Losing weight from the right places and not the wrong places….. here is what I do with my clients to make sure they keep the right curves (or get them if they never had them in the first place) and lose the wrong curves. KEY 1 – DIET……worst thing you can do is under eat or crash diet. You would be amazed at how fast you can lose muscle tone and firmness especially for some women in areas like the chest and bum. Half of the weight you are losing can be muscle tone and very quickly you will end up with a smaller saggier chest and smaller saggier bum. NEVER EVER eat less then 10 calories per pound of your ideal weight e.g. if your ideal weight is 10 stone (140 lbs) you should never eat less then 1400 calories if it is 11 stone (154lbs) you should never eat less than 1540 calories. Part 2 of diet is to make sure you have enough protein to further keep your muscle tone….so at least 2 times daily make sure you have lean proteins (chicken, turkey, white fish, lowfat cheese or egg white ommlette).
THE BIG KEY 2 – TONING…..aerobic work is vital for burning calories for weight loss as it helps you avoid crash dieting and still get good results, however TONING is even more important. Toning improves your metabolism better than anything else and you need to do VERY SPECIFIC TONING for the curves you most wish to keep. So if you are training with me and want to keep or develop a firm curvy bum I will have you do GLUTE ISOLATION exercises – heavy resistance and low reps – ask for these at your local gym or ‘google’ them to find out more. ISOLATION exercises mean that they target exactly the BUM muscles and NOT other surrounding muscles like the thighs or else your thighs could end up too big. Another example, if you want great BACK OF ARMS you need to do TRICEP ISOLATION EXERCISES Now the CHEST needs a slightly different approach. The best exercise for the chest is INCLINE FLYES to lift and firm the chest. Use light weight and 15 to 20 reps. The best exercise to increase chest size is DECLINE FLYES (use heavier weight and no more than 10 reps) which will develop the muscle under the chest and can easily add 1 cup size.
Finally the MAGIC KEY 3 – METABOLISM WORK. The first 2 keys will go a long way towards improving your shape and keeping the curves you want but this key will be the icing on the cake. Metabolism Work essentially involves looking at your own BODY TYPE (there are 4 types) and your personal requirements. For example some women have a delicate balance of the hormones estrogen and progesterone (2 hormones that control chest size). Stress, pregnancy and dieting can change this balance and hence their chest size can reduce dramatically. Therefore they need to take supplements or herbs that can improve their hormone balance and preserve or increase chest size. Likewise other women have too much of these hormones and get huge hips and thighs and they need to be careful of foods that stimulate these areas. I am currently completing a document (due mid-late August) on what works best for each body type so I will present it here when done. But don’t wait until then….get working on the first 2 keys and you will have a great start made towards better weight loss and losing weight from the right places and not the wrong places.
