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?