Chek Clinic Claimed

For most people, losing belly fat or reducing their waist size is one of the top goals on their list. But few people ever succeed alone in reducing their waist size and keeping the weight off!

Many presume a ‘targeted exercise regime’ such as sit-ups/crunches/Pilates exercises will help. But the cold hard truth is these have little, if any, lasting effects on reducing your waist size!

It’s a sad reality that many gym instructors and personal trainers still give these types of exercises to clients as a means of waist reduction.

Spot reduction exercise is a myth that has been proven over and over again!

Our Answer:

Reduce inflammation around the belly first by identifying foods and drinks that cause you inflammation personally.
Stabilise the lumbo-pelvic region through corrective abdominal exercises specifically for your spinal alignments.
Reduce your sugar intake and eat according to your genetic type.
Increase your overall metabolism so you can build a body to burn body fat. This can be achieved through a number of exercises (when you have corrected any imbalances). One of our favourites for building a lean body, regardless of your age, is a correctly performed deadlift!

No. In many cases we advise clients NOT to run or perform any high impact exercises.

Running is a great way to improve cardiovascular health, but the down-side is it has little gain on increasing long-term metabolism. Your metabolic rate will definitely increase whilst running.

But as soon as you stop, it starts to level out (a high metabolic rate = fat burn), as opposed to a mix of exercises designed to increase your overall metabolic rate and cardiovascular health.

Strength training has been proven to increase the metabolic rate during and far beyond exercise. This means the body burns fat for a longer period of time.

This is definitely a throwback from the ‘80s. Although this idea has been blown out of the water, many people still follow this nonsense!

Eating low fat has increased this country’s addiction to sugar over the last 40 years and has been one of the major factors in the rise in diabetes and obesity!

Calorie restriction is based on a simplistic look at the human body (which happens to be the most complex system known to man). Its misguided logic is that if an average person’s basal metabolic rate, that is, the amount of energy the body uses to perform normal bodily functions, is about 2100 calories per day, there will be a deficit which will result in weight loss if a person eats any less than this.

Many people will contest that this does work. Weight loss does happen in the short-term with this method. The problem is the devastating long-term effect calorie restriction has on the hormonal system and the body’s survival system. We are designed to survive. Every time we starve our body of food, its ability to retain body fat increases to prepare for the next starvation period. You read that correctly!

Every time you go on a calorie-controlled diet, your body remembers. As soon as you return to your old ways, its ability to store body fat increases! So, these are definitely not good diets to follow. The best diet is the one that fits your unique genetic make-up, which we test in all clients.

Also, low fat = high sugar. Sugar, not natural fat, has been the silent killer in the last 60 years. Let’s not even get started on the saturated fat causes high cholesterol myth.

Many professional athletes have asked me this. They assume that if they are burning energy daily, they can eat and drink whatever they want.

This again returns to the ‘energy in to energy out’ simplistic view of the human body, and it is seriously flawed.

‘You are what you eat’ is an overused and drastically misunderstood term. Many top-level athletes have trained hard in the gym only to have constant nagging injuries.

Many professional football players have no option but to retire in their early 30s because their bodies have started to disintegrate. Why? Really poor nutrition. What you eat today will be reflected in your ligaments and tendons and will add a new lining to your heart in the next 72 hours.

If you want your heart to be made of sugar-laden breakfast cereal, alcohol and junk food, be prepared for the ultimate consequences.

Definitely not! In fact, not many do unless they like the punishment and pain associated with these types of exercise regimes!

I have written in-depth about these types in previous posts. Getting healthy does not mean pain and punishment. In fact, it should be anything but!

Of course, changing bad habits can cause discomfort. But we don’t believe that exercise should cause our clients to become physically sick or unable to move for a length of time!

The number of people seeking our advice following these types of exercise regimes has almost doubled in recent years. Exercise should be specific to the individual; there is no one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone.

My advice is to invest and learn what foods are right for your genetic make-up and what exercises are going to suit your mechanical needs at least ONCE in your lifetime. We not only coach our clients, but we also help them to remain healthy through re-education and tailor-made programmes that last them for a lifetime.

Interested in working with team of health professionals? Click here to read about how our personal trainers in Chorley are just one part of our experienced and knowledgeable team.