Supplements
Three Supplements you probably should be taking for better health.
There are many supplements on the market today that are designed to fulfil a whole host of roles, from helping you build muscle, lose body fat or to improve mental focus and performance. Whatever your goal, the one thing that we need to consider is that underpinning the effectiveness of your training and supplementation is creating a healthy environment where the body can work effectively.
Fat Burners: How do they work?
One of the most popular nutritional supplements are known as ‘fat burners’, they are by far the most popular supplement. They have been linked to health and performance improvements, as well as weight loss. Fat burners generally claim to highly increase fat metabolism, weight loss and fat oxidation during exercise, alongside reducing fat absorption. However, it is important to note that the supplements available on the market are made out of a combination of ingredients, each with its own mechanism of action which leads to the proposed benefits. Many advertisements for these products use ‘too-good-to-be-true’ before and after photos of individuals who have used them, without enough evidence for their efficacy. Here, we’ll look at the most popular ingredients of these supplements and how they induce fat metabolism and weight loss, together with the evidence for their efficacy.
Get fit – How to stick to your new year’s resolution
We’ve all been there. The new-year-new-you train is at the station, but every time we get on the train it turns out this is a circular line and before we know it, we’ve ended up back to where we started. So how do we stick to it this year?
Can you build muscle and lose fat at the same time?
It is a simple law of the universe that in order to gain weight, we need to consume more calories than we use, and in order to lose weight, the opposite is true. It may therefore seem counterintuitive to some to suggest that we can grow muscle and anabolic (tissue building) process, whilst also having catabolic (breakdown of tissue) processes occurring at the same time. This led many to believe that you need to be eating an excessive amount of calories to support muscle growth, as you will hopefully now see, this is not entirely true.
Three things you should be doing to support muscle growth.
There are many complicated theories and philosophies about the best ways to build muscle, indeed the ‘science’ of muscle growth can be complex. It is easy to see why many people over-complicate the process, this is due to a number of reasons. The most important one is lack of patience; despite what many think and what the fitness industry often portrays, muscle growth is a slow, slow process, with only a few grams of muscle growth being possible for the non-genetically gifted amongst us! Most people, after the initial few months of training find it harder and harder to grow muscle and if you’re growing 2-3kg of muscle per year consistently, then you are doing pretty well. That said, many people fail to reach their maximum growth rates, it fundamentally comes down to these three things:
Exercising & Losing weight for beginners
For somebody who hasn’t exercised before or doesn't exercise regularly, there is nothing more daunting than the prospect of joining a gym, or often simply the thought of exercise in any form. Many factors can inhibit or prevent a person from undertaking an exercise regime, these can be health related, work related, family related or simply that there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to fit in exercise. The key point to remember is, exercise can be one of the most fulfilling activities available. It doesn’t have to depend on a gym membership or getting up at 5am to run in the cold and rain, there are many programmes that will allow you to boost health, strength and stamina that don’t require leaving your home.
Weight Loss Secrets
It could be a lotion, a new diet or an exercise regime. There is always the next big ‘weight loss secret’ that promises to transform your physique in just a few simple steps, in just a matter of weeks. The truth is, there are weight loss secrets and they are available everywhere if you know where to look. They are just as simple to follow, but not quite as easy as some of the more outlandish claims made by these diet fads.
Beginners Guide: What to eat for muscle growth.
For many people starting out in weight training, the most difficult thing is figuring out what to eat to support muscle growth. With so many conflicting methods and everyone seemingly giving conflicting advice, plus the numerous complex strategies to really optimise muscle growth, it is easy to not even know where to start. So we’ll tell you!
Protein: The key to weight loss.
For many people, weight loss can be challenging. There are many factors that will influence the rate at which a person can lose weight. Fundamentally, in order to lose weight and more specifically body fat, a person needs to be burning more calories than they consume.
Want a perfect beach body? You need to start now!
If we want a beach body for the start of summer, or a holiday, then a lot will depend on your starting point body fat wise. Obviously the more ‘fluff’ we are carrying, the longer we need to give ourselves. The good news is that the more overweight we are the quicker we typically lose weight, the real difficulty is knowing how long you should give yourself. The most effective way is to allow yourself 1-2lbs of fat loss per week, so if you have a stone to lose, give yourself at least 7 weeks plus a ‘settling-in’ period of a few weeks. A bit of leeway is advised in case of set-backs, so ten weeks would be a safe amount of time to get you from A to lean if you wanted to lose a stone!