Frequently Asked Questions

What is your advice for someone wanting to lose fat?

My first piece of advice would be to look at your diet. Fat loss is 90% diet and 10% smart training so your diet needs to be good.

I recommend eating every 2-3 hours to ensure that blood sugar levels stay as stable as possible and also to ensure that the metabolism keeps ticking over.

Your metabolism is your body's natural fat burner and can be likened to a fire. If you want to keep a fire burning, you add small amounts of fuel to it periodically to keep it burning steadily. If you leave the fire for too long without adding fuel, the flames get smaller and smaller until they go out. If you throw on too many logs at once, the fire gets smothered and cannot cope with the amount of fuel you are expecting it to burn.

Eating every 2-3 hours also means you won't go hungry and so are less prone to bingeing.
When I say to eat every 2-3 hours it doesn't mean you have to consume huge meals 6 times a day - 6 smaller meals or 3 meals and 3 snacks is quite sufficient. I like to have Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack and if I am still hungry, I might have supper too.

I recommend keeping a food diary of what you eat and if you can, enter it into an online calorie counter such as WLR. Most people are shocked at the amount of calories in their favourite foods when they start tracking calories - who would believe a tablespoon of mayonaise could contain over 100 calories?

A food diary also helps to pinpoint bad habits, such as those couple of biscuits you have with your morning cuppa or the handful of chips pinched from the kid's leftovers - things that we eat but can forget about.

What should I eat?

I am a huge advocate of cutting out foods that do not benefit the body in any way and have little or no nutritional values. So, things such as ready meals, convenience foods, junk foods, food that has been through heavy processing such as refined carbs, foods that have a long list of ingredients that you do not understand, anything that has sugar added to it (or listed in the first 5 ingredients) should ideally be eliminated or at least limited as much as possible.

Make sure your diet comprises of a good range of complex carbs, lean proteins, healthy fats, fruit & veggies and water.

What are complex carbohydrates?

Complex carbohydrates are a collective name for starches and fibre which have a more complicated chemical structure than sugars (simple carbohydrates). Complex carbs provide a slower and more sustained release of energy than simple carbohydrates, which can cause peaks and drops in your blood sugar levels and leave you with less stable energy levels. This is known as a sugar rush, which is always followed by a slump and leaves you craving more sugar to get that same high.

What are good sources of complex carbohydrates?

Oats, brown rice, quinoa, beans and legumes, root vegetables, sweet potatoes, wholemeal pasta and wholemeal flour.

Simple carbohydrates to limit or avoid:

Biscuits, cakes, pastries, chocolate, jams and preserves, jellies, brown and white cane sugar, prepared foods and sauces, sweets, cereal bars, soft drinks, pizza

What are good sources of lean protein?

Chicken or turkey breast, extra lean ground beef, white fish, prawns, ostrich, kangaroo, low fat dairy, egg whites, whey protein

What are good sources of healthy fats?

Olive oil, fish oil, raw nuts & seeds, ground flax, oily fish, avocado, eggs and natural nut butters

What about alcohol?

It is important to remember that alcohol is made up entirely of empty calories - this means that it contains no nutrients whatsoever.

It is also important to remember that alcohol is treated by the body as a toxin/poison. When you put it into your body, your body will work hard to eliminate this as quickly as possible. To do this, it stops other metabolic processes and puts alcohol elimination as the priority. If you are eating for fat loss, this means that whilst there is alcohol in your system, the body will stop metabolising fat in order to expel it.

If you are serious about fat loss, you may find you have to eliminate alcohol for a while. Not only can it slow your results, it can also lower your inhibitions and lead to choosing to eat foods that you wouldn't otherwise eat.

So now I know what to eat, how much should I eat?

1lb of fat is made up of roughly 3500 calories. This means to lose 1lb of fat per week, you would need to create a deficit of 3500, which would amount to 500 per day.
I don't believe in creating too big a calorie deficit as this will lead to losing muscle mass aswell as fat. Muscle mass is a metabolically active tissue which requires calories to exist, whereas fat requires none. Thus, the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you need to preserve it. Losing weight too quickly depletes muscle mass, which will slow down your metabolism and lower your caloric requirements.

For this reason, I don't recommend a deficit any bigger than 10-15% less than your maintenance level. I would recommend creating this deficit from a combination of diet and exercise.

For example, if you are restricting calories by 500 per day, reduce your calorie intake by 300 and create a further deficit of 200 by exercising.

How can I find out what my maintenance level is?

First of all, work out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). This is the amount of calories your body needs just to exist, before factoring in any day to day activities or exercise.
You can do this by using a BMR calculator (found on google) or by using the following formula:

English BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

Metric BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

Then, you can work out how many calories your body needs to maintain weight by using the Harris Benedict Formula:

1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375

3. If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55

4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725

5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

Remember, the amount these kinds of formulas give are just a guide. People with a lot of lean mass will require more calories, whereas someone with a lot of fat to lose will require less. The important thing to do is to monitor and adjust as necessary.

I have heard you talk about macros. What are these?

Macros are short for macronutrients, which are carbs, protein and fat. When I was doing my research about diet and exercise, I read a lot about the kind of diets followed by body builders and figure athletes. I did this because their whole life is about looking as good as they can - they have to build muscle or lose fat within a specific time period ready for the competitions they enter.

I decided to try sticking to a certain macronutrient split to see if it had any impact on my fat loss and I can report that it absolutely did! I find a macronutrient split of 40/40/20 or 40/30/30 (protein/carbs/fat respectively) is the best ratio for fat loss and maintenance.

You seem to eat a heck of a lot of protein. Why is this?

This sort of relates to the above question. I aim for at least 40% of my calories to come from protein for 2 reasons. Firstly, protein is the best of all the macronutrients for satiating the appetite. Including protein with each meal/snack helps to keep you feeling full.

Secondly, proteins are the basic building blocks of the body. They are made up of amino acids which help build muscles, internal organs, blood, skin, hair and nails. The RDA for protein is 0.8g/kg of body weight for a healthy individual who leads a pretty sedentary lifestyle. However, resistance training breaks down the muscle proteins so the amount of protein you require will be higher as this is needed to aid muscle recovery and repair.

Again, it all boils down to what works for you - monitor and adjust.

I've heard you talk about carb cycling. What is it?

Carb cycling means cycling your carb intake on a day to day basis. There are 2 different ways of doing this - the random approach and timing it according to your workouts.

By doing it randomly, it could mean a low carb day falls on a day where you train and a high carb day falls on a day where you are resting. Some people like to do it this way as they time their high carb day on their "treat meal" day which is often at the weekend.

However, I found doing low carb on a training day was too hard, particularly on a day where I was training legs. I found my strength to be lacking and I couldn't keep up with previous weights/reps. For this reason, I cycled mine according to my training.

I lift weights 3 times per week so I have 3 high carb days per week. I do one cardio session per week so that is moderate day and the other 3 days are low carb.

Now, as everyone's calorie requirements will be different, what would be high carb for me might well be super high for someone else and moderate for me might be someone else's low.
On my high carb days, I aim for 30-40% carbs from total calories, on a moderate day I aim for 20-25% carbs from total calories and on low carb days I aim for 10-15% carbs from total calories.

So, onto why I did it.

I was recommended carb cycling by a personal trainer after I complained that high amounts of carbs were making me feel sluggish and lethargic, particularly in the afternoons. Even though I only consume complex carbohydrates and stick to low GI sources, it still didn't make much of a difference.

This article is good at explaining all the science behind it - Article about carb cycling

How much water should I consume?

The human body is made up of around 60% water. Lean muscles contain 75% water, blood contains 95% water, the brain contains around 70%% water and bones contain about 22% water. Your skin also contains a lot of water.

The lungs expel between 2-4 cups of water per day just through normal breathing. Urination can account for about 6 cups of water per day and sweating expels about 2 cups of water - this is not including exercised induced perspiration!

So how much should you drink?

Replacement approach. The average urine output for adults is 1.5 liters a day. You lose close to an additional liter of water a day through breathing, sweating and bowel movements. Food usually accounts for 20 percent of your fluid intake, so you if you consume 2 liters of water or other beverages a day (a little more than 8 cups), along with your normal diet, you can replace the lost fluids.

Eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Another approach to water intake is the "8 x 8 rule" - drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day (about 1.9 liters). The rule could also be stated, "drink eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid a day," as all fluids count toward the daily total. Though this approach isn't supported by scientific evidence, many people use this basic rule as a guideline for how much water and other fluids to drink.

Dietary recommendations. The Institute of Medicine recommends that men consume 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day and women consume 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day. These guidelines are based on national food surveys that assessed people's average fluid intakes.

Is there any point in taking supplements like CLA if you're not going all out on the exercise side and pumping protein % high and carb low?

CLA - Conjugated Linoleic Acid - has been shown in studies to have an effect on body fat in humans, particularly abdominal fat. I noticed when I started taking it that it made a big difference to my fat loss.

As for the original question - if you are looking to lose fat, then yes, I would recommend it. However, as with all supplements, you should read up about it and check out possible side effects prior to using it.

For those not wanting to supplement, natural sources of CLA are:

Kangaroo meat - the highest concentration of CLA of all dietary sources
Grass fed animals, such as cattle, sheep, goats, bison, water buffalo and deer
Dairy from grass fed animals, as above
Eggs

Do you think you will maintain your current levels of exercise, fitness and regimented nutrition plans indefinitely or is there an age at which you think it's time to ease off a bit and take it easy?

At the moment, I plan to maintain them indefinitely. I know it seems very "regimented" to some people but I don't actually find it too hard. Obviously, I have days when I want to just sit and eat crap but they are few and far between and my strong willpower tends to get me through those days. I'd say 95% of the time, I love what I eat and the exercise that I do.

How do you stay motivated?

It's hard sometimes, I won't lie. I have days when all I want to do is glue my arse to the sofa, watch tv and eat junk. However, I have always been a very strong minded, determined person so this definitely works in my favour at times like this.

I think the most important thing is to write down your goals at the start of any weight loss plan, along with the reasons why you want to achieve your goals. Then, devise a plan of how you plan to reach those goals. I find being as specific as possible is important, so rather than saying "I want to lose weight" say "I want to lose 20lb of fat" - then you have something to aim for.

Monitor your progress carefully, by weighing yourself, taking measurements, seeing how you look and feel about yourself and taking pictures. I took pictures at the start of my weight loss journey and am so glad that I did because 6 months later, I get to see this progress:

At the end of the day, I often have to give myself a good kick up the rear and make myself do something. I know that I am not going to achieve what I want by sitting home and putting off going to the gym, nor is giving in when my son's haribo are calling my name over and over.

What are your suggestions for beating PMT cravings/hunger?

In the past, I used to get ravenous when I had PMT. I could pretty much guarantee that the week before my period, I would be wanting to eat anything and everything in sight. Not so good when you are trying to lose weight!

However, I know I keep coming back to this, but since cleaning up my diet, eliminating those yucky processed foods that are packed with sugar and chemicals, my cravings seem to have dispersed. I truly believe that this is because my body is being nourished from what I feed it - a good balance of complex carbs, protein, healthy fats, fruit and lots of veggies.

However, there are still times when my hunger does increase and during those times, I tend to listen to my body and increase my calories a little. If you are restricting, this could mean increasing to maintenance for a week around your period so that you aren't feeling restricted.

If you crave sweet things, try and eat naturally sweet foods, such as fruit (fresh or dried), Nakd/Trek bars, apple spread with natural nut butter, sugar free jelly (if you consume artificial sweeteners), Greek yoghurt with berries or a small amount of good quality, high % dark chocolate.

Apart from losing weight, have you noticed any other benefits from eating clean?

Oh, I definitely have! Not only has it sped up my weight loss (I only restricted calories by 250 a day but lost 1-2lbs a week), but I feel so much better!

I feel more energised, my skin looks better, my hair is shiny and healthy looking, my eyes sparkle, my nails are stronger and I rarely suffer any bloating. Last time I lost a lot of weight, I looked pretty ill. My face was gaunt, my skin was pale and I had dark circles under my eyes. I have been complimented so many times lately about how healthy I look and one person told me I was glowing with good health.

What is HIIT?

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It is similar to doing regular interval training in that you work at differing intensity intervals throughout your workout. The big difference is that with HIIT, excluding warm up and cool down, it doesn't last any longer than 20 minutes. Whilst this doesn't seem like a long time, if you are doing it correctly, you wouldn't physically manage any longer than 20 minutes.

The point of HIIT is to work in an anerobic state for a long cumulative time. Anaerobic means "without oxygen" and is when the body exercises at such a rate, that the blood stream cannot supply oxygen to the muscles fast enough. This is why the intense intervals tend to be kept relatively short.

When doing HIIT, it's a good idea to choose an activity that uses your larger muscle groups, such as sprinting or cycling on a stationery bike.

So how do you do HIIT?

First of all, choose your activity. From experience, I find sprinting to be the best, either on the flat or sprinting uphill and walking back down for recovery. I do not recommend doing HIIT on the treadmill as I don't think you could get to the speed you need and be able to change over to a slower speed without the danger of injuring yourself.

Start with a brisk warm up of 3-5 minutes. Then all you do is alternate higher intervals with recovery periods. So, if you are doing it running outdoors, sprint for 15-30 seconds, then recover with a jog for 30-90 seconds. Repeat this for up to 20 minutes in total and finish off with a steady 3-5 minute cooldown.

HIIT should not be done every day as it is a lot more taxing on the body that regular, steady state cardio. Aim for 2-3 HIIT sessions per week on non-consecutive days and expect to ache like a MOFO the next day!

How do I know if I am working hard enough?

Trust me, you will know! The aim is to give 100% effort on those sprint intervals. Imagine a scale of 1 to 10. The aim is to get to 10 on that high intense interval. For a beginner who has not exercised for 10 years and spends most nights sitting indoors, that might well be a brisk walk. For someone more advanced, that might be sprinting as fast and as hard up a hill. As long as you are giving 100%, it doesn't matter how fit you are.

Why does most of your exercise revolve around weight training?

Not only can weight training potentially increase your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), it also gives a lot of other health benefits:

Strong muscles, tendons and ligaments reduce the risk of injury. They can withstand a lot more stress and the improved flexibility that comes from strength training can reduce the risk of "pulled" muscles. Weight training also reduces the risk of osteoporosis.

Sarcopenia, or age related muscle loss happens when we reach around the age of 30. Apparently, the body loses some 3-5% of muscle tissue per decade which doesn't sound like much but as you get to an old age, it can mean even day to day chores become difficult.

Weight lifting is also proven to have a positive effect on insulin resistance, resting metabolism, blood pressure and body fat, all of which can cause problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.

The main reason I recommend weight lifting to those in calorie deficit is to preserve muscle mass. Calorie restriction depletes muscle mass - this is unavoidable. However, by training with weights, you preserve that muscle mass, which keeps your metabolism ticking over.

Muscle tissue requires calories to stay alive, whereas fat doesn't. Therefore, it makes sense that when calories are restricted too low, the body will look at what it can shift first so that fat can be stored for the famine ahead. As muscle requires calories, this is often the first thing to be burned away, meaning your metabolism will slow as a result and your body will therefore require less calories just to exist. This is how people exist on 1000 calorie diets but never seem to lose weight.

Maintaining and even building muscle tissue can increase BMR by up to 15% meaning you get to eat more calories without the risk of gaining weight. If you continue to eat at maintenance level, lift heavy and eat clean, you can expect to lose fat without very much effort at all, though it will be a slow process.

So, even with the above reasons, the one that is most important to the majority of females is that muscle looks better than fat. It is possible for a thin person to be flabby, just as it is possible for a larger person to appear more "toned".

When women speak of wanting to be "toned", the look they are after is sexy, shapely muscles with low enough body fat for the shape of those muscles to show.

But I don't want to bulk up, won't lifting weights make me bigger?

No. It absolutely will not. Fear of the bulk is what puts off so many females and it really is an unfounded myth. Sadly, even to this day, so many "personal trainers" tell women they need to lift light weights for a lot of reps for toning. The annoying thing is that you cannot "tone" a muscle - a muscle either grows or it doesn't. Muscles are in a continuous state of tone - this means a partial contraction of the muscle, which helps to maintain posture.

To build large amounts of muscle, one would need to eat a surplus of calories (above maintenance level), eat a very strict diet and train intensely. For women to build large amounts of muscle and look bulky, we would also need a huge supply of steroids as we do not posess the required testosterone like men do.

If you are in calorie deficit then there is no way you are going to be building any amount of muscle. As I already stated, muscles generally require a surplus of calories as muscle tissue cannot grow out of nothing. The only exception to this would be beginners who have not trained with weights before. Even when restricting calories, it is possible for a total beginner to make some small gains. However, these will be small and not of any huge significance.

If you are lifting weights in addition to trying to lose fat, then you may notice a temporary gain in size on some parts of the body, such as the legs. This will be down to an increase in glycogen stores and water in the muscles. It should clear after a few weeks but you do need to persevere as the fat on the lower half is often the last place for fat to go in females.

If, after about 6 weeks you are not getting smaller or are even getting bigger, it indicates something is off in your diet. This is why a food diary/online tracker is a good idea, so that you can look back and try to pinpoint where you are going wrong.

Have you found that strength over CV training gives you a better rate of fat loss and general toning?

Absolutely! A good example would be when I lost weight about 4 years ago. I did it by following a calorie restricted diet, but ate whatever I wanted as long as it fit my calories. My exercise of choice was running. Yes, I got slim but I was still flabby! The dreaded skinny fat body. I am now about a stone heavier than I was back then but I can still fit into clothes that I wore back then and even some that were too small for me back then.

Would it be possible to have a look at your routines? (I know it's cheating but I'm going around in circles trying to understand half the things the websites say nevermind what exercise would go best where and when)

My training routine is always posted on the right hand side of my blog. Whenever I update my routine, I update it so it is always there for everyone to see.

How do you feel about becoming an internet celebrity and health guru and all round nice gal!

Haha, I dunno about being an internet celebrity or health guru but I've always liked to think of myself as a nice gal. I've always been interested in fitness and qualified as a fitness instructor back in 1998. I also research a lot about exercise and nutrition so I like to think I know a little of what I talk about.

I do love that my blog is taking off and that there are lots of regular readers and I am super happy that people are finding it inspiring and motivating. The problem is, when you put yourself out there, you also get the negative stuff along with it. I've experienced bitchiness, snide comments and downright rude comments left on my blog page but I try and let them go over my head and ignore them. I won't lie, it is hard at times and there have been a few occasions where I have been quite upset about comments that have been made to me. However, I like to think that it says a lot more about the people leaving such comments than it dos about me.

I won't let those comments put me off doing what I do, if anything, they make me even more determined. People find it a motivational read and they are the people that are important!

Tell us about yourself and your everyday life

I'm 31 years old, an Aries and a typical fire sign. I am determined, ambitious and strong willed and speak my mind though it can often come across as being blunt. However, those that know me well know that I would never intentionally be rude or upset anyone. I live with my husband of 6 years, my son who is 12 and my cat.

I work part time as a medical secretary for a GP. I enjoy my job as no 2 days are the same but I do find it hard when patients I have become fond of fall ill and pass away.

I love love love Peter Doherty and have been to see him numerous times. I'm off to see him again in September with my friend Lisa, who comes to every gig with me. My favourite bands are Babyshambles, No Doubt & Madness and I live in hope of the day No Doubt announce a UK tour!

I don't watch a great deal of TV but when I do, I enjoy Everybody Loves Raymond, Sex & the City re-runs, Shameless and trashy shows like America's Next Top Model & Strictly Come Dancing. My favourite films are Tombstone, Memento, Snatch, Shaun of the Dead and Green Street.

I love most sports but don't partake in any. My favourite sports to watch are football and darts. I'm a huge Chelsea FC fan and try to get to at least one game per season, which can be tricky living all the way up in the West Midlands. I also watch the darts when I get chance though I always follow the world championships at Christmas - the start of the darts is the start of the Christmas period for me.

I love to read, especially trashy novels by Jilly Cooper & Jackie Collins. I also enjoy Stephen King & Dean Koontz. I read a lot of nutrition and fitness books as I love to learn new things though there aren't many decent fitness magazines out there for us girlies. I subscribe to Men's Fitness but I've not been very impressed with it lately, it seems very repetitive and there doesn't seem to be anything of substance anymore.

I follow a more spiritual path and class myself as pagan. I don't practice anything as indepthly as I used to but still dabble with my tarot cards (I only read for myself), use herbs and am partial to the odd bit of energy manipulation when the need arises.

And that is me.

If there is a question you would like answered that has not already been covered here, please email me at justagirl1978@gmail.com and I will add it to this post and answer it.

Finally, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who reads my blog on a regular basis. I couldn't do this without all of your support and it's nice to know I'm not talking to myself, so keep leaving me your comments.