Guide to Losing Weight
Hi All,
I found an article on my computer that I wrote about a year ago for my personal training clients. I thought I would be rather generous and post it up on here.
Welcome to personal training! I am going to explain the basics of losing “weight” effectively and safely in a way that you can maintain and hopefully enjoy. As a personal trainer and healthcare professional, I see people trying to lose body fat all the time. The problem is that the majority of people are doing it wrong! First of all, you have probably set out to “lose weight”. Really it is not the weight you care about, but the amount of body fat you have. So, let’s aim to lose body fat and not worry about the weight for now.
The chances are you have dieted in the past. You may have lost some weight. But the diet didn’t last long did it? The weight came back, possibly even more than you lost? So you diet again and the process repeats itself over and over until you give up or just can’t lose any more weight.
So let’s do it right this time, and let’s do it together. I am a key to your success, but not the solution. The results come from your effort and commitment. I have the knowledge to help and guide you but if you don’t do the work yourself when I’m not with you then you won’t win. Trust me and work with me and we can get there!
Losing weight is not just about diet and exercise. If you have Yo-Yo dieted in the past you will find it much harder to get results, especially if you are cutting calories and exercising too much. We need to address Lifestyle, Stress and Hormones as well as exercising and eating right for you.
The information written in this article is only touching the surface of these topics. I am more than happy to discuss anything in more detail with you if you want me to.
So where do people go so wrong? Here are some common weight loss mistakes.
1) Too much Cardio.
Cardio is not the most effective way to lose body fat. Your body will adapt to cardio quickly, making it easier for you, but harder to lose weight. Exercise is seen by your body as stress so it protects itself by releasing stress hormones to hold on to your fat. So exercise needs to be quick and intense. Thus 15-20 minutes of quality rather than quantity is all you need.
2) Calorie Restricted Diets or Calorie Counting
Dieting puts your body into a stress response. It thinks it is being starved, which it is. So your body then adapts by holding on to the fat for as long as possible. So any weight you do lose is either water or muscle. By maintaining a normal balance of healthy calories your body will eventually realise it is not being starved and will not hold on the body fat. Eating right will also increase your health. You cannot lose weight if you are not healthy!
3) Avoiding Fat
Eating fat does not make you fat! Fact. Fat is essential and you cannot be healthy without it. Avoiding fat will cause your body to hold on to what fat it already has stored. When you don’t eat fat your body thinks it is being starved of fat, so it holds on to what it has. But, by regularly eating good fats your body will eventually realise that there is a regular intake of fat so it will get rid of what it already has.
Why is fat good? Fats are the building blocks of all the important hormones in your body. It is essential for a healthy nervous system, feel good hormones, sex hormones, energy, a healthy immune system and decreasing inflammation.
But what about cholesterol? What about it? Cholesterol is ESSENTIAL! It is not the enemy you have been preached to about. It has been shown that low cholesterol levels are associated with an INCREASE in heart disease and cancer, particularly in women. An increase in dietary cholesterol has no effect on the levels of cholesterol in your body. It is a complicated subject, beyond the scope of this article, but don’t be scared of it.
There are good fats and bad fats. Avoid processed foods, avoid margarines and avoid heating oils. Eat nuts, seeds and cook with coconut oil, butter or ghee. Use virgin olive oil for salads but don’t cook with it.
4) Avoiding resistance exercises.
Weight training is not going to make you bulky or butch. It will however increase your metabolism through the roof. Up to 48 hours in fact (cardio will only increase it up to 8 hours at best). Females don’t have the testosterone or growth hormones that men do to get big. Also, the men in the weights area have been training for years and are training with much heavier weights. It is not an overnight process so don’t fear a little bit of weight. It will not raise your stress hormones as much as cardio too. Weight training will get you the best results, the results that you want.
5) Too much carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are most likely to be your biggest problem. You either have a sweet tooth, or are eating a lot of rice, pasta, potatoes or bread? If not then there are other issues we need to discuss. There are 2 types of carbohydrates. The good type; Non Starchy Carbohydrates- Non root vegetables (e.g. green leafy veg, beans, mushrooms, cauliflower etc.). The not so good type; Starchy Carbohydrates- Root vegetables (e.g. potatoes, carrots), Grains (e.g. Wheat as bread or pasta. Or rice).
Starchy carbohydrates convert to sugar too easily in your body and are converted into fat too easily. Don’t avoid them, but be careful how much you eat.
Non starch carbohydrates however are your friends. Eat as much as you like. They have many health benefits and will help fill you up and keep you regular.
So where do you start?
Diet
Calories- Females; you need around 1800 calories per day. Males; you need around 2000- 2500 calories per day. That 500 calorie diet needs to be binned or it will be the end of you!
Eat some protein, fat and carbohydrate with every meal. Protein and fat will help fill you up for hours. They are the building block for everything in your body, essential for growth and repair.
Don’t try to be 100% committed! Eat well 80% of the time and chill out and eat what you want for the other 20% of the time.
Aim to eat 4-6 meals per day; 3 main meals- Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and 2 to 3 Snacks in between. Eat like a King for Breakfast, a Prince for Lunch and like a Porper for dinner.
Drink around 2 Litres of water per day. This is not the exact amount but it is a good starting point.
Be creative and enjoy your food! Use your sample meal plans as a guide and create your own ideas. Use what you like the sound of and discard what you don’t like.
Exercise
We will create an exercise plan for you to get started on when you are on your own and we will make it more exciting and challenging as you start to get fitter, stronger and more familiar with everything.
Aim to train 3 times per week, and build it up to 4 or 5 times per week, but no more than that.
Train for about 1 hour, but again, no more than that.
Keep cardio to a minimum and use the weights to your advantage.
Mix up your training. Don’t get into a routine. Keep your body guessing and keep the results coming.
We will go into more detail together to make your training specific to you.
Lifestyle
Reduce stress!! Stress is possibly the biggest reason you can’t lose weight! Obviously stress is unavoidable, but do what you can, where you can to cope with it better.
Get to bed by 10:30 to 11 PM. At first you might not sleep because you aren’t used to it. You will eventually get your body into the routine. Your body goes through physical repair between 10PM and 2AM, and Psychological repair between 2AM and 6AM. However if you are up until 12AM with the lights on, TV on or computers on then your body still thinks it is day time and doesn’t go through the physical repair stage. This is part of the reason you find it difficult to lose weight even though you think you are doing everything else right.
There are supplements you can take in the future that can help with the management of stress but this is something you must discuss with me first as there are hundreds out there and some of them will do you more harm than good.
This brings me on to Diet pills, Thermogenics and Appetite Suppressants. Don’t do it! It will give you similar results to Yo-Yo dieting and will ultimately lead to you putting the weight back on and compromising your health, potentially leading to physical problems such as adrenal fatigue, hormone imbalances and depression.
In Conclusion
Losing body fat is not as hard as it seems, once you get the basics right. It can be enjoyable and there are many ways it can be achieved. It is not an overnight process and you will have your ups and downs, but I am here for you, trust me and use me to your advantage and we can get you the results you want and keep you on the path to the new you! J
Best in health,
Ashley Ridout
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