Fitness Tips – What’s Your Body Telling a Personal Trainer

They say a picture says a thousand words, to a trainer, your body says a thousand words.  This article isn’t based on science, its based upon the observation of me, other trainers, and thousands of clients that we’ve trained over the years.   How your body stores weight and where, gives me a good idea of whats wrong in your diet.  How you stand and hold your body is another concern which I spoke about in a previous article.

I Can’t Get Rid of These Hips (and Thighs)

One if the biggest complaints by clients and gym goers is their hips!  This is especially true for women.  Two major factors play into storing weight on the hips.

1. Their fat intake is too high. If a woman approaches me with this complaint, I will immediately ask her about her diet.  While she gives me input, I zone in on the fat intake and calculate it in my head as she tells me her daily foods.  In most cases the calories may not be high but the fat intake will be through the roof!   I will then recommend decreasing her fat intake to somewhere between 35 – 40 grams a day depending upon her current size.
2. Hormones – If you are eating hormones (in your meats, dairy and other sources) then it will build up in your cells and create hormone imbalances.   If you aren’t getting it from your food intake, but you still have this issue, you could have your own internal hormone issues.  One being a possible thyroid problem.   The other issue main is menopause.   If you can’t get a hormone test to correct this through you doctor, I would still zone in on cutting down fats, changing all hormone based dairy and meats to organic and doing some detoxes and cleanses along the way to flush the storage of excess hormones in the system.

My Stomach is Out of Control and I can’t Seem to Get it to go Down

Buddha belly syndrome is a horrible (fake) disease that more and more people are getting.   This is directly related to CARBS.   If I know they are struggling with this I ask 3 main questions.

• Do you know how many carbs you are eating?  They usually say no so I have them tell me their usual food intake and I calculate it in my head as they talk.   I will sometimes also write it down so they can see the number add up.
• When Are You Eating?   That old myth about not eating after 6, well it wasn’t all wrong.    Eating too close to bed time shuts of a fat burning hormone known as leptin.   Leptin keeps you thin, healthy and lean.  Cutting carbs 3 hours before bed keeps your leptin flowing so you can burn and not store fat as you sleep.
• Are You Lifting Weights?  Seems random, but if you want to lose belly fat, lifting weights helps you lose faster!   The extra sugars and carbs you eat either go to your storage (fat cells) or in your liver.   When your liver is full it tells the body to store it (and increase your fat cells).  Lifting weights allows you to use the carbs and sugars FAST.   It takes them directly from your blood stream and pushes them into your muscles to be used as fuel.   Regular weight training keeps your blood sugar low and your fat storage under control

• Do You Have a High Stress Job?   Stress increases a hormone known as cortisol.  Cortisol increases belly fat.   How do you control this belly fat producing hormone?  Easy, Sleep and minerals.  The top minerals we outlined in a previous article, “3 Most Important Minerals for Belly Fat Loss.”

I need to Lose Weight ALL Over my Body

Storing weight equally all over the body generally just means the your calorie intake is way too high based on how much the body is burning.   Reducing calorie intake and increasing exercise is a great fix for this.   These fitness tips, again aren’t based on science but they are based on experience.   If you are struggling to lose in all the right places then try these and let me know how you do.   Keep in mind that you need to give your body at least 3 weeks to notice that you’ve changed something.  Also, don’t rely on the scale, use a measuring tape to track your results. Document what you eat and how you feel.  In a previous fitness tip we discussed which app is the best for tracking foods.  Take a look at it and download it!  You can also add me “Fittipdaily” to follow along in all the fun!   Keep Burning, Adria