Woodlands Fitness Centre

The Woodlands newsletter: Monday 14th January 2019

Monday 14th January 2019

Hi,

Most people who read my newsletters know that I like to use a lot of maths to explain weight loss, resistance training and other health/fitness related topics. However, sometimes you have to step back from the numbers and look at the big picture to help bring people back into focus.

For most people reading these newsletters, finding an effective diet that works most of the time must seem as complicated as nuclear physics. It's not, but there are a bewildering number of choices for diets out there. High fat or no fat? High carbohydrate or no carbohydrate? Low protein or high protein? To make matters worse, there are so many variations of the above diets to add to the confusion. It seems endless and causes many people to throw up their hands in frustration and give up.

There are some general guidelines, rules of thumb, and ways of viewing a diet program that will allow you to decide, once and for all, if it's the right diet for you. Don't fall the "lose 100 lbs in 20 days" type diets.

You may not always like what I have to say. However, if you are sick and tired of being confused, tired of losing weight only to put it back on, again, tired of not knowing how to train and tired of not knowing how to achieve permanent weight loss, then these newsletters could change your life.

Do you need to be a scientist to apply what you will learn here? No. A mind reader or clairvoyant? No. A nutritionist or medical doctor? Nope. What you need to be is open-minded and willing to learn a few key concepts that will allow you to sort through the confusion.

You will be able to apply what you learn here to any diet you are considering and decide if it makes sense, once and for all! The process, however, is neither easy nor quick per se, but I never promised you either of those things...

The newsletters I'll write this year will not look at specific diets. Instead, I will write about taking a logical approach to choosing a nutritional plan for life long weight loss / weight maintenance.

This subject is explored later in our article: The 5 worst ways to lose weight.

Last week I wrote that there are two types of people who go to the gym. One type includes those who wander in, spend 10 minutes on one machine and then drift slowly over to another, before half-heartedly trying bicep curls for five reps and then walking out.

I've added 32 x 45 minute Group PT sessions every week to the group exercise table for the people who want to train, want to get results but don't know how to put together an effective workout routine or know they'd not be able to train productively on their own. These sessions are proper personal training sessions - just delivered to a small group of people.

Some people would only do 10 reps when they could actually do 12 reps. And it's in those extra 2 reps where the magic happens.

Here is a list of our group training sessions:

http://www.woodlandsfitnessrowsley.co.uk/group-exercise

The Woodlands Fitness Centre now offers Group Personal Training. The premise is simple:

✔ 32 x PT sessions available every week.
✔Sessions can be used to burn fat, get fit and build lean muscle.
✔ Groups include HIIT, kettlebells, barbells, dumbbells and bodyweight exercises
✔ Max 6-8 people per session
✔ Come to as many sessions as you like
✔ Prices from £6.92 per week (Paid monthly)
✔ No contract options available

Each session will be a proper personal training session. These sessions will push you far harder than training on your own. So you'll get much better results.

Group Training membership prices:

Joint/Student:
£30pm for 12 months, £35pm for 3 months and £40pm for 1 month.

Single:
£35pm for 12 months, £40pm for 3 months and £45pm for 1 month.

Gym Only:

Single: £23pm for 12 months, £25pm for 3 months and £27pm for 1 month.
Joint/Student: £22pm for 12 months, £24pm for 3 months and £26pm for 1 month.

PT prices:

Here are a few examples of our most popular PT packages:

8 x 30 minute PT sessions
£112

4 x 45 minute PT sessions
£80

4 x 60 minute PT sessions
£107

All sessions must be used within 4 weeks. We use time limits with our personal training packages to encourage frequent and consistent training. Packages can be designed to your individual needs. We can adjust the time limits in advance to take into account holidays, business trips, etc.

All of our PT packages include full gym & classes membership.

Opening Hours:

Monday: 7.30am - 9.00pm
Tuesday: 9.00am - 9.00pm
Wednesday: 7.30am - 9.00pm
Thursday: 9.00am - 9.00pm
Friday: 7.30am - 8.00pm
Saturday: 8.00am - 2.00pm
Sunday 8.00am - 2.00pm

We always want to know what you think of the Woodlands Fitness Centre - the gym, prices, personal training, group personal training, and anything else. Please speak to us at the gym, email any feedback and suggestions to the email address at the end of this newsletter.

Thanks,

GW


The 5 worst ways to lose weight

Over the last few weeks I've talked extensively about the best ways to lose weight. So, having exhausted that particular area, I will now talk about the worst ways to lose weight.

Sadly, these are the most common mistakes people make when they are trying to lose weight.

In this article I will explain what these 5 mistakes are and what you can do to prevent them.

1). Starving yourself:

We all want to lose weight as quickly as possible. However, if you severely restrict your calories you will end up in trouble.

To lose weight you have to consume fewer calories than your body actually needs. But if you do this by eating very little and starving yourself in the process, your body will start to work against you and do everything in its power to survive. And the less you eat, the worse it gets.

That is why we recommend using a calorie deficit of no more than 20% of your daily calories. This will not only benefit your sleep and your energy levels, but it also lowers the stress of dieting and reduces the risk of food craving and binge eating.

Losing weight through calories consumed alone is not recommended as it will trigger the fight or flight mechanism within the body, encouraging a reduction in the metabolic rate as well as an increase in cortisol, which is the hormone responsible for fat storage.

However, the combination of a healthy diet and exercise plan will prevent a drop in the metabolic rate, which will also mean that not only weight loss is achieved at a greater rate, but also that it is easier to sustain the weight loss.

2). Dieting for too long:

The longer your body remains in a negative energy balance, the more weight you will lose. This might sound like a positive thing - but there are a number of serious drawbacks if you stay in a caloric deficit for too long.

The longer you restrict your calories, the more your body will start to push back and protect you against further weight loss. This will ultimately result in a slow(er) metabolism, loss of muscle and higher stress levels.

You simply can't diet forever without reaching a point where you are no longer losing any weight. Even though you are doing tons of exercise and eating very little calories.

A healthy weight loss is on average 1-3 lbs per week. If you need to lose a lot of weight, it is impossible to do this at once and it is best to use 'diet breaks'.

Having a diet break means that every 2 to 3 months you take a break from dieting for a few days. This allows you to eat a bit more calories and to be less strict on your diet. In a later newsletter I will elaborate on this in an article about water retention.

Diet breaks are a good strategy for long-term diet success. It helps with the psychological stress of dieting and 'resets' your body before going back on your diet.

3). Not doing any resistance training:

You do not have to work out to lose weight (this is just a matter of being in a negative energy balance), but having an exercise routine is good for your health and can also contribute to healthy weight loss.

Eating less and not exercising is a very poor strategy for losing weight. When you are trying to lose weight, you mainly want to burn fat and prevent your body from losing muscle.

Resistance training helps you to maintain as much lean body mass as possible when dieting. It can also help you to build more muscle which allows you to lose weight more effectively and make it easier to maintain a healthy body weight.

Most people think they need to do more cardio. I don't know where this stems from. But it's wrong. Doing 45 minutes on a cross trainer whilst watching the latest episode of Luther is easy. By comparison, doing squats, lunges, step ups, etc (all relatively simple exercises!) are much harder work. Hence the much better results you get from them.

Steady state cardio elevates cortisol (that aforementioned stress hormone!) levels in your body. This you do not want. Steady state cardio is also catabolic. Being in a catabolic state is muscle wasting. Lots of steady cardio causes muscle tissue breakdown. You want your body to be in an anabolic (muscle building) state.

Resistance training is an essential component of fat loss, as it builds muscle essential to your metabolism, increases 24 hour energy expenditure, and has health benefits beyond just doing cardio. Think about it; if you do any form of exercise whilst watching the latest episode of Stranger Things then you're really doing much.

When I talk about weight loss, I actually mean fat loss. They are not the same thing. A pound of fat equals 3,500 calories whereas a pound of muscle equals only 600 calories - so a large calorie deficit and rapid weight loss will result in more muscle loss. Not an ideal outcome. So if I use the term 'weight loss', I do so only because it is a familiar term most people understand. The same principle applies to 'toning'.

When setting up a proper nutrition and exercise plan, the true focus and goal of should be on fat loss. Not weight loss. Focusing on losing weight - which may include a loss essential muscle, water, and even bone and maybe some fat - is the wrong approach.

Losing fat and keeping lean body mass, is the goal. The type of exercise, intensity of that exercise, length of time doing that exercise, etc., are essential variables here when attempting to lose FAT while retaining lean body mass.

4). Not eating enough protein:

Protein is an essential nutrient when it comes to dieting and fat loss. A high protein diet helps to preserve lean mass during weight loss. Eating more protein also improves satiety after meals which can make dieting a lot easier.

Especially when you are very active and work out regularly, it is crucial that your protein intake is adequate and that you have enough protein in your diet.

Make sure that you eat some protein with every meal and try to get in at least 1.6 grams of protein per kg of body weight when you are trying to lose weight.

5). Being too strict with your diet:

A diet where you deny yourself everything (no alcohol, no chips, no cake, no sweets, no sugar, no carbohydrates, etc.) is a very unsustainable way to lose weight.

It is good to have a structured plan and to set up some dietary rules and guidelines, but denying yourself everything makes it a lot harder to stick to your diet.

Yes, there are probably certain foods that you want to avoid - but occasionally you can allow yourself to have some chocolate or indulge in a bowl of ice cream.

The best diet is a diet that you can adhere to. Slowly focus on creating better habits and making healthier food choices and don't be being too strict with your diet.

This will only increase your stress levels and makes it that much more difficult to stick to your diet in the long term.

I'm sure all of the above makes sense but if you have any questions please come and ask me.


Spiced vegetable biryani

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small cauliflower, broken into small florets
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, sliced
1l hot vegetable stock
3 tbsp hot curry paste (Madras is good)
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
Large pinch of saffron strands
2 tsp mustard seed (black or white)
500g basmati rice
140g trimmed green bean, halved
2 lemons, juice only
A handful of fresh coriander leaves
50g packet salted roasted cashew
Cashew nuts
Poppadums to serve


Method:

Preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7/fan 200C. Pour the oil into a large roasting tin or ovenproof dish and put in the oven for a couple of minutes to heat through. Add all the vegetables to the tin, except the beans, stirring to coat them in the hot oil. Season with salt and pepper and return to the oven for 15 minutes until beginning to brown.

While the vegetables are roasting, stir together the stock, curry paste, chilli, saffron and mustard seeds.

Mix the rice and green beans with the vegetables in the tin, then pour over the stock mixture. Lower the oven to 190C/gas 5/fan 190C. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the lemon juice and check the seasoning, then scatter over the coriander and cashew nuts. Serve with a pile of poppadums.

Enjoy!


Useless Facts

In the last 3,500 years, there have been approximately 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world. So less than 7%? Wow! Humans really are pricks!

Once a year, Toby Rice prints off all of Wikipedia and places it in a secret vault below his house.

The average person spends about two years on the phone in a lifetime.

Carlo Pancaro once visited the Virgin Islands. They are now just called The Islands.

The Black Death reduced the population of Europe by one third in the period from 1347 to 1351. Thanos wouldn't be impressed by this. Our Thanos frowns on anything less than 50%!




The Woodlands Fitness Centre Ltd
A: Unit 27, Molyneux Business Park, Darley Dale, Derbyshire, DE4 2HJ
T: (01629) 733 123
E: woodlandsfitness@yahoo.co.uk
W: www.woodlandsfitnessrowsley.co.uk