As a personal trainer in Singapore, I get asked alot about diet, nutrition and supplements for losing fat and gaining muscles.
One common mistake that people in Singapore make when it comes to fat loss and muscle gain is a lack of meat! Simply not enough.
The Singapore diet has too little of it. A bowl of fish soup has a few pathetic slices of fish. A plate of Char Siew rice has a few slices of roast pork… TINY.
When I talk about meat, I mean alot of it. at least a kilo per day for men (more is better as long as your digestive system is good!) and 500g per day for women.
"But meat gives you all kinds of problems"… like - kidney problems, gout, hypertension (high blood pressure) etc…
NO
The problem is not the meat, its the "meat".
Let me explain.
Meat is like a Mozart composition. If you heard a Mozart piece played by me who is an average (or worse) piano player…you would think Mozart was a crappy composer! But it’s not his fault, its mine!
Similarly, people who get problems from meat have bad habits in general and eat BAD meat. Which I don’t even consider meat at all!
Smoked meats, preserved meats, sausages, hams and other varieties of "meat" are not meat! They are random animal parts mixed with massive amounts of bad artificial flavoring and preservatives.
Real meat causes no problems. In fact it’s so good for you that its been known for men in hard labor like soldiers or explorers to eat 4-5kg of meat per day!
So, don’t blame Mozart and eat good quality meats!
Helping Singapore residents cut through misinformation is part of all our programs. Meat is involved in getting lean and fit as part of Singapore’s best personal training program, as well as performing well and recovering well as an athlete in our Singapore athlete program.
Performing the olympic lifts. Almost nobody coaches or performs them properly. But luckily on our staff we have a national team weightlifter, Derrick Kim. He has been helping me with my technique. This process is NEVER ENDING and is built up bit by bit. Hey thats the Kaizen principle I wrote about!
It starts off here: really ugly and bad techinque! Arms bend too early so I lose power that is supposed to come from the hips…I also don’t extend my body fully so I also lose power. And I also look Uncool…
But hey, improve little by little right!… So, I improved the extension part so the pull is more forceful…but still the bar is too far away from my body…
So I have been working on that "bar close to the body" problem… and its alot better now, my hips extend more forcefully. And the weight I can use is now 115kg when previously it was only 100kg.
The cool thing about the kaizen principle, is that as you focus on small improvements during the PROCESS, the RESULTS improve automatically! This is applicable in all ways… eat too much cake? next time just take a bite instead of the whole piece! Don’t exercise at all? Start proper training at least once a week… and focus on the process… the results will come.
The only mistake you can make is SITTING ON YOUR BUTT and doing nothing!
Personal training in Singapore is also about coaching skill. One thing that I encourage you to have is to live with the Kaizen Principle.
The Kaizen Principle is a Japanese idea where we see constant measurable but small increments in ability/progress/skill etc.
You can see it in "japaneseish" kind of industries like cameras and cars… each year brings a new model with small tweaks and improvements at a slightly better price point than the previous
This is logical yet AGAINST what we like to hear: "Instant results RIGHT NOW"
Yes I take pride in getting clients great results, but still it doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process.
But that process is measurable, fun and educational.
Lift a little more each week. Change an unhealthy nutrition habit to a healthy one each week, switch an inactive hobby for a more active one… etc
If I could lift even just 0.5kg more each week, In 2 years I would be the world record holder in every strength sport in the world! Thats how powerful the kaizen principle is. (Although this is not possible due to other limitations… its just an example of the high standards that can be reached with constant but slow progress)
Meanwhile… I got my some positive comments on my piano playing (which is NOT an area I’m particularly good at… so encouraging! haha) Another area of life I’m trying to improve little by little!
I’ve looked through the issue of Mind-your-Body you mentioned. There is one article that says red meat and dairy products contain a type of sugar that a paticular kind of diarrhea-causing bacterium likes to bind to. Is the article wrong about that?
Then there is another Mind-Your-Body article that extols the virtues of lean lamb meat (high protein, B vitamins, iron, zinc, low saturated fat and low cholesterol). Is there a health distinction between lean red meat and fatty red meat?
Can white meat do the same thing for digestion and hormones as red meat, while avoiding some of its pitfalls (e.g. cancer risk)?
Does it make a difference if the meat came from grass-fed animals rather than corn-fed?
Last but not least, how do you help your clients to fix their digestive systems?
Thanks!
Answer:
If you get diarrhea when you eat food, your digestive system needs to be improved. We are designed to be able to eat, digest, and ENJOY red meat:)
Yes lamb is fine. And it does have all those benfits. Saturated fat is fine so fatty red meat is fine. Thats what cavemen ate and they were healthy. But remember to balance out your fats with unsaturated fats and omega 3’s. Saturated fat is good but it is infalmatory so you need omega 3s to balance out because those are anti inflamatory.
White meat is fine! But it doesnt have the fat content of red meat. This is bad. Your body doesnt learn to become "fat adapted" if you don’t eat enough fat. I.E. You don’t learn to burn fat for energy so its harder to burn BODY fat!
Yes grass fed is better. And if you get meat from wholesalers, it is affordable.
Digestive system fixing is done through testing of zinc and stomach acid levels, then supplementation according to an individual’s needs.
As a Personal Trainer In Singapore I read Mind your Body each week in the Straits Times. It’s probably The most widespread Singapore health publication in newspapers or otherwise.
Unfortunately some of the stuff is just plain wrong… and before it gets out of hand, here is the correct information.
There was an article on red meat and how bad it is… uh huh… really?… This is WRONG. Red meat is GREAT for you. The fat in the meat increases good hormone levels like testosterone and it also slows digestion of the food so that you don’t get a big bad "rush" of energy that encourages your body to store fat.
The reporter also mentioned that she feels "bloated" after eating red meat. That is NOT the fault of the meat! Thats because her digestive system is in poor shape. Fixing a person’s digestive system is the FIRST thing we do with all our clients so that they can digest all the nutritious food we ask the to eat!
There was another feature on this guy who looks fit. It was on the back page of the newspaper. He says he trains 3 hours a day and sleeps 5. This is also WRONG. He would do ALOT better training 1 hour and sleeping 7! When you sleep too little your hormones again get out of whack. Yes you can keep it up for a while but you run the risk of burnout. Your hormones that were in overdrive to help you sustain the crazy life suddenly shut down from overwork and in a few months you can suddenly bloat up from your slim waistline to a big baloon because the body gives up.
There is always a price to pay for sleeping too little and stressing your body too much.
I applaud health publications attempts to get people to be more healthy… its just that sometimes they are just plain WRONG.
But hey… they aren’t the ones giving money back guarantees to their clients right:)
Fathers may be more important than mothers in determining whether a child becomes overweight or obese, according to a ground-breaking new Australian study by the Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.
“This study of a large cross-section of Australian pre-schoolers has, for the first time, suggested that fathers could be at the frontline in preventing early childhood obesity,” explains Associate Professor Melissa Wake of CCCH. “Mothers are often blamed for their children’s obesity, but this study suggests that for more effective prevention perhaps we should focus on the whole family.
“Given the importance of the family unit in a child’s preschool years, and its influence on their nutrition and physical activity levels, it is timely to look at the parenting roles of both parents and the impact they have on a child’s tendency to be overweight or obese,” she said. “This makes even more sense given that more than 40% of these young mothers and more than 60% of these young fathers were themselves overweight or obese.”
“We know from earlier research that childhood obesity is highly stable during the primary school years, right from school entry. For instance, the BMI of a prep- grade child has an 85% correlation with their BMI three years later. Obese school children are very likely to become obese adults,” warns Associate Professor Wake.
So dad’s are even more responsible for the way kids turn out than moms… I am sure that this is not just a health related truth. Check out all the truly balanced, happy kids, they all have strong father figures.
Even more than running fast, lifting heavy stuff and being a successful and influential fitness professional, I want to be a world class dad and husband. Making myself a positive influence to the next generation is the stuff that legends are made of.
A good personal trainer in singapore or elsewhere knows that women need strength training too! Here are 3 reasons why…
1. Women need strength training because It makes you better at burning fat
More muslces mean a better metabolism. You can and NEED to eat MORE to maintain your new and improved figure!
2. Women need strength training because It makes your curves stand our more
Behind your curves are muscles! Get the right ones working in the right way and your feminine figure stands out more!
3. Women need strength training because it helps you prevent injury and perfrom better in life
Women in general have wider hips - and thus less perfectly straight legs, and more lax connective tissue. This is NOT your fault! You need these features for childbirth. But these features make a woman more likely to be injured.
Proper strenght training and movement training reduces your injury risk to almost zero.
I am reminded of a story about Paula Abdul who broke her nose from a fall because she was trying to avoid stepping on her pet dog. I’m not one to laugh at the misforune of others… but I bet some agility and strenght training could have avoided that!
Click here to find out how we can help you implement a woman’s strength training program that meets your needs.
I am in reservist for the next 2 weeks. That means I have to take the IPPT test. And as a pretty well known personal trainer in Singapore, I’m kind of expected to do well! Uh.. I’m also the author of the ippt-training.com website!
My weakest event is the 2.4km run. I never train such a distance most of the year. Why? Because in the IPPT or NAPFA, the 2.4km run is the easiest event to improve.
That is why I leave it "last minute" to work on it. Yeah I won’t be running any record timings but a 11 minute timing would be easy. I have done 9min 22sec before but that was 15kg ago:)
I train on a route about 2.8-3km long around my home. I first tried it 1 week ago. It took 14:30. Now it takes 13 flat. 90 sec improvement or about 10% in 1 week. Thats ALOT. Thats FAST thats NORMAL if you are not fat and are fit already.
Improvment is so fast, and that is why we DONT need to run most of the year. Lift heavy, eat cleanly, and leave the 2.4 to the last few weeks. You will still get your result!
As a singapore personal trainer, one of the big problems my clients face, is eating well at work. And I have to admit, I don’t face the problems that they do because my work is fairly flexible and our gym is close to home so I can even go home for some home cookin at lunch time… UNFAIR…
But not these 3 weeks. I’m in my reservist training. My great staff of Edwin (strength & conditioning coach of our national silat team), Derrick (national weightlifter), Daniel (check him out at this coming January mens bodybuildign show), Ray (fittest guy in SMU), Malcolm (gonna get his sports science degree soon…) and Annie, will be handling personal training, coaching, consultations and other gym matters.
This also means that I have to live the way others do. No access to cooking facilities during the day. Bad quality canteen food. Etc
Here is what I do:
Breakfast meat and nuts at home. Meat is pre cooked the day before (or even DAYS before) and nuts are bought raw and roasted.
Lunch is just the veggies and meat at the cookhouse + some chicken and eggs from the canteen chicken rice stall.
Snacks are nuts and fishoil.
Dinner is a meat at home + preparing for tomorrow’s breakfast
Total calories and protein are same as ususal but I did drop 2 snacks where I would ususally have a bit of protein. I could use a shake or a bar to make it up.
In the Jungle on missions… I will bring sardines. Those are better than tuna because less poison from pollutants.
There is ALWAYS a way to keep your nutrition on track. No matter where you are!
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