growth hormone which is the key factor in fat burning!

For more information on the effects of insulin and cortisol visit www.aptitudefitness.co.uk

Great Exercise for Love handles

Side Plank

-Works- Obliques, abdominals, shoulders, lats

-Do 12 on each side then hold for 10′s.

1) Don’t Skip Breakfast- After 8-12 hours of sleep your body needs energy to function. If you skip breakfast it will conserve energy by slowing down your metabolism. You will then burn less calories throughout the day.

If you have no time for breakfast grab a fruit smoothie, pack it full of berries, bananas (add spinach!) and add some flax seeds and probiotic plain yougurt. Whip it up and drink on the go!

2) Build Lean Muscle- I know women shy away from exercising with heavy weights but rather than bulking up (women don’t have enough testosterone for this anyway) weights will create long lean muscle mass. 1lb of muscle burns anywhere from 35-50 calories a day at rest!

3) Intense Cardio- HIIT(High Intensity Interval Training) creates an afterburn effect (EPOC) that can burn up to 190 calories post exercise. Try Tabata Training- 20′s bursts of intense exercise with 10′s rest. Repeat 8 x.

4) Drink plenty of water- A German study found that after drinking 17 ounces of water metabolism increased by almost 30% in most participants. Remember metabolism is a chemical reaction and most chemical reactions take place in water, therefore a dehydrated body will burn much fewer calories. Aim to drink 6-8 glasses a day. (This does not include fizzy, drinks, tea or coffee). Green tea is a great alternative.

5) Get plenty of sleep- Women who get less than 5 hour sleep a night are much more likely to put on weight as it causes the metabolism to slow down.

Lack of sleep also increases the release of the hormone ghrelin which increases the appetite and feelings of hunger. (See article: ‘The Importance of Sleep to lose Weight’

How did you find the training?
When I started my online training program, I’d been doing very little exercise up to that point. I explained to Kelly my main target, and she put together a set of workouts that built me up to that goal. I’m not going to say that I found the workouts easy – I didn’t. They were designed to work me, and there were some I simply couldn’t complete fully. However that simply gave me more incentive to work harder. Kelly made sure I had a variety of exercises, primarily using the equipment I had available to me, and I can’t say I ever found them boring or overly repetitive.

How did you find getting the workouts over email?
When I was first looking for training, I considered hiring a personal trainer but decided against it. I work in a job where the hours can be variable, so I wanted something that allowed me to train when it suited me. The programs I received from Kelly were clear, and illustrated where possible, so I always understood what I was expected to do. I printed each one as I received them, and have kept all of them. They will be something that I can refer back to either to vary my program or to work on specific areas.

How did you find the whole online training process?
I found the online training process suited me well. I am a pretty motivated person so had little problem getting up and exercising. I do think that the fact I had a specific event in mind meant that I was particularly focussed, as I wanted to do the best I could. Kelly also helped me when I sustained injuries and made sure that I was treating them correctly. During my time with Kelly, she also offered me dietary advice, and sample menus, which I found invaluable. I was completely new to really healthy eating but Kelly gave the confidence to change my eating habits for good. I would definitely recommend her to others looking to get fit, and lose weight

It worked for Oz, it could work for you too…
For more info contact me kelly@aptitudefitness.co.uk

There are different types of fat found in the body however :

Essential fat- Needed to protect the organs and in women needed for reproduction.

Storage fat- Fat stored underneath the skin in adipose tissue. Fat cells are known as adipocytes and they store energy as fat in the form of triglycerides. These are made readily available to the body to be used as fuel.

An average person has around 25-30 billion fat cells whereas somebody who is overweight or obese can have as  many as 42-106 billion.

Fat cells produce lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that facilitates uptake and storage of triglycerides. Fat cells can expand to huge proportions but once they have reached a limit they will then reproduce more fat cells in a process known as hyperplasia. In an overweight or obese person there can be up to 405 more fat cells than in an average person.

When an adult loses weight there will be no change in the no of fat cells they will just remain in the body waiting to be filled again.

If an overweight person loses weight the fat cells increase their production of lipoprotein lipase in order to try to restore the amount of energy stored in a fat cell. This makes it easier to regain body fat.

This is the reason that fad diets, low carb and celebrity diets do not work and why good nutrition must be combined with a high resistance exercise programme.

The first misconception is that you can get rid of abdominal fat by working your abdominal muscles. This is based on some belief that fat is eliminated from a part of your body if you engage the muscles underneath that fat. It’s the same idea that you will lose fat on your legs if you pump your legs all day. The truth of the matter is that your body decides where to put fat and where to remove it, and it’s a system that is largely determined by your genetics. Your body wants to distribute fat based on a few clever strategies pioneered by your ancestors.

First of all, your body stores fat in your midsection (your abdomen, hips or buttocks) due to basic biomechanics. The midsection of your body is the best place to store extra energy because it takes less energy to carry it around. Remember, fat storage is a survival strategy, so your body wants to maximize energy efficiency in the creation, storage and use of body fat.

It wouldn’t make sense to have a lot of extra fat on your fingers and toes because you’d have to swing those around when you moved and that would require extra caloric expenditure. So given that your body wants to store fat as a way to have portable energy, it makes perfect sense that it would prefer to store that fat in your midsection.

Secondly, from an anthropological point of view, the placement of body fat also has some implications for mate selection. This is especially true in women, where fat is stored in locations like the hips, buttocks and breasts to actually create a more attractive physical body in order to attract a potential mate. In this way, the fat is stored in predetermined locations on your body for much the same reason that a male peacock has brightly colored feathers — it’s part of the mating game, so to speak. Exaggeration of physical traits is a common evolutionary strategy for mate attraction in primates, including humans. And body fat can be used cosmetically to pursue this strategy. (Of course, it all happens automatically. You don’t have to “think” about where to put your body fat on any particular day, any more than you have to “think” about why you might sometimes feel attracted to another person).

Thirdly, your body stores fat wherever you have fat cells. This may sound obvious, but it’s actually interesting when you realize that people who undergo liposuction to remove fat cells from their body end up causing a redistribution of fat to other locations that might be less desirable.

For example, if a person follows an unhealthy lifestyle that results in the accumulation of excessive body fat, then they undergo liposuction to remove that body fat from their abdomen, but they continue to pursue the same overconsumption lifestyle that creates more body fat, then the body has to store that fat somewhere and since the fat cells have been removed from the abdomen, it’s going to put that fat somewhere else like the knees, or under the chin, or under the arms and so on. Your body has to work with the fat cells that exist, and if you start removing certain fat cells, you end up with fat being stored in places you might not have expected.

(This is one of the most common pitfalls of liposuction, by the way. It all sounds great until you look in the mirror one day and find that you have twenty pounds of body fat sagging off your knees…)

How to really lose excess abdominal fat

Now let’s talk about losing abdominal fat. I see a lot of books and products that talk about reducing abdominal fat. They say “If you eat this way you’ll lose abdominal fat first.” Nonsense. There is no food, no exercise, and no herb that will cause your body to remove fat in one place versus another.

If you want to reduce body fat, you need to start consuming fewer calories than you expend on a daily basis. In other words, have a calorie deficit. In time, your body will start converting fat into useable energy, and by doing so, fat stores will begin to vanish across your body. But they won’t just magically disappear from one particular place.

If you are a male, abdominal fat is probably the last fat that will disappear from your body. First your body will remove fat from your face and extremities, such as your arms and legs, then it will remove fat from your upper torso, your chest, upper thighs and buttocks, and lastly it will use the fat stored in your abdomen. There is no way that I’m aware of to alter this fat reduction pattern used by the human body (except to use so-called “topical cutting gel” products which are highly toxic fat solvents that should never be used by people who want to protect their health).

This means if you are really serious about reducing body fat and you want to get rid of that abdominal fat, you’re going to have to take a whole-body approach. You’re going to have to get used to the idea that abdominal fat is probably going to be the last fat to go. This isn’t what you wanted to hear, probably, but it’s the truth.

For women, this means the last place you’re likely to lose the fat is on the hips and buttocks. This is something you may have already observed if you’ve ever tried to lose body fat, or if you’ve made some progress but couldn’t seem to get rid of that last bit of so called “stubborn” body fat.

I agree, it can be extremely difficult to get rid of the last 10 lbs of extra fat, and especially so if you consume any of the popular foods and beverages in the standard American diet (which greatly promote obesity and fat storage as described in the Grocery Warning book).

I’ve also found from experience that it’s virtually impossible to lose body fat if you don’t engage in routine physical exercise. And strength training is included in that exercise. By engaging in strength training, you will end up burning fat for hours and even days after your exercise session. There are also a lot of things you can do in terms of controlling your consumption of carbohydrates and altering natural hormone levels in the body to help reduce body fat. I’m working on a book called “The Food Timing Diet” that addresses some good, solid strategies for slowly burning off body fat with food timing strategies and macronutrient cycling. But even this approach is no miracle.

Some people talk about growth hormone and using HGH supplements or DHEA, and certainly those can help with the reduction of body fat by, in a sense, moderating the biological aging taking place in your body. But you’re never going to have total success with fat loss unless you also engage in regular physical exercise and pursue a healthy diet.

When it comes to abdominal fat, remember, there’s no way to eliminate that fat by itself without taking a holistic, whole-body approach. In other words, there are no fat loss shortcuts. And even if you try to take a shortcut by undergoing liposuction, for example, you’re still going to end up storing body fat somewhere else and it will probably look even worse than when it was on your abdomen or hips.

So if you want to get rid of body fat, do it the right way: through diet and exercise, and not through cosmetic surgery or gimmicks that claim to eliminate fat from one specific area of your body. Fat loss takes real work, and even though there are some helpful appetite control tools available right now (like hoodia gordonii supplements), there are no magic pills that will do the work for you.

This isn’t what you’ll hear from those selling fat loss supplements and diet pills, of course. But it’s the truth as things stand today. Maybe we will see a revolutionary approach to fat loss at some point in the future (perhaps the PYY appetite control nasal spray, for example), but chances are that medical researchers will continue to be baffled by the human body’s multiple, redundant calorie accumulation mechanisms that have so far made it impossible to develop a safe, effective fat loss wonder drug.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/006981.html#ixzz1JxsGiT1A

The benefits of getting plenty of sleep range from lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, less stress and anxiety and increased energy.

It is now becoming widely recognized that a healthy sleeping pattern is also an essential element when trying to lose weight.

Sanjay Patel. MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Case Western University states, “ there are over two dozen studies that suggest that people who sleep less tend to weigh more.”

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine explains how lack of sleep can affect your appetite, making you hungrier and prone to craving foods higher in fat and carbohydrates. Lack of sleep also slows down your metabolism so you will burn fewer calories throughout the day.

This was further emphasized in an article by Colette Bouchez WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature, who states:

‘Feeling tired makes a person lazy. They are less likely to cook a meal and more likely to order take out or fast food, or go for whatever is in the fridge. It is also less likely that you will take the time to put together a healthy meal if you do cook. For many people, when they are tired, they are more likely to gobble down chocolate, cookies and other junk foods. Blood sugar highs and lows then make you more tired, irritable and cranky then you were prior to eating the sweets’.

Two hormones that influence a person’s appetite are altered through lack of sleep. Ghrelin, a hormone responsible for feeling of hunger is increased when a person is tired, therefore increasing the appetite. On the other hand leptin, which tells the brain when it is time to stop eating is reduced further enhancing the probability of overeating as the brain will take longer  to register that the stomach is full.
If you are trying to lose weight this is the last thing that you want!

Lack of sleep also lowers the body’s serotonin levels. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that affects fatigue, appetite, mood .  As sleep disturbance acts as a stress on the body serotonin levels are altered causing the body to crave carbohydrates. This will cause blood sugar levels to spike and then drop very quickly. As the blood drops you will be left feeling even hungrier and you are more likely to reach for the quick fixes and junk food.

However don’t panic! Just follow these healthy guidelines to maintain a healthy sleeping pattern:

1) Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night. (Experts recommend 11pm -3am as the golden hours of sleep).

2) Don’t drink caffeine for at least 6 hours before going to bed.

3) Don’t dink any fluid for at least 30 min prior to sleeping.

4) Give yourself at least 30 min of down time before going to bed. Read a book or have a relaxing bath so that the body has a chance to wind down. This way your mind will not be overactive when you get into bed.

5) Finally DO SOME EXERCISE. There is no better remedy for regulating the body’s energy levels and maintaining a balanced chemical state. Exercise will burn calories increase energy levels and ultimately help you sleep better.

Lets look at 2 individually.

Apples

Apples are bigger on their upper bodies and tend to store fat around the waist and abdominals. Apples unfortunately gain weight easily but can also shed weight quickly often leading to yoyo dieting. The upper body will also gain weight in times of stress.

Apples are more at risk of high cholesterol, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

It is very important that apple shapes keep their weight low around their waist but with the right diet and regular exercise this is easy to do.

Diet -

Apples should avoid white breads, pastas and rice and definitely cakes and biscuits. They should eat carbs in complex forms such as vegetables (no potatoes) and fruits (no more than 2-3 servings a day and before 5 pm).

Eat lean animal protein such as chicken and turkey and substitute dairy products for soya. Apples need a higher percentage of protein than pears or string beans to suppress their appetite as they tend to haver higher muscle percentage than pears. Soya will replace the saturated fats found in milk and cheese but with added benefits that help to regulate female hormones.

Exercisen-

Exercise regularly (2-4 times a week) doing a combination of cardio and resistance.

Cardio – anything that requires more than 20-30 minutes of steady consistent movements such as walking, running, aerobics, swimming, cycling etc.

Resistance – This requires the body to act against a force allowing the muscle to contract. The effort will heat up the muscle and burn calories. Work all major muscles of the body lifting a heavy enough weight to cause the muscle to fatigue after about 15-20 reps.

Pears

Pears store their weight around the hips and lower body and although this is a much healthier position than the apples, the weight is much harder to lose as there are fewer blood vessels closer to the surface making circulation and therefore metabolism slower. Lower body fat in women is controlled by female hormones such as oestrogen. If a woman has both upper and lower body fat the upper body will lose fat first.

Diet -

Pears should eat plenty of vegetables and avoid dairy foods such as cream and cheese. They should try to eat lots of beans and legumes as the fibre helps to shift weight off the thighs. They should eat animal protein in moderation and make sure it is lean protein.

Exercise -

Pears should do a combination of cardio and resistance exercises with a heavy emphasis on cardio. These should be long cardio sessions (45-60 minutes) focusing on one of the following.

Interval aerobic exercise

High-intensity intervals

Long intense intervals allow the body to shift its fat burning pattern. To begin with the body will burn fat from the upper body but then if you exercise for longer than 30 mins it will start to take fat from other areas. It will also initiate fat burning enzymes in the lower body.