HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT WITH A PERSONAL FITNESS TRAINER
Updated: 2 days ago
Finally, a solid blog about how to lose weight with a personal trainer
You want to lose weight, but can't seem to sort through all of the methods you've read about.
You've tried everything...diets, trends, fads, keto, intermittent fasting. You've even hired personal trainers who couldn't help you lose weight. Here it is...here's how to lose weight with a personal trainer.
I'm Dennis Romatz, weight loss specialist and personal trainer at Dennis Romatz Fitness with locations in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Chicago. I can help you lose weight with my nutrition coaching administered thru personal training with my fitness programs targeting weight loss.
I'm going to put your mind at ease and very simply explain how to lose weight at a decent pace and very sustainably.
To understand how to lose weight, we need to reverse engineer the process and learn how we put on the weight in the first place.
Let's start by asking some simple, yet very relevant questions.
What is the substance in our bodies that is causing weight gain?
We would answer this question by process of elimination. That is to ask, what is essential and what is not?
We will not lose skin, bone, muscle, tendon, ligament, organs, vessels, arteries and blood. We also don't want to lose water.
So what's left? Subcutaneous and visceral body fat. Coincidentally, that's what people complain of having to much of.
So, now we have identified body fat as the only substance in our bodies that we don't need and that is causing our weigh gain.
Let's ask ourselves the next question.
How did the fat get in our bodies?
If we can understand how fat enters our body or gets stored in our bodies, we can then start to solve our weight loss equation.
The simplified answer is that when we eat carbohydrates and processed sugars (an external source of energy) and we do not "burn off" these sugars as an energy fuel source, our body starts to store these carbs and sugars as fats. That's right, fat doesn't cause us to be fat. Starchy carbs and processed sugars (and a sedentary lifestyle) cause the human body to store fat.
We've now identified body fat as the substance causing weight gain and also learned how fat gets stored in our body.
Now, let's take the next step and learn how to get the fat out of our body so that we can reduce the weight and size of our body.
How do we get the fat out of our body?
The human body needs a fuel source to create energy to cause human movement in order to burn calories. So, if carbs and processed sugars are an external energy that leads to fat storage if not completely utilized as energy, what would be a good source of energy to burn fat calories?
Stay with me because here's where it starts to get good and I mean really simple!
Stored fat is an energy source. That's right, the same fat that we are trying to get rid of is actually an energy source that we can use to, well, get rid of itself!
Simply put, we can use fat as a fuel to burn calories and it will eventually burn itself off and there will be nothing left. Consequently, our body will contain little or no fat, be smaller in size and be lighter. Pretty cool eh?!
This is why when people call me for weight loss,
I tell them to relax, weight loss is really very easy when you know the formula and equation.
So, I know what you're thinking...so how do I use fat as a fuel to burn calories?
Here we go!
1. Exercise at the proper heart rate to burn fat calories
The answer is to simply get moving, but exercise, fitness train, workout...whatever term you like to use, at an intensity level which has your heart rate in a maximal fat burning zone.
Here is where things start to get easy. Yet, this is the same time where you will be sold or maybe have been sold on workouts which were incorrect ie: H.I.I.T. High Intensity Interval Training. H.I.I.T. protocols have people training in a very high heart rate zone. Sure, you'll burn a lot of calories, but this isn't the zone where our body uses fat as an energy source. In this high heart rate zone, our body uses glucose, or the sugars in the foods you've just eaten as a fuel to create energy to burn calories.
You're thinking, wait....I've been crushing these H.I.I.T. workouts and not burning fat? Yep, you've been sweating a lot and simply using glucose as a fuel. You burned out after 20 minutes and all you did was lose water weight.
Your mistake was training in the incorrect ventricular or heart rate zone. Basically you've been training crazy hard in the wrong zone and waiting a lot of energy and a lot of workouts doing the wrong thing.
You're thinking, why were you told to do the high intensity class when in reality, it would help you lose weight by burning fat? The answer is because hot, sweaty, rah rah rah workouts are easy for gyms, studios and trainers to sell to you. It's gives you the sensation and "feel" of a great workout when in reality it makes you fit, but not slim! I'll let you deal with your gym or ex trainer later because right now, I have more to teach you!
So, how do you need to workout? Well, first, just chill a bit and understand that this weight loss process is easier than you think and so should your training
The methodology is simple. Start training in the proper heart rate zone.
I get the best results when my clients train for the one hour that I have with them, in a heart rate zone between 122 - 133 beats per minute.
If you walk on a treadmill you'll learn that 133 BPM is about at a warm-up speed. Yes, that's right, a casual, leisurely walking pace burns a lot of calories from fat!
But wait...high heart rate burns a lot of calories (from glucose not fat).
Low heart rate obviously burns less calories. Here is the part where you'll have to exercise and find your way.
You'll have to spend some time training in the proper heart rate zone and extend the duration of your workouts to meet or exceed your desired number of calories.
I like my clients to train between 128 - 133 BMP and burn a minimum of 500 calories per workout. Then, add in all of the other calories burned during the course of the 24 hour day. The, start to target an approximate number of calories to be burned per day.
This is the formula for being calories deficient on a daily basis to find the exact numbers that work best for you.
Walking on a treadmill is the best way to maintain a steady heart rate as all you need to do is simply set the speed which renders your desired heart rate.
Floor exercises are more difficult to track heart rate because they are more intensive, cause the heart rate to shoot up quickly and then require a rest to lower the heart rate to your desired number. There are a lot of inconsistencies so this is why i recommend simply walking on a treadmill to maintain your desired heart rate. You can walk forward, backward sideways and on an incline to use the various leg muscles to diversify a bit.
2. Track your heart rate with a Polar H10 heart rate sensor
As you can see, tracking your heart rate is the key to this weight loss process.
You can't always walk and hold your hands on the treadmill the entire time. I get that!
I have all of my weight loss and personal training clients wear a Polar H10 Heart Rate Sensor with the corresponding app on their smart phone.
I've tried all of the heart rate tracking sensors on the market and nothing compares to the Polar H10. It has made my career as a personal trainer so much easier and I can now guarantee weight loss on a daily basis if my clients wear and use the device.
The Polar H10 has no lag time and provides bio data in real time which can be viewed on your smart phone screen which is is front of my clients in in my hands the entire workout.
You will always be training correctly if you accurately track your heart rate with precision. The Polar H10 does exactly that.
So, armed with the knowledge of the proper heart rate training zone and your Polar H10 to help you track, you should always be training perfectly and well on your way to burning fat and losing weight.
Contrary to what you may have heard, weight loss is not only about calories out vs. calories in.
We don't want to simply be burning a ton of calories just for the sake of burning calories.
We want to be targeting burning calories from fat which requires us to be tracking our heart rate so as to always be training in a fat burning zone which clinically, we know to be at lower heart rates.
In fact, I've had my personal training clients wear their Polar H10 for eight hours at night while they sleep. Each client would consistently burn between 1,400 - 1,500 calories with approximately 65% of those calories being burned from fat. And I know this statistic to be true because the beauty of the Polar H10 is that it shows exactly what percentage of the calories you burn come from fat during each workout or activity, including sleep.
3. Eat sensibly with Plant Based meal plans
It was once believed that exercise & diet are the 50% / 50% equation for weight loss.
Actually, this couldn't be further from the truth.
The reality is that the ratio is more like 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. There simply are no sustainable weight loss results without focusing first and foremost on the foods you consume or don't consume.
People always ask me "what should I be eating"? The answer is more like what you shouldn't be eating because those are the foods which contributed to you storing fat.
Imagine a whiteboard cluttering with a bunch of black marker scribble. Ya, that's a metaphor for your food consumption!
Now image that white board being wiped clean. It's now a blank white board to fill as you see fit.
Let's start with red, orange, yellow, opaque, green, purple and blue. These are all the colors of vegetables with various micro nutrients and phytonutrients. Now let's use some deep dark red, deep blue, maroon and bright red. These are the colors of nutritious berries filled with antioxidants and immune boosters.
Coincidentally, of all of these foods are nutrient dense, high performance foods which are extremely low in calories. Get that....high in nutrients, low in calories. You can eat as much as you want and there will be very little cause for concern.
Leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, berries, seeds, nuts are all recommended foods which you can start with.
Summary
Weight loss is easy.
Forget what you've been told, sold and conned into believing just because someone wanted you to buy their product, join their fitness class or have you personal train with them.
Eat more vegetables and try to cut out your low performance, calorie laden foods. Stop consuming foods and drinks with sugar.
Exercise at a slow and steady pace while bio metrically tracking your heart rate to make sure you are training in a lower, fat burning zone. Exercise each day for as long as you need to, in order to burn your desired number of calories.
Make time to exercise every day. Be consistent. Stay true to your focus and commitment to change your eating patterns and include more fitness.
Sleep well, meditate, be mindful and remember that each day's workout brings about an opportunity to lose even more weight.
Interested to learn even more? You can visit my weight loss page to find more invaluable weight loss information.
About The Author:
Dennis Romatz is the Owner and Head Personal Trainer at Dennis Romatz Fitness representing the pinnacle of excellence in personal training with locations in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Chicago, IL. You can contact Dennis to train with him in person or live online or connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
