Lose Weight

Lose weight with Shelly Wubbe

Before we get into the blog, let me introduce myself: my name is Shelly Wubbe, and I am a personal trainer and online fitness coach. Today, as part of my ‘Train with Shelly’ series in collaboration with Body&Fit, I’ve put together a breakdown of things to keep in mind when trying to lose weight and stay healthy. Over 5 years working with a diverse range of clients, each with their own different body shapes and weight loss goals, has shown me exactly how hard it can be. But you’re never alone – and with the right mindset and goals you’ll get there.

In this blog, I’ll be going through how weight loss occurs and discussing some of the things you can do to help reach your weight loss goals. I’ll also explain what factors are important to keep in mind and how you can make losing weight as enjoyable as possible. At the end, enjoy a 3-day workout plan and a sample nutrition plan to start you off on your journey.

Losing weight vs. replacing fat with muscle

If you want to lose weight, you really want to lose body mass. This mass can be fat, but also muscle. You want to maintain the latter as much as possible. Muscle mass is essential for your health and physical performance. From an aesthetic point of view, it’s what a lot of people strive for.

It's good to know that muscle mass is heavier than fat mass, which again proves that losing just weight might not always be the best goal. If your weight doesn't change, yet you lose fat and build muscle, you will still be smaller and more toned when you look in the mirror. In other words: aim to lose fat, not necessarily weight.

Can you lose weight without dieting?

Many people get a bad feeling when they hear the word ‘diet’. They think of being hungry all the time, not being able to eat their favourite tasty things or having to follow a strict and boring nutrition plan. The word 'diet', however, comes from the Latin word 'diatia', which means ‘rule of life’. It’s why us specialists often say not to think of it as a diet but rather a lifestyle choice.

A diet does not have to be a strict intervention resulting in being hungry all the time. Ultimately, you want to follow a diet that you can sustain and suits your lifestyle and goals.

Once we’re in this right mindset, we can look at what else it takes to lose weight.

Why is energy balance important for weight loss?

Whether you want to lose weight, gain weight or maintain it, in the end it's all about energy balance and the corresponding calorie intake. Your body is constantly burning energy to ensure that it can function at its best. Think of activities like moving around, exercising, breathing, pumping blood, and thinking — they’re all processes that cost energy. We get this energy through the intake of food. Calories are the fuel our bodies need to work.

Why is it important to eat a healthy diet?

Nutrition can be compared to the fuel of a car: without fuel, you can’t drive. The same goes for us: without food, we can’t function. The energy we gain from a healthy diet is expressed in calories, or kilocalories (1 kilocalorie equals 1000 calories). We often talk about a daily calorie need of 2000 for women and 2500 for men. What we really mean is 2500 kilocalories (kcal). These terms are used interchangeably, which may be confusing. On a nutrition label, you will almost always see kcal and that's also what people usually mean when they talk about calories. And if you were wondering, one calorie is the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water to 1 degree Celsius.

Now, an important question:

Can you eat chocolate and still lose weight?

The simple answer is yes, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Now that you know what energy balance is and what calories are, let’s put this knowledge into practice. I guess most of you know that chocolate contains more calories than, for example, broccoli. However, you can still eat chocolate while losing weight. This is because the energy balance is always the main factor that will determine if you lose or gain weight.

You can look at energy balance as a set of scales. On one side, we have the energy intake (the food we eat) and on the other side we have energy expenditure (the energy we burn). If both sides are in balance, you will maintain your weight. To lose weight, your energy intake should be lower than your energy expenditure.

Is there a way to measure your calorie burn?

Caloric intake can be controlled and regulated to a large extent, because it's the energy you consume through food. However, caloric expenditure (the number of calories you burn) is harder to estimate and can vary greatly from day to day. Variables that influence calorie expenditure are:

Basal metabolism: the energy your body needs to function properly. This includes energy needed for vital mechanisms, like breathing, pumping your blood through your body, and cognitive functioning. Lastly, basal metabolism also includes the energy that is needed to maintain muscle mass.
Thermogenic Effect of Food (TEF): in order to use your food as fuel, your body needs to metabolise it. The energy it takes to metabolise food is the TEF. It costs more energy for some foods to be metabolised than others.
Physical activity: this is the energy that your body uses to move around and exercise.

Change your energy balance to help lose weight

You're probably still wondering how to keep eating chocolate while burning fat. Simply make sure that your energy balance is right. If you burn more energy than you consume, you will lose fat, even when calories from chocolate are part of your energy intake. On the other hand, you will still gain weight when you eat more than you burn, even if you only eat broccoli. This does not imply that your diet should only consist of chocolate but do know that energy balance is the main factor that will dictate whether you will lose or gain fat.

Body&Fit has a wide range of tasty food & bars and weight loss supplements that can assist in losing fat. Other things like including enough protein in your diet, for example, can support the growth and maintenance of muscles. Moreover, research has shown it may also promote satiety (being less hungry) and help weight loss through reduced energy consumption. Some of my favourite products are:

Shelly’s weight loss training plan

When you're trying to lose fat, it is important to simply keep your body moving. My favourite way of doing so is through strength training. Strength training helps you build muscle mass and shape your body. Also, strength training may be more effective in burning calories compared to cardio training. Looking at a single session, cardio may burn more calories compared with a strength training session, but strength training offers unique long-term benefits. Perhaps the most crucial one to consider is that strength training is more effective than cardio at building muscle mass, which basically serves as a calorie-burning powerhouse for the body. This is because your body needs more energy to maintain muscle mass than fat mass. As a result, you will burn more calories daily, even at rest, when you have more muscle mass. Who wouldn't want that?!

Another benefit of performing strength training is that it will give you a more aesthetically pleasing body transformation compared to losing weight by doing lots of cardio. That is, if you like to look more toned. Weight loss is typically a combination of losing fat and muscle. However, if you focus on maintaining muscle mass while losing fat, you will end up with a smaller and more toned version of yourself.

In conclusion, if you want to lose fat, my advice is to perform strength training and focus on getting stronger over time. Use this 3-day workout routine to get you started:

3 day Full Body Workout

Day 1

Exercise	Sets x reps
Cardio of choice	10 min
Back Squat	3 x 8-10
Dumbbell chest press	3 x 10-12
Leg extension	3 x 12-15
Seated row	3 x 8-12
Banded side walks	3 x 20-30
Lateral raises	3 x 8 – 12
7a. Dead bug	3 x 20
7b. Russian twist	3 x 30

Day 2

Exercise	Sets x reps
Cardio of choice	10 min
Lat pull down	3 x 10-12
Romanian deadlift	3 x 8-10
Chest fly	3 x 12-15
Seated leg curl	3 x 10-12
Face away curl	3 x 10-12
Skull crushers	3 x 8-10
7a. Leg raises	3 x 20
7b. Bicycle crunch	3 x 20

Day 3

Exercise	Sets x reps
Cardio of choice	10 min
Hip thrust	3 x 8-10
Half kneeling single arm shoulder press	3 x 8-10
Reverse lunges	3 x 10-12
Lat prayer	3 x 10-12
Hip abduction	3 x 15-20
Cable triceps extension	3 x 12-15
7a. TVA crunch	3 x 20
7b. Pallof press	3 x 20

Shelly's weight loss nutrition plan

The calories your body needs are based on various factors such as length, weight, activity level and daily activity. Individuals have different needs in terms of calories to have a caloric deficit or surplus — depending on their body type and metabolism. Therefore, no calorie counts are given in this meal plan. Portions can always be adjusted based on your own body’s needs. Consider this plan as the place to start from or get a little inspiration from.

Breakfast

30g Body&Fit Pure Oatmeal
20g Body&Fit Natural Peanut Butter
1 banana
300ml water
1 scoop Body&Fit Whey Perfection in your favourite flavour

Suggested supplements:

Lunch

1 Body&Fit Smart Wrap
75g black beans
50g lettuce
½ avocado
20g cheese
50g tomatoes

Snack

1 Body&Fit Smart Bar

Dinner

150g chicken
300g string beans
200g potatoes
Body&Fit Smart Cooking Spray

Snack

250ml low fat quark
A few drops of Body&Fit Natural Flavouring
200g frozen blue berries

About Shelly Wubbe

Shelly is a personal trainer and online coach with a background in human movement sciences. She has learned the craft of fitness coaching from a variety of perspectives, including coaching herself to a competition ready physique; coaching others with a range of goals and skill levels; and completing multiple courses on exercise and nutrition.

“Body&Fit has supported me from the very beginning of my health and fitness journey. There is still a lot to learn in the world of sports nutrition, and it gives me great pleasure to pass on my knowledge to you, the Body&Fit community of go-getters and fit seekers. I’ll be back with more ‘Train with Shelly’ articles soon, so keep a look out for those and make sure to follow me and check out my website for even more advice, workouts and inspiration. You can also keep an eye out for my workout, recipe and advice content on social @bodyandfit_official”.

Instagram: @ShellyWubbe

Website: Shelly Wubbe | Strength training and mindset coach for women (growcoach.nl)