FAT LOSS ESSENTIALS: fat-loss pyramid

IA specialises in all things fitness, health + fat loss to guide females to live their best lives but as we all know, my passion + purpose is supporting women to live their BEST and most FIT + FABULOUS lives!

A core component of our 1:1 Online Coaching is of course supporting women + creating healthy and sustainable fat loss results that work with their lifestyles in a holistic way, for long-term results. A great way that we are able to see such great results with the IA Tribe is through our Personalised Coaching creation – which sees us weigh up what exercises will help to achieve your goals, what your current diet and approach to nutrition looks like in an every-day scenario, as well as weighing up lifestyle factors such as hormone health, sleep and how this can be impacted throughout a certain training phase – depending on your goals.

One of the best things about developing personalised programs is the fact that our approach is long-term and it is also focused on fat-loss over weight loss.

Why and what’s the difference?

Well, there are few key differences but the biggest component of fat-loss is the fact that it will actually lead to better results, from body composition and possibly right through to an actual reduction of the numbers on the scale – over time.

There are numerous ways that we encourage our IA Tribe to measure fitness + fat loss progress such as:

- Progress pictures

- Measuring your body fat percentage

- Tracking your body measurements (this could even be something as simple as ‘my clothes feel looser or tighter’ in certain areas)

- How HEAVY are you lifting (volume increase)

- Increased reps or sets + intensity

- Physical goals, eg. ‘I can now run 3km without doing damage to my hip, ankle etc etc!'

- Tracking personal bests

Don't get me wrong, the scales are a very useful tool to track 'weight loss', but keeping in mind, our main focus is fat loss! We want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible to help burn fat at rest (and potentially increase muscle mass). If you're a beginner to the fat loss + strength training game, it will work in your favour!

We’ve come up with our TOP 5 essentials for kick-starting the shift from focus on weight-loss to a much smarter approach of fat-loss:

MINDSET

A healthy mind = a healthy body.

We all know just how important a great mind set is when it comes to discipline + achieving your desired goals.

If you repeatedly tell yourself you are ‘fat and never going to change’, 'to busy' day in and day out – you’re never going to EMPOWER or ENRICH yourself enough to believe it when you start experiencing the results!

Investing in your health is the most rewarding thing you can do for YOURSELF, your family (role model?), future self + of course, your quality of life.

NUTRITION

Calorie deficit is the key to your fat-loss journey. It’s SO simple but probably the most NEGLECTED part of the fat-loss equation – we MUST be in a calorie deficit to see results. No, this does not require you to go CRAZY or extreme and think that 1300 calories is enough. We must be in some level of reduced calories to achieve and see real results. I highly suggested seeking professional advice if this is new to you and/or you are wanting to lose a few kgs. Some of the best things that we do for those times when we are embarking on a fat-loss phase are: eat more plants and whole foods, eat PLENTY of fibre, PROTEIN at EVERY meal, include a range of macros and micros, when you are sitting down to a meal + make sure that you’re eating slowly and digesting the food (mindful eating). It sounds pretty simple, yet completely nailing nutrition can often be one of the hardest parts of the fat-loss journey. Trust us – we’re speaking from modern education and experience!

TRAINING We prioritise strength and resistance training any day! + certainly over cardio! This is where the great debate is often had – what is best for fat-loss, cardio or weights? And we have to say STRENGTH training, mostly weights with a cardio finisher never hurt too many people! Having a regular training routine is not only great for mental health, but it also is PROVEN to assist with boosting of your metabolism, increase your bone density, build a stronger heart and boost blood flow, it will enable you to think clearly and leave you in a better mood AND has also shown that weights training contributes to less stress and anxiety. Not to mention – you’ll be buzzing after a workout and look and FEEL so confident! Win, win, WIN!

LIFESTYLE FACTORS / HYDRATION Making sure that you’re hitting your daily water intake is critical. We suggest 2/3L EVERY day. Why? Because water ensures that the toxins in our bodies are removed, it regulates our body temperature, keeps our nutrients circulating around the body and in short – keeps us energised and healthy. Think of the days when you don’t have enough water, you have a headache, might get cramps, feel dizzy – and no-one can possibly even fathom training when they feel like this, which brings me to my next ESSENTIAL..

LIFESTYLE FACTORS / SLEEP + RECOVERY Tricky one! Because exercise can be pretty addictive! But don’t underestimate just how critical sleep and rest-days are to the equation! If you have to, try scheduling these into your week so that you can see it is JUST as important as your allocated training blocks! Sleep is like nutrition for the brain. Most people need between 7 and 9 hours each night. Get less than that, and your body will react in ways that lead even the most determined dieter straight to Ben & Jerry’s.

WE GOT CHU ANDDDD most importantly – patience! C’mon ladies, I know it sounds clichéd but Rome wasn’t built in a day and unfortunately we can’t be either! But that’s just life right – nothing good ever comes easy and perhaps if it did we wouldn’t appreciate it as much as we do when we finally reach our end-goal!

So, if you’re serious about getting out of your comfort zone and shifting your mindset to focus on FAT-LOSS and want to be guided by your own IA Coach throughout your transformation, get in touch!

I trust this information was useful and that you can implement some of these fat-loss essentials into your daily routine. BR x