John Lark

What is with our obsession with the scales?

Our obsessions with what the scales read are now a firm imprint on our daily lives. The medical community thrust the BMI scale upon us and tell us what degree of obesity we are.

Discussions around the dinner table, at work, with relatives and now even with child revolve around ‘how much you weigh / have lost / put on’ etc.

Our subconscious is primed with images of slim celebrities who ‘look fabulous’ and ultimately as a culture we now model ourselves on these body types and images.

Time to take check and propose that all is not what it seems. In fact I would argue that what the scales demonstrate is very little in terms of what state of health, fitness and ‘looks’ you are in.

For example you can be fit but not necessarily very healthy. What do I mean by this? Well, as Barry Sears author of Toxic Fat argues, skinny people may not possess a genetic disposition to store body fat in visible areas (bums, legs and tums). They do however, possess the not-so-good ability to convert fatty acids into excess free radicals that wreak havoc upon us causing us to age early, fall ill, cannibalise muscle to be used as fuel and weaken our bones.

So ‘no’ the skinny bitch can’t eat anything she likes and not put on a pinch. It doesn’t work like that. I mean think of it like this? Do you honestly think that you can-not be effected by a diet of cigarettes, coffee, skipped meals and special K for breakfast? Delusional. Mad. Call it what you want.

So, what do the scales tell us? Ultimately they tell us our weight. But weight of what? We are made up of muscle, fat, water, a connective frame that includes bone, tendons ligaments etc etc.

And what about the skinny work collegue? How much inflammation is she dealing with on a deeper level? ( If you would like to know how then I suggest you take a live blood analysis consultation. You will see first hand how ‘clean’ your blood is and ultimately how healthy you are)

It is disheartening to see so many of us become hung up on our weight and what the scales say. Your weight can fluctuate throughout the day. No one knows the exact why this happens. Some scientists propose that it could be to do with your fluid levels. But imagine hopping on the scales after a gym session and seeing you lost 2lbs. Great. Later on in the day, the scales creep back up 2lbs. Disappointment sets in. You may even think about quitting.

Celebrities lose weight at an astronomical weight. 7lbs in 2 weeks. 4lbs in a day with the new ‘wraps’. 40lbs in 6 weeks was the best one I heard. What is actually happening?

Lean bodies with good levels of health determined by blood tests will possess 10% of their body weight as fat in males and between 14-16% in females. Visible muscle definition will be evident.

Who would you put in this class? Models? Fitness Professionals? Celebrities? The cast of Desperate Housewives?

Well, think again. Models possess very high levels of body fat, up in around the 20% range. How can this be? Their diets that force them to eat skinny i.e. below what they would need in terms of their daily calorific amount to maintain their weight coupled with a diet rich in cigarettes, alcohol, stress and zero exercise will force them to burn fat AND muscle.

They are sick and tired. The scales say one thing, their vicious mood swings, aging skin and lack of muscle tone says another.

What about the BMI and all these Liquid ‘Get Slim Quick Formulas? An Olympic rower around 16 stone and 6 foot 4 is categorised as ‘Obese’ by the BMI. It neglects to look at body a fat level which in all cases is below 10%. Try telling 4 time Olympic Gold Medallist, Steve Redgrave he is obese!

Equally the liquid get slim quick diets are a complete joke. How can sipping away for 2-3 meals a day on a cocktail of artificial colourings, sweeteners devoid of ALL nutrients be good for you?

Fat stores are depleted from our muscles and liver. But our muscles are also depleted as our bodies, like hunger starved dogs, search for their next source of energy – your muscles and the protein that is contained within.

Try and embrace how much body fat you are carrying over what the scales tell you. A skilled exercise physiologist will be able to measure your body fat levels. Better still, just aim to get healthier. Have you ever seen a healthy fat person?

Is it as easy as drinking your food? No. Is it as easy as relying solely on the scales? No. Keep focused on your body fat levels. Have them accurately taken and then set about meeting the challenge. The bikini body is about to be unravelled and the age of the ‘skinny fat’ will be long gone.

John Lark is a personal trainer in maynooth. Visit his web site www.spherefitnessstudio.com to claim your free report and one euro trial

Are there ‘Quick Solutions to Fat Loss Problems’ writes Kildare Personal Trainer, John Lark? In this article we explore some common myths that we have heard many times in consulting with fat loss clients. We share some ways of debunking them with immediate fat loss results!

As a personal trainer I hear the most creative of excuses. It seems that even at this time of year that despite the wave of enthusiasm in the New Year, excuses are still being made to avoid the dreaded ‘E’ word. Even embracing a bit of change is like dragging a car.

Here are some problems and my solutions to them.

Problem “I don’t have enough time.”

Solution – You do. You just don’t know how to manage your time. You have the same time as every one else.
The same 24 hours that Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Warren Buffet have. You just don’t set exercise or eating healthy as near the top of your priority.

Stop, take check at your ‘time vampires’ (watching TV, nattering hours on the phone, reading trash mags) and be ruthless. Get rid of them. Make exercise and preparing healthy meals important and see the benefits.

Problem – “Eating Healthy all the time is boring”

Solution – you just need to reframe what you consider as boring. This is a challenge as ‘cravings’ normally overwhelm your rational thinking.

Instead of viewing a salad or vegetables ‘boring’ think ‘boundless energy, vitality, health, strength and well-being’. And who says you have to eat healthy ‘all the time’? We call for a 90 per cent compliance on our nutrition programme.

This leaves 10 per cent for those foods that you consider a ‘treat’. It doesn’t have to be about denial and sacrifice.

And who says eating healthy is boring?

Look into some simple, basic cookery books and try them out! This will be time well worth investing. Not only for yourself but also for your family. Your personal trainer may even take you grocery shopping to make even better use of your food.

Imagine being able to rustle up a poached salmon  fillet wrestling on a bed of rocket, tomato and basil salad tinkering with a delicate olive oil and lemon juice dressing in 10 minutes. Mouth watering isn’t it?

“But I will have to give up chocolate and ice-cream”

Solution – Really? And live like a monk or an obsessive? Work these foods into your plan. The only thing you will have to give up is the notion that you can sit on your backside and think the pounds will melt off and that you can eat everything in the cupboard and dream yourself skinny. That is just delusional.
I love ice cream and a good glass of wine. But they are every now and then. I advise my clients to have one meal a week if they are on a fat loss plan whereby the rules fly out of the window.

Problem – “I can’t afford the gym”

Solution – Exercise at home, in the park or head outside. Get a good workout DVD and have some fun with it. Alternatively lower all your stress hormones by heading outside for a brisk walk. A cheap set of Dumbbells will last you a lifetime.

Problem – “I don’t have a way of getting to the gym and besides I have to take Little Jonny to Scouts”

Solution – See above and stop making overly-creative excuses.

Problem – “I am injured”

Solution – That’s ok. Injuries are what I call andinconvenience’ not an ‘injustice’ . Exercise professionals will be able to work around your injury enabling you to still work towards your goals despite your set-back.

Problem – “I don’t feel like it today”

Solution – when IS a good time? Just start! Just do something that will make a difference. The Japanese have a philosophy called Kaizen. It seems to be the buzzword at the moment. But it means gradual and incremental improvements. Each day make a positive step towards your health and fitness.

Problem – ‘I Just can’t stick to  it’

Really? How hard have you actually tried? Give it your all, measure your compliance to it or know how to quantify your efforts. Where are the indicators to tell you that it is working or not?

My point is this if you are writing to do lists all the time – stop. Stop thinking about it and just do it. Paralysis by analysis.

Problem – “It’s boring.”

Solution – Yep, so is waiting in the Doctor’s office because you are too sick to do anything.   We are designed to move and eat healthy nutritious foods. As they say – prevention is better than a cure. Besides, exercise can be fun. Dance classes, group activity and meeting with friends for a good brisk walk can be fun.

Visit Kildare Personal Trainer, John Lark’s website at www.john-lark.com and download your free report on the ‘7 Most Effective Ways of Burning Fat’ including a free sample workout and meal plan.

As a personal trainer in maynooth, I have found that it is widely accepted in the fitness and fat loss community that the more a food product places on marketing, hype, colourful packaging and ‘in your-face’ labelling the worse it is for your waistline.

Take for instance Breakfast Cereals. Advertising budget of millions. Characters to sell the product to kids and so on. If you left it outside for a night rest assured even wild animals would leave it alone.

Compare this to Organic Wild Salmon. It doesn’t even get a mention in Reader’s Digest.

If you are looking to shrink your waistline and reduce your level of body fat then keep things simple and prevent falling victim to the marketing hype.

For example, the ‘low fat’ label that is attached to most, if not all, ‘healthy’ products is misleading and just scandalous.

How can a cereal bar packed full of sugar in its flimsy 100 calorie frame be anything more than a recipe for waistline disaster?

First of all, products like this that are ‘low in fat’ are also low in nutrients. They are devoid of vitamins and minerals that provide with life, vitality and energy.

Compare the Jaffa Cake to the humble Orange.  Both are low in calories. Yet one has more nutrients – can you tell which one?

Yoghurt is healthy enough without an added 2 teaspoons of sugar, masked with all the health benefits of healthy bacteria that is good for your gut.

If you want healthy bacteria then take a supplement. A quick swig on a pot that wouldn’t feed a toddler isn’t going to do it.

The problem with the ‘low fat’ staples is that they are just that – low in fat.

Food manufacturers remove key nutrients from the food to make it taste better. Ever wondered why you just can’t stop at one biscuit?

Biscuits, cakes and other processed ‘low fat items’ are also rich in things like inverted sugar syrup, glucose-fructose syrup and such like. These are as bad, if not worse, than consuming sugar. Take sugar, distort its chemical make-up and bingo you have the main part of what is your cereal bar.

We need fat. Good fats. The fats you find in nuts, seeds, oils such as avocado, walnut, hemp, olive and fish oil.

We even need saturated fat. The fat that comes with good old coconut oil and raw butter.

If you can imagine your body being nothing more than a complex network of cells that make up  our organs, skin, hair and body parts then you will see why.

Each one of these cells has an outer wall called a membrane. This membrane is made up of fat. All sorts of bodily reactions are dependant on this membrane doing its job. It must allow hormones in to allow a reaction to occur inside the cell. It must allow substances out too, like the release  of body fat from adipose tissue.

A diet that has a sensible mix of fat will ensure that this membrane does its job. Stuff comes in, stuff comes out.

Can you imagine if it didn’t? Hormones, nutrients and fluids would not be allowed in (or find it very tough) and other substances would find it hard to get in too.

Becoming a fat-phobic will do nothing for your waistline or your health.

However, the devil is always in the detail.

If you are on a calorie controlled nutrition plan then you would be wise to ensure that you don’t use this to splurge on your favourite double cream.

Instead work it into your calorie budget. If you know that you can maintain your weight on 1800 calories then think before you use these up in one feast of steak and raw butter.

Rest assured you will get fat if you eat over your calorie allowance, even if it is considered ‘healthy’.

It is, however, not surprising that once you remove all the processed and packaged foods from your calorie budget how much you have room for the foods that provide you with all the tools necessary to reach your health and fitness goals.

Fish, good quality meats, vegetables and good old-fashioned healthy fats.

John Lark is a personal trainer based in Maynooth, Kildare. Visit The Sphere Fitness Studio and claim your complimentary assessment and trial session now!

Where do you start with your nutrition programme?

It all depends on what ‘level’ you are at to begin with.

What level are you at?

Check out my online training programme – limited spots available

When we think diet most of us would think restriction, sacrifice and denial.

We can safely say by now that habits win the race in the long-run.

Skip breakfast and you will face a problem. Likewise by not taking enough sleep, and exercising for a minimum of three times a week.

If you were a nutritional and exercise beginner you would be best to start by chipping away at one of these per week.

You will yield great results if you stick to working away at implementing habits one by one. This is definitely a long-term and successful strategy. Bottom line it works.

One of the key habits in any health and fitness programme is to implement a 90-10 rule.

What exactly does this mean?

Well as top body transformation expert Tom Venuto, author of the Body Fat Solution, states that your fat loss efforts are like a pressure cooker if you try and stick to it 100 per cent of the time. Underneath the pressure of denial and sacrifice reaches fever pitch and eventually you blow. The lid flies and the plan becomes rail-roaded.

This is not your fault. You do need to plan for the 10 per cent though.

Any plan will work if you a) maintain a calorific deficit and b) keep it at 90 per cent compliance leaving you the 10 per cent to slip away, deviate away or let the lid off the pressure cooker.

Here are a few basic ground rules before you give yourself a ticket to demolish a whole pizza washed down with a gallon of coke and topped with a strawberry sundae ‘cos you earnt it’.

In 99 per cent of the cases I deal with you haven’t even come close to earning it.

Firstly you need to track exactly what you are doing. If you are following a plan, are you following it 90 per cent of the time. You will need to write and record your efforts on paper, measure your portion sizes (if you struggle with losing weight) and write down if you exercise that day or not. A journal is a great idea.

The devil is in the detail now.

3 meals a week over the course of 7 days is 21 meals. Stick to the rules for 19 of these meals and you are on course scoring 90 compliance.

If you hit the gym 3 times a week for 4 weeks you can afford to miss 1 workout in that month.

If you skip breakfast for 2 mornings (or deviate outside of what is laid out for you) then great stuff you are on course.

If you set out the simply record your food intake for 3 days a week over the course of the 4 weeks then you can afford to miss 1 or two of these days.

Anything can be measured according to this principle.

You may notice Oprah falling flat on her face again with her diet and finally admitting that she doesn’t want to be lean and would rather be ‘healthy, lean and strong’.

She blamed a low-carb diet for her failures. The only thing was that her skipping meals, ploughing into 2-300g of carbohydrate on the odd day is not following a low-carb diet.

Her compliance was rock-bottom and the overriding reason for her failure. It is like taking a recipe for apple pie and making rhubarb crumble with it.

You have to earn your 10 per cent and plan for it. If you know that your night out with your partner is on the cards for Saturday then factor this into your week. This is particularly the case if you are on a fat loss programme.

Outside of this you have to work hard. The odd biccie here and there does hurt. You have to earn the right to cheat. Is it tough – yes. Are the results worth it? Of course.

Get in, get out. Do not lumber around trying to lose body fat. Set a deadline, a specific date to work towards. Measure, stay strong, keep tough, have a support system in place and be accountable to someone.

If on the other hand you want to try and implement a habits based approach go ahead. This works well too.

However, if you think you can wing it without a plan. Think again.

John Lark is a Fat Loss Specialist. Visit his web site and pick up Free Report – The 7 Most Effective Ways of Burning Fat at his web site www.john-lark.com

It seems this month there is a new diet book, approach, view or opinion thrust into our faces. The promises are huge. Drop a dress size in a week. Lose 7lbs in 7 days. Change your life forever.

Who knows? You may be ‘on’ a diet. And who can blame you? You want results – QUICK! These ‘diets’ promise you exactly that with their fluorescent book covers, powerful testimonials and ‘proven’ strategies for success.

You plunge in to them. You may even become a serial dietar (or is that ‘cereal’? dieter. I have to be careful, and no pun intended, on a well-known cereal producer’s ‘Drop a Dress Size by Eating Two Bowls of Dead Food Diet’)

Atkins, The Zone, The Cabbage Soup, The Grapefruit – whatever next?

It can become a frustrating habit. One that yields good, bad, indifferent or no results for people. You may give up the ghost and plunge back into the habit of sugar binges and drinking 5 cups of coffee for the ‘pick me up’.

Our experience with serial dieters is that like the diet themselves, they are fussy.

When an individual says they are on a specific diet – they aren’t really. They are on a piece meal version. The individual may take the bits of it they like and ignore the rest. Take for instance the Atkins. We all know that this is renowned for its rib sticking breakfast of sausages and eggs.

I would hazard a guess that most people would warm to this. However, the devil is in the detail. What about the inordinate amount of vegetables that are recommended alongside a certain formula of water to help with the detoxification process.

It is like me giving you a recipe for apple pie and you then making rhubarb crumble.

My point is simple. For any diet to succeed and in truth most, if not all will, you have to be compliant 90% of the time.

How do you measure this? Well we use a compliant grid. Let’s say you eat 3 meals a day for 7 days of the week. That’s 21 meals. 95% compliance means 2 meals where you can avoid the rules. Not a lot of lee-way. So ask yourself – do you understand entirely what is asked of you and have you followed all the rules 95% of the time?

Here is my problem with diets. You end up chasing more than one rabbit at a time.

This is ok if you are talking in short periods of time – say 2 weeks. However, any longer than that I would begin to question compliance. The proof is really in what the results say.

We approach nutrition from a behavioural point of view by asking our clients to focus on one habit at a time. One week it may be the water intake.  The next it may be breakfast. In total there are 10 habits for anywhere between 7-21 days per habit.

Why this period of time? Well some of us have that burning intrinsic level of motivation to make a change immediately. For 7 days they can focus their efforts on making a change before these habits become long-lasting. For some it make take a little longer i.e. 21 days. In fact studies have shown that habits take around this time to be forged.

Like any habit, nutrition is no different. It takes time to forge habits such as shopping for fresh foods twice a week or bulk cooking and bringing in left-overs with you to work.

However, the difference between this approach and all the diet books is ultimately it is more fulfilling. Imagine tackling one habit a week for 10 weeks. In 10 weeks you would have completely overhauled your eating habits – for the long haul. That could mean the difference between shifting the weight and not.

Like all goals success brings more success and there is nothing more fulfilling than setting a goal and snowballing your achievements.
So, it goes without saying that if you are thinking of trying a diet check with a healthy doctor first then ensure you make yourself accountable and can measure your results with it.  However, if you know that you have a terribly sweet tooth or just find it hard to eat right on the run then a diet book will not help.

Behavioural changes with forging new habits will.

More fat loss strategies for you to use and implement including a free sample meal plan and workout

www.spherefitnessstudio.com

As a personal trainer I hear the most creative of excuses. It seems that even at this time of year that despite the wave of enthusiasm in the New Year, excuses are still being made to avoid the dreaded ‘E’ word. Even embracing a bit of change is like dragging a car.

Here are some problems and my solutions to them.

Problem “I don’t have enough time.”
Solution – You do. You just don’t know how to manage your time. You have the same time as every one else.

The same 24 hours that Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Warren Buffet have. You just don’t set exercise or eating healthy as near the top of your priority.

Stop, take check at your ‘time vampires’ (watching TV, nattering hours on the phone, reading trash mags) and be ruthless. Get rid of them. Make exercise and preparing healthy meals important and see the benefits.

Problem – “I have to look after other people”

Solution – try looking after your self FIRST. I call this ‘hurried mum syndrome.’ Looking after a house, three kids and in most cases a husband is a lot tougher when you are carrying around excess fat. Get rid of the fat and suddenly managing ANYTHING becomes a lot easier.

Problem – “Eating Healthy all the time is boring”

Solution – you just need to reframe what you consider as boring. This is a challenge as ‘cravings’ normally overwhelm your rational thinking. Instead of viewing a salad or vegetables ‘boring’ think ‘boundless energy, vitality, health, strength and well-being’. And who says you have to eat healthy ‘all the time’? We call for a 90 per cent compliance on our nutrition programme. This leaves 10 per cent for those foods that you consider a ‘treat’. It doesn’t have to be about denial and sacrifice.

“But I will have to give up chocolate and ice-cream”

Solution – Really? And live like a monk or an obsessive? Work these foods into your plan. The only thing you will have to give up is the notion that you can sit on your backside and think the pounds will melt off and that you can eat everything in the cupboard and dream yourself skinny. That is just delusional.

Problem – “I can’t afford the gym”

Solution – Exercise at home, in the park or head outside. Get a good workout DVD and have some fun with it. Alternatively lower all your stress hormones by heading outside for a brisk walk. A cheap set of Dumbbells will last you a lifetime.

Problem – “I don’t have a way of getting to the gym and besides I have to take Little Jonny to Scouts”

Solution – See above and stop making overly-creative excuses.

Problem – “I am injured”

Solution – That’s ok. Injuries are what I call andinconvenience’ not an ‘injustice’ . Exercise professionals will be able to work around your injury enabling you to still work towards your goals despite your set-back.

Problem – “I don’t feel like it today”

Solution – when IS a good time? Just start! Just do something that will make a difference. The Japanese have a philosophy called Kaizen. It seems to be the buzzword at the moment. But it means gradual and incremental improvements. Each day make a positive step towards your health and fitness.

Start immediately by doing something. It could be just heading out for a walk, deciding that you will have ‘breakfast in the morning and this is what I will have’, lifting some weights for 15-20 minutes.

My point is this if you are writing to do lists all the time – stop. Stop thinking about it and just do it. Paralysis by analysis.

Problem – “It’s boring.”

Solution – Yep, so is waiting in the Doctor’s office because you are too sick to do anything.   We are designed to move and eat healthy nutritious foods. As they say – prevention is better than a cure. Besides, exercise can be fun. Dance classes, group activity and meeting with friends for a good brisk walk can be fun.

So can making a healthy feast for your family and seeing your four-year chomp down a plate of veggies. Victory in the battle!

Next week more excuse busting! In the meantime, place your creative energy into making solutions not conjuring up elaborate excuses

Visit John Lark’s website at www.john-lark.com and download your free report on the ‘7 Most Effective Ways of Burning Fat’ including a free sample workout and meal plan.

For more information on personal training in dublin click here

There was a time when breakfast used to be the time when most of the family were together.
Papa Smurf popped off to work after reading the paper, Mamma Smurf cooked up the eggs and cereals, whilst the kids lamented over their day at school.

Fast-forward 50 years.

Most people are on their way to work before the sun rises. Kids are hurried off one arm in jumper with the other grabbing a bit of toast. Mum in the meantime is grabbing a bit of lippy and providing a gentle but firm kick up the backside to get out of the door.

Yet we all know and rightly so – breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Skipping it altogether will tee you up nicely for fat gain. Particularly around the mid-rift. Through years of looking at eating habits and body fat distribution patterns I can firmly say that whose who skip breakfast consistently end up looking like a pear.

In same light using a cereal box as your method of starting the day has also had a large part to play in keeping people erring towards the muffin top shape.

Most of us are familiar with the food pyramid?

Well try the reverse food pyramid in the sense that make your breakfast the largest meal of the day and taper off your calorific intake as the day progresses.

Assuming that we all know that 5-6 ‘feedings’ are better than 3 ‘fill-your-boots- type’ meals then your calorific intake at each meal would look like this if you were shooting for 1500 kcal a day:

Breakfast – 400 kcal, Meal 2 – 200 kcal, Meal 3 – 300 kcal Meal 4 – 200 kcal Meal 5 – 200 Meal 6 – 200 kcal

Better blood sugar management, leaner physique, no hunger, better moods, more food to eat (!!) and so on. What is there not to like about this?

You see instead of perpetuating a cycle of sugar cravings by leaving gaps between meals (longer than 2-3 hours) we are actually feeding our bodies regularly.

So what’s the big deal with breakfast?

What you eat first in the day will determine your hormonal and energy levels. Try this practical experiment. For the next five days try meat, salad and nuts breakfast.  Think of it as having dinner for breakfast.

See how your energy levels are for the rest of day. Then go back to your cereal based breakfast and compare.

I will guarantee more energy and certainly less sugar cravings. It is unsurprising that your dopamine levels will increase providing you with extra ‘get-up-and-go’ to face the day.

Some other options for breakfast can be leftover dinner, homemade patties with a side salad or chicken breast with salsa or Guacamole.

Typical comments I have received in the past are ‘I felt like gagging’ and ‘where am I going to find the time?’

All I can say to this is – ‘try it, you won’t be disappointed’

So what then do you have for dinner? Try something light like a salad with cold meats or a Vegetable Omelette.

In fact Eggs are quick and easy to knock up alongside the fact that they are rich in choline, a nutrient geared towards optimal brain health. Not a bad food to have on your side if you are in the middle of a feeding frenzy at the zoo.

Most of my female clients have settled into the swing of cooking up their breakfast whilst knocking up dinners.

For the males this is a bit tougher. For most of them, reading the instructions on a Pot Noodle is as far as it goes.

Although one athlete I used to room with at college was caught emptying the contents of one a pot noodle into a saucepan before transferring it back into the pot to eat.

This is the same guy who assembled a flat pack bed downstairs.

So can you see how important your nutrition is to your brain health?

Start your day with a power breakfast, not some dehydrated excuses of fruit with an empty cereal. Prepare your food the night before whilst you cook your dinner. At worst have left-overs. Your brain, waist line and energy levels will thank you with open arms.

John Lark is a personal trainer and fat loss specialist combining nutrition, training and supplementation for tailored results. Download his free report at www.john-lark.com or call 01-5052131 for more information.

Spot reduction is a myth right? You can’t possibly shift that troublesome spot of cellulite off your thigh or kick the bingo-wings into touch – can you?  Well, yes you can and the answer lies, according to Olympic Strength Coach and founder of the ‘Biosignature‘ System, Charles Poliquin in your hormones.

Your body fat doesn’t just lay down fat in a random fashion to seemingly spite you. There is a pattern that has been unearthed by functional medicine experts and endocrinologists that determines where you possess your body fat is a reflection of your hormonal activity.

The science behind this has been around for years. Take for instance our belly. When we are stressed we release a hormone called cortisol. This is our fight or flight response hormone or a low-grade adrenaline that used to help us get the hell away from lions and other man-eating predators.

The only thing now is that we don’t have any of those around, unless you include the gaggle of women spilling out of our night clubs.

Our bodies are in essence still primal. Our genetic coding has changed 0.01% in 40,000 years. Not much in the grand scheme of things. But yet we still continue to produce cortisol at a rate which we find it hard to live with.

Do we still run away from lions? No.

What has happened, and this has been unearthed by scientists, is that the higher your cortisol levels, the higher your belly fat readings making you more prone to the nasties such as Syndrome X and dislipidemia.

Men can also take note that incidences of male breast cancer and Gynecomastia (‘moobs’) is on the rise.

High levels chest and arm fat can be correlated to your levels of aromatisation or how male or female you are.

Men are not designed to have breasts. Common symptoms include crying at Little House on the Prairie and shopping for bras.

This is not normal and what is increasingly more worrying is that functional medicine experts are in agreement that for males this elevates your risk of prostate cancer

What about your love handles? Your love handles and fat that you carry on your back are reflective of your insulin management.

Genetically a carbohydrate or sugar tolerant individual will carry little fat on their back. However, your love handles may carry a sufficient amount of fat. This is a classic case.

Skipping meals and or consuming too much carbohydrate will elevate your circulating insulin levels making you insulin resistant rather than insulin sensitive. So, as you consume sugar instead of being shuttled to the muscles for energy, you push it into your fat cells.

Bad news. This coupled with a high level of back fat and abdominal fat will significantly increase your risk of dislipidemia and other nasty scourges on society such as cancer.

Fat around the legs is also indicative of your estrogens (the female hormones) and growth hormone activity. High levels on the calf and knee point to recurring sleep issues. Why are men carrying fat on their legs? The answer lies in too much circulating estrogens.

Did you know, for instance, that red wine and dark chocolate are excellent for clearing excess estrogens? 1-2 glasses a day of red wine and 3oz of 70% Coco Organic Chocolate, once or twice a week are excellent for this. The reason being is the high levels of Resveratrol – a nutrient that inhibits the action of estrogens at the cell receptor sites and inhibits aromatising enzymes.

Bad news is – more is not better.

The bottom line is this – it is not your fault. A combination of lifestyle, exercise and supplementation protocols can be used to combat each site resulting in a leaner and more importantly healthier individual.

So each bit of fat on your body tells us a story. It makes sense. Why do individuals carry fat all on their legs and not up the top? What about the individual who just cant shift the fat off the hips.

Spot reduction a myth? Not anymore. Here is a glass of red to a healthier and leaner new you.

John Lark M.A. is a Fat Loss Specialist and Personal Trainer in Dublin Learn more about his methods at www.spherefitnessstudio.com and download your ‘5 Top Tips for Fat Loss’.

Taking responsibility for your health and fitness is often the first and most crucial step on the path to your goals.

It is your fault that you dug into a box of biscuits and equally shovelled down 12 pints of beer at the weekend.  Equally so it is your choice that you watch mind-numbing (and at times rather depressing TV) rather than head out for a brisk walk.

Obesity is rife and climbing. Every day millions are lost through absenteeism and sickness in industry through people not looking after their greatest asset – themselves.

I often laugh as one of my personal training clients drives up in the latest offerings from the local sports car dealership, only to grumble at the prospect of having to buy organic meat.  This is the same person who raises an eyebrow ‘at the cost of food’ nowadays.

“That’s ok then” as I point to the car.

“Perhaps you can drive that car with you into the grave, then?”

Your body is designed for optimum performance – nothing less. How we have come to be devoid of a clean diet and lack of movement is beyond me. We function at well below par.

Our society is riddled with illness, disease, ailments that take an eternity to shift and  metabolic disorders such as high blood pressure and diabetes are all to prevalent.

My Dad won’t mind me saying this but he is a diabetic, type 2. This means he can manage the potentially fatal relationship between glucose (sugars) and the hormone insulin. I often raised an eyebrow at how he settled his sugar fix with a Mars Bar.

“The nurse told me to take onboard some sugars, if I ever felt like this”

“He forgot to mention that Orange Juice would also be a good idea”

Needless to say he is now enjoying managing his diabetes with exercise and herbs (alongside the odd dose of insulin managing drugs). But it was hard at the start. Here was a man ingrained in the ‘quick-fix’ mentality avoiding taking all responsibility for his health until it took control of him.

Here was a man resigned to putting his health in someone else’s hands for life. He was unwilling to see the alternatives. He was unwilling to go back to the basics – diet and exercise.

His ‘why’  however was strong enough to elicit a change. Eventually his sugars were getting hard to manage without taking 9 pills a-day. Alongside this the side-effects were shocking to live with. His grandson was born which drove him to ensure that he was round long enough to enjoy bringing him up.

What is your ‘why’?

I often use the example of an ‘Onion’ with my clients. Asking probing questions that you can do yourself is the first step. At all times you must remain honest to yourself.

Why do people primarily go to the gym? Answer – to look good naked. However, if you keep telling yourself that you want to feel good and just want to ‘tone up’ then you are in for a struggle.

I asked an executive the same question. He answered me with the platitudes of “I want to get rid of my belly”, “I want to tighten up”.

“What’s your real reason?” I asked

“What do you mean?” He replied

“Well, what do you mean by ‘getting rid of my belly’ – why is this important to you?”

A moment passed before a startling dose of honesty set in.

Well I am sick and tired of looking across the table and seeing guys older than me, ten times fitter. It makes me angry. They must think I am weak”

“That’s more like it – hold onto that thought”

Being responsible for your actions means peeling the layers of the onion until you get to your real answer, not some woolly platitude to make life easy.

This is your ‘why’ and something strong enough so that you will be motivated to keep on track whilst others fall away. It will allow you to get out of bed when the wind and rain is pouring. It will allow you to choose a swim over Eastenders. It will allow you to choose nutrient dense foods over packaged rubbish.

John Lark is a personal trainer combining exercise, nutrition and lifestyle strategies. He is based at The Sphere Fitness Studio, Maynooth Download your ‘5 Top Fat Loss Methods’ report at www.spherefitnesstudio.com