YOUR WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY
Introduction YOUR WEIGHT LOSS DONE RIGHT
A large percentage of our clients maintain weight loss and body recomposition objectives. All have previously attempted weight loss and the great majority have experienced challenges that have ultimately prevented goal attainment.
The challenges and barriers associated with weight loss are certainly unique to each individual, however, there are more commonly reported weight loss barriers that have been identified. Specifically, we have identified five common challenges associated with weight loss:
- 1 Trouble finding a starting point
- 2 Being “stuck” at a certain bodyweight
- 3 Difficulty adhering or staying motivated
- 4 Experiencing weight regain
- 5 Difficulty monitoring bodyweight changes
To offer explanation and solutions to each of the above challenges, our professional team analysed the available research and collaborated with several experts within weight loss and dieting to develop an approach that both addresses and predicts weight loss barriers.
A Systematic Approach ASSESSMENT BEFORE PRESCRIPTION
The fundamental basis for gaining or losing weight relates to energy balance. That is, the balance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Energy intake relates to the energy acquired from the food and beverages we consume, while energy expenditure relates to several areas whereby we expel energy.
As a important starting point, we assess your food and drink consumption to quantify your caloric intake and evaluate your percentage intake of fats, proteins and carbohydrates (macronutrients). Also, we assess your physical activity levels including formal physical exercise, occupational movement, and general movement. This information helps us understand how your energy intake and expenditure is impacting your body composition.
In addition to evaluating your intake and expenditure, we complete full body composition measurements to understand your baseline body composition. With your baseline measurements established, we can determine expected and safe rates of weight loss for specific time periods.
INDIVIDUALISING YOUR NUTRIENTS
With the information obtained from our nutritional assessment, we then utilise validated models to calculate your caloric intake and macronutrient requirements. While a reduction in fat mass is desirable, the retention or increase in lean muscle is equally as important to achieve a toned, well-defined and athletic appearance. Given this, our formulas take into account not only your desired bodyweight and body fat percentage, but also improving your lean muscle.
CUSTOMISING YOUR NUTRITION
Our calculations create an important framework from which we design and structure your customised nutrition plan. Your nutrition plan is fully customised to your specific nutrition targets and parameters for losing weight, while reflecting your food preferences, any dietary restrictions, and digestive health needs.
Within your customised nutrition plan, the composition of each meal and its proportions are outlined in a simple, comprehensive weekly plan. For full flexibility, your meals are balanced over the course of a week, giving you the flexibility to select, or repeat, any meal on any day. This allows us to achieve stability and consistency in your nutrition, while giving you freedom of meal selection.
PERSONALISING YOUR EXERCISE
Consistent and compelling evidence indicates that a combination of nutrition with exercise is more effective for losing weight than diet or exercise alone. Because physical activity expels energy, exercise helps shift the energy balance equation if favour of energy expenditure, thereby promoting fat loss.
Similar to your customised nutrition plan, we design and structure you a personalised gym program to accelerate weight loss. Your gym program is personalised to your fitness level, gym experience, physical health and importantly your objective to lose weight. We select exercises that are both effective and appropriate and apply our professional background as personal trainers to help coach you through all elements your gym program.
As we closely monitor your nutrition, we similarly review your exercise each session to ensure progress, address any challenges, and help educate you about your exercise and nutrition.
OVERCOMING WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAUS
The standard approach to weight reduction involves aggressive dieting and/or high levels of exercise. With dieting, people typically use a dramatic reduction in either fats, carbohydrates and/or calories to create an energy deficit, or make arbitrary, large reductions in eating. Also, with exercise, most believe that daily, intense workouts or classes are required to lose weight.
Although these approaches will certainly promote fat oxidisation, they will inevitably fail because they are simply unmanageable and unsustainable strategies. Also, applying aggressive dieting or exercise strategies will only force a number of adaptations in the body that slow the rate of fat loss and even promote weight regain.
To overcome weight loss plateaus, we first work together to create sustainable and safe strategies for losing weight. Furthermore, we apply evidence-based data to predict your rate of adaptation and make timely and measured alterations to your energy intake and/or energy expenditure. Simply put, we make calculated adjustments to your nutrition and/or activity levels at specific times to maintain fat loss at a given rate.
We also monitor for fluctuations in bodyweight related to water retention. It is common to fluctuate at least 1-2 kilograms of body weight each day due to water from food or beverages, which can mask the effects of real weight loss. Given this, we utilise body composition progress charting to evaluate your progression and bodyweight changes over time in parallel with your caloric changes.
YOUR ADHERENCE AND MOTIVATION
The occurrence of weight plateaus or weight regain is largely associated with lack of compliance and adherence to nutrition and/or exercise programs. Studies consistently and clearly demonstrate that non-compliance or loss of dietary adherence results in weight loss plateauing within a short period of initiating a diet.
Our approach focuses on predicting known challenges within weight loss as well as identifying challenges unique to you and your lifestyle. Then, using various formulated models, we concentrate on improving your nutrition and exercise adherence. Likewise, to keep you motivated and enhance your daily compliance we use multiple strategies shown to be effective and adaptable. These include flexible and travel nutrition plans, weekly education, and setting small, daily targeted goals.
ELIMINATING WEIGHT REGAIN
Weight regain is common for the majority of people attempting weight loss. Research shows that more than a third of weight lost from dieting is regained within the first year, with the majority of weight returning within 3-5 years. These statistics demonstrate the only transient effect of common weight loss strategies and the need for more effective methods.
Weight regain is largely explained by lack of compliance or metabolic adaptation. People fail to comply with nutrition or exercise programs for individual reasons and our priority is to establish good compliance each week within both areas. To pinpoint potential areas of non-compliance, we use several strategies shown to improve exercise and nutritional adherence and use each session to communicate with you to determine if and where areas of non-compliance arise.
Metabolic adaptation simply refers to changes your body will undergo to prevent weight change and preserve its bodyweight. As previously mentioned, metabolic adaptions are inevitable to some degree, but can be overcome with safe, calculated adjustments to calorie intake and energy expenditure.
ASSESSING YOUR PROGRESS
The majority of people evaluate body composition changes using a home weighing scale. However, several limitations associated with weighing scales prevent anaccurate assessment of weight change. A primary limitation with home scales is its inability to accurately predict body fat and lean muscle mass changes, which are highly important determinants of fat loss. Likewise, weighing scales do not differentiate between water retention and actual alterations in fat mass.
To evaluate your weight loss and predict changes in body composition, we utilise a comprehensive set of methods that meet international standards for human body measurement. The measurements we complete provide you with a clear understanding of your body composition changes including specific areas on your body where weight reduction occurs. We include body transformation photographs to show changes in your body shape over time and compile all of this information into a personalised report.
START YOUR JOURNEY
We feel that anyone who decides to undertake a weight loss journey with us should feel confident and clear about our approach. Your journey begins by allowing us to provide more detail about our process and answer any questions or concerns you may have. We provide you with multiple case studies of clients who have undergone similar journey’s, including examples of customised nutrition plans, personalised gym programs and body composition measurements and reports. This allows you to make a completely informed decision about working with us.
Our enjoyment comes from working with clients that are determined and willing to give our process the respect and discipline it requires to be successful. We work continuously to create an environment that encourages learning and is both comfortable, open in communication, and mutually respectful. Importantly, our work in creating weight loss for you is unique and individual and every step of our process reflects this individualised approach.
To begin your journey, please complete the contact form on our site and we will respond promptly. Alternatively, feel free to speak to us by calling 0131 278 0501.