Today it’s myth number 5-you can eat as much as you want as long as you exercise.

This one in most certainly false. Your weight is a two sided equation, energy in versus energy out. Even if you are exercising lots, a surplus in energy will always be stored as fat. The only way to maintain a healthy weight is to match what you expend with what you take in. If you need to lose weight than you will have to take in less than you put in! Quite simple really. Yes exercise will help tremendously in increasing the output, so that if you can exercise AND eat well then you will get smaller. But even if you burn 1000 calories a day and eat 1200 calories a day extra then you will get fatter. Many personal trainers in London preach the importance of reducing fat, but this is a generalisation. We NEED good fats (vegetable oils and fish oils)  but it’s the man made and animal fats that are bad for us and will make US fat. It’s just as important to avoid processed carbohydrates and refined sugars. No mater how much exercise you do you still need good varied and natural foods. Have a look at out personal trainer guide to nutrition on the Knowledge page of this site.

Ok, so we all know that Christmas is now just around the corner, and that more than likely we will be going for it in the food and drink stakes. The average calorific horrific intake on Christmas day in Britain is 4000-5000 calories, or two days’ worth, so what we at Diets Don’t Work suggest is hiring on of our mean but supportive and charming personal trainers to pre-empt the onslaught. By embarking on a programme of resistance training and CV we can push your metabolic rate up higher so that you will be burning more calories (and more calories from fat too!) even while you are sitting watching the sound of music. Lean muscle needs more energy to maintain itself whether you are exercising or not and so burns more fuel, stopping you from getting too fat over the festive season. For more on this have a look at the energy systems fact sheet on out “The Knowledge” page on the website. 

Even a little trot out on Christmas morning will help to get you through the trauma of all those Brussels sprouts. So if you need advice or motivation we can help now and in the new decade with a personal trainer in the Maidenhead, Windsor and Bracknell areas. Good luck and be good-you can still have fun too!

GP’s have once again warned to stop prescribing antibiotics to patients who don’t need them, says a report in the Daily Telegraph recently. The practice is not only costly to the NHS, but also dangerous, because the proliferation of  the drugs is allowing an increasing number of bugs such as MRSA to develop resistance to them. The European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control warns that if trends continue, all sorts of routine operations (hip replacements, for instance) will become potentially lethal because there will be no way of treating subsequent infections.

Patients put pressure on GPs to prescribe antibiotics, but do not realise that coughs and colds are usually caused by viruses and so will not respond to antibiotics which only target bacteria.

The best way to deal with these common colds is to stay as healthy as possible thus keeping a strong immune system. Resistance training, cardio vascular work and healthy eating are all areas that our personal trainers encourage clients to do not just in personal training sessions but also on their own as general lifestyle improvement. Being strong and fit can really make a difference. Several of our personal training clients in Windsor and Maidenhead have independently commented that since they started personal training ad got much fitter and healthier they have not had a single cold or flu virus.

A female athlete made her mark and proved that you are never too old for exercise or for a personal trainer for that matter. Ruth Firth, a 100 year old great-grandmother was jubilant after winning gold in the shot putt at the world masters games in Sydney. The fact that she was the only competitor in her category (shot putt, women, aged 100-104) does not diminish her achievement. She trains 5 days a week, bench pressing 80lbs and practicing hammer throws and javelin. She is hoping to defend her title in 4 years’ time.

At Diets Don’t Work personal training many of our clients are over 40, and lots of those are older than that; my personal training client Greta is now in her 60’s, I’m doing a 10k with D who has a personal trainer in Sunninghill (me!) who is in her 50’s, and the star of the show is B in Reading who has just passed 84!

In many ways the older a person gets the results of structured exercise become more more beneficial and visible. For a 25 year old, there can certainly be improvements in cardiovascular fitness and muscle tone, as well as lots of other benefits, but as a client becomes older these fitness and functional benefits have a more profound effect and make a bigger change to everyday life. B, our 84 year old success story, has gone from needing help to get everyday chores done, including trips to the shops, to now having the functional fitness and strength to do all of these things independently, thus making a huge difference to her life. Similarly, Greta in Holyport retains great posture and stamina, so is able to carry on life just as you or I would, while many of her peers who have become unfit and overweight are suffering form a range of debilitating conditions, from osteoporosis to knee problems.

So even of you are getting on a bit, it really is never too late, and in fact it can be a case of later having more marked benefits and easier improvements!

We would like to welcome a new personal trainer to the DDW! team, she is Jody Rodus, and will be our new personal trainer for the Watford, Chorley Wood and Abbots Langley areas. Jody has a passion for sports and fitness and loves taking part, loves coaching and most of all loves seeing others discover the same passion for a fit healthy lifestyle. As an overweight teenager she has first hand experience in weight loss, having struggled with it for many years. Jody then became interested in muscular conditioning before getting into endurance events, she now does half marathons and triathlons.She comes highly qualified, with REPS level 3 (advanced) and gives inspirational fitness solutions that fit into your lifestyle.She specialises in muscle toning, pre and post-natal exercise as well as kettlebell training and boxercise. So if you live in the north west London areas and are looking for some inspiration to get yourself going then call or email us and we can give you the best possible chance of success!

A big good luck to Diets Don’t Work personal trainer Stephen Hitchcock who will be running the 209 Berlin marathon on September the 20th. Although Stephen is a natural runner and also a member of a proper running club a marathon is still a big deal so well done him, and good luck from the team at Diets Don’t Work personal training. He tells us that he has done all the training leading up to the big day, so we are sure that he will be just fine.

If you would like to get some running tips or tone up and lose weight with a fab PT then Stephen is our personal trainer in the Richmond, Twickenham, Kingston and Egham areas of London and Berkshire. Have a look at his profile on our meet the trainers  page.

Low-carb slimming diets may clog arteries and increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, a study suggests. Diets based on eating lots of meat, fish and cheese, while restricting carbohydrates have grown in popularity in recent years. But the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the US found such habits caused artery damage in tests on mice.The researchers and independent experts both agreed a balanced diet was the best option. Low-carb diets have attracted a lot of attention and controversy after a surge in interest in them in the 1990s.

The researchers at the Beth Israel institute, which is part of Harvard Medical School, decided to investigate their impact on the cardiovascular system after hearing of reports of people on the diets suffering heart attacks.They fed the mice three different diets – a standard mouse type, a western diet which was high in fat, and a low-carb, high-protein version, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported.The low-carb diet did not affect cholesterol levels, but there was a significant difference on the impact on atherosclerosis – the build-up of fatty plaque deposits in the arteries that can lead to heart attacks or strokes.After 12 weeks, the mice eating the low-carb diet had gained less weight, but developed 15% more atherosclerosis than those on the standard mice food. For the western diet group there was 9% more atherosclerosis. The team could not be certain why the effect was seen, but thought low-carb diets may affect the way bone marrow cells effectively clean arteries of fatty deposits.

“It appears that a moderate and balanced diet, coupled with regular exercise, is probably best for most people”

Our personal trainer Stephen Hitchcock is a club runner who can take you training on the scenic towpaths of the river Thames in the Richmond, Twickenham, Staines and Kingston areas. Take in the sceninc views and river wildlife while getting fitter and lighter at the same time! If you can only manage a walk/stumble at this point don’t worry, our highly qualified personal trainers in the South West London areas will start you gently and then progress you from there. If you are super quick then Stephen may have to bring his mountain bicycle, us personal trainers have to be careful with our knees, even though we endeavour to be as hands on as possible at Diets Don’t Work. The first step is a free consultation so just give us a call or email us on the contact page email feature.

One of our most successful personal training clients, we will call her DT for anonymity’s sake, has recently slowed in her weight loss. Based in Sunninghill (I am her personal trainer) she has gone from 18 stone plus to just under 12 stone at present, but the law of diminishing returns is beginning to kick in. This law means that the fitter or lighter you get, the smaller those gains become, the harder they are to get and the slower they will come. Thus  a 20 stone lady with some safe exercise and sensible eating will find it relatively easy to lose  a kilogramme a week (the upper safe limit) and be consistently lighter from one week to the next. Similarly, her fitness gains will be marked and relatively quick. On the other hand, a high level athlete, like me (ha ha) will find it REALLY hard to go from 14 stone to 13 stone 10 pounds, as there is really not much fat to lose at this point. Also, fitness gains are now measured in seconds as opposed to minutes. Taken to it’s extreme this law of diminishing returns becomes more harsh, so for an Olympic 100m runner he will work for 4 years to get a gain of 1/10th of a second, if that.

The key here for weight loss is to be consistent in creating an energy deficit over the course of each week, while ensuring adequate and appropriate nutrition for exercise. Even under these circumstances the weight may stagnate for a few weeks, but the key is to be consistent and patient, while eating healthy food in small quantities reasonably often.

But why won’t the weight come off every week even if you are being good? There are many possibilities. Firstly, be sure to weigh under consistent timings and conditions. Did you weigh last week on your friend’s scales? Had you been out for a social meal the night before? If female, are you approaching the monthly cycle? Were the scales on the same surface? Did you weigh at the same time of day? Are you really stressed out this week…..?

All of these and more will have an effect on weight. At Diets Don’t Work our personal trainers have seen weight hold stable stubbornly despite perfect eating, only for it to start coming off after a trip away where eating was less than perfect. The key is to be patient, always weigh under consistent conditions, and remember that size and weight are NOT the same thing. One person may look great and thin at 14 stone with fantastic lean muscle and body shape, while the other looks awful, fat and wobbly at 13.5 stone, through lack of lean muscle tone and a high body fat percentage.

The best measure of all is to take that old pair of jeans that you had for years, and see if they are still getting looser. If so, great, continue! If not think why not, are you exercising well and eating with moderation? If so keep going and sooner or later the weight will come off.

And finally, don’t obsess, life is a) short and b) made for living!!

Parents have been warned not to put ham and other smoked,salted, cured or processed meats into their children’s lunch boxes to help them reduce the risk of cancer. The world cancer research fund said that parents should act now to stop their children developing a taste for processed meat. Eating too much processed meat over a long period of time can raise the risk of bowel cancer, they said. The UK food standard agency said that processed meat was fine for lunchboxes but should not be eaten too often. It is only in recent years that the link between processed meats and bowel cancer in adults has been made, with some estimates suggesting that thousands of cases could be prevented if people limited their intake to 70g a week, the equivalent to 3 rashers of bacon.

If you have read any of our blogs on nutrition, then you would know the personal trainer approach here at Diets Don’t Work; the less processed anything is the better it will be for us, whether meat, wheat, sugars of fat. If something is in it’s natural state then go for it, if it has been touched by the hand of man then proceed with caution and moderate.

For more information have a look at the nutrition fact sheet on our the knowledge  page, stay fit, eat well, you will live to a ripe old age!