Fitness - 10 fat loss secrets I learned from doing a body transformation - and losing 17 inches!

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10 fat loss secrets I learned from doing a body transformation – and losing 17 inches!

Dina's Transformation week 10 MAIN

During a 10 week weight loss transformation, Dina Hinar lost 12 kilos and 17 inches. In this final installment of her journey she shares ten key lessons she learnt along the way

That’s it, that’s the end of my weight loss transformation and in just 10 weeks, I have lost 12 kilos (that’s one and a half stone).

Not only that, I have also lost over 17 inches in total, with seven of those coming off of my waist!

Before End of Week 1 End of Week 2 End of Week 3 End of Week 4 End of Week 5 End of Week 6 End of Week 7 End of Week 8 End of Week 9
Weight (kg) 120 116 115.5 114.8 114.2 113.2 112.5 110.7 109.2 108.1
Chest (centimetres) 118 116 115.5 112 110 109 109 109 107 107
Waist (centimetres) 115 114 113 112 108 100 100 99 98 96.5
Hips (centimetres) 141 139 137 135 132 131 131 130 128 127
Total weight-loss N/A 4 4.5 5.2 5.8 6.7 7.5 9.3 10.8 11.9

 

WEEK NINE AND TEN Dinas transformation before and after (1)

Like so many others, I have struggled with my weight since I was a teenager and I have been on more weight loss diets than I can count on both hands.

I would do well on these diets for a short while but annoyingly they never seemed to turn into a lifestyle change.

In the last two years, my weight gain has been so rapid, I’ve started to worry that there is no way out. I wanted to get fit and healthy before my 40th birthday in four years’ time.

So that was my motivation – to get fit before 40, and thanks to Terry Faiclough and Luisa Valenti and their amazing, Your Body Programme, I am more convinced than ever that I won’t even have to wait till I’m 40 before I am as fit as a fiddle.

I mean, in just ten weeks I have lost 12 kilos, imagine what I can do if I carry on with this weight loss journey? Which I totally am by the way.

I started this transformation because I wanted to lose weight to look good.

But now? Looking good is a bonus because the best thing to come out of this transformation is how amazing I feel and how much more confident I am – with literally everything.

I am happier on a daily business, I have more energy and my clothes fit like a dream – yay weight loss.

And let me tell you, if I can do it, YOU can do it too. Here’s what I learnt along the way, you might want to get your note pad out……

#1 Losing weight is no picnic

You might not want to hear this but losing weight is hard work – which makes sense or everyone would be in shape and the diet industry wouldn’t be worth the amount it is.

Terry and Luisa have taught me so much about fitness, weight-loss, nutrition, motivation, commitment, the list is endless. But you can’t do one without the other, so learn about exercise and learn about nutrition – that’s key to successful weight-loss.

Although I still have plenty to learn about health and fitness, what I know for sure though, is that you need willpower, motivation and knowledge. Without these three things, you are fighting a losing battle.

So what do you do to find these three things? You find a personal trainer or gym that actually cares about your long-term goals and who can each you how to exercise properly.

Then you need to speak to a nutritionist who will teach you what is healthy and what isn’t, and how you can eat for energy to fuel your body for exercise.

This transformation hasn’t been easy, but it hasn’t been impossible either. So if you are wanting to start a weight loss transformation, go in knowing that it is going to be difficult but you CAN do it and boy will it be worth it.

#2 Your Body Type matters

When I previously trained at the gym, I never knew if I was doing the right thing or making the most out of my workouts.

I am not alone in thinking this, I see so many people at the gym just looking around an unsure of what to do (I know this because that used to be me). And then you see someone do the same workout routine day in day out without even breaking a sweat.

One of the main things I have learnt during this transformation, that I will remember for a life time, is that you need to train right for your body type.

Your Body Programme teaches you how to train effectively for your body type so that you aren’t wasting your precious time, effort and money – because let’s face it, life really is too short to be wasting time on anything let alone a treadmill.

Oh and Your Body Programme don’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t eat either. Instead, the programme teaches you how to make the right nutrition choices that are best for your body type.

The whole body type matter isn’t a complicated one, but it does need to be explained. See there are three body types: ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph (I’m an endomorph), and in order to eat and train effectively, you need to workout which body type you are.

Take a look at the video below where Terry and Luisa explain what you need to know about body types.

You can also give transformation week three a read where I go through each body type in detail, including what exercise you should be doing and what foods you should eat less or more of.

Read MoreHow your body type affects your weight loss – body transformation week 3

#3 There is no weight loss secret – you just need to commit

The bottom line when it comes to making a successful healthy change to your diet and lifestyle is commitment and consistency.

Hence the old chestnut ‘consistency is key’.

If you can do the right things every day for a long period of time you will see the results you want, even if it takes time. There’s no real weight loss secret other than that.

Set a goal and make a commitment to stick with it until you get there and eventually you will get there. Trust yourself and trust the process.

#4 Exercise is actually enjoyable

Before I started this journey I hated exercise, and the only reason I would go to the gym was to lose weight, but I never knew what I was doing. I would just be there, at the gym, hating every. single. second.

Now, the tables have turned and I really enjoy the whole exercise thing. And although I am still going to the gym to lose weight, I also go because I feel amazing afterwards – hello exercise endorphins.

There has been no better feeling than doing a great workout and finding myself is the best mood for the rest of the day, and who doesn’t want to feel happy and great everyday?

dina workout chest press

#5 Calorie counting isn’t restrictive it’s clever

I used to think calorie counting and stepping on the scales were bad ways to measure progress because it can become obsessive and if you don’t like what you see, miserable.

But it turns out keeping a track of both your calories and your weight really makes the difference when it comes to losing weight.

It may be damaging to your happiness if you rely solely on the number on the scales, but I think we could all benefit from knowing just how many pounds we gain without even noticing.

And when it comes to tracking food, it definitely wouldn’t hurt us all to see the excess calories we are consuming without realising it.

For example, learning how many calories are in an actual ‘serving’ of avocado, packet of crisps or peanut butter can be integral to controlling portions and understanding how excess calories can be bad news if weight loss is your goal.

#6 Losing weight isn’t just about looking good

There is a lot of focus out there in the social media world (especially Instagram) on what being healthy can do for the way you look and aesthetics in general.

Girls with flat stomachs and tones abs, peachy bums, perfect boobs, tiny waists, expensive trainers and teeny tiny crop tops with flawless skin and not a single hair out of place are enough to make you want to throw in the towel every damn day. But you want to know something? They aren’t real.

And even for the one per cent of girls out there who do really look like, it’s their job to look like that, that is all they do day in and day out. Do not compare yourself to them or you will never be happy.

I have learned that the happiness I feel physically after being able to exercise and eat well is far more important than just looking a certain way.

Health and fitness is about long-term change, and if you are going to the gym and eating healthy just so you can look good, you are very unlikely to keep it up.

#7 Weight training is essential for fat loss

Resistance training and lifting weights is incredibly important if weight loss is your goal – that is a fact – not spending an hour on the treadmill and starving yourself everyday.

Plus, lifting weights builds muscle, and the more muscle you have the more calories you burn. The weights you use can be dumbbells, a squat rack, machines or your own body weight – just make sure you can feel the burn and by that I mean it actually feels quite a chore to lift whatever it is you’re lifting.

Spending just 20 minutes lifting some weights causes you to be just as breathless as if you have been running non stop for an hour on a treadmill.

Take a look at the workout video below that includes both cardio and resistance exercises to target full body fat loss

#8 Be realistic

It seems everyone’s goal is to ‘get into shape’ by the summer, or for their wedding or by the end of the month. But what people don’t understand is that realistically, successful weight loss takes time.

You need to be patient and understand that unless you want to sacrifice everything you enjoy in life, you aren’t going to get into shape in a matter of weeks – it takes months and for some a couple of years.

Do you enjoy a glass of wine on a Friday? Yes. Do you like going for pizza with friends? Yes. Do you always head over to the cake at a birthday party? Yes. These things make life enjoyable so why give them up completely?

Find the balance between enjoying life and making healthy decisions, that’s what’s needed for a realistic weight loss goal.

#9 Finding a PT that actually cares is essential for motivation

I remember sitting down with the Healthista girls on the day of my first training session. These are the sort of questions I was asking…

What if I get too sweaty? What if they shout at me? What if I can’t do it? What if I look really awful in my workout clothes? Will other people in the gym stare at me?

Of course after my first session I needn’t have worried, but I wasn’t to know that. But it made me realise that there are probably some PT’s and programmes out there that only care about the results and not about you.

Make sure you find a personal trainer or programme that is supportive, upbeat, conscientious, non-patronising and who you would get on with as a friend.

Even if it takes a few sessions with different PT’s, don’t just settle for anyone, do your research and suss them out.

Terry and Luisa were simply amazing, they were beyond supportive, tough where they needed to be and motivated me everyday to get to where I am now. I am so lucky I had two people who cared about me, my happiness and my health.

#10 Protein powder is your weight loss bestie

Protein helps the body to build lean muscle tissue and it gives the body shape, which is great when you’re training hard because it means you don’t get any muscle wasting, but instead are constantly fuelling your muscles to shape and grow.

One thing that was a definite throughout this transformation was my post-workout protein shake. Straight after my workout I would grab my shaker and mix some Healthista Lean Vegan Diet Protein Chocolate flavour, £24.99 with some water, which provided me with 14 grams of protein and a full tummy after working up an appetite.

Come back every week to read Dina’s week by week diary of her weight loss transformation with Terry and Luisa from Your Body Programme, with tips and advice from the experts. 

Luisa and Terry

Your Body Programme was founded by Terry Fairclough and Luisa Valenti.

The idea came about after Terry and Luisa saw other personal trainers regularly offering the same generic plan to every client, regardless of gender, goal or body type.

Terry and Luisa are passionate about the need to train everyone as an individual to achieve maximum results, and therefore don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach.

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