lose muscle mass we actually require less calories to do our everyday tasks. Long-term this means we can potentially be consuming the same number of calories at the age of 20 as at the age of 50 but when we are 50 these calories are not burnt off and we are more prone to laying down body fat. This puts our health at risk and we become frustrated with our shape and fitness.
2. HORMONES
As women start to approach the menopause we enter a stage known as peri menopause – at this time there is a change in our hormones, which may actually encourage our bodies to lay down more body fat.
3. STRESS
Yes, stress does make us fat! When we are experiencing long periods of chronic stress such as overwork, or emotional stresses such as a loss of a partner or moving home, there is a change in our metabolism that encourages increased secretion of the hormone cortisol. If this is left unchecked for long periods of time it encourages body fat to be laid down around our midriffs. Research has shown that storing body fat here actually puts us at a greater risk of heart disease.
Whilst this all may seem a little depressing, the best possible course of action you can take is also the most accessible and cheapest – get active! Taking structured exercise sessions and accumulating physical activity during the day has both a positive and immediate impact on your health and ability to control your weight. See Step Four for more about this.
WHY DO SOME PEOPLE LOSE BODY FAT FASTER THAN OTHERS?
Not everyone will lose weight and body fat at the same rate. We are all different, and there are several factors that can affect our rate of weight and body fat loss.
These include:
1 Your existing metabolic rate
2 Your dieting history
3 Your exercise history
4 Your existing eating patterns
5 Your existing activity patterns
1. YOUR EXISTING METABOLIC RATE
As we have just discussed, our muscle mass starts to decrease as we get older and our metabolic rate tends to slow down, which means we burn fewer calories. Imagine you are 20 years old and you are sitting in a chair, and now imagine you are 50 years old sitting in a chair. Even though you are doing exactly the same everyday activity, if you have not kept up your muscle mass between the ages of 20 and 50 you will be burning less calories sitting still at the age of 50 than sitting still at the age of 20!
Action: Invest in physical activity now! Step Four of the Body Blitz Plan will help you boost your metabolic rate through structured exercise sessions.
2. YOUR DIETING HISTORY
If you are a seasoned dieter and you religiously try every diet on the market and have experienced weight gain/weight loss again and again – long-term it will be harder to lose weight effectively. You may already have experienced this. For example, every January you may have a favourite diet that gives you great results – well, it did the first couple of times you did it and now you are experiencing frustration as the scales are not giving you the results you want. This is because as the body is continually put through phases of excess and deficit there comes a time when our metabolism may stop working effectively and instead of losing weight we can actually increase the amount of body fat we have.
Action: Stabilize your calorie and fat intake now. Step Five of the Body Blitz Plan will show you how to be consistent with your nutrient intake whilst still continuing to live life to the full.
3. YOUR EXERCISE HISTORY
To lose weight and body fat you need to exercise regularly. If you were active when you were younger you will be at an advantage as muscles have a memory – this means that even if you are not exercising now the muscles will be able to respond more effectively and quickly to exercise once you do start. But even if you were not active when you were younger, it is never too late to start. Becoming active now and staying active will help you realize your fat loss goals as well as have an immediate protective effect on your health.
Action: Start being active today. Step Four of the Body Blitz Plan will show you how to increase your accumulated physical activity levels.
4. YOUR EXISTING EATING PATTERNS
Quite simply, the more erratic our eating patterns the harder it is to lose weight, and the longer you have had erratic eating patterns the more frustration you are likely to experience trying to lose weight. The body actually balances itself out over seven to eight days; however, in those seven to eight days if you have overeaten one day and then starved yourself the next in an attempt to make up for the excesses, the body will rebel and you will not lose weight and body fat.
To lose body fat, and for us to actually see a difference in the shape of our bodies, we need to eat a healthy and balanced diet and be consistent about it.
Action: Apply the starch curfew and cut your intake of fat – and be consistent! Steps One, Three and Five will put you in control of your diet no matter what the situation.
5. YOUR EXISTING ACTIVITY PATTERNS
If you are reading this and thinking, but I already exercise and go to the gym and I am active during my day but still I’m not losing weight, you may be experiencing frustration because:
You do not have enough variety in your exercise programme and your body has become complacent at always doing the same thing.
You are not working hard enough at your daily activity so you are not putting your body under enough physiological strain to increase your fitness.
Action: Complete the activity audit in Step Four and work out your exertion rates. This will give you a better picture of how you can expend your energy effectively.
WHERE DO WE STORE OUR BODY FAT?
Have you ever wondered why some of us seem to store all our body fat on our hips and thighs and some of us tend to have long lean arms and legs but store more of our body fat around our midriffs? This distribution of fat is associated directly to two main hormones in the body. These hormones, lipoprotein lipase LPL and hormone sensitive lipase HSL, directly affect whether we store fat or encourage it to be distributed in the blood and then burnt off. LPL tends to encourage fat storage and HSL tends to encourage fat to be burnt off. The amount of LPL and HSL we have tends to vary between men and women, individuals and areas of the body.
Men tend to have more LPL in the belly and less HSL in the lower hip area. This creates the more pronounced apple shape we see in overweight men, with more body fat distributed around the belly. Women tend to have more LPL in the hips and back of the arms and less HSL in the upper body. This classically creates more of our traditional pear shape. When women lose weight we generally still have more LPL in the hips so still have a pear shape.
So the challenge for us is to try and create more HSL and one of the best ways to do this is with EXERCISE. Weight-bearing aerobic exercise such as brisk walking, jogging and aerobics is the best form of exercise to choose. Swimming, even though it is an aerobic activity, has shown to be less effective
