Blog

What diet is the best to follow for weight loss?

12/1/2024

Any of the above specific to the individual client.

Why?

In 2013 a study was published that called for an end of the pursuit of the ideal diet for weight loss and disease prevention.

The author notes that numerous high quality studies comparing the different macronutrient make up of many diets I.e. (low carb, low fat, Mediterranean) have demonstrated differences in weight loss and metabolic risk factors that are small and inconsistent.

The only consistent finding among all the trials is that adherence - the degree to which the participants continued in the program or met program goals for diet and exercise - was most strongly associated with weight loss and improvements in diet related outcomes.

🛑 searching and arguing over the best diet for weight loss. There isn’t one.

There’s no single, absolutely, positively, without a doubt best diet for every person to follow for weight loss.

To suggest that because a diet worked for you, at one point in your life, under a specific set of circumstances, and now everyone should follow the same diet is just ridiculous.

You are amazingly adaptable to a host of different nutrition conditions.

Find a method that you can enjoy.

Try to endure short periods of strict and leaner approaches mixed with maintenance periods and you’ll get amazing results for weight loss if that’s your goal.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 personal training via my Truecoach online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4-5 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

You are the Architect of your own fitness experience.

11/24/2024

One of the most powerful realisations that you can make is that you are the architect of your own dietary and training experience.

There is no excuse for eating and training in a fashion that makes you dread each meal or workout.

Those times are long gone.

There’s no need for restrictive food principles or endless boring workouts.

We know from research that many dietary methods work.

There is NO SUPERIOR diet for weight loss or health.

There’s NO BEST form of exercise for health or weight loss.

You get to chose. That should be empowering.

I never train or eat in a way that I don’t enjoy.

Adherence is the number one factor for dieting and exercise.

Why are you sticking with methods that you do not enjoy?

Design a plan that you like. That makes you want to exercise for the sheer joy of it. That makes you look forward to each meal.

When you realise this, you’ll be less stressed, more motivated, more likely to get results and less likely to follow fads and fear mongering influencers.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 personal training via my Truecoach online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4-5 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

Use the 8-12-8 Method to progress your weights every week at the gym.

11/21/2024

Are you struggling to progress your weights at the gym?

Unsure of what weight to lift?

Here’s a simple method to ensure you get stronger every week and stay motivated with your training.

It’s called the 8-12-8 method.

1️⃣ Start with a weight that challenges you for 3 sets of 8 repetitions.

2️⃣ Stick with that weight until you can do 3 sets of 12 repetitions.

3️⃣ Then increase the weight so that it’s heavy enough to only do 3 sets of 8 reps again.

Repeat the process.

This method will give you direction and focus at the gym and you’ll stay motivated because you’ll see progress every workout.

It also ensures that you apply one of the overarching rules of training: Progressive Overload.

Progressive overload is when you gradually increase the weight, frequency, or number of repetitions in your strength training routine.

This challenges your body and allows your musculoskeletal system to get stronger.

Give it a go.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 personal training via my Truecoach online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4-5 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

What would fitness and nutrition look like if it was easy?

11/17/2024

"Sustained change happens when we make it easier to do what’s right and harder to do what’s wrong."

Katy Milkman, How to Change

- If you're trying to eat healthier, why are you making it so difficult by having tempting foods in the house and the office?

- If you're trying to exercise more, why are you trying to do workouts that leave you so sore you can't move for three days?

- If you're trying to live a healthier lifestyle, why are you trying to give up everything you enjoy and do things you hate?

The key to getting fit, losing weight or living a healthier lifestyle is to ask yourself:

"What would this look like if it was easy?"

- Would walking be easy?

- Would eating one extra piece of fruit or veg per day be easier?

- Would a thirty-minute workout suffice when I don't have time for an hour?

Reduce the temptations, increase the things you enjoy and make it easy.

No one wins bonus points for dieting the hardest.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 personal training via my Truecoach online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4-5 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

Non-Scale Measures Of Progress

6/27/2024

Non-Weight Measures of Progress.

These are some valid and more importantly, healthy methods of monitoring your fat loss and/or health goals in 2024.

I wanted to point these out because many of you will get fixated on the scale weight and won’t even realise that many of your health markers are improving, despite changes on the scale.

Weekly average weight - Take your weight more than once a week.

Maybe 2 - 3 times, and average out the number. That is your weekly check-in.

Clothes fit - Have you started training whilst trying to lose fat?

If so, alongside your scale weight, you should use another marker of improved body composition which is how your clothes fit.

Body Fat % - This is the best for a fat loss goal, but obviously not everyone has access to a device that can capture it. If you do (e.g. a DEXA), track this throughout your fat loss program.

Consistency - If you adopt the right weight loss goal, consistency will be the most important factor for achieving results.

Keeping tabs on your adherence and compliance will provide feelings of accomplishment to power you forward.

Joint Pain - Joint pain whilst exercising, running and walking is a common side effect of carrying unhealthy excess weight.

Successful fat loss can help to relieve some of this pain.

.......

What about Health?

Energy levels - One of the first things you’ll notice when you start to improve the quality of your diet is increased energy levels, in the morning and throughout the day.

Mood - This is an aspect of health that is not usually talked about in nutrition conversations.

But the gut-brain axis has promising research proving the role it plays in well-being alongside a range of other nutritional factors that affect your cognitive state.

Dietary Quality - Have you increased fruit and veg intake?

That’s a win in my book, so it should be in yours too!

This and other aspects of the diet that you have improved should be an accomplishment.

Health - These are measures for you and your health professional to discuss, but should be a focus if they are at sub-optimal or high-risk conditions.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 weight loss coaching via my TRUECOACH online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

What The Heck Is Energy Balance

6/20/2024

Here are some things you should know about energy balance

1️⃣ It’s Simply Physics

To understand this better, let’s take it back to the first law of thermodynamics.

This states that “energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed from one to another”

2️⃣ Not Food Dependant

In today’s society, marketing campaigns, clickbait articles and more will write about certain foods, food groups and nutrients being the independent cause of overweight and obesity.

However, any theory that overlooks the role of energy balance, is simply not abiding by scientific principles.

It’s pseudoscientific.

3️⃣ Calories - What are they?

A calorie is defined as the amount of energy required to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.

A calorie is simply a unit of energy!

4️⃣ Calories come from macros

To understand how our body utilises Calories, consider your favorite food.

One of mine is sourdough bread with olive oil. Hmmm.

The bread is rich in carbs and the oil, rich in fat.

If we have been active and require energy, each gram of carbs in the bread will be oxidized (burned) in the body to produce 4 Calories worth of energy.

Each gram of fat will be burned to produce 9 calories of energy.

Every day this week I’ll answer some fundamental questions about calories, weight loss and diets so you can understand this stuff to make sense of all the confusion around dieting and weight loss.

I hope this helps.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 weight loss coaching via my TRUECOACH online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

Use The Seinfeld Technique To Build Healthy Eating And Exercise Habits

6/13/2024

The Seinfeld Technique is a simple but powerful method for building a streak of habits.

It's named after the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who reportedly used this technique to improve his comedic skills.

Here's how it works:

1. Choose a habit:

Start by selecting a habit you want to establish. It could be anything from exercising daily to writing a certain number of words for your book.

2. Get a calendar:

Get a large wall calendar that shows the entire month.

3. Mark your progress:

Each day you successfully complete the habit, mark that day on the calendar with a big X.

4. Don't break the chain:

As you continue to do the habit each day, you'll start to see a chain of X's forming on the calendar.

The goal is to not break the chain. Keep going, day after day, to maintain the streak.

The idea behind the Seinfeld Technique is that as the chain grows longer, you become more motivated to keep it going.

The visual representation of your progress can be incredibly motivating.

Plus, it helps you stay accountable to yourself.

So, if you're looking to build a streak of habits, give the Seinfeld Technique a try.

It's a simple but effective way to stay consistent and make progress toward your goals.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 weight loss coaching via my TRUECOACH online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

What's More Important For Weight Loss - Diet Quality Or Quantity?

6/6/2024

What's more important for weight loss? Diet quality or quantity?

This is a huge question that cannot be answered from all angle in one post but here are some points that will make you think.

- Energy balance is key for weight loss regardless of the make up of your diet or the health and quality of your diet.

But.

- Eating the best quality of food you can afford enables you to enjoy the sense of wellbeing that comes with good health.

- Good nutrition is vital if you want your body to be healthy, well maintained and have the best chance of fighting lifestyle diseases.

- The quality of the food you eat can fundamentally change how your body works.

- The raw materials of digested food can be incorporated into your body structures, cells, tissues and organs.

- High quality food is required in large amounts to support many of your body's vital functions.

So the question is not just if you want weight loss but if you want good health, energy and vitality with it.

You could lose weight on 1500 calories of Twinkies or 1500 calories of protein and vegetables.

The truth lies somewhat in between as always.

I'd prefer my weight loss clients to have a balance of both, good quality but also the correct quantity.

How you map that out is up to you.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 weight loss coaching via my TRUECOACH online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

How Many Calories Should I Eat To Lose Weight?

6/1/2024

How many calories should I eat to start losing weight?

This is a very common question I get asked.

I could give you the typical PT answer of, it depends on your size, starting point, training schedule, hormone status, blah, blah, blah.

But instead, I am going to give you a simple formula to work out a rough starting point so you can get the ball moving.

By November this year I will be a fully Qualified Mac Nutrition Nutritionist. I am 2/3 of the way through the course and one of the main concepts we covered was energy balance and how to coach people to lose weight.

Below is a simple formula we discussed to work out your first calorie starting point. It's not perfect but nothing is when it comes to weight loss.

There are two main steps to this formula.

Step 1 - Estimate your total daily energy needs to maintain your current weight.
Step 2 - Calculate your calorie deficit to start losing weight.

Step One - Calculate your total daily energy needs to maintain your current weight.

We do this by:

Estimating your basal metabolic rate (BMR).
Multiplying this BMR by a physical activity factor.

Here we go:

1. Estimate your current BMR by multiplying your current body weight by 22 if you're female or 24 if you're male.

Example:

Female: 80kg x 22 = 1760 Cals BMR.
Male: 100kg x 24 = 2400 Cals BMR.

2. Then you would multiply your BMR by a physical activity factor.

A physical activity factor or PAL reflects varying levels of activity throughout a one-week period.

There are varying standards for this as you can see below:

TDEE = 1.2 × BMR if you have a sedentary lifestyle (little to no exercise and work a desk job)
TDEE = 1.375 × BMR if you have a lightly active lifestyle (light exercise 1-3 days per week)
TDEE = 1.55 × BMR if you have a moderately active lifestyle (moderate exercise 3-5 days per week)
TDEE = 1.725 × BMR if you have a very active lifestyle (heavy exercise 6-7 days per week)
TDEE = 1.9 × BMR if you have an extremely active lifestyle (strenuous training 2 times a day)

I tend to go with 1.2 for most of my clients as I prefer to underestimate energy expenditure initially.

Most people overestimate the energy they burn during a typical week and end up not being in a calorie deficit and therefore don't lose any weight.

For our examples above we would have:

1760 x 1.2 = 2112 cals to keep our female client at her current weight of 80kg
2400 x 1.2 = 2880 cals to keep our male client at his current weight of 100kg.

3. Now you need to estimate your calorie deficit to start losing weight.

I like to start with roughly 20%, 30%, or 40% deficit for clients.

It depends how moderate or aggressive they want to go. I would start with 20%.

So in our examples from above it would be the following if you did a 20% calorie deficit.

Female client
20% of 2112 Calories = 422 Cals.
2112 - 422 = 1690 Cals per day to start her weight loss journey.
I like ranges so I would go 1600-1800 as people become neurotic with exact numbers.

Male client
20% of 2880 Calories = 576 Cals
2880 - 576 = 2304 Cals per day to start his weight loss journey.
I like ranges so I would go with 2300-2500 as people become neurotic with exact numbers.

You can work out the 30% or 40% using the same calculations above.

Some coaching tips.

Do not try to cut out your favourite foods, try to incorporate them into your plan.

It doesn't matter what you eat as long as you are in a deficit, but obviously we want to eat as healthy as we can to get vitamins and minerals etc.

Do not try to white knuckle it, it never lasts.

Humans are wired to seek pleasure and do not do things for long if they don't like them. People miss this point all the time.

They give up everything instead of working some of their favourite foods into their plans.

Next, track your weight daily or at least (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,) after you wake up and after you go to the toilet.

Track the trends and ignore the daily fluctuations.

This is just a starting guide.

Any questions?

I'd love to hear how you go. Later in the week I'll send some practical tips to put this into action.

Hope it helps.

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 weight loss coaching via my TRUECOACH online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here:

9 Ways To Make Health And Fitness Easier

5/30/2024

How can that person run a business, manage a team, look after 2 kids, and still be in shape?

You might think that fit, healthy, busy people have an infinite supply of willpower
to be able to stay in shape.

That's often not the case.

People who get in shape make their goals easier by skillfully designing their environment to work with them so they don't have to tax their willpower all day.

- They make whole foods more visible.

- They make it more difficult to get treats by not having them around or keeping them out of sight.

- They plan their workouts for the week and have alternatives (If-then plans) if the proverbial "you know what" hits the fan.

- They order meals ahead of time for tricky situations where they might grab a 1000-calorie lunch after 5 hours of back-to-back meetings.

They use 'skill power' not 'willpower'.

Save the image above and try some of those principles.

You'll be glad to know that you don't need to have superhuman levels of discipline and willpower to get fit and stay fit.

What tricks have you used to make fitness easier for you?

Here Are Four Ways I Can Help You Get Fit And Lose Weight And Actually Keep it Off.

1. Here is my youtube channel which has over 100 videos including 55 workouts and other educational videos.

2. I now offer ONLINE 1-1 Personal Coaching.

Train with me from anywhere in the world at any time. I now offer fully bespoke 1-1 weight loss coaching via my TRUECOACH online platform.

Check it out here

3. Check out my small group coaching sessions (max 4 people)

Small Group Coaching.

4. 1-1 Personal Training at my Studio in North Sydney.

My top level service. In-depth personalised training programs, nutrition coaching and weekly sessions at my boutique studio in North Sydney.

Check out my Personal Training Options here: