Not the diet fad or company, whatever you want to call them.

It is well evidenced in this industry that in many (not all cases) lighter, is better. I know we’ve always said it isn’t necessarily about the weight but in some cases we’ve had to sugar coat things to avoid causing offence but frankly, that time has passed.

Whilst it is genuinely quite difficult to achieve the NHS’ standards for height and weight, there’s certainly things one can do to give themselves a fighting chance to have a positive impact on their weight. Exercise and Nutrition interventions being the obvious key, but as we’ve spoke about in the past, the way you train I.E HIIT sessions to take advantage of EPOC, and trying to be as NEAT as possible elsewhere (non exercise activity thermogenesis) within your lifestyle will help burn calories that you don’t realise, and they all count and soon add up and account towards the achievement of a calorie deficit.

Over the years we’ve busted myths about all sorts, in a bid to help you invest into something meaningful, fulfilling and actually worth your hard earned money, in return for the gains you’re seeking. There is no magic bullet or pill, and to be brutally honest, would you wanna be hit by it or swallow it down if there was? There are so many other different things that go into developing you as a person, as a functioning body and all that you are that meets the eye. You learn things about yourself by overcoming challenges, and digging into the little pockets of the unknown. Anyway, just to confirm muscle and fat pound for pound weigh the same, however lean muscle is more dense, and therefore has a smaller surface area than fat. The reason I bring this up is because whilst looking good in your clothes or even out of them isn’t wholly about weight, but if you’re 5ft 6 (for example) weighing 90kg (again for example) and your body fat percentage is 40%, then yes, you would benefit from losing weight. You’re not going to just ‘tone up”. In actual fact toning up and losing weight, getting ripped or shredded, or lean whichever way you want to dress it up between the filters, clever lighting and smart camera angles all mean the same thing. Muscle will only show through your skin, if you reduce the amount of fat between the muscle and the skin its self. Ultimately, weight loss will be integral to this process but you might not have to loose the illusive ‘couple of stone’ people ask of us to make that happen.

In relation to performance depending on the sport, again lighter is almost certainly better. That is in relation to the sport however. Mass, regardless of its make up requires energy to move around. This means the more, or faster you move that mass around the more energy it costs you to do that. It also generates more heat. This has a knock on effect to core temperature rising, your nervous system opening the sweat glands to cool you down which THEN has a negative impact on electrolyte balance and hydration status. Being heavy as an athlete isn’t impossible, but it isn’t easy either! For every action there is and equal and opposite reaction.

I don’t want to bang the drum about it too much and be so out there as to say it is all about getting lighter because it isn’t. It is about understanding what heavy or light means. It’s about understanding the implications of either or. It’s about knowing the advantages and disadvantages of both. How many ‘class boxers’ have you seen go up a weight division, and lose? Just because they’re heavier than they were before doesn’t mean they’re as strong as their would be competitors who’ve fought heavy for years. This means their punches will not be as strong, their muscles won’t absorb as much force as their stronger more powerful rivals, but it will cost them more energy to fight at that weight.

It is just food for thought that I speak on this topic because there’s so much buzz about losing weight. I like to think that in secret, we all know in our minds if we need to or should be losing weight, but it doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to achieve!

I still maintain that training consistently, and finding consistency in that, and your nutrition will yield better results than just crashing weight off, relaxing your game, finding it, crashing it off, relaxing your game and finding it. It does happen.

Lower your expectations a little, increase your commitment a little and you’ll find consistency. Once you have that, you’re laughing all the way from there, and you’ll become to understand more and more as time goes on both with nutrition, and training.