Five tips on how to lose fat for a slimmer physique

Having worked in the health and fitness industry for some years now, I've seen more trends, methods, and supplements for fat loss than you can shake a slim-lined stick at. Some have stuck and become a fixture of fitness culture, others have been swept away as quickly as they emerged. The question is: what will work for you?

Below are the five principles I have used in my personal training career to get the best results, not only for my clients but also for myself. Utilizing any one of these can make a huge difference to your training results; using all of them could completely reinvent your physique.

1. Goal Setting

One of the most important aspects of any progress made in the gym is prior goal setting. Making sure you have a clear goal set before you commence your training is half the battle.

Once you’ve set a clear goal you’ll need to create a plan. This will involve identifying the resources you have available to you. Ask yourself the following questions:

Do I need to acquire something in order to complete the goal? Do I need to learn a new skill to complete the goal? Do I need to consult with someone in order to achieve the goal?

Take fat loss as an example goal. To allow your body to burn fat, you need to a) exercise more, and b) eat less. Do you have the knowledge base and skill set to achieve these goals? Are you certain that the workout plan you're using will work? Have you considered the nutritional aspect? If the answer to any of these questions is no, you need to either go about the appropriate research or enlist the help of a fitness professional.

Once you have the proper blueprint in place to attain your goal, you must determine the cost (in terms of effort) per day, week, and month. Cost is financial, but also personal. Consider the impact of your training plan on your day to day existence. Are you willing to pay this price to attain your goal of losing weight? If the answer is no, you need to re-evaluate your goal. If it is yes, it's time to get cracking.

2. Heavy Weights

Far too frequently, people opt out of heavy lifting when looking to 'cut up' (ie lose weight). Obstensibly, you can understand their decision: muscle is heavy, and weight lifting increases muscle. What they overlook, however, is the propensity of weight lifting to keep the metabolism high - and a high metabolism means a healthy ability to process and use up calories, rather than store them as fat.

I’ve alway found that I’ve been able to stay leanest when lifting heavy weights. The only change I make in my client's routine is to reduce the amount of weightlifting repititions they do, and instead incorporate major lifts into high intensity circuits. This normally entails short bursts of hard cardio work in combination with resistance training.

Phasing your heavy lifting routines to allow for adequate rest periods is essential, but try not to neglect your heavy lifting for too long. Unless you are genetically gifted, you’ll soon begin to lose muscle that you fought so hard for previously.

3. Slow Carbs

Replacing high G.I carbs with low G.I carbs has been a major breakthrough for so many people. G.I refers to the glycemic index, which is essentially the rate at which blood sugar levels rise in the body after introducing a carbohydrate. The lower the G.I the better. This is because a fast rise can lead to an insulin spike, creating unused energy which gets stored as fat.

The glycemic index is measured on a scale of 1-100. Foods are considered high if they are over 70.

Unfortunately this includes some of our major staple foods such as white bread, most white rice, many breakfast cereals, and bagels. Food products are considered low G.I when they have a score of 55 or less. Good examplesare sweet potatoes, beans, and rye.

The more you can replace high G.I carbohydrates with low G.I carbohydrates the more stable your blood sugar levels will be, making it much easier to stay lean.

4. Low Intensity Cardio

Learning how to use activity was a major breakthrough in my own training progress. Prior to engaging in low intensity cardio I would often do too many really grueling high intensity workouts, but it would leave me burning the candle at both ends. I decided to have a metabolism gas exchange test, which measured the ratio of calories burnt from carbohydrate and fat as I exercised.

The result was that my optimum heart rate for fat burning was only 107 beats per minute. This meant that most of my workouts would burn little fat while I was performing them (though of course there were still metabolic benefits to be had over time).

The 'fat burning' zone is approximately 60-70pc of your maximum heart rate (which can be roughly calculated by subtracting your age from 220). When working out in this zone, 85pc of the calories you burn will be from fat. Activities such as walking, cycling, swimming and dancing all offer the opportunity to hit your fat cells with vengeance.

Don't underestimate this one. While low intensity cardio doesn't sound very glamorous - heck, it might not even get you sweating - the fat burning effect is pronounced. It's also relatively easy to work into your daily routine. As the intensity is low, you might find it possible to multitask while working out. Try listening to audiobooks, making phonecalls, or even answering emails (though not while cycling on the roads, obviously!)

5. Intermittent Fasting

Last, but definitely not least, is intermittent fasting, which has been the single most important breakthrough for me personally with regard to maintaining a lean physique. There are many places on the net to find a more comprehensive guide to IF than I have the scope to give in this article, but I’ll outline the basic principles.

Intermittent fasting involves consuming all of your daily calories within a certain feasting window and then fasting for the remaining hours of the 24 hour period. For those who exercise regularly, the typical split is 8/16, so a day begins with a fast until noon during which only non-sugary or milky drinks are allowed, followed by an 8 hour feasting period during which the entire day's calories are consumed.

Physical training typically takes place before the fast is broken. The reason for this is that the perfect time to introduce carbohydrate into the body is following a tough workout, when the resultant insulin spike will facilitate both fat loss and muscle gain. Working out on an empty stomach means the body will use existing fat stores as an energy source.

I've found intermittent fasting the most effective and easiest method of losing body fat I have ever tried. I now stay below 10pc body fat all year round without worrying about cardio workouts or dieting in any strict sense.

Scott Laidler is a personal trainer and personal development coach based in London. Contact Scott at scottlaidler.com for personal training and online fitness coaching.