Below is a picture that I'm embarrassed by.  

I'm a health coach and have just took part in an extreme ironman but my body isn't telling the same story.

Like many of you I struggle with my weight, I do well in the fat genetics family but when I take care of my nutrition and do the right type of exercise for my body I can remain reasonably lean.

Not to the extent of my fitness model clients but a flat stomach and good muscle tone.

You'd be surprised how many recreational level marathon runners and triathletes are carrying a few too many pounds.  

My problem was the same as many others who do cardio as their many exercise type, I did something I warn all of our clients about.  I used exercise to add more food in particular, sweet foods like cake.  I got caught up in needing carbs to replace and fuel my exercise too.  I don't tolerate carbs very well, I'm ok with a little but I put weight on really quickly, particularly around my waist and love handles.  Fran does well with carbs.  Everybody is different, you don't need to avoid them completely just find the right amount for you and listen to your body.

An app would tell me I had burnt 2000 calories and I would try and replace them.  The main problem with that being that the app didn't really take in to account that I was becoming more efficient on the bike and in the water etc.  

I got caught up in needing carbs to replace and fuel my exercise too.  I don't tolerate carbs very well, I'm ok with a little but I put weight on really quickly, particularly around my waist and love handles.  Fran does well with carbs.  Everybody is different, you don't need to avoid them completely just find the right amount for you and listen to your body.

Which is actually the whole point of cardio exercise - become more efficient so you can achieve more with less effort.

When running a couple of weeks ago the Guns N Roses song Mr Brownstone came on.  It has the line "I used to do a little, but a little wouldn't do, so the little got more and more. I just keep trying to get a little better, said a little better than before".  It's about heroin abuse and how you need to do a little more each time to get the same effect.  Pretty much cardio exercise then.

When I used to work in a private health club I saw this all of the time.  Ladies who were struggling to lose weight with their diets so they would add another class.  Often doing 3 classes of aerobics type things per night (BodyPump is essentially an aerobic workout, however you or the marketing tries to kid you it's not).

They were members for years and didn't really change shape at all.  They were doing cardio as their little 'fix'.

It was the reason that I set up my original drop-a-dress-size group personal training programme, this eventually became Achieve Bootcamp.  The focus was and still is effective exercise that is designed specifically to ramp up your metabolise rather than make you more efficient and a supportive nutrition plan that can be tweaked to each member of the group with relevance for their body type.

I love cardio exercise, I love being out on my bike and watching the world go by along quiet country roads, I love running down by the canal with the weird and wonderful sights that it provides.  However, it is not the most effective way for me to get or stay lean.  I'm now starting to feel recovered from the triathlon and will be mixing up my training to be mainly weights and conditioning based.

I will still include cardio particularly my bike as I am doing a 1000 mile cycle challenge in September, so need to keep that side of my fitness up.  That ride will certainly be a lot easier if I weigh 6kg less though.  

Fran is away this week on a juice detox retreat, it inspired me to strip back my nutrition to basics.  I'm already feeling a lot better.

Other factors are really important too, sleep being a major one.  I'll write about sleep and the other factors over the next couple of weeks. 

If you struggle with weight loss and you're spending hours in the gym every week without seeing the results you feel you deserve get in touch and we can discuss the options we have to help you.

Darren 'Chubby' Checkley