Category Archives: Body

Easy Fitness: Simple ways to get in shape

February 29, 2016Body, Mindadmin

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The media and fitness industry have somehow made us believe that fitness requires insane amounts of hard work, dedication, and commitment.
They give us the impression that we have to sacrifice so much time and effort into becoming fitter, stronger, and better-looking.

I disagree.

We are not looking at becoming athletes; we do not need to dedicate our lives to maximize every tiny little bit of progression – we just need 90% of it… and we can get that with a fraction of the effort.

Want to lose weight? Do not focus on cutting out fats, giving up chocolate, and running every day – Just find a way to eat a bit less.

Want to build muscle? Do not worry about what supplements you need to take or start going gym 7 days a week – Just focus on getting stronger. I left these answers vague as everyone is different – what works for me may not work for you.
However the principle is the same – focus on a few things which have a major impact.

When I’m losing weight, I don’t stop eating chocolate or replace all the food I have for ‘healthy’ alternatives… I eat less and maintain my protein consumption.

When I’m trying to gain muscle, I don’t start downing mass-gainer shakes and eating 6 meals a day… I make sure I’m eating in a surplus and focus on increasing my strength in my major lifts.

I believe that we can transform ourselves significantly with a fraction of the effort that we are taught to believe.. and we can learn to enjoy and love the process too.

Fitness is simple. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

-Mike

Questions? Want online coaching? Email me at mike@unigains.com

Surprising news about losing weight

February 28, 2016Bodyadmin

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Why do we want to lose weight? To look good.

In most instances losing weight will help you look better as you will be leaner.
However, simply losing weight will not necessarily make you look good.

What? Why?

Well, let me tell you a story…
I was 14, and wanted to stop being that chubby kid.. so I learnt about calorie counting and focused on eating less food; I wanted to get a BMI so I would be exactly in the 50^th percentile – I would finally be a normal kid. And with a bit of hard work and determination, I reached it! I lost about a stone over the journey and was happy with the result.

However, although I lost quite a bit of weight, I wasn’t fully satisfied… why?

Even though I was thin, I still didn’t look as good as I wanted to.
What was I missing? Muscle mass.

Muscle makes people look good. Whether you are a man or woman, having increased muscle mass will help you create that definition and shape your physique, which could actually help you look leaner.

Losing fat is only part of the process; building muscle will help us complete the look.

Does that mean I should stop trying to lose weight?

Well – it depends.
I know a lot of females that are skinny but want to look better, so they try to lose more weight – however what they are in fact missing is a bit of definition.
To get this, they should be getting into some strength training (either with weights or bodyweight) to help build that physique, and be eating in a slight calorie surplus.
*want a beginner strength routine? Email me at mike@unigains.com*

In my case, I was chubby and still needed to lose weight… but I should have paid more attention to retaining muscle mass.

Doing more intensive strength training may have helped preserve a little more muscle, which could have made my life easier when it came to building it.

Don’t just think that losing weight is all you need to do to look better.

How do I retain muscle mass whilst losing weight?

Two things: Protein and Strength training.
Strength training helps keep putting stress on your muscles, which will say to your body ‘HEY! I still need my muscles – don’t break them down into energy’ which will in turn help preserve them.
The protein helps provide the nutrients to preserve them – aim for around 0.8-1 gram or protein per pound of bodyweight.

Also, make sure that your calorie deficit is not too severe – the more your deprive your body of nutrients the more your body will turn to your muscles for energy – limit this by keeping to a steady deficit of 300 – 500 calories.

How do I build muscle mass? Click here.

Next time you want to lose weight, think to yourself if it will honestly make you look better, because for some of you, it actually won’t.

Hope this helps!

-Mike

Unsure if you need to build muscle or lose weight? Email me at mike@unigains.com

Simple Losing Weight Guide

February 28, 2016Bodyadmin

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I’m going to make weight loss ridiculously simple for you right now.

To lose weight we need be in a net energy deficit.

This means that the energy we consume should be less than the energy we expend – this can be done in two ways:

1) Eating Less

If you eat less food you will be consuming fewer calories (a unit to measure energy); this is key to losing weight. Now eating cleaner, healthier foods will be easier to reduce the amount of calories you are eating as they tend to make you fuller for the same amount of calories, meaning that you can eat less without feeling as hungry. Also, the more processed a food is the more they are likely to cause varying energy levels, which can significantly affect your productivity and give you cravings to eat more junk food – we don’t want that!

*If you need to find ways to help reduce weight check out my guide to a simple effectively tactic to help with fat loss here*

2) Exercise more

Exercising more makes you exert more energy, which will increase your net expenditure.
Now I’m not just talking about cycling or running; just being generally active plays a huge role in how many calories you expend.

Doing high-intensity cardio should not be your main focus.

As I have previously mentioned before, doing 45 minutes of jogging burns the same amount of calories as not eating a donut. Logically, spending 2 seconds deciding to not eat a donut is a lot more sensible than running for 45 minutes.

Strength training also plays a big role in not necessarily losing weight, but looking good (article soon).

So how much should I aim to lose?

Well, we are aiming to lose about a pound of weight each week. There are two main ways to go about creating a diet which will help achieve this:

1) The scientific way

Times your weight in by 15 and reduce this value by 300. This should roughly be the amount of calories you should be consuming to lose about a pound of weight a week.

Now open up MyFitnessPal and track everything you eat, and eat the amount of calories calculated. If you’re not losing a pound of weight a week then make sure you’re counting everything – even that bite of your friend’s sandwich.
If that fails then reduce your calories by about 100, and do so until you are happy with your weight loss. *Do not go overboard. A 700 calorie deficit is the most I’ve ever been. We want steady, maintainable weight loss – not crash and burn like all the other diets*.

2) The non-sciency way

Basically, just track your weight each week and just try and eat less: make healthy food replacements; walk a bit more; play around with your kids more; stop eating that donut on your morning break etc.

All these tiny things can actually help you achieve the weight loss that you want, without counting calories!
However, this is less accurate and results are likely to be less consistent.

When you are counting calories, you can see how your weight loss varies with calories consumed, but if you have no idea then it is pretty hard to tell if you’re eating too much of little – but it is possible.

I do not want to go into any more detail because I think that is honestly all you need to lose weight.
Oh, make sure that you eat enough protein to help maintain muscle mass – try and stick to at least 0.8g/lb of bodyweight.
Protein is mega filling so eating more of that will help you!

I will go into detail about what it takes to develop a more desirable physique and the role that strength training plays later.

But at the moment, you don’t need that yet – you have the core fundamentals to get yourself on the right track to success!

Good luck!

-Mike

Need any help? Email me at mike@unigains.com or @Ungains on Twitter! and get my free program here

Travel Fitness Guide

February 28, 2016Body, Foodadmin

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If you have a job which requires travelling then the following scenario will probably at some point apply to you:

It’s time for change. You have started going the gym and have got through the first month; it’s finally starting to become a habit – Good! Your diet is also on point and you feel like you are getting into your stride – You’re unstoppable!

But then…. work trip. *dun dun duuuuuun*

This is the sort of unwanted interruption which just ruins your momentum, often throwing many people off the rails.

Luckily for you, you have me, and I am on a work trip right now (in the comfiest Premier Inn bed that I’ve ever been in!)

Let me tell you how I keep my fitness in check whilst travelling.

1. Losing Weight

Simple, check out my article on intermittent fasting here. I believe this is great when travelling as a lot of the time you will be going out for dinner, and the calories are probably going to be on the higher side; making a tactical choice to avoid breakfast is a wise choice to help maintain your deficit.

Also, use a calorie counter such as MyFitnessPal; it has a massive database of foods including most chain restaurants; it is likely that you will be able to find the exact calories of the food you are about to eat!
If not, there are often very similar dishes from other restaurants to chose from which will probably be nutritionally similar (be honest with yourself!) – the more you get used to calories counting the more you will start to be able to gauge the nutritional values of different foods, making your job a little easier.

2. Gaining Weight

You are in paradise – there are plenty of high-calorie foods and expensive steaks and other proteins to chose from, without having to worry about your wallet (I assume you have a dinner allowance). The only downfall I can think of is.. nope I can’t think of any – if you’re gaining weight then this should be a breeze, as long as you’re working out properly and not overeating.

3. Working Out

So here is the point where I think most of you hit the brick wall – you have no gym.
Now if you are lucky and have a gym in the hotel, then great! You might not have access to the same equipment that you may be using for your workouts (for squat, bench, deadlifts etc.), however you can still get in there and create a make-shift workout to help continue your progress physically and mentally (if you need help to design a hotel workout email me at mike@unigains.com).

Now if you do not have a gym this is where the hustle begins – it’s back to bodyweight.

My standard hotel routine is:
-3 sets of pushups to failure
-tabata squats
-a plank for abs
-3 sets of supermans (or variations) to failure

It’s simple, but it is effective enough to keep applying stress to your muscles to ensure you are still stimulating your muscles to adapt.

With the sets of pushups and supermans, I vary them up each set to make them as hard as possible to make them interesting. I will normally vary the intensity throughout the set, such as starting with clapping pushups and ending with normal ones. I also vary the tempo of them too to help increase the difficulty.

Tabata squats are where you set the timer to 4 minutes and do as many squats as you can in 20 seconds then rest for 10, and repeat. This absolutely kills your legs and makes squats interesting (when you can do 50+ it just get boring as hell)

With the plank I will just hold it until my abs break – I don’t really set a timer, however, this would be a good move if your mind gives up before your body.

I’m not going to lie to you – I’m demotivated as fuck when I’m travelling – I really love going to the gym! However, you have to push through and at least do something.

With fitness, every little helps – and ensuring you’re making efforts to develop your body in sub-optimal conditions will help a great deal to stay on track and achieve your goals.

-Mike