Summer is just around the corner – here’s how to get in beach holiday shape as fast as possible without restriction, fads, or cutting corners!
Work out your timescales
The first thing you need to do is figure out the timescales of your “beach ready” project. Approach this in exactly the same way as you would a financial target or a work assignment.
It’s essentially a case of [time] / [work to be done].
In this case, look at how many weeks remain until your holiday or special event. Then look at how much weight you’d like to lose. Please, be realistic. Don’t just pluck a number out of the air. A reasonable rate of weight loss is 1.5-2 lbs a week. Any faster than this, and you risk losing muscle (not fat) and rebounding after your fat loss phase.
Figure out your dieting deficit
Fat loss requires a calorie deficit. That means either fewer calories “in” (food and drinks), more calories “out” (exercise, activity) or ideally a bit of both.
Feel free to email me if you need help with this bit.
Or try an online calculator like this one
https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
You need to work out how to create the necessary deficit to lose your required amount of fat in the timeframe you’ve given yourself.
A word of warning: if your calculations tell you that you need to cut any more than 20% from your maintenance calories, please readjust your goal. Restricting your calories too much can lead to hunger, bingeing, and a poor relationship with food. Not on my watch!
Choose the best training plan
The other side of the beach holiday ready coin is exercise. There are a number of training programmes you could adopt. Ask yourself what “look” want to achieve once your body transformation is complete.
This consideration is a key part of my approach with clients. As you’d expect, I don’t give everyone the same exercise plan. I don’t even give everyone the same types of exercise. It all depends on what they want to achieve (plus other factors like time availability, health, injury status and so on).
Do you want a lean, svelte Summery look? Incorporate more yoga, Pilates, resistance bands, and bodyweight training into your plan.
Do you want to tone up and have more shape to your muscles? Do more weight training exercises with barbell or dumbbells, kettlebells and other resistance tools.
You might be wondering how you can lose body fat without doing cardio or HIIT training. Whilst it’s true that you will burn more calories with these training modalities in your plan, it’s perfectly possible to shed body fat with yoga and bodyweight training.
The key to fat loss is that calorie deficit. So if you choose less intense forms of exercise, you’ll need to create more of the deficit from your diet.
How to track progress
This is a time-bound fat loss goal, so you’ll need to keep a close eye on your progress and make changes to your diet and exercise along the way.
- Track your calorie and protein intake with an app or food diary
- Be consistent and honest with yourself, only adjust if you plateau for more than a week
- Pay attention to hydration (aim for at least 2 litres a day) and sleep (8-9 hours of quality sleep a night)
- Track your daily steps (a big contributor to calorie output) and aim for 10,000 a day or 70,000 weekly average
- Use a variety of measurements to track progress, not just scale weight (waist measurements, progress photos, how your clothes fit)
Got a beach holiday coming up? My body transformation system gets incredible results in 12 weeks or less. Message me to see if it’s right for you.
Coach Joseph Webb.
‘The number one rated Personal Trainer In Henley and Oxfordshire’
