Online Personal Training

Many readers have asked me this question: can I lose weight but increased my muscles? the answer is yes but, unfortunately, many times when we try to lose weight, we may end up having less muscle mass than when we started out. And sometimes we might even find our body fat% increased.

Why is this happening?

Because to lose weight we usually consume fewer calories than we burn, we are indirectly telling our bodies not to care much about muscle mass. This happens because "low calorie" strategies decrease the intracellular signaling necessary for the body to synthesize new muscle proteins.

Virtual Personal Trainer's philosophy does not consist of telling what to eat as food choices vary across cultures and personal likes. So, for long-term weight loss and maintenance, I rather recommend to choosing foods wisely. Being more specific, focusing on “calorie density”  (i.e. how many calories are contained in a particular meal), can be fundamental for healthy eating and a sustainable Ideal Weight. For example, a full bowl of french fries is much denser and has a lot more calories than a bowl of mandarins because mandarins have more water.

Thus, the idea behind is to color foods by calorie density, using different colors: green, yellow, and red, from light to higher calories, and organizing our meal choices wisely so that we always and unconsciously eat healthily.

How your mind and body interpret your states of "emergency"

Stress and weight gain often go hand in hand, so understanding your behavioural patterns in stressful situations can do wonders for your waistline, as well as your general health and wellbeing.

We live in a stress-full culture, so it is understandable if the efforts necessary to maintain or obtain the “perfect” weight and body shape just seem impossible sometimes. We should also reject all the body-shaming we “normal” people face – and subject ourselves to – when compared to the “beautiful” people championed by the media. Our cultural standards of beauty are often unattainable and just become another source of chronic dissatisfaction and stress. However, rejecting harmful standards doesn’t mean we should also reject sensible health recommendations. There is a proven link between chronic stress and weight gain, as well as a serious illness.