Thanks to all of the Fitta Bodies Outdoor Traina’s.

You have trained hard in 2008, looking forward to what 2009 will bring! (lots of hard training sessions no doubt).

That was a great game of Ultimate Fitta Ball this morning and a great breakfast to celebrate all of your efforts.

See you all in 2009!

Something that is often overlooked in fit individuals is walking.
They think that walking can’t do much for them if they are already fit.
They think that their time could be better spent doing more high intensity activity.
Then why do we see so many fit overweight people?

A great exercise regimen will incorporate high intensity exercise and lower intensity exercise.

When you work at a lower intensity your main fuel source is fat.
When you work at a high intensity your main fuel is carbohydrates.
Our heart rate has a direct affect on what we use to fuel our workouts.

When you are sitting at your desk, you are using fat as your fuel. The problem is, you aren’t using enough fat to make a difference to your weight.

With a brisk walk, your heart rate should rise from about 60 beats per minute to about 60 - 70% of your maximum heart rate. 
At this level, you are still using fat as the main source of fuel and it is high enough to make a difference.

Once you get your heart rate up above 70%, you need to make energy a lot quicker. Fat is quite hard for our bodies to convert into energy, so our bodies need something that will convert to energy quicker. This is why we now tap into the carbohydrate stores. Carbohydrates are the easiest thing to convert to energy.

We still use some fat at this level, but the ratio of fat to carbohydrates is smaller.

Running or other high intensity exercise should never be neglected and should form the cornerstone of our regimen as it burns more calories and it increases our cardiovascular fitness. But, the main calories it burns off are carbohydrates and this is great, because it stops those carbs being stored as fat, but we need the walking to tap directly into the fat stores.

Another factor to consider is that our bodies will fight hard in order not to burn out. So, if you are constantly performing extreme amounts of high intensity exercise trying to burn off as many calories as possible, there is a strong chance that it will have the opposite effect and will hold onto the fat because the body panics and goes into protection mode.

The fact is, combining the right amount of high intensity exercise with regular power walks will provide the right formula for your body to effectively lose weight.

My recommendation; 5 exercise sessions per week plus 5 - 7 power walks per week and adhere to the other 3 tips for a great bod this Summer.

Let’s get fit for Summer Part 3
Let’s get fit for Summer Part 2
Let’s get fit for Summer Part 1

Yours in Fitness
Troy Shipsey

Does alcohol make you fat?

Ok, so we have discussed training to burn calories in Part 1, eating for good health and less calories in Part 2, now it is time to talk about the pure fuel source called alcohol.

I call it fuel, because that is what it is. Calories are a fuel source for our bodies. When you consume more calories (fuel) than what is needed by your body on a daily basis, you will gain weight.

Alcohol is just empty calories.

There is no enzyme in the human body that will convert alcohol to fat. So what happens is, you drink alcohol and it sits as your fuel source to be used next. Next being before the food you are eating. So what happens to that food? It gets stored as fat. The more alcohol you drink, the more empty calories are sitting waiting to be burnt and the longer it will take to burn it off, so the more food will be stored as fat.

You can’t counteract this by not eating on a day when you drink because we all know that starving our bodies results in even more negative changes to the body eventually resulting in more weight gain.

What you can do if you know you are going to have a big night on the drink is eat very healthily on the days leading up to and after the drinking session and also increase you exercise on the days either side to compensate for the extra calories that are hanging around in your body.

Another thing to take note of is the junk food that you usually eat when you are drunk or hing over. Generally, any healthy diet goes out the window when you have a few drinks in the system!

A general rule of thumb that I use is 1/2 a calorie in each ml of alcohol. This is not exact, but it is a good rule of thumb to give you a general idea of the sabotage you are doing to your weight loss goals when you head out on the drink.

I haven’t touched on the negative affects that alcohol has on the human body, but believe me, there are plenty. For now, I am just talking alcohol and weight loss.

Does alcohol make you fat? Absolutely!

Next time you get stuck into the drink, remember the negatives;

* 1/2 calorie per ml

* You will eat more junk food when you are drunk

* You will eat more junk food when you are hung over

* You won’t want to train if you are hung over

* You won’t train in the morning if you went out drinking the night before and you wouldn’t have trained at night because you were already out drinking

* Weight loss aside, alcohol is a depressant and a diuretic

Not really anything good about alcohol is there, so drink it in moderation!

Drinking beer is so rare for me, I had to have a photo! Who wouldn't drink a beer that is named after them?

Let’s talk walking in next week’s tip let’s get fit for Summer Part 4.

Yours in fitness

Troy Shipsey

Ok, so in Let’s get fit for summer Part 1, we discussed how many calories you could be burning off if you turn up to all your workouts. 

Now we will look at how what you put into your mouth has just as much if not more affect on your body than exercise.

Let me firsty say that yes, food should be enjoyable! But no, it should not be detrimental to our health!

Food is the fuel that keeps our bodies functioning day to day. We need to be feeding our bodies with healthy food to function properly.

Healthy food is not only good for long term health, but it is great for us in regards to weight loss, because healthy food generally has less calories. We all know that we need to burn more calories than we are consuming in order to lose weight. 

For more information on caloires, please refer to Calories Part 1 & Calories Part 2. You will be able to calculate just how many calories you should be eating.

Now, let’s say you want to lose 1 kg of fat. As mentioned in part 1, this is 7700 calories. I recommend creating a diet defecit of approx 500 calories a day in order to safely and effectively lose weight.

Easy to say, not so easy to do! The fact is, most people eat way more than they should every day. Then they exercise and wonder why they are not losing weight. If you exercise 5 days a week and burn off roughly 3000 caloires in the week, but you eat 600 calories a day more than you need to, you won’t lose any weight! This is not taking into account the weekend where you probably eat more!

So, you decide to eat well… You do this for a week, maybe 2, you start to feel better in yourself. You feel lighter, you feel less bloated, you notice a difference in your waistline. But then the takeaway food sneaks back in. The dessert after dinner sneaks back in. You start to skip breakfast again and before you know it, you are back into your old habits.

Maybe something far worse happens… you decide to go on a diet. I am not sure which one, I don’t really care which one, they are all as bad as each other. The fact is, when eventually you go off the diet, you will gain back all of the weight you lost and then some. I have the proof, hundreds of people I have spoken to who all tell me about the diet they are on or have been on and who all without a doubt, put all of the weight back on, regardless of their training because they haven’t created any good eating habits and when they aren’t on some sort of diet, they just eat badly!

Eating well is a life long habit you need to create. Weight loss should be slow and steady and acheived through a change in diet, exercise and lifestyle habits.

So we’ve looked at exercise and food, what about liquid… Next week we will look at all of those empty calories in alcohol in Let’s get fit for Summer Part 3.

Yours in fitness

Troy Shipsey

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

When it comes to exercise, there are many ways to go about it. 

Team sports
Martial arts
Gym 
Group Fitness Training
Bootcamp
Personal Training
Yoga
Pilates
Jogging
Cycling
Swimming
and the list goes on…

The man thing to consider firstly is what do you enjoy?
You don’t want to lock into something you hate, because you will only end up quitting soon after starting!

The second is what is your goal?

The third is will what you enjoy get you to your goal?
If you want to lose weight, don’t join the local pool and lock in for swimming lessons for 12 weeks, personal training, group training or bootcamp may be your best bet. If you want to run a triathalon, don’t join a bootcamp, start cycling, running and swimming or join a triathalon club. If you want to bulk up, don’t join the local touch footy club, join the local gym and pump some iron. If you want to increase flexibilty, don’t join the gym, get into yoga and compliment that with some pilates.

This may sound like common sense, but exercise can be one of those grey areas where people get confused and just end up going with what they know.

The problem with going with what you know, is that if you do what you have always done, you will achieve what you have always achieved. Often this is not a good thing.

A plateau with results is the most common cause for people to give up on their exercise plans. They think that they can’t reach their goals, so they give up. Then they get fed up with being unfit and overweight, so they start again and the cycle continues, only this time they are more overweight and a little older, making it harder to reach the goal this time, so the cycle gets worse!

The most important thing to remember is that exercise is for life. If what you really enjoy doing isn’t working for you, supplement it with something that will work a little better, but don’t kid yourself by doing the same thing over and over if it isn’t working for you.

Yours in Fitness

Troy Shipsey

Everywhere I look these days, there is information about a “diet”. Any diet and every diet. This diet and that diet. Have you heard of this diet? Have you tried that diet? What do you think of this diet? I think I’m going to try that diet. So and so has got a great diet out. That other guy has got a new diet out. Thingy has come up with an entirely new diet. There is back log of getting product for that diet, so it must be awesome!

Give me a break! If each diet worked long term, then we wouldn’t have a million and one diet books on the shelf.

On the cover of a popular magazine I once saw Kirsty Alley and Oprah Winfrey and the headline was “The great diet showdown”. Is this how we should be thinking? Taking advice from two women who yo-yo with their weight more than anyone in the public eye!

We need to stop the diet mentality!

We need to realise that health is more about eating healthy food, not about being thin regardless of the path taken to get there!

In order to live a healthy life, you should eat a diet rich in fruit and vegetables (preferably organic if possible, but not essential). I also believe in eating fish, lean organic chicken & eggs and a little organic red meat.

If you want to eat junk food, save it for the weekend and eat it in moderation. Limit yourself to 2 junk food meals per weekend.

Remember that fruit and vegetables are carbohydrates, so this is not a carb free diet! It is a natural eating diet. No gimmicks here, just eating food in it’s natural form.

Try it, you will feel so much better, your energy levels will be higher, you will lose weight and you won’t feel bloated hours after a meal.

If we all just stopped looking for the quick fix or giving these stupid diets the time of day, we could all focus on eating for good long term health.

The only people who benefit long term from these diets are the guys who came up with the diets and sold a whole bunch of books and supplements to ingnorant people who want the quick fix.

I urge you to take control and think about the information you are being fed. Block out the con artists who want to take advantage and get rich from your desire to create “a healthy body”.

Try to eat as close to the natural form a food comes as possible and exercise regularly.

Yours in Health and Fitness

Troy Shipsey

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

When undertaking an exercise plan, the first step is to establish your goals. The next step is to assess the most sensible way to reach those goals.

I see so many typical weight loss gym goers training in the same manner as a body builder. Now this is fine if your goal is to look like a body builder, but is that your goal?

If the guy over in the corner is performing seated bicep curls to make his arms look bigger, does that mean you too should perform seated bicep curls? Is your goal to have big biceps? Do you want big arms? Or is there something more effective that you could be doing?

If your goal is to lose weight, there is no doubting how important resistance training is, but you should be trying to use as much muscle mass at the one time as you can handle.

The least effective exercises to lose weight would be machine weights. These machines tell your whole body to switch off apart from the muscle group that is moving the weight. Besides that, why do you need to sit down at the gym? Didn’t you sit down to eat breakfast, to get to work, at work, at lunch, to get home from work, whilst you had dinner and after dinner? I think you can see that you sit down enough, so when you get to the gym to carry out your weight loss training, please don’t sit down!

Here a few examples of simple exercise combinations to get the calories burning more effectively:

* Lunge bicep curl

* Squat cable row

* Step up side raise

* Deadlift bicep curl

* Kettlebell swing

* Squat press

* Dumbell chest press on a ball instead of a bench with a bar

There are so many combinations to choose from, so get creative with your training!

Troy Shipsey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Fitness Training Centennial Park, Sydney