Myth: Fat makes you fat.

Short:

Fat is an umbrella term used to describe different types of lipids that exist. Unfortunately, people began to assume that by not eating "fat" they wouldn't get "fat". That's not only wrong, it actually tends to lead to greater caloric intake which in turn, leads to an increase in the size of the adipose storage cells in the human body. Stick to plant and animal based fats if you want to live a long and healthy life. Chemically produced fats can wreak havoc on a genetic level.

Long:
Fat comes in many different kinds. In the human body it's known as adipose. When we eat it, the basic kinds are known as Mono unsaturated (good for you.) Saturated (good for you) partially hydrogenated (evil.) Hydrogenated (evil) and Trans fat (evil.)

Fat is essential for the human body to survive. It produces hormones that we need to regulate appetite, stores energy in reserve for when we need it, and our brain is made up mostly of fatty acids. Without fat, we die. But how do we actually get "fat" in the popular culture, "apple shaped" kind of way?

Adipose cells are like balloons in that they expand depending on the amount of free flowing material available to them. If we consume more calories than we burn, the left over energy needs to be stored, and it gets stored in adipose cells. When the body doesn't have any fuel available, it uses the energy in stored fat cells (a safety mechanism from primordial times to counter act fluctuating food supplies.). Consistently excessive calorie intake, hormone imbalance (specifically of insulin and cortisol) and poor food quality all contribute to weight gain. It's important to note that excessive calorie intake can take any form, over eating salad is the same as over eating cookies, it just takes a whole lot more salad to get there.

So, excessive calorie intake is bad. Where does dietary fat come in? Dietary fat increases saeity by causing an increase in hormonal production (specifically Peptide YY). That means, if you eat something that is low in fat, you'll need to eat more of it to feel full. As a result, you'll be ingesting more calories overall then you would be if you ate something with fat in it, even if you account for the higher caloric value of food that is higher in dietary fat.

Now that we know the reason we need to eat fat, we need to know what kind to eat. The healthiest are usually plant and animal based and include Mono unsaturated (like extra virgin olive oil or almonds) and Saturated (eggs or butter.). The rest, hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated and Trans fats are all chemically made and affect the body on a genetic level by bonding with protein sites on cells without being able to fulfil their function. They should be avoided at all costs.

General rules:

Add olive oil to your food.

If it doesn't spoil, don't eat it.

The basic rules of effective training:

Let's say you've hired a personal trainer to help you lose the last stubborn 5 KG you have. You pay £600 for 10 sessions. Then you show up to your first session, and he doesn't know what exercises he's going to make you do. He doesn't have an overall plan to help you achieve your goal. What he does is make you run for 40 minutes, use very light to medium weights for some arm stuff and then makes you do crunches. You do the same the next session. And the session after that. For all ten of your sessions. 

Would you be happy with the level of service you're getting?

Of course not.

However, when many clients come to the gym on their own, the above workout plan is pretty close to what gets done.

A few general rules to making the most of your time at the gym:

1) Track. Everything. - Get a notebook. Get an assessment done. Mark down the date. Every workout track the weights you used, the movements you did, the distance you ran or rowed and the time it took you to get it all done.

2) Improve a little every time. - Either you increase the weight, the distance or the reps while keeping the same time, OR you do the same as your previous session but you do it faster. Change, no matter how small, means improvement.

3) Compare and reassess often. - Remember that assessment you did and that you wrote down in your notebook? After a month of regular training, get another assessment. Is there a body fat decrease? Lean Body Mass increase? Can you run a 1K faster than the first time you tried? Can you lift more?

Follow these 3 rules and your training time will become much more productive.