4 spices to spice up your meals and their health benefits

 

A spice a day may help keep the doctor at bay according to recent research. So add these to your personalised meal plan to help make food more flavoursome:

 

Wasabi: boasts anti-bacterial and anti-fungal effects in your digestive system and may also help reduce the risk of blood clots and cancer.

Chilli: women who eat meals containing chilli have fewer spikes in their glucose levels after food, lessening their risk of weight gain and type 2 diabetes, according to research at the University of Tasmania. Capsaicin, which gives chilli its spicy punch, speeds up our metabolism. Research suggests it may also reduce bad LDL cholesterol, help combat prostate cancer and blitz the bacteria that cause stomach ulcers.

Turmeric: in India, where they call curry ‘the spice of life’, the incidence of Alzheimer’s is lower. Turmeric, one of the main curry ingredients contains curcumin which helps reduce the build-up of damaging proteins that cause Alzheimer’s. Further studies also suggest that turmeric can reduce spread of breast cancer and joint swelling caused by arthritis.

Cayenne Pepper: boosts circulation and stimulates the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, aiding digestion and in some studies, reducing minor heartburn.

 

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4 ways to increase fat loss

 

Progressively burn more fat with these top tips from personal trainer, Pilates instructor, and owner of KE Fitness Kris Etheridge.

 

 

Body fat is simply stored energy, so giving your body a reason to use it is vital. This can be done through diet or exercise, but most commonly a combination of the two.

“To lose body fat, you need to place your body into a calorie deficit, forcing it to use its fat for energy. Muscle is also your body’s engine – the bigger the engine, the more fuel it uses and the more calories you burn, making it easier to lose fat,” says Etheridge, who suggests any good fat loss plan contains gradual progressions in both fat-burning cardiovascular activity and resistance training.

“Strength training is the most important element; the amount of cardio you need to do to achieve fat loss depends on how strict you are with your diet and what kind of strength and conditioning program you’re doing,” he says.

“Utilise progressive overload to make your resistance workout more difficult than what you can comfortably perform in your current program. Whether it be using different training principals, such as supersets and circuits, or increasing the weight or reps, keep progressing by asking more from your body.”

Etheridge suggests increasing your weight, sets, reps or intensity each week for six weeks, followed by one week of lighter training (aka. a deload week) to allow the body to recover.

“Lighter weeks or rest weeks are imperative to minimise overtraining and reduce the chance of overuse injuries. This is the optimal way to increase your strength,” says Etheridge.

“For weight loss, it’s not as important to use progressions with your cardio. The cardio is purely for fat burning – but if you want to continue to improve your cardiovascular fitness, aim to increase your workout intensity by approximately five per cent each week for six weeks. Take a week off and then start your new program.”

Here are her top four tips:

 

1. Change your exercises from basic compound movements to compound movements that require a higher level of skill, coordination or strength. For example, single leg or unilateral work. Examples: think pistol squat, TRX suspended lunge, Bulgarian split squat, single-leg deadlift, squats and step-ups using a bosu ball; single arm work such as one arm dumbbell or chest press on a fitball, single arm rows or renegade rows.

2. Reduce rest periods. Depending on how much rest you’re currently having, aim to drop it by five per cent per week for six weeks, or until you’re only having approximately 40 seconds rest (if performing straight sets) and 20 seconds rest between exercises (if you’re performing a circuit).

3. Split your program up and focus on two to three muscles groups per workout rather than full body. This is a more advanced way of training and a great way to continue progressing. Splitting the body parts up means you can perform more volume (sets) on each muscle group in each workout, and workout more days each week while still allowing adequate recovery time.

4. Add plyometrics to your workouts. Plyometric training is high impact and high intensity, and involves a lot of jumping where your muscles exert maximum force in short intervals – great for power and agility, and can be a quick and fun way to burn fat given its higher calorie output.

In order to track your progress, keep yourself accountable. Regularly weigh yourself or take measurements, and keep a food and training diary to understand how training and nutrition protocols affect you on a weekly basis.

 

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Hormone check: why you may not be losing stubborn fat in problem areas

 

How do your hormones affect your ability to move stubborn fat? We turned to head trainer Alexa Towersey for her insight.

 

Why we store fat where we do is a product of our hormones and their interaction with the environment – a combination of nature and nurture. Our hormones either work for us or against us, and when even one is out of balance, it has a domino effect on the rest.  Any kind of hormonal imbalance can make losing weight an uphill struggle.

Hormones are in constant fluctuality and are affected by all our training, nutrition and lifestyle choices: how long and how hard we train, what we put in or on our bodies, when we go to sleep, how much water we drink and how much we stress. Hormones can explain why some women have slender stomachs but thunder thighs, and why getting older often requires different tactics.

The three most common female ‘problem areas’ are the stomach, the hips and the thighs.

1. Belly: cortisol

This is correlated to high levels of the stress hormone cortisol over a prolonged period of time. Cortisol is essentially responsible for our fight or flight response, but is only designed to be secreted over a short period of time. Any excess cortisol circulating in the body is converted to fat. The majority of our cortisol receptors are in the abdomen, hence this becomes the primary storage area. Stressful situations are not just emotional but include food intolerances, digestive issues, malnourishment, poor sleep, dehydration, overtraining and under-recovery. For the stress puppy, a solid plan of attack would be a periodised strength and hypertrophy weights program, HIIT, minimal caffeine and sugar, and a huge emphasis on stress management practices (yoga, meditation and massage).

2. Thighs: oestrogen

Oestrogen balance is essential for achieving and maintaining fat loss, but too much causes toxic fat gain, water retention, bloating and a host of other health issues.  There are two ways to accumulate excess oestrogen in the body: we either produce too much of it on our own (endogenous) or acquire it from our environment (exogenous). We are constantly exposed to oestrogen-like compounds such as plastics, pesticides and parabens. These are toxins and toxins are stored in fat cells, with the majority of female fat cells in the thighs. Women with oestrogen dominance tend to have success with training protocols that involve high volume and low rest with a focus on weight training for the lower body; a nutrition plan high in fibre and green cruciferous vegetables and a heavy emphasis on detoxification strategies (infrared sauna, Epsom salt baths, lymphatic drainage massage and acupuncture).

3. Hips: insulin

An excess of body fat around the hips suggests issues with insulin resistance, carbohydrate tolerance and blood sugar management. When we eat, the sugar in our blood stimulates the secretion of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin binds to cell membranes and when there is too much insulin in the blood, the cell body becomes stressed and the insulin receptors are shut off. The excess sugar in the blood is stored as fat. Essentially this is your nutrition site and fixing the problem is all about eating the right foods at the right time in the right amounts.

Ultimately our bodies are very clever, and by learning to listen to what they have to say, we are able to develop personalised long-term strategies for successful fat loss.

 

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The key to targeting stubborn fat

 

A lot of people have a misconception about what exactly ‘stubborn fat’ is. Vision PT Master Trainer, Daniel Tramontana sets the record straight with his expert insights. 

The term ‘stubborn’ almost creates an unnecessary mental predisposition when it comes to fat loss. Clients are often too quick to assume they have ‘stubborn fat’, when most people simply have more fat to lose before they can start burning fat in those notorious areas, such as the belly and hips.

The average fat loss dieter should not be thinking they can strategically target specific areas of fat. When losing weight, your body wants to save calories, so areas such as the arms, neck, fingers, face and feet tend to lean out quicker than the belly, butt and thighs, as having fat in these areas will burn more calories. The body is always adapting to be more efficient.

Clients that have already been training and/or dieting for fat loss from anywhere between eight to 16 weeks and are close to their desired body fat percentage can consider some of their fat as ‘stubborn’. In this case, a little more strategy can be employed.

I find that, for women, the upper body often needs to be almost completely depleted of fat stores before the lower body really becomes active. We store excess energy as fat based on two types of cell receptors: alpha receptors and beta receptors. Alpha promotes fat storage, while beta metabolises fat and makes it available to ‘burn’ as energy. Generally, women have much higher densities of alpha sites in the legs, butt and thighs.

If you want to burn fat from stubborn areas, decreasing alphas and increasing betas is the goal. This could perhaps be related back to our external and internal hormonal environment – basically our oestrogen to progesterone ratios. There is a lot of current research on this matter, and protocols that can help with this hormonal balance include: cutting down on non-organic food and coffee, increasing consumption of cruciferous vegies, drinking lemon water, reducing use of plastics and dry brushing. A useful website is ewg.org and their app Skin Deep, which indicates the toxicity level, effect on the body and potential for harmful additives found in your primary cosmetic and cleaning products.

Another specialised practice that can shed some light on potential imbalances and obstacles to fat loss is Applied Muscle Testing (AMT). Muscle testing works in the same arena as kinesiology, by testing your body for feedback to identify deficiencies in nutrients, problematic foods, potential beneficial supplements and even helping provide information on specific training protocols that may suit you personally.

Three easy things you can do today to expedite stubborn fat loss:

1. Exercise two to three hours after your last meal or on an empty stomach. This may reduce alpha receptor activity. It also causes us to increase catecholamine hormone production (adrenaline/noradrenaline), which may increase beta receptor activity.

2. Train intensely: use compound multi-muscle, multi-joint movements. For lower body, try lunges, squats and deadlifts. Include some type of interval training into your cardio workouts and then cool down with a 30 minute walk: this can assist in dipping further into fat for fuel now it has been released into the blood stream during training.

3. Stay positive: what your mind believes, your body achieves. If you tell yourself you can’t get rid of that last little bit of fat over and over, you’ll convince your subconscious mind that it’s true and it will obey you. Keep an open mind, visualise the results you want and don’t settle for ‘almost there’.   

 

 

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Energy boosting eating plan

 

Start the day off on the right note and follow through with this high energy diet plan by dietitian Sally-Anne Livock.

BREAKFAST

 

Breakfast is an essential start to the day. It kickstarts your metabolism after the overnight fast and provides a great opportunity to get some dairy and fibre into your day. By giving your body the right fuel every morning, you reduce the risk of weight gain by elevating your metabolic rate and lowering the tendency to snack inappropriately. Choose one of the following options.

Cold Breakfast

» ¾ cup high-fibre, low-GI cereal (e.g. All Bran, Guardian, cooked raw oats) with 200mL skim milk, topped with ½ sliced banana

» 2 x hi-fibre Weet-Bix with 200mL skim milk, topped with sliced fresh fruit

» 150g low-fat yoghurt topped with ⅓ cup rolled oats and blueberries

» 1 cup fresh fruit salad with 200g low-fat yoghurt

Hot Breakfast

» 1–2 poached eggs on 1 slice sourdough with mushrooms

» ½ cup baked beans on wholegrain toast 

» ⅔ cup cooked porridge with 100mL skim milk, grated apple and cinnamon

» Omelette: 1–2 eggs, ¼ cup skim milk, 2 tablespoons grated reduced fat cheese with vegies such as capsicum, onion, spinach, mushrooms, tomato

»1 slice Burgen fruit toast topped with ricotta cheese and sliced pear

» Toasted English muffin with grilled cheese (40g) and tomato plus mushrooms 

• Never skip breakfast.
• If you are not hungry in the morning, try reducing what you eat in the evenings or schedule exercise before breakfast. 

NEXT: Lunch

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LUNCH

 

 

Lunch should always include protein, a low-GI carbohydrate, plenty of vegetables and a little fat. Select one item from each column with a glass or two of water.

Examples:

» Chicken Sandwich: 50g chicken + 2 slices wholegrain bread + avocado + salad

» Tuna Salad: 1 tin tuna + ½ cup quinoa + sliced capsicum and baby spinach + crushed nuts 

» Mountain bread + salmon + salad

» Toasted sandwich + ham + lots of salad

Café lunch?

» 2–3 small sushi rolls

» Order a sandwich or wrap on wholegrain bread without the butter, and with lots of salad

» Choose a warm salad with chicken, beef or lamb and lots of salad

NEXT: Snacks

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SNACKS

 

Morning and afternoon tea inspiration:

» 1 piece of fruit such as a banana or an apple

» ½ cup unsalted, raw nuts

» 200g tub low-fat natural yoghurt with frozen berries

» 4 apricot halves and 4 almonds

» ½ punnet of strawberries

» 250ml skinny latte

» Homemade smoothie with low-fat milk, yoghurt and frozen berries

» 1 cup air-popped popcorn

» 175g tub of Nestle Forme yoghurt

» 1 John West 61g Tuna to Go Lemon & Cracked Pepper

» 10 sakata crackers with salsa

» Vegie sticks (carrot, celery, capsicum, snow peas, asparagus, cauliflower) with salsa

» Small 100cal muesli bar: Uncle Toby’s Bodywise or Be Natural bar

» 2 Ryvita or corn thins with slice of low-fat cheese and tomato

» 1 can of Weight Watchers minestrone soup

» 40 g mini tub light Philli with carrot and celery sticks

 

NEXT: Drinks

 

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DRINKS

 

We need at least 1.5 to two litres (six to eight cups) of fluid a day, not including caffeine-containing beverages such as regular tea, coffee or cola. It is important to drink consistently across the day and remember if you are thirsty, you have waited too long between drinks.

Try having a drink before each meal and at snack times as it goes down easier on an empty stomach.

» Water (keep a water bottle with you)

» Try a squeeze of lemon or lime in cold or hot water

» Put a couple of pieces of cut-up fruit in a bottle of water in the fridge

» Try some plain mineral or soda water. You can add ¼ natural fruit juice or a squeeze of lemon/lime

» Herbal or green tea

 

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Fat burning tactics

 

If you’re aiming for quickish results, exercise that works out your muscles should be a priority.

It provides the best bang-for-buck that will not only fast-track you towards a healthy body but also give you the toned features that can give you the appearance of being slimmer.

This is because resistance training – using free-weights or resistance machines – fires up your internal furnace, which will continue to burn fat long after you’ve walked away from the gym and are lying on the couch. In fact, studies have found that after an intensive resistance workout, your fat-burn may continue for as much as 34 to 48 hours. Now that’s reward for effort.

Importantly, a resistance session doesn’t take that long either. You will have arrived and left the gym while the jogger is still plugging away on the treadmill.

“You may have been told that exercising at a comfortable pace is best for fat loss because you are working in the ‘fat-burning zone’,” says Julia Buckley, personal trainer and author of The Fat Burn Revolution. “This is just plain wrong. People who say this are confused by the fact that training at low intensities causes the body to use more fat than glycogen for fuel while you are exercising. But what they don’t realise is that high-intensity exercise causes more fat to be burned in total when you take account of afterburn. Plus, with this type of training, the next time you eat, the calories from your food will be used to replace the glycogen you used up rather than stored as fat.”

 

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How to count your macros

 

Although counting macronutrients can seem daunting at first, you may be suprised at how easy it is once you get the hang of it. Check out this basic guide below.

Step 1: 

Adopt A Macros Ratio

Most experts who use macros suggest dividing the Big 3 macronutrients into these ratios:

»Protein: 35% or 40%

»Carbs: 50% or 40%

»Fats: 15% or 20%

Try this approach and then tweak to find what works best for you.

Step 2: 

Set Your Kilojoule Intake

Work out how many kilojoules you need to maintain or lose weight, depending on your goal.

Step 3: 

Calculate Grams 

»Carbs: 1 gram = roughly 16 kJ (4 calories)

»Protein: 1 gram = roughly 16 kJ (4 calories)

»Fats: 1 gram = roughly 37 kJ (9 calories)

Step 4: 

Allocate macros

Work out roughly how you want to divvy your macros into meals over a day. “I usually suggest that the higher energy carbs are eaten earlier in the day,” says personal trainer Daniel Tramontana, from Vision Personal Training at Brighton, Victoria. “Then later you can eat carbs in the form of fibrous vegetables and salad foods. I encourage people to eat protein at every meal, based on their body weight, and to have their healthy fats in later meals to assist the absorption and conversion of the nutrients.”

Want to know more at macros and how to fine-tune your approach? Grab the November 2016 edition of Women's Health and Fitness Magazine for more.

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Top tips to help you get lean

 

Want to swap your fat for muscle? Trainer and high performance manager of Oakleigh Chargers Football Club Ben Sharpe and director of MP Studio Luke Archer share their lifestyle tips to help you lean out.

1. Get enough shut-eye: aim for 7.5 to nine hours of sleep per night for optimal recovery and hormonal balance. 

2. Office know-how: manage your stress levels, increase your calorie burn and reduce your chances of muscle wastage by going for regular walks throughout the day, or asking the boss for a stand-up desk. “If a person is sitting at a desk all day, their energy requirements are much less than someone who has a physically demanding job,” says Archer. “We generally switch off our muscles, sit back, slump or have no need to use our muscles. And which group of muscles do we switch off most? The glutes – which are the largest muscles in the body.”

3. Eat well, eat often: eating smaller meals more often will aid in boosting the metabolism, while plant foods are important to insulin sensitivity. “The more your plate looks like a rainbow of colorful fruit and vegetables at every meal, the faster your results will come,” says Archer. 

4. Hydrate: drinking cold water regularly throughout the day can boost your metabolic rate by up to 30 per cent according to Archer. “Our body is made up of 70 to 80 per cent water – so it’s no wonder we need it so often to function properly,” he says. 

5. Prioritise strength-based training: your lean muscle mass has the greatest impact on your ability to burn fat, so be sure to incorporate three to four full-body weight sessions per week. A weighted circuit with lower loads, higher reps and limited rest will keep the heart rate elevated to increase muscular endurance while burning body fat.

 

NEXT: Working out but not seeing results? Here are 10 ways to boost your calorie burn at the gym.

 

 

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How to stop yourself from overeating

 

Wondering why you constantly overeat? Here are three factors that may be contributing to over-indulging. 

 

It’s easy to over-dramatise the odd extra helping as a ‘binge’ or ‘blowout’, but if you are consistently eating more than your body needs, there may be good reasons. 

The stick: Macro shortfall

The human body’s drive for protein is so powerful that it will keep consuming food until its protein needs are met according to a University of Sydney study. As protein intake decreases, kilojoule intake increases, researchers reported.

The fix: Consume 15 to 20 per cent of daily kilojoules from high-quality, low-fat protein sources. Lean meats, legumes, fish, eggs and tofu all qualify.

The stick: Multitasking

Whether it’s the portion sizes at your local, a bout of intense work stress or mindless nibbling in front of the telly, there’s a whole gamut of reasons why we eat more than what we need or when we’re not hungry at all . 

The fix: Try to eat intuitively – only when you’re hungry. Focus on eating when you feel hungry and stopping when you feel full. 

The stick: Overwhelm

Research suggests that when we can choose from a wide variety of foods, we generally eat more. Under the ‘smorgasbord effect’, new flavours are thought to stimulate appetite while bland or monotonous menus bore us into disinterest. 

The fix: Limit yourself to a few choices.

NEXT: Kick start your clean eating journey with our 10 step guide to cleaner eating. 

 

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How to fast-track fat loss

 

Want to know the key to fat loss? Master trainer Daniel Tramontana shares his tips for guaranteed fat loss.

 

To fast-track coveted progress such as greater fat loss, Tramontana says you need to get back to basics.

Cardio is not ‘hardio’

With a combination of higher intensity interval training (HIIT), low-intensity steady state (LISS) training, body weight training sessions and a nutritious diet, Tramontana ensures his clients are given the best formula for their body.

“My cardiovascular programming is based around a 75/25 split of LISS and HIIT. So based on the available amount of time for a client to add in cardio on top of resistance training would determine the amount of each they conducted,” he says.

Here’s what your cardio program could look like:

2 hours per week for cardio training = 30 minutes of HIIT over two to three days + 90 minutes of LISS over one to two sessions.

Be wary, if HIIT was all you did, you may encounter the downside of too much stress on your body, which can ironically turn HIIT into a fat retention tactic.

So what about weight training?

“For fat loss, I structure everything around two to three full bodyweight training sessions – two sessions based on linear periodisation macro cycle of 16-to-24 week programming, altered every four to six weeks,” he explains.

Translation? A program that begins by incorporating high-volume and low intensity weight training, and progressively moves into phases when the volume decreases and intensity increases.  Tramontana is a strong advocate for women to hit up the weights rack, “I find a lot of women are lifting nowhere near their capacity. Don’t be shy to lift heavy weights and test your ability regularly.”

The importance of rest

All this talk of intensity may have you thinking full pelt should be the only gear you work in, but without adequate recovery, you may be undermining your fat loss chances at the dumbbells. Both injury and overt fatigue can see you performing at less than 100 per cent over multiple sessions.

“Recovery begins with the post-workout meal. I advise at least 25 to 50 per cent of overall carbohydrates be included in this meal – either using complex carbohydrate sources or a combination of simple and complex carbs,” says Tramontana. “I also recommend at least one body therapy session per week.”

Think physiotherapy, massage, sauna, steam, floating, dry needling, sleep in, meditation, yoga, grounding – or something as simple as reading a book.

How to fuel your body with the right food

For Tramontana, eating for fat loss should focus on controlling hunger, which translates to better portion control and craving management.

“I ask that protein be included in every meal upon waking, generally an even or slightly escalating amount each meal depending again on habits and hunger patterns,” he says.

“For fat loss, I personally urge the exclusion of high-energy carbs even post workout – with the exception of competitors in the later stage of preparation.”

Supplementation may also give you an edge in the health and results stakes. Depending on your goals and needs, Tramontana advises the use of creatine, glutamine, vitamin C, branch chain amino acids, fish oils, whey protein, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc and a good-quality greens supplement to aid recovery, general wellbeing and lean muscle growth.

Read the full article in the August 2016 edition by journalist Katelyn Swallow. 

NEXT > Discover ways to boost your metabolism.

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How to lose the last two kilos

 

 

They say the last two kilograms are the hardest to lose, but we’ve found a loophole.

STEP 1.

 

Calculate your baseline

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories you’d burn per day if you were to lie in bed 24/7. It’s based on various factors including your height, age and body composition (a higher muscle to fat ratio will burn more calories even at rest). To calculate your BMR, plug your deets into this equation (known as the Harris-Benedict equation): 

BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)

e.g. a 30-year-old female measuring 167 cm tall and weighing 54.5 kg would compute 655 + 523 + 302 – 141 to get a maintenance level daily calorie need of 1,339, or 5,624 kJ, per day (multiply calories by 4.2 to convert to kJ lingo).

STEP 2. 

Body audit

If your numbers come in low, don’t panic. In addition to what you burn to maintain basic bodily functions, you need to add your other energy usage. What you want to work out how many kJs you’re burning on average per day, and how many kJs you need to cut to lose your target kilos, is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), which comprises BMR (65 per cent), physical activity and thermic effect of food. 

To calculate your TDEE, multiply your BMR by your activity level according to these numbers.

Sedentary = BMR x 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)

Lightly active = BMR x 1.375 (light exercise / sports 1–3 days/week)

Moderately active = BMR x 1.55 (moderate exercise / sports 6–7 days/week)

Very active = BMR x 1.725 (hard exercise every day, or exercising 2 times/day)

Extra active = BMR x 1.9 (hard exercise 2 or more times per day, or training for marathon, or triathlon, etc.)

e.g. If your BMR is 1,339 calories, or 5,624 kJ, and you’re lightly active, your activity factor is 1.375, making your TDEE 1.375 x 1,339 or 5,624, or 1,841 calories/7,733 kJ. In theory consuming 7,733 kJ each day (or 54,129 kJ a week – there’s no penalty for zig-zagging to accommodate a dinner party) will maintain your current weight.

STEP 3. 

Budget crunch

Based on the 0.5 kg a week deemed optimal, you’ll need a cumulative deficit of 14,700 kJ a week (there are 14,700 kJ in half a kilo of body fat). A weekly deficit of 7,350 kJ will translate to loss of 0.25 kg per week. Aim to eat approximately the same amount of kJs each day, but don’t get obsessive. If you want to go out for parma (around twice the kJs in a Lean Cuisine dinner), shoot for 1,000 kJ less than your loss needs the following day and you’ll come out square. 

STEP 4. 

Loophole phase 

You can’t out-train a bad diet because it’s so much easier to consume calories than burn them. (A flavoured milk packs in more than an hour’s workout burn in a few gulps.) Yet exercise can give you an extra food allowance. By burning 400 calories in spin class, you can still eat 7,080 kJ and lose your half a kilo a week.

Looking for more weightloss tips? Check out Alexa Towersey's top fat loss tips. 

 

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Top fat loss tips

 

From recovery sessions to food intolerances, trainer and IsoWhey sports ambassador Alexa Towersey shares her top five tips for fat loss.

 

1. Complete a lifestyle diary

This includes what you eat, when you go to bed, how often you go to the bathroom and how much water you drink. This will make you accountable and aware of any bad habits outside of the gym that could be hindering your results.  

2. Schedule at least two recovery sessions per week

I liken your body to a bank balance.  Every training session is a withdrawal; every recovery session is a deposit. If you are always training (withdrawing) and never recovering (depositing), you will eventually end up overdrawn and injured. Recovery practices include foam rolling, contrast showers, ice baths, massages and long walks.

3. Embrace hot yoga

The hot room allows for increased range of movement (which will translate into better range in your weight training), the heat enhances detoxification processes and the twisting movements improve digestion and lymphatic drainage in addition to massaging the internal organs.  Yoga is also great for stress management, and when you are stressed you will hold fat.

4. Test for food intolerances

Just because a food is ‘healthy’, doesn’t mean it’s healthy for you. If it doesn’t make you feel good, don’t eat it. Some of the most common intolerances include eggs, gluten, wheat, dairy, soy, corn and nuts. Intolerances can also be a result of eating too much of the same foods, so try and rotate your meal options regularly.

5. Support your liver and your detoxification channels using alternative body treatments

Think acupuncture, lymphatic drainage massage, Epsom salt baths, body brushing and infra-red saunas. Drink plenty of water to flush out toxins and try starting the day with a glass of warm water with fresh lemon juice.

For more fat loss tips, visit our weight loss section.

 

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How to stay slim in your 30s, 40s and 50s

Can you beat age-related weight gain? We asked the experts for their diet and exercise tips for women in their 30s, 40s and 50s. 

What is the 'middle age spread'?

The term 'middle-age spread' has been etched into ageing lore, yet unflattering connotations ignore the naturalness of physiological change. Expecting to weigh the same at 30 as 18 is folly according to clinical psychologist Louise Adams from Treat Yourself Well.

"Our body weight at age 18 is for many of us the lightest we have ever been," says Adams. "We may not have stopped growing at that point and may not have reached full maturity. Weight gain as we age is quite normal and body shape and size can change over our lifetime. Sticking to a weight from many years ago is unrealistic for the vast majority of us. It's similar to remembering how your skin looked as a teenager and expecting the same in middle age."

The other sticking point in weight expectations is that many of us expect that with enough weights training and self-control we can defy the effects of hormonal changes associated with mid life.

"I think we should be a bit more accepting of carrying a bit of weight as we get older," says the University of Melbourne's Dr Joseph Proietto, a professor of medicine. "There are multiple studies that suggest that a little extra weight can be a healthy thing. In one study we conducted we looked at people who had stents put in their hearts for angina. We found that the underweight people died at a faster rate, and the overweight were better than the normal weight, the mildly obese were better than the overweight in terms of survival."

How to stay trim – despite your age!

Dr Lavie encourages a paradigm shift from weight to fitness. "It's much better to strive for fitness and be on the thicker side than to be thin and unfit," he says. "Loss of fitness is a much stronger predictor of mortality than weight gain."

He says the ideal is to exercise 40 to 45 minutes a day, five to six days a week, with plenty of strength work.

"Fitness gurus will tell you that strength training becomes more vital the older one gets, and they are right, for it supports muscle mass like no other form of exercise and can help increase not only strength but also bone mass," says Dr Lavie.

"In most people, muscle strength peaks in our 20s and then gradually decreases. Recent research suggests that women on average will lose muscle mass twice as fast as men the same age, which can make a huge difference in their ability to maintain an ideal weight."

 

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Juice fasting for weight loss

Trying to lose weight? Don’t be deceived by the term ‘juice fast'...

Considering a glass or bottle of cold-pressed juice can contain up to 1,000 kJ – a juice cleanse won’t necessarily cause rapid weight loss.

“People on juice diets might be having litres of juice in a day…it’s a little ridiculous,” says WH&F dietitian on speed-dial Melanie McGrice (melaniemcgrice.com.au).

“We actually recommend that people who need to gain weight drink juice because it’s good for you, doesn’t fill you up, and has a high kilojoule content,” she says. Any weight lost during a juice cleanse or detox – think no solids and a few fancy avant-garde powders – is likely to largely comprise water and muscle, not fat.

“There are very few fruits or vegetables that contain enough iron to fulfil your daily needs,” McGrice warns. “It would also be hard to get enough vitamin B12, zinc or calcium, not to mention protein.”

Trade up to a smoothie

A sound way to reconcile the uber-dose of produce made practicable by juicing with macronutrients that favour fat loss is trading up from juices to smoothies.

Not only does the addition of a protein source such as yoghurt guard against catabolism (a.k.a. muscle loss and metabolic slowdown), blended smoothies often contain whole fruit with its full fibre quotient and can accommodate an extra fibre source – think cannellini beans.   

While comparative calorie counts render the swap counterintuitive (on paper, smoothies can contain up to twice the calories in juice), the discrepancy will pay off when the protein and fibre’s satiety merits make snacking redundant. Fibre also slows the release of sugar into the bloodstream, averting carb cravings native to pure fruit juice diets.

TOP TIP: If you are skolling liquefied produce, favour vegies, watch fruit volume and don’t expect miracles.

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10 Diet Mistakes Seriously Slowing Your Metabolism

You probably don’t need scientists to tell you that your metabolism slows with age. But they’re studying it anyway—and coming up with exciting research to help rev it up again. The average woman gains 1½ pounds a year during her adult life—enough to pack on 40-plus pounds by her 50s, if she doesn’t combat the roller coaster of hormones, muscle loss, and stress that conspire to slow her fat-burning engine. But midlife weight gain isn’t inevitable: We’ve found eating strategies that will tackle these changes.

But first, the basics: To boost over-40 weight loss, make sure your meals are around 400 calories, the amount needed to fuel your body while keeping you satisfied, translating into effortless weight loss. The following metabolism-boosting food rules were developed by Dan Benardot, PhD, RD, an associate professor of nutrition and kinesiology at Georgia State University, and Tammy Lakatos, RD. Here’s how to adjust your eating plan to help your body burn fat.

These Small Changes to Your Eating Habits Can Lead to Big Weight Loss

Good news, you can keep your yogurt obsession going. Better news, it doesn’t matter if it’s low or full fat.

As we age and our metabolisms slow, it’s easy to pack on a few pounds without realizing it. But a new study has found that making consistent changes to your eating habits can lead to big weight-loss results over time.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, followed the dietary habits of over 120,000 people for 16 years and found that those who ate foods that had a high glycemic load (which includes refined grains, starches, and sugars) gained more weight than those who ate foods with a low glycemic load (foods such as nuts, dairy, and certain fruits and vegetables).