There are a lot of personal trainers in Nashville who can give you weight loss advice. Here are some of the best weight loss tips from Nashville’s top personal trainers:
Dan DeFigio – Breaking the yo-yo diet cycle
It’s always tempting to follow the diet-of-the-day, whether it’s keto, a detox diet, the GOLO diet, or any other ‘miracle’ weight loss secret that celebrities or pop physicians are promoting. It seems like everyone has an answer to instant and effortless weight loss if you only knew their secrets. But before you start filling your fridge with nothing but cabbage and pomegranate juice, stop and think:
The reason any goofy diet ‘works’ is that you’re temporarily starving yourself. If you eat nothing but the one food for a few days or more, of course, you will lose a lot of weight quickly. But this is not sustainable weight loss. As soon as you start eating ‘normally’, the weight will come back.
You have to improve what is NORMAL for you!
You can’t expect to stick to a plan that you can’t sustain in the long run. And trying to change everything at once inevitably leads to willpower failure and total defeat.
Before you start any weight-loss program, ask yourself, “Can I see myself eating like this five years from now?” If the answer is No, then the diet you’re planning to start isn’t going to work.
The key to keeping the weight off is to develop sustainable habits that become normal. Things like:
- Planning your eating for the day.
- Choosing vegetables instead of processed carbs.
- Eating protein and drinking water to help keep sugar cravings away.
- Recognizing your emotional triggers instead of reactive stress eating.
These are the kinds of habits that break the yo-yo diet cycle and create sustainable weight loss!
Nashville Personal Trainer Sarah Guest: Short, High-Intensity Strength Training Workouts Instead of Cardio
High-intensity interval training or HIIT is a type of exercise that includes short but intense exercise bouts, interrupted by breaks. The aim is to improve fitness levels, maximize athletic performance, build muscle endurance, and lose weight. This workout plan helps burn fat, regulate your appetite, and improve your overall health.
HIIT workouts can be set up in a number of ways. One example involves 20 seconds of hard work, with 10 seconds of recovery time. This is referred to as a Tabata Interval. The process is repeated for a total of 4 minutes.
As for longer workout intervals, you can also do high-intensity exercise for 40 seconds, with a 20-second break. Sometimes, the high-intensity workout utilizes a 1:1 rest ratio, where your breaks are as long as your activity. The goal is to keep going and to stimulate your aerobic and anaerobic systems, promote fat loss, burn more calories, and improve your overall fitness and conditioning.
Certified, experienced personal trainers are vital for these types of fitness classes, since the risk of injury is higher. A fitness professional can recognize your limits and make more accurate fitness assessments. Injury prevention is key. They may advise longer breaks if you’re feeling dizzy or out of breath.
Benefits of HIIT Workout Programs:
- Your body becomes more resilient, has more stamina, and your overall fitness level improves – meaning you end up performing better in all physical activities. This includes hiking, speed walking, swimming, and pretty much any physical activity imaginable.
- Improved insulin sensitivity – it increases your glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity (this is very important for type 2 diabetes). This means you don’t need as much insulin to lower your blood glucose level.
- Afterburn – your body keeps burning calories after your workout. This is one of the most popular HIIT benefits. In a process scientifically known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, your metabolism stays elevated for a period of time following the high-intensity exercise, and you burn more calories, resulting in more fat loss.
- Burn belly fat – that annoyingly persistent fat around your belly will start to shrink, according to HIIT research. In fact, these types of training programs are the most effective when it comes to getting rid of your excess fat in the abdominal area.
- Lower blood pressure by exercise alone – HIIT improves the efficiency of your cardiovascular system and lowers your blood pressure without medication.
Jon Brown (personal trainer in Antioch): Creating a New Normal Instead of Diets and Temporary Fixes
The current consensus has spoken – the best diet for weight loss is no diet at all. That is, no quick fixes, fasting, starving, or risking your health and wellbeing with passing diet trends. Instead, you should consult a certified nutritionist and have them recommend a client-specific weight management program you can stick to. Your meal plan needs to become part of a healthier lifestyle!
If you have type 2 diabetes, a low-carb diet would probably help you. Even though the practice is increasingly popular, going gluten-free or keto is not for everyone, and a nutrition coaching specialist knows how to point you in the right direction.
A certified fitness trainer and dietitian can ensure you never fall victim to the yo-yo diet effect. Your body is unique, and a highly customized workout plan, along with an equally adjusted meal plan, can keep you fit and healthy for the long run. Quick fixes don’t lead to successful long-term changes!
Personal trainer Angela McCuiston: Consistency and Setting Small, Attainable Goals
The weight-loss goals you set for yourself can make or break your potential success story. According to Angela McCuiston, realistic, highly-customized, and well-planned fitness training goals are the most attainable. The consistency with which you follow through helps with your motivation to exercise. It also keeps you focused on the small milestones along the way.
Your body transformation might come gradually, but this is precisely what differentiates a “summer body” from a lifelong fit and healthy look. If your personal trainer is overly aggressive, demanding, and lacks patience, they might get you to lose weight quickly, but ultimately, this type of attitude will undermine the sustainability of your efforts.
As you start working out and adopting a healthy diet plan, it’s best to focus on the weight loss process rather than the outcome of the exercise program. Notice how you’re feeling more upbeat, how your sleep patterns improve, and how you have more energy than before. Weight loss will also come as part of your fitness journey.
In time, you will have changed your everyday behaviors and habits without even noticing. This is why you’ll never have to face exercise fatigue and boredom, usually a huge burden on people’s motivation. Instead of getting tired and giving up, you’ll just come back for more training sessions with a smile on your face.
Consistency is key to building healthy habits. Don’t try to change too much at once.
Some simple fitness tips for weight loss might include:
- Drinking water instead of soda or sweetened coffee,
- Snacking on fruits and vegetables instead of chips,
- Adding some long walks
These micro weight loss goals might seem unambitious at first, but baby steps are vital for your desired personal fitness outcome.
Tim Utzig (personal trainer in Cool Springs): Too Many Carbs and Not Enough Protein, Avoiding Late-Night Eating
Excessive amounts of carbs in your diet cause blood sugar fluctuations and trigger fat storage. When you eat too many carbs, your blood sugar level crashes a couple of hours later. This triggers hunger and cravings. People then often can’t control carb-binges or stress eating.
Adding protein and high-quality fat to your diet can keep your blood sugar levels more stable. Consuming the right amounts of fiber, protein, and fat throughout the day can cause positive changes in your blood sugar levels. This way, you can improve your eating over time, and never feel hungry.
Extreme and overly restrictive diets can also increase the risk of falling to temptation and craving sugary foods. This is why you should lay off the fleeting fitness and diet trends, and listen to a professional trainer instead.
Another consequence of a damaging, high-carb diet is late-night eating. If you eat too many carbs at dinner, you’ll get a blood sugar crash along with some intense cravings later at night. Eating late at night can have a negative impact on your body weight and heart health. It can also disrupt your sleep patterns, and even affect your memory.
Conclusion
As you can see, weight loss tips aren’t just a bunch of simple, quick fixes. Your exercise routine, eating habits, and the way you set your goals all play a vital part in your overall success. Personal trainers with the right experience and credentials can help you reach your goals and maintain your fitness and health in the long run.
If you want more weight loss tips from trainers in Nashville, TN, or you plan on transforming your body with the guidance of an experienced fitness instructor, get your free no-obligation consultation. Tell us more about how we can help you with your dieting and exercising goals.