The 360 Personal Training Health & Fitness Blog

Protein and Weight Loss - The Ultimate Guide

Protein and Weight Loss - The Ultimate Guide

Protein is the most important macronutrient for weight loss: it's more satiating than carbs and fat, you burn more calories digesting it and it helps you retain your muscle mass while you lose body fat.

Have a read of the full guide to find out more about how much protein you need, where you can get it from and when you should eat it.

You’ll also find out about why it’s not really bad for your kidneys and which sources of protein to eat to minimise your carbon footprint.

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How Catherine lost 60kgs by facing her emotions

How Catherine lost 60kgs by facing her emotions

Imagine carrying any one of the above animals/objects/people around with you everywhere you go, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Now imagine that extra weight being body fat.

Aside from being physically exhausting and painful on pretty much every joint in your body, it would exert an even greater negative impact on your cardiometabolic health.

Not to mention the psychological suffering that goes hand in hand with the physical. And the stark realisation that this is not how you want to live the rest of your life.

This is where Catherine was in April 2020 (Catherine is a former 360 PT client who had trained with me back in 2012)...

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CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT: The main components that determine weight loss (or weight gain)

CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT: The main components that determine weight loss (or weight gain)

The standard advice for weight loss is to eat less and move more. This is technically true because you need to create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight.

However, the advice is too vague to be helpful to most people, and can actually end up being demotivating. Just moving a bit more than you currently move and eating a bit less of what you currently eat is setting you up for failure.

This infographic outlines the details you need to focus on to lose weight successfully and keep it off.

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8 myths about low back pain that stop you from being pain-free

8 myths about low back pain that stop you from being pain-free

When I first tell a client with persistent low back pain that they need to stop stretching their back, they usually look at me like I've got two heads.

It's a deeply ingrained assumption that when your back hurts you need to stretch it out or practise yoga in order to 'mobilise' it. It doesn't help when certain manual therapists reinforce this dogma by prescribing generic stretches without first establishing what the client's individual pain triggers are.

This is one of a number of common myths that prevent people getting rid of their low back pain. Is a belief in any of these myths stopping your back from getting better?

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Friends Not Ecstatic About Your New Healthy Lifestyle?

Friends Not Ecstatic About Your New Healthy Lifestyle?

Giving up smoking 18 years ago was without doubt the best thing I could have done at the time for my long term health and well being.

So, how could it be that some of my friends (and, even worse, family) didn't seem happy with my successful quest to become a healthier person?

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Six ways to outsmart your hungry brain

Six ways to outsmart your hungry brain

When we were hunter gatherers in an environment where food was scarce, having a calorie-seeking brain improved our chances of survival. But, today, when all it takes is a phone call to Domino’s pizza to get a 5,000 calorie bomb dropped off at your door, the same brain has become a liability.

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How to beat your back pain

How to beat your back pain

There are many causes of lower back pain which is why generic treatments rarely provide anything other than short term relief. If you’re still suffering after having been given a vague diagnosis such as ‘nonspecific back pain’ and some pills to numb you down then the good news is that you still have other, more effective options to explore.

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Five Freakish Feats of Human Performance

Five Freakish Feats of Human Performance

David Goggins is an ex-Navy SEAL who has often been referred to as the ‘toughest man alive'. Here’s a brief account of some of his triumphs over adversity:

  • Overcoming, in his own words, ‘a fucked up childhood’ (detailed in his inspirational book, ‘Can’t Hurt Me’)
  • Went from being obese, weighing almost 300 lbs (136 kgs) down to 190 lbs (86 kgs), to become a Navy SEAL and serve the US Armed Forces in Iraq.
  • After retiring, he became an ultra-marathoner, breaking into the world’s top 20 with a series of top 5 finishes in races such as the Badwater 135, a 135 mile (217 km) race that starts in Death Valley.
  • Pull-up world record holder. At his third attempt in 2013, he completed 4,030 pull-ups in 17 hours (despite being at a biomechanical disadvantage, having longer than average arms).
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That's a problem for Future Homer

That's a problem for Future Homer

‘That’s a problem for future Homer. Man I don’t envy that guy!’ —Homer Simpson

As any casual viewer of The Simpsons knows, delayed gratification has never been one of Homer's strong points.

Fortunately for him, he hasn’t aged since the show first aired in 1989 so, ironically, he doesn’t have to worry too much about ‘Future Homer’.

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An Experiment on Apes

An Experiment on Apes

Here’s an idea for an experiment:

Round up a bunch of big-brained apes who evolved for millions of years in a harsh environment of food scarcity.

Teleport them to a new, comfortable habitat where they have unrestricted access to as much highly-palatable, energy-dense food as they want, whenever they want.

No more hunger.

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