3 COMMON FITNESS QUESTIONS ANSWERED!

As a fitness professional I am asked lots of questions daily........

However, some questions come up much more often than others.

Last night I was thinking which questions are most commonly asked and I have come up with the below questions and answers session!

*Quickly going off topic slightly - I am planning to do a number of fitness Q&A sessions in the near future, so if you have any health or fitness questions you would like featuring please send them to me at [email protected]

Q1: I’M LOOKING SLIMMER, BUT MY WEIGHT IS THE SAME, OR EVEN HIGHER - WHATS GOING ON!? This is a really common question, particularly for those on their first program or ‘newish’ to fitness. Whilst weighing yourself provides useful data relating to change - it should not be your only reference point.

Working out alongside a controlled balanced diet will bring about a reduction in body fat, but also an increase in muscle mass.

The density of muscle is much higher than fat thus it weighs more whilst taking up less space on your body. Such changes will not be accounted for on everyday household scales.

Trust the process and if you are feeling slimmer, stronger and better maybe that’s enough.

However if you want to delve deeper there are many methods of determining body fat and body composition with varying levels of accuracy.

Q2) HOW SHOULD I PLAN OUT MY WORKOUTS? If you want to improve you health and fitness you need a plan, no matter what you specify fitness goal is.

This plan should be challenging but enjoyable, hard but achievable, intense but motivational!

I would always recommend you have your plan tailored to you by someone with fitness knowledge and experience - just like you’d take your car to a qualified mechanic if it needed fixing or upgrading!

I would always recommend that the plan is:

- specific to your experience. If your a novice don’t jump straight to an expert style training routine!

- specific to you goals. It should contain exercises that maximise your results and eliminate as many unwanted side issues as possible.

- it must be hard, but you must enjoy it. If you dread each session you will eventually give up on it . Learn to love your sessions and they will become a stable part of your lifestyle.

- provide feedback, and not just it you have a coach! If things aren’t working in the plan you produced - feed it back to yourself, and find a solution! Don’t sulk or plod on aimlessly!

Q3) MUST I BUY ‘LOW FAT’ FOOD OPTIONS? This is a really interesting question and it all depends on what you are purchasing.

Many products are labelled and marketed as ‘low fat’ to try and fool the consumer into thinking they are good for them when actually they aren’t!! (Naughty food companies!??)

They may be fractionally better than the standard ‘full fat’ version - but it doesn’t need to be much.

To satisfy advertising guidelines ‘low fat’ products have to contain less that 3 grams of fat per 100 grams (1.5g per 100g for drinks). This may be done by removing the products natural fat, and this is often replaced by sugars and artificial sweeteners and fillers to keep the taste!

Therefore, if you are buying foods marketed as 'low fat' in order to reduce your calorie and fat intake, also take into account how your sugar/carbohydrate intake is being affected!

Make sure you read the nutrition label.

The best method to use for buying ‘low fat’ food is going for whole, unprocessed and natural foods that are naturally low in fat and relatively higher in carbs and protein!

These ‘low fat’ foods often don’t come with a label - think fresh vegetables! ??

Remember, eating fat doesn’t automatically make you fat! The fat we get from our food isn’t the same as the fat that is part of our bodies structure!

I really hope you have found this article useful. If you have any questions you’d like to ask me, feel free to fire them over to [email protected]

Ian Worthington - Creator, Owner and Coach at GymWolfPT.com