The Exact Diet That Got Renata In The Best Shape At 53 Years (Part 2)
23/05/2024Renata’s Spot-Reducing Protocol That Melted Stubborn Fat Off Her Hips & Thighs (Part 3)
Renata’s Spot-Reducing Protocol That Melted Stubborn Fat Off Her Hips & Thighs (Part 3)
Before you scroll down to 53-year-old Renata’s spot-reducing program and run off to the gym to burn off your stubborn thigh fat, there are three important things you need to consider, as I did with Renata, which is why her results are beyond spectacular.
1. Understanding how fat is burned and how to optimise your fat burning potential.
Firstly, to lose weight efficiently, you need to understand how your body expends energy throughout the day, known as Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).
Comprising a significant 70% of your body’s TDEE is your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), which represents the calories your body expends to carry out basic life-sustaining functions at rest. BMR is directly related to your metabolic rate.
15% of TDEE is burned naturally through NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) which is all the daily energy expended from activities other than intentional exercise: showering, cooking, shopping, fidgeting, chasing your kids, sex, washing the car, cleaning and walking, particularly the ‘cardio-walking’ bodybuilders use to get shredded. Walking is a low intensity exercise, which means it burns a higher percentage of body fat, without elevating stress hormones or breaking down muscle. Boosting NEAT by adding in cardio-walks, increases weight loss dramatically because during NEAT the body primarily burns fat for fuel, and anyone can and should increase walking – it’s free, low impact, de-stressing and requires no equipment. For added intensity, ankle weights can be incorporated, available at retailers like K-Mart and Bala online.
10% of TDEE is burned through TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) and is influenced by the types of foods and amount of calories you eat daily. Essentially, the more you can consume while on a weight loss regimen, the higher your TEF. Protein and fibre have the highest thermic effect, taking up to 30% of the energy they give just to digest them. Additionally, prometabolic sugars and carbs increase your metabolic rate, and reduce stress hormones, a crucial combo required for efficient weight loss. However, many of us instantly eliminate all carbs and sugars when embarking on a weight loss journey. When in actual fact, when weight loss slows, I increase prometabolic sugars to accelerate fat burning. Go figure!
5% of TDEE can be burned through EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) which is the calories burned through intentional exercise. Given that this accounts for only 5% of your TDEE – WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU EVER USE EXERCISE FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN BUILDING MUSCLE AND JOY?
So, if your body expends 70% of it’s energy (calorie burn) through an optimised metabolic rate, 15% through NEAT which is energy/calories burned daily by default, 10% through TEF with a cleverly designed diet, and only 5% through EAT, then 95% of your weight loss can be achieved without exercise. Do you see where your main focus should be if weight loss AND optimal health is your primary goal? Oh but building muscle is important and increases yor metabolic rate you argue – YES IT IS and IT DOES, however to build muscle you need to heal your sluggish metabolism and be on higher calories, not diet calories. Case closed.
2. Understanding that weight gain isn’t an exercise deficiency – it’s the result of a sluggish metabolism and declining health.
At BodyIQ my primary focus is on optimising each client’s metabolic efficiency through dietary strategies because a higher metabolic rate, not exercise combined with a calorie deficit is where 90% of your weight loss success comes from, and what will prevent future weight rebound. Additionally, nutrition also happens to dramatically improve your overall health, so the healthier you get, the easier weight loss becomes.
You wouldn’t take a broken-down car to the F1 racetrack – so why on earth would you take a broken metabolism to F45?
So rather than forcing weight loss through exercise, my goal is to re-teach your body to burn energy internally, not externally, which causes metabolic adaptation, weight loss plateaus, weight rebound and a heap of hormonal and health issues especially for women in their 40s, 50s and beyond who have been yo-yo dieting for decades and who are already hypometabolic, over-stressed and undernourished.
Exercise, especially when combined with a low-calorie diet, can exacerbate stress and lead to water, salt, and fat retention. Chronic elevation of stress hormones, lactic acid and inflammation are the opposite of improving your metabolic rate and achieving permanent weight loss. In fact, the last thing a stressed-out body will want to do is lose weight.
For more insights on this topic, you can read my full article titled: “Why Eating Less & Exercising More Will Make You Fatter & Sicker – Not Thinner” here.
“Exercise and calorie restriction increases stress hormones, causes obesity and insulin resistance, and may require cortisol blockers to reverse it.”
The most bang for your buck comes from optimising your metabolic rate so that your body burns fat at rest. In fact, up to 70% of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) occurs during the resting state. Once your metabolism is rejuvenated, meaning your Basal Body Temperatures (BBT) are 36.6 degrees Celsius, Resting Heart Rate (RHR) is 75bpm and you’ve transitioned to maintenance calories through Reverse Dieting, you may then hit the gym hard – in fact, you absolutely should!
3. Optimise before you exercise by transitioning from diet calories to maintenance calories through Reverse Dieting
Once you hit your goal weight, you might mistakenly think that all your hard work is done. In reality, what you do after your diet is equally important. You can’t simply stop dieting once you’ve reached your goal weight and return to maintenance calories, you will progressively start regaining all the weight back. Your metabolism isn’t ready to jump to 2000 calories overnight. That’s when the Reverse Diet comes in.
Reverse dieting is the single greatest way to restore your metabolism to its fullest potential.
It’s esentially the diet after the diet, that helps you transition to a more sustainable calorie intake whilst helping you keep the weight you’ve lost off. It’s the opposite of a diet. With reverse dieting you gradually increase the number of calories you are able to eat while maintaining your new weight. It’s the only way to turbo-boost your metabolism post dieting and the reason why ALL diets fail long-term.
If you want to keep the weight off you either need to continue eating less, or you need to train your body to metabolise more calories efficiently, rather than store them as body fat. That’s what reverse dieting does. It’s the essential step you take after you reach your goal weight to lock in your new weight and keep the body you’ve worked so hard to achieve. It’s an ‘insurance policy’ against weight rebound.
Renata’s metabolic health and program adherence ticked all the above boxes. She dedicated herself to understanding the BodyIQ process, nutrition, and her body, and that’s why she’s in the best shape of her life at 53 years young.
So without further ado, here is Renata’s spot-reducing protocol that allowed her to melt stubborn fat off her hips and thighs in just one spot-reducing training sessions per week.
Spot-reduction is possible! All you need to do is combine heavy load resistance training with explosive resistance training for your ‘fat’ muscle group followed by 30mins aerobic endurance training.
If the following TWO conditions are met, it’s absolutely possible to achieve spot-reduction and lose more fat in targeted body parts than in others:
- Local fat oxidation occurs as a result of increased temperature and blood flow near the exercised tissue, which is promoted by exercising muscles near the desired spot reduction areas with heavy loads (>70% 1RM). This helps to enhance body part temperature, blood flow, and hormone delivery, facilitating effective spot reduction.
- Just doing the spot-reduction work isn’t enough. You must follow up with more exercise to burn the mobilised fatty acids and translate the spot lipolysis into actual spot reduction. Moderate cardio, performed for a minimum of 30 minutes, is recommended for this purpose.
Do note however, spot-reduction is impossible outside of a fat loss diet. No number of crunches is going to get you a sixpack without enough total body fat lost. And no amount of treadmill walking is going to get your thighs cellulite free without enough total body fat loss.
Renata’s Spot-Reducing Program:
- 12x heavy deep seated machine leg presses / 20x weighted jump squats OR weighted plyometric lunges. Repeat 8x.
- Followed by 30mins cycling on stationery bike at moderate pace and slight resistance.
Some training rules Renata followed include:
- Weight training on High Calorie (HC) days only.
- Never training on an empty stomach.
- Two sessions per week: 1x Hips & Thighs Spot-Reducing Workout and 1x Full Body Workout (to maintain current muscle mass).
- Limiting sessions to a maximum of 45 minutes.
- Walking outdoors daily for additional fat burn.
- Incorporating 1kg ankle weights into 2x walks per week for the last 2 weeks.
You can also easily incorporate a weekly spot-reducing training session for your arms or abs, by adapting the above protocol.
Stay tuned for the final part of Renata’s weight loss journey – Part 4: Renata’s Favourite BodyIQ Diet Recipes,, which helped her achieve her body goals and made the journey fun and enjoyable.
Summer bodies are made in winter.
Join the BodyIQ 8 or 12 week Online Metabolic Makeover challenge. Your only regret will be why you didn’t sign-up sooner! Your future self will thank you.
Article by Kinga Fourie
Certified Nutritionist, BodyIQ Founder & IFBB Figure Champion
