A common question asked by bootcampers, is how many calories they burn during a typical 45 minute session. There are a number of answers to this. First of all it will vary massively depending on age, sex, weight, effort, and body composition as well as from session to session as the intensity and type of exercise changes. The bootcamps that are out there marketing their ridiculous 800 calorie workouts and similar claims are all just spouting hot air as it is so varied. As a very, very, very (you get the idea!) rough guideline it is likely that you will burn between 300 and 600 calories in a session.

The second and more important issue is that..... IT DOESN"T MATTER!!! Calorie counting does not work, and that is why we don't control or attempt to limit calories when on bootcamp, and even if it did work, a few hundred calories in your day, 3 times a week does not make much difference. It is the calories and fat burnt AFTER the session that is the key to losing weight and improving your body. By taking part in a full body Trilogy Bootcamp workout you make your body work beyond its usual limits and by doing this, you make it adapt and change. During this period of adaptation and repair post bootcamp your metabolism is raised for 24-48 hours, meaning you are burning calories and fat right up until the next session, which is why we get such great results.

Stay Strong

Ben

Timing Your Carbs

Most modern approaches to weight loss involve some reduction or moderation of carbohydrate in the diet, and whilst this is largely correct, we can achieve even more for body composition by timing your carb intake properly.

When eating a low carb diet the body can feel a little low on energy whilst you adjust and you may feel a little drained for your training sessions, so a good time to have a small portion of carbs is about 30-60 minutes pre-training to boost your energy and to enable you to train hard. Good options include fruit and oats as they will not spike your blood sugar too dramatically.

The best window for carb intake is immediately after your training session when your muscles are at their most receptive and the carbs will be used to repair and replenish damaged muscle tissue. During this window or up to an hour, the carbs you consume are much less likely to be stored as fat, and to that end it gives you a little more freedom to have small portions of pasta,rice and bread, which you would normally be avoiding on a low carb diet.

We can also slow down the response to eating carbs by eating them with protein and or fat, therefore reducing the spike in blood sugar and the subsequent fat storage. For instance a slice of toast will spike your blood sugar, whereas a buttered slice will make the spike less dramatic due to the natural fats slowing digestion of the toast.

If you do not have a scheduled training session that day or are going to be having a pasta dinner or similar then you can do a short burst of exercise immediately prior to the meal. For instance you could perform 40 squats, or press ups to prepare your muscles to receive some of the carbs you are about to eat.

Ben

Healthy And Not So Healthy Fats And Oils For Cooking

I was planning to write a blog article today, so when one of my clients asked me last night about using sunflower oil for cooking I thought I would write about that subject. These days there are so many options and so much marketing around the cooking oil industry that it is hard to know what to use and when for healthy living. I suggest going back to basics and using butter and lard for much of your cooking and frying, extra virgin olive oil for salads and drizzling, and coconut oil for baking, frying and general health as well as fat loss.

Here is a brief summary of some common fats and oils:

Organic beef dripping and lard are both largely saturated fats, and are therefore stable when heated to high temperatures, making them suitable for frying in the kitchen. If you get high quality lard from outdoor reared livestock it will also be a good source of vitamin D.

Butter is also high in saturated fat, and is a stable fat to use for cooking, baking and frying, also offering a subtle taste to the food that you are preparing. When the butter is from organic, pasture-fed dairy herds it is rich in the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well catalysts that help the body to absorb the nutrients in the rest of the meal.

Olive oil contains 75% oleic acid, a stable monounsaturated fat, with small amounts of saturated fat as well as Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids. Due to the low saturated fat content it is only suitably for frying at low to moderate temperatures, and is best used cold, drizzled on salads and in dressings and sauces. Extra virgin olive oil is best, is rich in antioxidants and is the safest of all the vegetable oils. Do not over use this oil though as the longer chain fatty acids tend to contribute towards the storage of body. I would not use olive oil on a daily basis.

Coconut oil is one of the finest fats available for human consumption, rich in lauric acid, a powerful antimicrobial agent. It has been used by athletes and bodybuilders for generations, and research has shown that it can increase metabolism and the body’s ability to burn fat. Not all coconut oils and products are equal though, and many are ruined by modern production techniques. I recommend extra virgin coconut oil, and buy mine from www.naturalfoodfinder.co.uk.

Vegetable, sunflower, corn and soy oils are all high in Omega-6. There is extensive research into the negative effects of consumption of excess Omega-6, and to that end these oils are best avoided. They should never be heated up and then consumed, due to being very unstable at high temperatures.

Peanut and sesame oils share a number of characteristics and are both relatively stable when heated so can be used for frying and cooking. They both have high levels of Omega-6 though and to that end should not be used regularly, instead use them for the occasional stir fry as they taste great.

That was a quick summary of some common cooking fats and oils, and if you have any questions or want to know about other fats, just leave a comment or email me.

Reference: Fallon, S (1999) Nourishing Traditions

How to Lose Fat and Influence People

Do you want a flat tummy, less wobbly thighs and a more toned body? If so you are not alone with obesity rates soaring in the UK despite all that modern technology and science can offer.

I do a lot of my training in parks in West London and every time I go out I see the people doing crunches and situps to get a flat tummy, thinking that if they work that area, they will “tone” that area. If it were that simple then we would all have washboard stomachs by doing a few exercises per day. These endless situps will make your abdominal muscles stronger, and give them more endurance, but if you are carrying a spare tyre around your belly then nobody will see the product of your hard work. So how do you shift that weight?

Well it is not going to happen overnight, but what you need to do is start doing a mixture of cardiovascular training and resistance training, combined with a healthy diet (see future posts) and balanced lifestyle (also coming soon). At the heart of your weight loss programme should be resistance training. By this I mean using your body weight, dumbbells, medicine balls, resistance bands and so on in a progressive manner to change the composition of your body. By performing these exercises you can build new muscle, which in turn raises your metabolism and capacity to burn fat as fuel throughout the day, even when you are not training. This is where the women always say....”But I don’t want massive arms like Arnie!!” Well you won’t get massive as you are missing one vital ingredient – Testosterone.

So let’s think about some good exercises that will have the desired effect. What we want to do is whole body or “compound” exercises that use the big muscles of the body like those in our legs. A few perfect examples are the squat, lunge, dead lift and press up. All of these exercises recruit a large number of muscles all over the body to perform them and as a result they will stimulate muscle growth. We will look at exercise form in the future. By performing a circuit of different exercises we can maintain a high intensity and really make the body work hard. If you are not sweating, or are not out of breath then you are not working hard enough and will not shift much weight from those flabby areas – Simples!

I will talk about circuits and routines in future posts, but for now go out and learn to squat and deadlift. Ask your trainer or a friend or just go on youtube. Happy training.......

Ben