As a certified weight management specialist and weight loss personal trainer in Singapore for over 20 years, I know a thing or two about losing weight, more specifically losing fat weight.
In this article, we will share with you some of the strategies we use in our weight loss personal training programmes in Singapore.
Trying to lose weight by simply exercising longer and more frequently, while keeping to a very low calorie diet seems to be the order of the day. It's a no brainer right?
However, such methods do not work for most corporate executives because of their long working hours and bad eating habits.
By advising people to 'exercise more' and 'eat less' is therefore erroneous as such oversimplified model is not sustainable because most foods we encounter are often chalk full of calories and one will always have difficulties finding time to exercise. It's a real world issue many of you have to content with.
If it's possible to be able to lose weight by exercising less (time-wise) and eating more, wouldn't it be an ideal situation? Can meh? You asked. It certainly can be done. My team of personal fitness trainers in Singapore have been helping our clients achieve using our scientific approach explained below.
Am sure you have encountered someone who exercises very little (maybe none) and yet can afford to eat, what seems like a large meal to you, but still able to maintain a lean physique and you wondered what's the secret.
Genes, you proclaimed. You might be right (see bottom of article), some people are blessed with metabolic rate akin to the engine of a Ferrari that never seem to put weight, while your engine seems closer to that of Nissan Qashqai.
So is there a hope for a normal person like you and me to lose weight and keep it off? Can we clone the genes and install in our bodies? Well maybe you can't clone or change the gene your parents have given you but certainly you can try to modify the way you use it.
The answer comes in 3 major pathways (Total Metabolism):
1. Boost your metabolic rate.
The most powerful method yet is this: to boost your very own resting metabolic rate (RMR). This part alone accounts for 70% of your success rate on weight management. It is the least understood by most other weight management experts. When people say they have slow metabolism, it actually means they have low RMR (also referred as BMR with little difference in definition).
Basically, RMR is the number of calories the body needs to maintain body functions while at rest. As an analogy, it's like you want to swap your Nissan car engine with a Ferrari one, which has greater capacity and consumes more fuel. With a greater metabolic rate, you can eat more without worrying about putting on weight. And if you eat the same amount as before, you'll lose weight. Use this Calculator to find out your RMR/BMR.
2. Do tough exercises to accelerate output.
Using car analogy again, it means engaging in high speed races or driving up hills. These activities burns significantly more fuel per min than cruising on a highway. Not only that, you will notice the car stays warm even after the engine is cut off. In human context, it means doing high intensity exercises or vigorous activities that burn more calories, which will result in further increased in metabolic rate after the exercise is stopped. Which also means you can eat more after your workouts (Sorry to say that Yoga, Pilates, Marathon, or Zumba doesn't have this powerful effect). More about High Intensity Training in a future article.
3. Use Food to your advantage
Your car also needs cleaner and better fuel that will not only power up your engine and keeps it clean. What happens when you put in dirty, low grade or wrong petrol instead? It dirties your car internally, cause your car to be sluggish, and consequently your car wouldn't be able to run at optimum level. A calorie is not just calorie as far as food is concerned. No doubt the theory that calorie in vs calorie out stands but what you put in your body will produce outcome that matches the quality/type of food that gets digested. Eating more of certain kind of foods (eg. foods that have high TEF) that will allow your body to burn more fuel, keep it clean and subsequently keep your weight down. Someone who eats tons of junk food will obviously not get this benefit.
In a future article, will get into details how to achieve the above 3.
P/s: Yours truly have spending an enormous amount of time, researching on the topic of metabolic rate and its associating with weight/fat loss for over 20 years. I have conducted experiments on human subjects to further confirm the efficacy of various strategies. What has been written here and what will be written have certainly stood the test of time in terms of reliability and accuracy and have made very little changes since I wrote this article many years ago.
Want to boost your metabolic rate and lose weight with our unique weight loss personal training program in Singapore?
Need to organise a science-based weight loss talk for your organisation in Singapore? Contact us
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