8 Week Body Blitz!!!!

Well I also only have about 8 weeks to slim down. I am getting married and the dress will look okay but I don't want to be self conscious on my honeymoon!!! I have been tracking my food on here and exercising but I haven't lost too much. Mostly the first week and then nothing at all since. So if you want feel free to add me. We'll figure this out!

I believe that your body adjusts to any routine in order to maintain your fat reserves. It is a natural and healthy thing for it to do. I have had success by varying my calorie intake greatly to prevent any adjustment my body makes. Try going two days at about 60% - 75% of your recommended calorie intake and then go back to 100% for two days. You will be hungry, that is good. DO NOT make up for the deficit. Your body will tap into its reserves. When you go back to your normal diet, you prevent your metabolism from slowing down which happens if you go too long at a calorie deficit. Alternate your calorie intake as often as you like and I even go over on Sunday and reward myself (reasonably) for a good week. The trick is to starve your body to the point that it uses fat and yet prevent metabolism slow down. Remember, when you feel hungry, you are burning fat. Be the boss and tell your body what to do instead of vise-versa. It feels good.

A really good tip if you are training is to 'eat by numbers'. Disregard your current weight for this and focus on your target weight. say your target weight is 180lbs for example, then the amount of calories you consume per day can be worked out with a simple calculation.

Target weight X 10.

But you also need to factor in any exercise you are going to do. Say you spend an hour at each gym session you plan on doing then you minus one of those hours from the X 10 and add the others. given you a total of 12.

so 180 X 12 = 2160 Calories per day.

You also need factor in the kind of nutrition you are getting, a rough guide is:

eat 1g of protein for every lb of your target weight.
eat 1/2g of fat per lb of your target weight.
then, to find out your carbs, take the calorie total of each of your protein and fat intake (1g of protein = 4cal, 1g of fat = 9 cal) and subtract it from your total allowance of calories. eg

180g of protein/day X 4 = 720
90g of Fat/day X 9 = 810
2160 - (720 + 810) = 630

1g of carbs also has 4 calories so you will need to be eating 158g of carbs per day as well.

Eat to exercise too!
Eat around an hour before exercising, and no more than an hour after returning to resting heart rate, this helps keep your metabolism going, and speeds up the recovery process, particularly with muscular exhaustion.

When buying food, only use things found in nature, so NOTHING PROCESSED. If you buy bread make sure it's whole grain, same applies with cereal.

And a great way of losing weight to support your gym training is to eat around 5-6 times per day but only small meals, sometimes only a few mouthfuls. This keeps your metabolism going at a steady as possible rate throughout the day and helps burn those extra calories.

The great thing about dieting this way is that you can assign yourself one day a week where you can just eat anything you want! Have a blow out to reward yourself for the hard work you're putting in! But don't overdo it!

A good way to keep track of everything is to take a small diary everywhere you go and put in all the food you have eaten, and all the exercise you have done.

Drink plenty of water throughout the day too, try and avoid fizzy drinks and have pure fruit juice or water in stead! A nice big glass of OJ at breakfast is a good way to get your vitamin C for the day!

When your in the gym, treat it like circuit training, this works best if you have a gym buddy who can go and prepare the next piece of equipment ready to use right after you move from the previous piece.

I like to do a 10 minute cardio warm-up to get me pumped on the bike or rowing machines. Then move onto some weight training. If your really just starting your weight training, or its been a while since you last regularly attended a gym (like me) then it's best to do a full body work out (3 sets of 1 exercise per muscle) every time you go to the gym with no more than 48 hours between, and certainly no sooner than 24 hours! (this will make you very sore to begin with but you get used to it!) after the first 4 weeks move on to working specific muscle groups (2 exercises per muscle group, 3 sets, or drop sets!). EG

Monday - Shoulders, Chest and Triceps.
Wednesday - Back and Triceps
Friday - Legs (and Abs)

If you can fit a little extra cardio in on Tuesday and Thursday then even better!

Follow this guide and you will definitely see a difference after 8 weeks. It's a great way to tone up when you exercise in this way WITH the diet as well! I've done it before a few years ago when I used to play rugby, unfortunately university life has had its effect and I've gained a few stone in the last 2 years, now the hard work to get it off again!

Oh and obviously if you aren't trying to get completely ripped then take the muscular exercises down a notch, ie just use light weights.

Oh and specifically for women, you will probably want to cut out the shoulders back and chest exercises or you'll look rather manly after 8 weeks of training. But it depends on the look you're going for! a little of those exercises won't hurt!

Hope this helps!