All those who aim to achieve weight loss must have realistic goals individually. Developing healthy habits and following a healthy diet schedule are very crucial for healthy weight reduction. Achieving weight loss in a few months should not be the only goal. Those who could reduce their weight to the desired extent and maintain the reduced weight for not less than ten years are considered truly successful in their efforts to achieve weight loss. Weight loss pills are an option and here’s one of the only approved pills proven to aid weight loss. The top 4 tips that are given in this article though will help the aspiring dieters to achieve healthy as well as sustained weight loss.

 1. Enjoy eating more vegetables as well as fruits

Instead of abruptly reducing your food intake you must make it a point to include more nutritious food items into your diet. While reducing your weight see to it that your overall health is not affected and for that it is very essential to include more healthy foods in your regular diet. Start taking more vegetables and fruits for your lunch and snacks. As you know, vegetables are rich in nutrients and low in calories. For those who are trying to reduce weight vegetables and fruits are the best foods. Since most of the fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber they facilitate proper digestion and also make you feel full.

2. Include whole grains also in your diet

Though a low-carb diet is essential for weight loss, your diet need not be 100% carb-free. Carbohydrates are also required for weight loss. Recent studies reveal that those who include grains also as a part of their diet are less susceptible to obesity as well as type 2 diabetes.  Grains can be a side dish for your meals and instead of refined grains consume whole grains.

3. Do not give up regular exercises

Regular physical exercises are the best ways to help aid healthy weight loss. If you start feel that the exercise that you do regularly is boring you may switch over to other types of exercise like yoga, swimming, aerobics or tai chi. By way of doing physical exercises, you are not only reducing pounds but also increasing your life span by a few years. Walking is also a powerful exercise and when you walk for some time you get great relief from stress. When you feel depressed or agitated, instead of resorting to emotional eating get outside, walk freely and breathe fresh air. Those who want to reduce weight must walk daily for not less than 30 minutes.

4. Drink plenty of water

Water is very important for the body and many people fail to keep their body hydrated to the required extent. Instead of drinking too much coffee, alcoholic beverages or soda, those who want to reduce weight can make it a point to drink minimum 12 glasses of water daily. The brain and other parts of the body need water to function properly. Those who are on a weight loss mission may see to it that for whole of 2018, they carry water bottles wherever they go. In order to make the water tastier and more nutritious the water may be mixed with lemon juice.

Crash diets

Weight loss experts will tell you that crash diets are rarely effective when it comes to weight loss and there are some good reasons behind this. In fact, most of these diets are usually very unhealthy and only succeed in helping you achieve rapid loss of weight. They promote loss of muscle weight or water weight which besides being gained back quickly, loosing these weight is potentially very harmful to your overall well- being. And as if this is not enough, you will realise that sticking to these crash diets in the long run is nearly impossible as your body will resist the change naturally. This in turn ends up frustrating your weight loss endeavours to a great extent.

Weight loss is only possible through a radical exercise regime

This is essentially not true as to succeed in weight loss; you will need to make small changes which you can stick to for a relatively long time. Losing weight is only possible if you are able burn much more calories compared to what you are consuming and an exercise regime is only one of the ways to help you achieve this. You will thus need to move more, eat less and best of all, combine both of them.

Slimming pills are the solution for effective weight loss in the long term

This is certainly not true as slimming pills will do you more harm than good in your long-term weight loss efforts. Most importantly, don’t use slimming pills for long term purposes and always ask your physician for a prescription.

Carbohydrates cause weight gain

A common myth is that carbohydrates only succeed in making you put on more weight and this is highly unfounded and certainly not true. When carbohydrates are eaten in the most appropriate quantities, they will certainly not lead to weight gain. It is essential that you eat whole meal and whole grain carbohydrates like whole meal bread and brown ice and you will certainly succeed in your weight loss efforts.

Drinking water helps in weight loss

While drinking water is always very important, keep in mind that it will not help you loose water. Water only makes you stay hydrated and could succeed in helping you snack less. Drinking water is important for your overall wellbeing and good health.

Keeping note of these myths will help you know what works and what don’t work when it comes to weight loss just to be sure that you are on the right track.

“The promise of spot reduction is an obsession that many in our culture just won’t abandon.” – Charles Poliquin

I was on a course and was told that to get a 6 pack is easy! It’s a by product from training hard in a functional way that engages all the body muscles working and eating clean.

Now the hard answer…

I believe you can by correcting the imbalances in your hormones if that is the identified problem by your personal trainer – it could simply be that it is your diet. Remember everyone is an individual and a full assessment by your personal trainer should be carried out, if you’re not assessing you’re guessing! For a deeper look at troublesome spots and links with hormones it is worth having blood samples taken to be analysed by a professional. Poliquin shows that the advancements in exercise endocrinology may give new tools for combatting site specific fat storage and the system to do this is called BioSignature Modulation. I haven’t studied this course as of yet and I am hoping to get on it later in the year. I know plenty of trainers who have undertook this course to learn the system and swear by it.

From what I have found and researched the main aspect to achieve correction of imbalanced hormones is to address your lifestyle and eating habits. This may involve detoxing or cleansing your system by expelling the toxins being store in your body along with using strategies such as carb cycling, fasting and shorter work outs etc. This can lead to the restoring of the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Once its healed and your beginning to work correctly in the way we were designed to do you will be at full centralisation.

Paul Chek recommends having an organic diet otherwise you’re eating dangerous food. Remember, fat is where you store toxins (and excess hormones) that you can’t break down due to not having enough nutrition on board to run the detoxify pathways. By getting your metabolic rate to optimal and you can do this by moving at least 20 minutes a day, even walking. You need eight hours of sleep at night from 10pm in order to restore the body systems and you need to get enough water into you.

As you may be aware I follow teachings by Paul Chek, Charles Poliquin, Robb Wolf, Paul Mort, Travis Jones and have researched this topic from Patrick Holford, Nish Joshi and Shawn Talbott to name a few and I am by no means a leading world expert but I have done work with individuals based on the learning from the above and has seen much better results than that of other methods I used when I worked in gyms.

To stress the importance of hormones  I’m going to quote Paul Mort…

“Neither diet or nutrition matter if your hormones are out of sync.”

Hormones are involved in most physiological processes thus making them very relevant to many aspects of exercise. They influence where and how you store body fat, research has shown that cortisol and insulin promote fat collection and that testosterone increases fat loss.

The research that I have looked into and what I have been taught on courses proves that it is more than likely the imbalance of hormones that cause certain areas to store body fat and the 6 most common stubborn fat spots are:

1. Love Handles
2. Stomach Fat
3. Bra Bulge Fat
4. Bingo Wings
5. Big Thighs & Bottom
6. Moobs

Before I go into each of the fat spots mentioned above I will first highlight in basis terms what hormones are and how they work. In order to do this I will direct reference two definitions that I feel sum up hormones:

“Hormones are chemical messengers that are secreted into the blood by one tissue or organ and act on target cells in other parts of the body.” – J.Kang, 2012

“Hormones act as chemical signals throughout the body.” - J.Wilmore & D.Costill, 2004

So hormones are messengers that travel around your body via blood to give orders to your cells to do things. Hormones can be broken down into two types;

Steroid hormones: These hormones have a chemical structure similar to cholesterol and are lipid soluble and diffuse easily through cells membranes. These are hormones form the adrenal cortex (cortisol and aldosterone), the ovaries (estrogen and progesterone), the testes (testosterone) and the placenta (estrogen and progesterone).

Nonsteroid hormones: These hormones are not lipid soluble so they can not diffuse easily through cells membranes. These hormones can be divided into two further groups: protein or peptide hormones and amino acid-derivative hormones.

Hormones can affect your growth, puberty, metabolism, weight, figure, shape, physical appearance, reproductive behaviour and emotions.

The thyroid gland is located below the larynx and secretes two important nonsteroid hormones which regulate metabolism by increasing the metabolic rate of most tissues and the basal metabolic rate by  as much as 100%. These hormones according to (J.Wilmore & D.Costill, 2004) also promote rapid cellular uptake of glucose and enhance lipid mobilisation, increasing free fatty acid (FFA) availability for oxidation, this is something I want you to think about as you read on.

Another you have properly heard of is the Adrenal gland this sits directly atop of the kidneys and is made up of the inner adrenal medulla and the outer adrenal cortex and each one secretes hormones that are different.

So how do they do this and affect the body to such a degree?

As I’ve mentioned earlier hormones are secreted into the blood in order to be transported to target cells, these cells are where hormones have their effect. Target cells are able to work hand in hand with hormones because they have receptors that blind and lock them together, much like a lock and key. Only the correct key can unlock the action within the cell, Wilmore & Costill (2004) refer to this as a hormone-receptor complex. When there is an increased amount of specific hormone there is a decrease in the number of cell receptors available to it, making the cell less sensitive to that hormone as less hormones can blind due to the fewer amount of receptors. Wilmore & Costill (2004) refer to this as down-regulation or desensitisation. The opposite effect is called up-regulation, these two processes change cells sensitivity to hormones.

Believe it or not there are some receptors that promote the breakdown of fat and some that actually block the breakdown of fat and research shows that there are two types of adrenoceptors that control not only fat cell metabolism but also blood flow into and out of the fat cell.

If we look at Beta-receptors these are the ‘good’ receptors, they increase lipolysis and adipose tissue blood flow while the naughty alpha-receptors inhibit lipolysis and adipose tissue blood flow.

So why tell you this and does it really matter?

Yes it matters, especially when different areas of body fat have different distributions of alpha-2 and beta-2 adrenoreceptors! This basically mean that fat can be mobilised and transported out of them by the blood in an effective or ineffective manner. A clear example of this is the lower body fat found on the hips and thighs – which have been found to have roughly nine times as many alpha-2 receptors as beta-2 receptors = stubborn fat or in scientific terms “elevated alpha 2 trap” and studies have shown that the blood flow in your lower body fat can have 67% lower blood flow than other depots. So with 67% lower blood flow you now have 67% less chance of removing the fat compared to areas of the body that are not storing fat as these areas transport fat away more effectively to be burned up.

So lets now have a look at two of these common stubborn fat spots!

Love Handles

Love handles can be typically seen on the area above your hips (as seen in the pic). The cause of this can be put down to an insulin issue indicating that your body need help handling the carbohydrates and sugar that is in your current diet. Normally insulin regulates blood glucose levels and directs excess glucose to the liver and muscles where it is stored as glycogen ready to fuel the demands of the body. In Robb Wolf’s simple terms “insulin puts nutrients into our cells.” Wolf goes on to explain that “insulin is released from the beta cells of the pancreas primarily in response to increasing blood levels of glucose and amino acids playing a significant role in micronutrient storage and conversions.”

Foods that absorb into the blood stream slowly are classed as having a low glycaemic load while foods that absorb fast have a high rating based on the glycaemic index rating of food and portion size. If you chose a clean and manily low GL foods you can prevent sugar peaks and energy dips. Keeping your blood sugar stable will great for love handle control.

The problem arises with your diet or better put modern day diets which are high in sugar, just look at the cereals and drinks below! You may not even be aware of these hidden sugars and on average we can consume as much as 30 teaspoons every day!

This abnormal amount of sugar found in the modern diet can lead to a condition called insulin resistance which leads to adult onset diabetes due to not managing blood sugars correctly or storing glucose properly. When this happens more insulin is produced in order to control any excess glucose this means fat accumulates in the fat tissue. Where as if insulin levels are low, fatty acids are mobilised from the fat tissue and fat deposits shrink. In some some people with obesity for example the number of insulin receptors on their cells appear to be reduced. Their bodies response by increasing insulin as mentioned above to obtain the same degree of plasma glucose control as normal healthy people.

Even worse is high-fructose corn syrup which is found in every processed food imaginable and according to Loren Cordain PhD “powerfully promotes insulin resistance.”

So did our stone age ancestors never have sugar? In actual fact they did have sugar in the form of honey, dates and figs – these sources of food weren’t always available due to the seasons. Loren Cordain PhD and Joe Friel MS show in the paleo diet for athletes that you don’t have to ban all sweets and can “eat all the fresh fruits that you like, and have certain spices such as vanilla, ginger, mint leaves, cinnamon and nutmeg to recipes.”

Stomach Fat

“The thickness of your umbilical skin fold (belly button) is a reflection of your cortisol output and is a direct reflection of your stress levels and their ability to handle it” says Charles Poliquin.

Stomach fat can be caused by stress (burnout), lack of sleep, bad diet etc. So when Joe Bloggs decides it’s time to get fit and hit the roads or joins a gym and starts doing lots of cardiovascular training and a bit of weights here and there he could in actual fact first benefit by following a more mindfulness programme, to help manage his lifestyle better and get happy, Alejandro Junger mentions in his book Clean that the adrenalin and cortisol created during stress also speed up the acidifying process and backs up the use of following a mindfulness practice.

It is in the adrenal gland that we will find the zona fasciculata which is responsible for the production of cortisol. We will also find the adrenal medulla in the adrenal gland which produces adrenaline. Both cortisol and adrenaline are produced when we find ourselves in stressful situations.

If we look at adrenaline first: adrenaline is produced in small amounts to regulate normal blood pressure, check out the picture below and take note at the size of the vessels and the size of the white arrows which is adrenaline. Nothing going on there to worry about but…

During stressful situations or during a event where we are forced in to a fight-or-flight response.

From watching the video you can clearly see that large amount of adrenaline are produced very quickly and have a dramatic effect on the body. All in case we need to run away or fight, basically so the body is ready for action.

• Raises blood sugar levels by stimulating the liver to change glycogen into glucose
• Causes fatty tissue to release fat into the blood along with protein
• Increases the heart rate
• Increases the speed of breathing
• Increases blood flow to the muscles
• Reduces blood flow to the skin and the intestines
• Widens the bronchioles
• Dilates the pupils

Look at the difference in the size of the vessels which have now vasodilated, which means there has been a widening of the blood vessels and the flow of the blood is increased which in turns carries more adrenaline hence one reason why the white arrow are bigger. The adrenal gland also produces more adrenaline which is the other reason the white arrows are bigger, so more adrenaline produced to fill a wider vessel results in ill health.

Shawn Talbott PH.D has a paragraph in his book The Cortisol Connection that I’d like to share with you now.

“In our fast paced, hurry hurry, twenty first century world, almost of all us are stressed out, sleep deprived, and hyper concerned about our diet and food choices. Because of this chronic stress unfortunately  most of us are also fat.”

This shows in today’s world, people suffer from stress (in different ways and over different things) and whatever way it is the body will respond to it in the same way which is to produce adrenaline. So this is happening in situations where no physical activity happens and the list for this is endless:

• Sitting exams/deadlines
• Even increasing society and family issues that we read about in the news and see on Jeremy Kyle day in day out
• Work-related pressure and balancing this out with home life
• Money
• Living conditions
• Our appearance
• Driving
• Lack of sleep
• Our status in society working class to upper class

All these and more issues can lead to an unhealthy release of sugar stores into the blood and cortisol causing ill health. Most people relate cortisol to being a stress hormone which is a little misleading Robb Wolf states that cortisol is critical to life and a lack of it results in health problems! you can’t win can you! well in actually fact you can so read on.

The graph above by Robb wolf shows  how a normal day starts for a non stressed person or how it started for our paleolithic ancestors. Am starts with high cortisol levels and this is intended to make sure you are alert and ready to go and by pm when we are winding down its drops. Now how many of us have a normal non stressful day every day or for at least longer than a month? Doesn’t happen does it? Look above again at the list of why people get stressed. How many things did our paleolithic ancestors get stressed over on that list?

Now please don’t think our paleolithic ancestors never got stressed because they did but it most likely never lasted long (acute) or was as chronic as we have as they were too busy surviving the elements. We were built to cope with stress on an acute level that’s why we have the fight-or-flight response. Can we respond to missed mortgage payments in a fight-or-flight response? No we can’t as it has further implementations on what we do or can do in future. This means that our graph above would look more like the one below.

Cortisol wants to break down your muscle and increase body fat, the very things that you hope to avoid. So when the sugar is released into the blood it is then taken by insulin to the cells for energy. The only thing is the cells don’t need the sugar for energy as we are not in a fight-or-flight response as we are just dealing with any of the issues listed above, so where does it go? The body does not want to waste it so it is simply stored as body fat. If we were dealing with a real fight-or-flight response the body would use the sugar up and the body would begin to sort it self out and find its balance.

Long exposure to cortisol according to some leading researchers is where real damage can occur, you can experience any of the following:

• Accelerated ageing
• Stomach fat deposition
• Loss of muscle mass
• Loss of bone mass (Can increase the risk of osteoporosis developing)
• Heart disease
• Potential damage to brain cells

Having a coffee or a cigarette can stimulant your body and produce more cortisol. The real problem with cortisol is the way that it forces itself on to cells, it will dock onto hormone receptors by fighting off progesterone (steroid hormone involved in the female menstrual cycle and it’s also in the male body at lower levels). Cortisol will win over progesterone due to the receptor favouring cortisol, this means the progesterone in woman who are permanently stress is less active. Researchers now believe that progesterone helps to burn fat and stimulate bone building cells called Osteoblasts.

Now once the cortisol is attached to the receptor guess what your body does? It sends a signal to the brain to produce more! and not only that but cortisol increases the production of oestrogen the list below shows how the progesterone and oestrogen effects mostly balance each other out.

Too much oestrogen can lead to oestrogen dominance:

Oestrogen dominance can occur at any age but it is more likely to occur in the years preceding and during the menopause. Just as the progesterone hormone is found in small amounts in the male body so too is the male hormone testosterone found in small amounts in the female body. To much production of testosterone in the female body can lead to a lack of ovulation, low sex drive and development of male characteristics such as facial hair.

According to Jerry Brainum cortisol also plays an important role post-exercise, by helping to supply fat in order to power muscle-protein-synthesis reactions. So cortisol is definitely not all bad it is just a matter of how you manage your lifestyle and training. Jerry goes on to state that an easy way to manage cortisol is to get sufficient rest between exercise sessions, and also enough sleep. Research also shows that a higher protein intake and in-particular branched-chain amino acids, also helps with recovery.

I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg here everything that I have talked about can lead to you being very unhealthy. This could even cause you to be put in a life threatening situation and that’s one thing we all want to avoid. The good news is that by addressing the situation your in correctly and make key achievable positive changes your body will change for the better.

I hope you have enjoyed this article? If so, please your comments in the box below.

Stay healthy,

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can still look good on your wedding day without starving yourself beforehand. From swapping a drunken L-plate clad night out for adventure hen parties and the traditional slow dance for something that will get the heart racing, we’ve found four creative ways to get in shape for your wedding, and have fun whilst you do it.

1. Adventure stag and hen parties

Your stag and hen party is seen as one last blow out before your big day. Many brides ruin a diet by downing sugary cocktails before gorging on a 4am McDonald’s burger. Instead, why not reject the stereotypical hen party and go for different type of adventure?

There are many stag and hen party adventure packages, from watersports and mountain biking to 5 aside football with ex-pros. If the bride-to-be has a particular hobby, incorporating this is a great way to give the hen party a personal touch and make sure everyone keeps in shape in the process.

Hen party organisers Maximise run a whole host of hen parties, including adventure activities, and combine them with more ‘traditional’ hen party fun. Their Wet & Wild weekend in Edinburgh, for brides willing to battle the Scottish elements by white water rafting, river duckies, river bugs or canyoning before heading out on the town.

2. Exercise together

Working out will not only make you feel better and is a great way to relax during those stressful pre-wedding months, it might actually bring you closer to your other half. It’ll certainly help you look your best for your big day.

Personal trainer to the stars, Jon Denoris lists looking good as one the main benefits of getting fit, he states “fitness training can help us look good and feel good! In addition to the overall look of your fat and muscles, physical activity improves the appearance of your nails, teeth, hair and skin!”

3. Healthy cooking classes

Learn to eat better to look great for the wedding, and keep your new figure afterwards too by going to healthy cooking classes. This is a way to make dieting more fun and can be done with your partner. You may even find that spicing things up in the kitchen results in spicing things up in the bedroom too.

Alternatively, cooking classes can be great fun, especially ones that benefit from a more informal atmosphere and plenty of wine. Cooking classes such as Food at 52 and the Clean Eating Academy could make for a great hen party activity.

Who knows? If the cookery classes are a rip-roaring success you may even end up saving on the catering for the wedding.

4. Practice your first dance

The first dance is the very first thing most of us will do in our married life, but, it is usually the first wrong step many couples make in their marriage. In all seriousness, it can stressful, embarrassing and just not very fun.

However, practicing your first dance by going to dance classes can be both romantic and the perfect tonic to the stressful wedding planning process. By doing away with the formality and swapping the slow dance for something that’s going to get your pulse racing, your first dance as Mr and Mrs will be fun and will help you get in shape.

Of course, you don’t necessarily have to lose any weight at all and a pre-wedding diet should not be stressful. These are ways you can get in shape, and drop those few extra pounds and still have fun during what should be, the best time of your life.

Instead of clearing your diary to find extra time in the gym – or worse still, becoming so demoralised that you give up – it’s time to change your workout. Most of us are creatures of habit, so even though we know we should be varying our exercise routines to stop this happening, we stick to our old routines, and we even risk injury by using the same muscles day in, day out.

However, rather than just swapping the treadmill for the rowing machine, you need to switch everything up, not just varying the activities, but the length of time you do them for, the intensity, and even where you’re doing them. It’s the constant adaptation that stops us from grinding to a halt, leading to better fitness and better weight loss.

If this seems too confusing to stick to, then don’t worry – it’s easier than it seems, all it needs is a little planning. If you’re a real stickler for routine, then this is for you, since you will be working out a few plans to rotate over a period of a few weeks. Vary your cardio activity, and also whether it’s for intensity or endurance; the key is to make sure that no two training sessions are the same, and that you never do two workouts designed for the same end back to back. You may want to discuss your initial plans with a personal trainer, and check in with them every month or so to make adjustments – it’s easy to decide on a plan which is either too tough or too easy for your current level of fitness, and if you don’t factor in suitable warm ups and cool downs, including plenty of stretches, you are in danger of picking up a sports injury.

By their nature, sports injuries can be hard for your GP to diagnose. Waiting lists can also be long for hospital scans, so a private MRI in London is a good idea to speed up the process, especially if your workout is crucial to your physical or mental health, or if the injury is such that you are unable to carry out even day to day tasks without pain, let alone follow an exercise regime. A quick diagnosis can help you get the treatment you need to get back to your best.

Weight loss doesn’t need to be a challenge and if you plan your course of action out correctly (just like in formula one mapping that course out), you’ll know what to expect and you’ll be able to handle your journey.

Many experts disagree on many different aspects of weight loss resulting in people getting confused. In the majority of these cases people end up being worse off than when they started, both financial and health wise.

The first important and critical aspect to know is that weight loss and fat loss are different!

Weight loss can be defined as “a reduction of the total body mass, due to a mean loss of fluid, body fat or adipose tissue and/or lean mass, namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon, and other connective tissue.”

Where as fat loss is “lowering your body fat, in other words the amount of fat your body carries.”

For health reasons (and there are lots of them) I would always recommend fat loss rather than weight loss. I also believe it’s important to measure/assess what you are doing, rather than guessing. Invest in scales than measure your body fat % so you know you are burning fat rather than your muscle, tendons and connective tissue.

The next two steps in your fat loss reduction is MOVE, EAT & DRINK WATER. Moving can be strength training (bodyweight, yoga & weights), aerobic (both steady state and HIIT). You need to work with a good personal trainer who understands how your body will adapt and not just pull the latest 8-week body transformation regime from any of the health magazines and present this to you.

This is the same for you eating plan as well. The plan will be made for you and will be tailored for your goals.  Ensure that you have your amount of protein, fats and carbohydrates along with at least 2.5 litres of water!

Research also clearly shows that if you move/exercise and eat healthy you will have better results. Supplements can be helpful but don’t spend hundreds on them! Focus more time educating yourself on your diet.

Fat loss can be quicker for some than others so please be wary of miracle plans offering quick fixes, as the ultimate goal of fat loss is to improve health and quick fixes do not do this. They can actually damage your hormonal system and offset the bodies delicate balance of systems that work together to keep you functioning.

Ever wondered how actors like Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe and Chris Hemsworth under take their amazing body transformations for their new movie roles?

Simply by doing all of the above and not by buying a health magazine and following a bog standard plan from that! One size does not fit all.

Celebrities do have a luxury that we don’t with time, money and access to world-class trainers but it’s not undoable to make small changes to improve your health and build on that further.

It is worth spending to be assessed at the beginning of your journey rather than wasting money trying to do bit by bit. I’d also recommend doing a food intolerance test to help expel the foods that are hampering your health, this small quick test can make a massive difference.

It is important to remember that even though I’ve stated fat loss and weight loss are different, Chris Hemsworth would have lost muscle during his body transformation. You can clearly see Chris’ body shapes are different in both films. He would have maintained his shape by undertaking strength training as well as cardiovascular training during this stage of his body transformation.

The reason being is that each body type that he has will enable different skills to thrive and the body of THOR is not the body that a formula one racing driver requires and having the THOR body can actually hinder a drivers performance.

The endurance and fitness levels of formula one racing drivers are phenomenal from both a physical and mental aspect. Driver can perform up to 20 hours a week of endurance training and muscle training in order to perform at optimal level!

Chris Hemsworth shredded over 14kg of muscle to play the role of racing driver, James Hunt. To celebrate the release of ‘Rush’, Sky Store are offering an all-expenses-paid trip to the Silverstone Grand Prix and are throwing in exclusive pit lane access!

In conclusion, Fat loss rather than weight loss for maximum health benefits. Have an exercise and diet plan that is suited to you not everyone else. Ensure that you drink plenty of water and work with a great PT who has proven results and wants to improve your health, not just your body shape!

Thanks for reading,

Water is a vital everyday luxury that sometimes we take for granted. There is nothing more refreshing on a hot summer’s day to quench your thirst with a cold glass of water. Water has many more significant uses to people than just quenching their thirst however. Studies have recently shown that people who are dieting and regularly drink more water than those that don’t drink water are much more successful when it comes to weight loss.

It is imperative to remain hydrated to keep personal wellbeing intact and avoid dehydration which can bring on headaches and fatigue. One fantastic way to avoid this is to have an office water cooler installed at your workplace. The benefits of having water on demand are huge, keeping yourself hydrated is vital to improve productivity and your business will benefit. Obviously your health will be improved by your wellbeing taken care of and this Good to Know online magazine article lists many different reasons why water can be beneficial to your health.

The benefits that drinking water has on your exercise are also huge. Even top level athletic performers are hugely reliant on water to help rehydrate them before, during and after competing to ensure they stay well hydrated. This is true of any level of performer from top level Tour De France cyclists to casual gym users who want to keep themselves relatively in shape.

Most of the chemicals in a human’s body require water in order to function to their optimum level and the simple installation of an office water cooler can aid this whilst at the workplace where most of the day will be spent. The NHS offers an interesting guide to the importance of water to remain fit and healthy and you can access this here.

Humans require water and cannot live without it for more than 100 hours, it is absolutely necessary to sustain us. It is the most important nutrient and is essential in everyday life. Keeping well hydrated can help people maintain healthy complexion, keep internal chemicals working correctly and help protect against infections. Sometimes water is not given the respect that it deserves as many people, especially in Western countries, take for granted its availability. In order to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle it is important that water is taken during the course of a natural day, and especially at work when our well being can be neglected somewhat and the use of a water cooler in the office can really boost the intake of water in any given day.

Thanks for reading,

What is the best diet ever?  Is it “Eat Right for your Blood Type” or Atkins?  Is it Dukkan, Paleo, Raw, Vegetarian or Vegan?  Or is it the diet that hasn’t yet been invented?  Maybe it’s the Food Pyramid after all?!

The best diet is none of these.  But it is all of these.

We have some basic food groups, they are: Animal (meat, fish, eggs), Dairy, Grains, Legumes/Beans, Nuts/Seeds, Fruit, Vegetables.  We are taught, that so long as we are eating these and minimising processed foods high in sugars and transfats then we will be more likely to maintain a healthy body weight and optimal health.

But then Mr Blood type comes along and tells us that if you are an A type, that grains are your friend and meat, not so much.  Mr Dukkan and fellow Paleo writers tells us that it’s meat all the way.  Raw Foodists tell us that nothing should be cooked and Vegetarians tell us that meat rots in our intestine.

So what these diets are telling us is that not all healthy food is healthy.  Wait, what?

They are half right.  Not all healthy food is healthy – but the only person who can determine that is you.  Not some diet writer and not someone who has only found data to support their particular diet regime.

Let me explain with some easy examples.  Grains are supposed to be good for us, but in someone with Colitis, grains can cause inflammation and gut issues which fires up the immune system leading to all sorts of other health conditions.

Dairy is supposed to be good for us.  But for those without the enzyme DPP-IV the metabolised casein molecule can swim around the brain as Casomorphine and cause psychological disturbance.

Onions are good for us, but if you bloat and fart, then just maybe your stomach isn’t happy with it.

The best diet ever is the one that keeps your body in balance.  The one that provides the foods for optimal function from head to toe.  Such things to consider are:

• Energy levels
• Sleep patterns
• Brain fog
• Weight maintenance
• Bloating and other digestive issues
• Elimination function
• Migranes and headaches
• Absence of food cravings
• Healthy functioning immune response
• Good hair, skin & nails
• Good cognition and lowered anxiety, depression or stress response

Food provides the building blocks to our entire body.  We all know this, but we struggle to listen to our body when finding out what it really needs, instead we listen to our brains or egos and diet writers.

It takes time to work out what the best diet is for you, and it will also change as the years pass.

There is a best diet, and it is the one that brings your body into balance.  A great place to start is to see what foods you’re intolerant to and to take time out and listen to your body.

The best diet for me is Paleo (meat, nuts, seeds, fruit, veges).  Eat right for my blood type tells me to eat lots of grains, but guess what – I don’t digest them well, so who is right?  Some book…or my body?

Start playing around with your food groups and write your own perfect and best diet while the diet writers and scientists battle it out amongst themselves.