Okay, this going to be a difficult one to write, I'm not the most eloquent with words so I'm sorry if things here get misread or misunderstood. My intentions are pure and all I want to do is help.

I recently put out a facebook Ad for personal training, I got a lot of interest which is great. 

I normally get a lot of interest and sign ups, so when I ran it this time, I received a lot of interest but haven't had any sign ups for a reason which I just don't understand.

For me to hear women tell me how ugly they feel, how fat they feel, how unconfident, they dont feel sexy, they aren't happy, they're in a dark place with their health and mental health, they need help! 

It annoys me that I can't help them and maybe you reading this.

When I have had 14 different women tell me they can't train with me because I'm a man and their religion doesn't allow that them to be in my presence irritates the hell out of me, I have had women say they can't even train in a mixed gender gym.

I don't understand a rule that doesn't allow someone to be in the presence of someone else. you NEED my help but because of an ancient, vastly outdated rule, I'm powerless in my ability to help you? so you're left feeling unhappy, unconfident and unempowered. 

There has to be a time when you think about putting yourself, your happiness and your mental and physical health before everything else, a time when you say I need my religion to stop controlling my every move and for me to take my health as a priority. 

It's a hard thing to do but I'm pretty sure you're religion doesn't want you to be unhappy everyday. 

Please if you're truly unhappy and unhealthy and really do need help please don't let anything or anyone stop you achieving happiness and health. both of these things are very simple and basic right of living on this planet for animals for us. 

This months client is another one based off of not only great results but a great mentality! 

This client is one that you will see a lot on my instagram, She has scoliosis which makes some exercises excruciating, so we have had to play around with different angles for exercises, different types, different movement patterns and through all the experimenting and she still turned up on time and worked hard, listened to what I have said, taken action, done things outside of the sessions, kept pushing and just keeps trying with a smile of her face and dig at my counting ability!

There was a day I remember in particular where her back hurt, every exercise we did was hurting, every movement hurt, walking hurt, we found exercises some exercises that didn't hurt and she kept going.
In terms of work rate the session was terrible(she won't mind me saying that... I hope) BUT in terms of pushing through your own mental barriers, pushing through your own self doubt, pushing through the discomfort to better yourself, pushing through the pain and the struggles to make sure you get results and be the best you can be, that session was the one I knew she could achieve anything she wanted!

That session was by far the hardest session but the session that had the biggest impact on her achieving her goals! 

She has lost a lot of weight 4.3kg, She's gotten stronger, can now do full press ups, lightly resisted pull ups and much more!

With all that said I think it's time to announce who 'she' is......................................................................TIFFANY GALER!!

Well done Tiff - it's great training you and I look forward to seeing what other goals we can break through!!



If you want to be part of this and want to feel supported and part of a quality group of women all trying to achieve amazing things in the gym then get in contact and I'll see if I can help!
This isn't just any old personal training this is 'Applied Fitness Personal Training'
we're based in Birmingham city centre! 

The keto diet seems to be going through another resurgence - an I have had some people ask if I recommend it.

The short answer is No - not at all! nothing about the keto diet is fun or appealing apart from the amount of bacon I would be able to eat. 

Let's start with what the keto diet claims - It claims you will burn loads more fat, and you will because your diet is 70-80% fat you will burn A LOT of fat BUT that does not mean you will burn your body fat, the only thing that determines your body fat levels is a calorie deficit.

They claim the Keto diet allows you to eat loads of bacon, steak, cheese, which isn't strictly true - because the state of ketosis is a very fine line, if you eat too much protein your liver will cover that protein into glucose, this conversion is called gluconeogenesis. once you eat so much protein this process will occur and either stop you getting into ketosis or will stop you being in ketosis, which means you start all over again. 

They also claim the switch is easy or some won't mention the process at all! The process can be very long! up to 12 weeks for some people thats 3 months of eating potentially less than 30g of carbs.
If you have a chocolate bar then well that process is longer, you can make it quicker by eating more fats but then get ready for some serious explosive poo, you WILL have to supplement fiber and ketones to hurry the process on. 
Some people get Keto flu, where you feel like you have symptoms very similar or the same as a flu or cold. 

The results of the keto diet are the same as in an average diet when protein and calories are matched, so you can go to that italian with your friends eat your pasta dish and enjoy it, you can have popcorn at the cinema, you don't have to find low carb ice cream and keto friendly brownies and all the rest of it, why do something so extreme for no benefit.

Most people go on a keto diet for '2 months' lost 7-10kgs of weight, then you dig a bit deeper and they were on a very low carb didn't actually go into ketosis but restricted carbs so much they created a huge calorie deficit and that's where the huge weight loss happened. 

Another caveat to this huge restriction is depleted muscle glycogen stores, which when you come off the diet and start eating carbs again means you could quite easily pack on another 2-3kgs, which yeah might not be visible fat but you then get disheartened that you have fallen off and put that weight back on, so the physiological effects of seeing that is the problem not the weight gain.

Where as if you keep carbs in your diet do the same level of calorie restriction you'll get the same end result but you won't have the same 'rebound' of weight. 

Just eat a bit less than you normally do, have a varied diet and enjoy the process. 

Dieting should NOT be a punishment.

Let me know in the comments whether you have tried it, or if you have any questions about ketosis or any other diet.

​Winning personal trainer of the year in Birmingham 2019!
 
I was found by a company called Origym, they are a personal training qualification company.
 
They found my website, read my testimonials and got in touch with me to tell me I was being shortlisted and I would need to answer some questions, when I got the email I was thinking what the hell is this? Is this some scam where I have to pay to be forward or where it would have some hidden fee where they demand I now pay £1000000, I was sitting with my friend and fellow trainer Lewis Gaffney.
 
I showed him and he had coincidently done his course with them, said they were a really good company and it was legit.
 
So, I emailed back the answers to my questions which are below;
 
What inspired you to become a personal trainer? 
“The reason I became a PT is because of my friend, he was a PT and made me see in myself what I could achieve with training and hard work.
I wanted to help as many people as I could achieve that same feeling of self-confidence, accomplishment and mental resilience to keep pushing to become better, stronger and healthier. “

What one piece of advice would you give to an aspiring personal trainer? 
“Piece of advice would be: if you only want to get into this industry to take topless selfies and make a 6-figure salary just don’t do it.
If you want to become a good and successful PT you have to genuinely care for your clients and their results, listen to them, even if their wrong you have to try and understand, remove judgement and strive to change that person’s life.
It doesn’t matter what they’re like when they walk in for the first session, it’s how they walk out on your last session with them that counts.”
 
I was told that I would be considered for the final they wanted to take a look at my social media accounts and would email me to tell me whether I had won or not, it took about a week and then I got the email
 
“CONGRATULATIONS” the blog would be out in a few days and they’ll send me the link. I was sooo happy to win!
I don’t win much, I feel my work doesn’t get recognised a lot, and as a recent study of personal trainers showed a tall personal trainer was deemed to be ‘less competent’ as every other type of trainer and also ‘has less knowledge’ than any other trainer! Yay for me right!
So I’m credibly happy and grateful to all my clients who have put In the work and tried there hardest to get results because it’s because of them that I have been awarded this!
To give back to the people I have opened up my website, the ‘Suite AF’ is open, all the resources, the recipe books, EVERYTHING!
Go mad, use all the resources you need too, but please let me know what resources you use and how you find them!
 
Thank you again to all my clients! <3
Enjoy all the resources!
Dan

What to do with your calories now you have worked out how many you have everyday.

Hopefully you used my calorie calculator – it takes some work but once you have worked out what you should be on dieting/maintenance and weight gain is a bit easier.

In this blog we’ll focus on what to now do with those calories.

Let’s say example you ended up on 2000 calories for your maintenance it’s a nice round easy number – the only reason I picked it,

Let say you weigh 65kg, exercise 4 times a week, first thing we have to do is work out your daily protein as a high protein diet makes Everything to do with weight loss, maintenance and gain easier,
You have to have a range so you don’t get obsessed with figure, you have a tip top and bottom range.
The range is between: 1.7g – 2.2g x 1kg bodyweight so 65 x 1.7 = 110.5grams of protein per day (minimum a day)
Then 2.2 x 65 = 143grams of protein per day (maximum)

So your daily range of protein will be 110 grams to 143 grams of protein which equates to 440 – 572 calories as its 4 calories per 1gram of protein.

Which if we take that away from your daily calories (2000) we get left with 1560-1428 calories per day. These remaining calories can come from wherever you want, high carb, low carb, high fat, low fat!

You need to make sure your health comes first, so make sure there is veg in there, either as smoothies, roasted, boiled it really doesn’t matter just make sure you get veg in there and fruit, same again, as smoothies, juices, fruit salads whatever, just eat fruit!

Once the base of your diet is protein and health based, you can use your calories on your favourite things, burgers, sweets, chocolate whatever it.

I love pick n mix! So when I diet I won’t have carbs in my meals, or will have very few carbs and will purposely make sure I pick lower carb fruit and veg in the meals so I can enjoy my pick n mix, which means my adherence to the deficit should be better, if adherence is better and more consistent the results will be better and quicker.

Counting and tracking what you eat makes this process quite possibly 1 million times better and easier! Likewise having a diet plan or diet guide makes this process easier, I give clients a guideline with what a weekly diet will look like, as a base and they can then add in things they like.

If you need to lose weight and have done all this maths and work to get ready but now don’t know what to do remember to comment and I can help you, if you’re Birmingham based and want personal training then comment below and I’ll get in touch!

Have a great week!

Dan

Impedance scales are the ones that measure your body fat, muscle mass, water etc. It does this by sending an electric pulse through your body and judging how long it takes to get back can determine an estimate of how much of fat and muscle you have.

Some will make you stand on metal plates, some will make you hold something as well, NONE of these are accurate, some will claim a +/- of 3.5 percent that doesn’t seem a lot but that’s a whole 7 difference between the values and that isn’t a 7% in the accuracy that 7% of the displayed figure.

 Which means you might step on one day and be 30% body fat step on a day later and be 35% step on a day later and be 28% body fat, still be in a deficit, weight going down you’re getting stronger/fitter and healthier but the scales say you have put on 5% body fat.
 
How demotivated and upset would you feel, even though everything is going really well you will so shit just because an incredibly inaccurate scale tells you you’re now 5% fatter.
 
The only way to accurately track your body fat levels is to keep dying and getting autopsies which is obviously impossible, so do body measurements along with progress pictures, track workouts and weigh ins, as long as you understand what the scale represents and the things that effect, remove the attachment to the number it’s just you weight, it will go up and down and stay the say, but it will always be an accurate representation of your weight at that particular time.
 
The most important tracking tool is how you look and feel, if you’re seeing change great, if you’re feeling better fantastic, don’t let a cheap body fat scanner get you down or tell you you aren’t progressing.
 
It happens too much where people want to see a number on a screen change and are so fixated with that number that what they see in the mirror and see in their workout progress gets completely ignored and pushed aside as not good enough when it might be some exceptional results! But that little number just won’t budge.
 
So, make sure you have progress pics, make sure you track what your workouts and if you’re consistent you will see results.
 
If you’re Birmingham based and want a personal trainer who tracks this for you, helps you to understand stuff like this so you aren’t being disheartened when you get on the scales or get given one of those handheld body fat measures, then get in touch and we can jump on a call.

 Most of my client work in an office and this comes with a HUGE problem... other people in the office! 

This in itself isn't a problem BUT people aren't just people, people are a bag of judgement and emotions. 

so when my client pulls out a food prep container and people start saying 'ooo what have you got? that smells funny', 'are you losing weight, you don't need too, you look fine', 'why are you eating that, don't you just want a doughnut?', and all that stuff.

which might be true, they person might be at a healthy weight, that doesn't mean they're happy, some people feel sluggish and heavy at the weight they are, I'm now 96 kilos (211 lbs) and I feel heavy, It's a healthy weight for someone my height and that trains but when I move/run I feel heavy and sluggish, so I do need to drop my body weight for ME, not for the scale but for my own... mental health I suppose. so some people might fit into that 'healthy scale' but not feel it, and that feel is more important, you must feel comfortable in your skin.

So stop telling people that they don't need to lose weight and they look fine, it makes people feel guilty for wanting to feel their best.

The 'Your food smells/looks funny' comment.. you just need to fuck off with that. it's food, the person finds it delicious, get over yourself and focus on what you're doing. stop judging someone's food when you're sitting there with a cake, chocolate bar, packet of crisps, bottle of full fat coke and a sausage and cheese muffin. Focus on your own things and fix your health.

Then the 'Don't you just want a doughnut?' is a very very very worrying idea when it comes to dieting. if you go on a diet that says 'what's your favourite food? okay yeah never eat that again' 
that's the best and quickest way to make sure someone never adheres to their diet.

When you're dieting you need a certain amount of 'free' (can't think of a better word) calories, these are calories that don't count these are calories that you allocate specifically for your favourite foods, like biscuits etc. but this is the last thing to sort out, first is calories overall, then protein, food quality like veg, fruits etc and then sort out the rest of you caloric allowance. 

so if that person wants a doughnut, eat a doughnut, just eat 1 not 10.

It's insane how much judgement there is in an office space, stop judging other people, instead why not ask if you can help them? or join them? or see if they can help you to lose weight. if you all your going to do is comment on the other person then take a look at your own health and if you're eating loads of poor quality foods then fuck off.

Have a wonderful day.

If you want to learn how to lose weight while still eating some of your favourite foods, then get in touch and let's start some personal training.

This is the first blog of it type on here, and comes from a feedback form I sent out to all my client ( by the way not a single piece of negative feedback on them <3) 

It was one of my clients who suggested having client challenges and a client a month blog post was formed. the client I'm giving this huge honour too........... Hannah Jones!! Hannah has recently started with me and is achieving great results! She's 3.7 kilos down already (8.14 lbs), so well done!

However, it isn't the weight she's losing that's the reason why I'm giving Hannah this award. It is because of what she's currently going through in her personal life and how she's still coming to each session on time, with a big smile on her face and quality work rate.

Every exercise we do, Hannah does with quality technique and high work rate, she's listening to everything I have been saying in regards to nutrition, she recently cut her calories through the day down to 460ish so she could enjoy a 3 course work dinner, no guilt, no hindrance to results, no remorse, which is perfect!

It's amazing to see someone who has been through a lot personally and is still smiling and putting her own progression first.

Below is a video of Hannah perfectly demonstrating how to do a zombie front squat.

Well Done to Hannah!

I can't wait to see what more you can achieve, well done to all my other clients too because everyone is achieving some great things!

If you want to join my team of awesome clients, starting personal training and are around the birmingham area then fill out the sign up form and lets get going?

​How to calculate your own calories
 
This blog post will be quite unusual and if there is anything you want to know or need my explanation on please write a question the comments box below.

So, first thing you need to do is work out how many calories you need everyday to maintain your life the calculation for this is;
 
Adults male: 66 + (6.3 x body weight in Lbs) + (12.9 x heights in inches) -(6.8 x age in years) = BMR

Adult Female 655 + (4.3 x weight in Lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 age in years) = BMR
 
So that roughly calculates what you need to keep you alive, then from that number you can work out your maintenance calories
 
If you are;

• very sedentary (little or No exercise): BMR x 1.2
• Lightly active (light exercise/sport 1-3 days) BMR x 1.375
• Moderate activity (moderate exercise 3/5 days) BMR x 1.55
• Very active (hard exercise 6/7 days) BMR x 1.725
• Extremely active (very hard exercise & physical job or 2 a day training) BMR x 1.9

 
Once you work this out you need to know how much weight you want to lose if you want 10kgs, you need to know the Lbs version for 10 its 22 Lbs. (1kg x 2.2lbs)

There are roughly 3500 calories in one pound of fat, so then it’s 22 x 3500 = 77,000

Your holiday is in 15 weeks – it’s then 77,000 / 15 = 5,133
5,133 / 7(days) = 733 that’s a 733-calorie deficit per day which is seems like quite a lot however,
 
That’s 1.46 Lbs loss a week (5133 / 3500 = 1.46) which is a pretty decent rate of weight loss.
 
From there you need to work out your protein per days which is your body weight in Kg x 1.8-2.2 if you're try to lose weight I prefer the higher end, so 2.2g per kg.
 
So, for example 70kg x 2.2 = 154g per day of protein which is (154 x 4(calories per gram) = 616 calories per day of protein
 
Now you have your daily calories, you know how many of them are taken from protein it’s now completely up to you where your other calories come from, whether it’s high fat/low carb, low fat high carb, moderate fat/moderate carb whatever mix, make sure it makes you feel good, in a calorie deficit there is only so good you can feel and also you can stick to it through the duration of your diet.
 
Once you have all this information you need to implement it, you need to work out where to gets those calories from and build your own plan, it can change week to week but if you know what to eat and have a proper plan, that you have created, you’re less likely to buy random things in the store.

Do you want the results enough?

As part of the job I get to speak to a lot of people who all want the same goal – weight loss, however everyone is in a different place mentally, some just after a breakup, some are dangerously obese and are at risk from heart failure and other serious health issues, some in a new relationship and want to look good for their partner, holiday coming up etc, whatever the reason the desperation and desire to change are all at different levels.

One thing I want to make extremely clear is this; YOU ARE WORTH IT, you aren’t too ugly, you aren’t too horrible, too fat,, you are good enough to change, to become better no matter who says you can’t, won’t, aren’t good enough, You are! If they’re telling you you aren’t, get them out your life.

Some people will let themselves get to the point where they have gone way too far mentally, so much so they are depressed with how they look, they have no confidence but desperate to change, I could tell them anything, like for example, they have to become a ‘breatharian’ for 4 weeks and they would think it’s a good idea, for context a ‘breatharian’ is someone that doesn’t eat or drink for days even weeks, they claim they get all their nutrients from the air they breathe, it’s absolute insane, the most ridiculous diet ever, some just say they want to lose weight but mentally they just don’t care if they do or not, you need to find out if you do actually care or not.

If you are happy with the way you look, then that’s fantastic! Don’t ever lose that self confidence.

The thing with this is why let yourself get to the point where becoming a Breatharian seems like a good idea, why get to the point where you’re so desperate and depressed about the way you look and feel you’ll do anything to change?

Before you start your journey you need to consider where you’re at now? Where you want to be? Is it realistic? And is it realistic in the time you want?
Need to find your why, your reason to change and push yourself, the reason why sacrificing a tub of ice cream on a Sunday doesn’t affect you, mental well-being.

What are you willing to sacrifice to reach your goals, yeah you don’t have to cut out all chocolate, wine, ice cream, cheese and your other favourites but you have to sacrifice some of it, to reach any goal there HAS to be sacrifice, so be realistic with yourself, how much are you willing to give up to reach your goals?

In the last stages of your diet where the weight just doesn’t seem to come off what are you to do to get your results? You might have to rip up your old method and try a new method to keep you in a deficit.

If you want a bigger bum or quicker weight loss are you willing to do the extra session on the gym? Or extra walking etc.

There will be times where motivation drops and it’s important you keep your goals in mind, keep your reason why, pick something to aim towards like a photo shoot with your family, a holiday.

So if you want to make sure you reach your goals, get a coach and make sure they keep you accountable.