Body Fat! | MWellness Training | Ibiza Blog

    The first thing I ask our new clients when they enter the gym is “what
    is your goal?” Most will say they just want to lose their belly and ask
    me for abdominal exercises. Let’s get this right straight away, if
    you’re carrying extra weight around the mid section no matter how many
    sit-ups you do you WILL NOT lose that belly.
    Abdominals come by hard work outside the gym, IN THE KITCHEN.

    By concentrating more on nutrition than crunches you will start to see
    results. The reason we get fat on the midsection is due to the amount of
    food sources we convert into fat in times of famine but the thing is, we
    are very far away from famine and have very, very easy access to foods
    these days. Putting it in the most simple way, without being too
    scientific…

    When we eat carbohydrate foods such as a potato (for example) we use the
    sugars from the potato to give our body energy (carbohydrates). Our brain,
    eyes, cells etc use this sugar or’glucose’ to survive. This glucose raises
    our blood sugar levels (that energy you get after you eat something sweet
    for example) and also the blood helps to pump the glucose (and other
    nutrients) around the bodily system sending it to the right places.
    Glucose, after a short time becomes toxic and needs to be taken out of the
    blood before it cause more harm than good.

    Our Pancreas (small organ by the liver) releases insulin, a hormone that
    pulls the sugar from our blood and sends it to the liver to be processed.
    Now, the Liver can take this sugar and convert it to another type of
    stored sugar/energy called glycogen and it places this in the muscles and
    in the liver in small doses, BUT if the liver is already full from the
    chocolate crossiant and sugary milky coffee you had for breakfast it’s
    ‘storage space’ is now full and the liver will store this as fat and it
    will store it in your midsection (to protect vital organs)!

    So, what do we do to stop this?

    Choose you carbs and food timings carefully! I always suggest eating
    carbs/ fruit before and after your workout only. This will give your body
    some energy before you train and then replace it after stocking up those
    depleted glycogen stores but for the rest of the day stick to fibrous
    vegetables such as broccoli and asparagus.
    Things like grains, pastas, potatoes and sugars should be avoided unless
    you’re training for a competition or sport, again, carb timings are vital.

    Secondly, train to burn fat with the right exercise. Lift
    HEAVY weights (including women, I will write another
    article on this) to increase muscle mass and help burn more calories.
    Sprint to attack the stored fat and use this for energy rather than
    running on the treadmill for 40-60mins at a time burning precious muscle
    mass. Look at the difference between a sprinter and a long distance
    runner. Who would you rather look like? When running for long periods of
    time (45 mins to 1 hour) you put the body under too much stress, which
    releases a hormone called Cortisol which will store fat! The same happens
    when lifting weights for long periods of time in the gym.

    Thirdly stop doing loads of crunches, if you carrying a six pack of flab
    over those abs all your going to do it make them stronger and build them
    up then push the fat on your belly out further, not a good look!

    And the fourth and final thing is STICK TO YOUR PLAN.
    Many of us give up after a month without seeing results but forget you
    have spent the past six months putting yourself in that position!
    Time, hard work and dedication is what it takes!

    Brian Talbot
    Brian Talbot Training @ M Wellness Ibiza.