Andres Fitness - Personal Trainer

If you’re bodybuilding, frequency does play a role.

For fat loss it becomes personal preference, however it should be noted that little and often CAN keep hunger levels down. For example, a huge breakfast with all of your daily calories means no more food until the next day.

How many times a day do you like to eat? And why? 💬👇🏽

Open your eyes people.

Stop giving money to those who promote low carb diets an approaches.

There’s a very good reason low carb diets DO work, and I’ll tell you that for free if you swipe along the 5 images I’ve posted.

Go☝🏽

Do you agree? Then please share and help spread the word. I couldn’t make helping those confused by it simpler.

The desire for positive change must be greater than the desire to remain the same.

Many of us enjoy being social creatures, many of us enjoy winding down and feeding our brain food induced dopamine or alcohol, many of us enjoy being lazy over the hard work having an active lifestyle is.

But as per the opening credits of this post, you must want it enough that it’s worth the sacrifice.

I’m not saying that you must become unsociable or boring to find physical fitness. Nor am I saying you must train 7 days per week and move at every given opportunity.

If you are saving money for a house deposit what do you do? You cut back on expenses where you deem you spend excessive amounts, but you don’t suddenly cancel every direct debit you’ve got and live off noodles and water only. You find a happy medium, a reasonable balance of saving money but still seeing friends, family and enjoying some rewards.

Same concept for finding health.

You cut back on excessive drinking, gluttonous eating, lazy lifestyle habits and you start tilting the scales the other way, but not fully.

Both ends of the spectrum have their problems. Do or die bodybuilders have their issues too, for your information.

Something HAS to give. You can’t have your cake and eat it.

You can’t go out every weekend and enjoy meals out and drinking then complain you struggle to get in shape.

Choose wisely.

Still to this day and forever to come I’ll have conversations with women who fear protein, because they think it’s only for men who are trying to pack on the muscle.

When is the last time you heard of a woman consuming a bit too much protein and waking up the next morning Judy Dench, with b***s turned into solid slabs of bulging muscle? Never.

If you see a woman in a gym who has a huge amount of muscle to the extent they look manly, believe me, her testosterone levels will be higher than that of most men and she looks that way because she WANTS to. It’s nothing to do with the protein shake she’s sipping after her workout.

Why should you consume protein? Regardless of whether you’re trying to lose fat or build a bit of muscle, protein has some seriously useful benefits. Read on;

- Protein breaks down slower in the stomach, meaning you won’t go hungry as often after a meal.

- The breakdown of protein in the digestive system requires more energy from the body, which means you will utilise more calories (energy) simply to digest the foods.

- Protein helps build muscle, a feat which in itself is really difficult but useful for fat loss. So any muscle you do manage to build, do your best to hold onto it.

- Protein allows for repair of damaged cells. Protein is ESSENTIAL for survival. Without it you would actually die. So whilst you’re still alive today because you clearly consume *just* about enough protein, you could be in a better position with regards to the consumption of it.

“But too much protein is bad for your kidneys.” Actually, that’s a myth. Excess protein is indeed urinated out (thus passing through kidneys), but studies have been done on the whole subject and it’s been shown that excessive protein intake has no effect on kidney health. The only effect it has is on your wallet (protein sources are more expensive than carbs, cost of meat vs cost of pasta blah blah).

So when you’re choosing your next meal don’t fear the hunger inducing, cell building properties of protein and grab yourself a good serving size of it (calories still matter, remember).

Anyone who says otherwise is either scaremongering, uneducated or a moron.

A large portion of people who go vegan (and vegetarian) do so for the supposedly associated health benefits that comes with it, but are you actually better off or is it a fad?

10+ years ago I’d have said being vegan or vegetarian was healthy. I grew up with my mother being a vegetarian and I remember her cooking meals, full of fresh veg and grains. Meals that required time and effort in the kitchen, unlike the modern day plant based dieter who can walk down any supermarket aisle and find a friendly alternative to any animal product. Fake meats of all kinds, dairy free chocolate or yoghurt, plant based snacks, you name it, most products now have vegan approved alternatives.

But here’s the caveat, it comes at the expense of quality.

A plant based diet of fresh fruit and veg, raw nuts and seeds is quite bland in itself unless you make the effort in the kitchen in order to blend flavours in such way they become both flavoursome and convenient to eat outside of the house.

The alternatives are easy to cook, fast to prep, grab and go snacks sold in supermarkets. The problem with those is that although they’re plant based, you’re actually buying heavily processed foods. 

Most foods are processed. Even raw meat. It’s processed to an extent, just some more than others. Eating a totally unprocessed diet is near enough impossible this day and age unless you’re growing your own crops. In reality what we need to limit are ULTRA processed foods, that’s a lot more realistic to achieve.

People want the most convenient route these days, the fastest method from A to B, and with the rise in plant based alternatives to everything, there’s a plethora of vegans and vegetarians that quickly reach out for ultra processed meat alternatives and dairy free snacks. 

And I question the healthiness of these products. Fake meats are heavily processed natural ingredients washed in chemical solutions in order to be made into a product they were never intended to be.

So the question is, is it actually healthy to eat a plant based diet if you’re the grab and go sort that doesn’t put the time and love into cooking raw ingredients in the kitchen.

I’d love to read your views below 👇🏽

Fat loss is an energy dependant process.

As in, calories in vs calories out and that.

BUT did you know there’s a middle ground?

It’s called maintenance.

And it’s really frigging good.

Because at maintenance you can build muscle, and not put on body fat. In fact you may even lose fat.

And best of all? You won’t feel like you’re constantly dieting, because you won’t be.

Analogy time.

When you’re driving a car to a destination, sometimes you’re accelerating, sometimes cruising and sometimes braking.

Each stage has it’s purpose.

When you’re trying to achieve a body goal, sometimes you’re at a deficit, sometimes at maintenance and sometimes at a surplus.

You can’t forever be at a deficit.
You can’t forever be at a surplus.
You can however forever be at maintenance.

Why you should be at maintenance more often.

Like I said above, you can build muscle at maintenance (just not optimally), you can lose fat (just not as fast), you’ll have more energy, you’ll be able to fit more foods into your diet, you will sleep better, you can increase your performance when training.

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐯𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬 - 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭?

Confused as to what you should be training? Chest? Legs? Arms?

Here’s my advice. Stop using “bro” body splits.

Why?

They’re not time efficient, nor are they feasible for the majority. Do you really want to hammer legs to the extent you can’t p**p comfortably for 3 days? Do you really want to smash boxes so hard you can straighten your arm for half the week? Nope…

If you train chest on a Monday (international chest day), then you’re only training that muscle group once per week… And frequency is a huge factor when it comes to both building muscle and losing body fat.

Frequency, and volume.

Volume = weight X reps X sets.

Do you know how many weekly sets you should be aiming for per muscle group?

It’s around the 15-20 mark.

What about how frequently can you train a muscle?

After about 72 hours it’s ready to go.

Stop the bro splits (unless you’re an advanced gym goer and are taking anabolic steroids, crack on, you probably need that much stimulation per muscle group in order to grow).

If you’re coming to the gym to look better, lose some fat and improve your health markers, full body days or upper/lower are the most appropriate.

The gym is merely a tool in the toolbox, arguably one of the most important ones of course, but it’s not a must have necessity when it comes to fat loss.

That’s because the gym is a place you should use with the intention to GAIN strength and GAIN muscle. Fat loss comes as a byproduct of strength training.

But how do you replace the gym when it comes to fat loss? 

Say you spend an hour a day at the gym, 7 days a week. That’s still 7 hours out of 168 the week has. As a percentage, that’s negligible.

Real fat loss comes from Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, aka NEAT.

Daily chores such as house work or walking to places, fidgeting, dancing, standing up, they all contribute to what is NEAT, and that’s what makes the biggest difference to a variable you’ve got control over when you’re talking fat loss.

You can train hard as you like for an hour every day, but if you’re lazy the rest of the day you’re no better off.

Between being an active individual that doesn’t go to the gym, vs someone who trains really hard every day but then is lazy for the remained of it, active throughout is the real hero.

I’m 31 and have been in the personal training industry for 8 years and counting.

I’ve competed in bodybuilding and olympic weightlifting, as well as gone through many personal fat loss phases, as weight fluctuates throughout the year for everyone.

In my early days I fell for certain myths and fads because I wanted fast results, like most people want.

I’ve made mistakes but I also found solutions.

In turn, all my experience helps me coach a wide range of people who have different requirements.

Fat loss is fat loss, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

More is not better. More fat loss doesn’t necessarily equal better. More muscle doesn’t equal happier.

Everyone has a sweet spot, and it’s about staying where your sweet spot is. Not too much of one thing or another.

And I want to share with you one piece of critical advice. That comparison is the thief of joy, unless you’re using yourself as the reference marker.

Compare yourself to yourself of yesterday. Are you better or are you worse?

Don’t use someone else to make that comparison.

Stop calorie tracking To LOSE weight.

That’s right. Give up on tracking calories if you want to start losing weight again.

Why does this advice work? Because quite often people calorie track a deficit, stay hungry, then go on an all you can eat binge. They stress over it, they further cut calories, and the cycle repeats itself.

As time has gone on I’ve learnt that not every client needs to calorie track to lose weight. In fact, half I’d say.

So what’s helping them lose weight without calorie tracking?

Eating without the stresses of reaching a number, without scanning barcodes, incorrectly inputting data and turning a blind eye away from it all on the weekends.

Eat good quality foods. In moderate amounts. Without going wild at weekends. Without overly restricting on the treats you enjoy.

We all know between a Maccy Ds and grilled fish and veg, the latter is the better option, we don’t need myfitnesspal to tell us that. And we all know takeaways 3 times a week isn’t the right course to be on. Again, you don’t necessarily need calorie tracking apps to know the above info.

I’ve had clients struggle to lose weight whilst tracking calories (because they weren’t being accurate or honest with their inputs) and I’ve had clients drop a lot of weight whilst not tracking them, through simply generally understanding nutrition a little better and having simpler targets.

October 2020 ➡️ April 2022

It doesn’t happen in a few weeks or even a few months.

Although fat loss does happen relatively quickly once you’ve got in place the right protocols, building muscle takes time and a very consistent approach. You cannot rush the process. Lifting faster doesn’t make you build more muscle. More isn’t necessarily better.

So well done for sticking by it over the last year and half 👏🏽👏🏽

Want to start your own journey? Send me a message and let’s chat!

Wait wait wait…

What’s with only giving attention to your fitness at certain points of the year?

New Year’s, start of spring (ready for summer), a holiday coming up, etc.

Do you know why it happens?

Because you hate exercising and dieting.

Exercising for many means hours at the gym and hard workouts.

Dieting for most means no enjoyment in food and being the boring one at the social.

Pro tip:

Find an activity you enjoy doing. Health & fitness doesn’t happen just in the gym, it could be as simple as walking or something like tennis or cycling.

When calorie controlling, you can still drink alcohol and eat takeaways. You just have to be more mindful of how frequently you’re doing it and how much you’re having.

I can still enjoy ice cream and dominoes when losing weight.

And for exercise simply walking is hugely underrated, and whilst you walk you can listen to an audiobook or podcast. It’s not all blood, sweat and tears at spit and sawdust gyms.

98kg ➡️ 75kg

Confidence 🚀
Physical health ✅
Mental health ✅

What else do you need?

Oh yeah, it’s more cost effective to invest into coaching and be healthy too.

Less money on takeaways, less money on alcohol, less money on having to buy new clothes.

Healthy foods aren’t expensive.
Long term illness and disease is however.

Have you seen the price of mobility scooters? 😵

Your choice really, you can either do something with yourself or not. No one is forcing you (although you’ll regret not looking after yourself later in life).

Enough?

Click the link in my bio and let’s at least talk about it.

Most people clock off 5pm Friday and forget about effort until Monday starts.

5pm Friday until midnight on Sunday is 1/3rd of the week.

If your pay was cut by a1/3rd you’d kick off, so why aren’t you kicking off when 1/3rd of your week is being thrown in the bin through enjoying yourself?

10kg without much effort? Sure, read on ⤵️

Want to know the not so secret method I use to have clients drop weight without feeling overwhelmed?

I set them up with ways of easily getting their hands on rich foods which fit their daily schedule and require minimal effort to cook.

If something is easy, it’ll be easier to stick to longer term.

And 70% consistently over months is better than 120% over a few weeks only.

THAT’S how my clients get results.