As the lifts, jumps and pirouettes got bigger, the celebrities got thinner so to speak.
However, can the same be true for us mere mortals?
The short and simple answer is YES'ish'. You see the theory behind
weight loss is very simple. To lose weight you must create a calorie imbalance
and this can be done in 3 ways: 1, by burning more calories than you eat
through exercise or activity. 2, by consuming fewer calories through eating
less or 3, a combination of 1 and 2.
In the case of the Strictly
celebrities, their weight loss comes about largely due to option 1. Because
they are training for upward of five hours per day, five to six days per week they are able to burn calories like a pyromaniac burns down schools.
But how realistic is this for us mere mortals?
Not very,
after all how many of us can afford to give up work and train like a
professional athlete to lose weight? Very few, if any of us. That’s why for
most of us we’d be better off focusing more of your attention on option 2. That
is, to lose weight, reduce the number of calories we consume.
Don’t believe me?
Well, think about this, according to the
Readers Digest to burn off just one slice of a 210 calorie Dominos cheese
pizza, it would take 22 minutes of cycling. That’s over 20 minutes for just one
slice, and how many of us can stop at just the one slice? So, you can already
see just how difficult and time consuming it would be to burn off at least 4
slices of pizza, and this is the case for many other calorie dense foods too.
At best, we simply do not have the time or motivation to
out-run, out-cycle or out-swim a poor diet. At worst, we simply CAN’T out-train
a bad diet because we aren’t fit enough to be able to train long enough or hard
enough for it to happen. Our bodies simply can’t handle it (I've written more about this here in a previous post). Sadly, the irony is that the people
most able to train for anywhere near long enough or hard enough to out-train
your average poor diet are professional athletes, who by and large, need not worry
about their weight in the first place!
So exercise isn’t important then?
No, as your average wannabe gangster rapper from leafy, suburban Essex would say ‘Don’t
get this twisted’. Exercise is important, it’s important for a number of
reasons, none more so (when it comes to weight loss) than the preservation of
muscle mass. You see when people lose weight, they lose a hell of a lot of
muscle mass in the process, which isn’t a good thing because muscle helps to
burn calories which in turn helps to keep the fat off long term. Exercise,
particularly resistance training and an increased protein intake can help
prevent this from happening quite so drastically.
So although the average unconditioned person may not be able to burn a shed load of calories within a single session, they should regard exercises as an extremely important way of helping them maintain their weight once they get to be the size they'd like to be.
So although the average unconditioned person may not be able to burn a shed load of calories within a single session, they should regard exercises as an extremely important way of helping them maintain their weight once they get to be the size they'd like to be.
The take home message…
When it comes to weight loss the most sensible and sustainable approach is to go for option 3 (a combination of exercising more and eating less calories) with (especially if you have a lot of weight to shift) a particular focus on eating less.
Thanks for reading.
Matt
TO BOOK YOUR FREE PERSONAL TRAINING SESSION, OR TO BOOK A PLACE AT MY BOOT CAMP CLASS, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO GET IN TOUCH.
Matt
TO BOOK YOUR FREE PERSONAL TRAINING SESSION, OR TO BOOK A PLACE AT MY BOOT CAMP CLASS, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO GET IN TOUCH.
matt@mlrpt.co.uk www.mlrpt.co.uk 07939316401 www.twitter.com/mlrpt www.facebook.com/mlrpt www.twitter.com/mlrpt
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