At Arkitect Fitness, we serve a wide variety of clients all with various goals, but because we believe in focusing on the fundamentals of fitness and nutrition, our clients usually experience tangential benefits from the training and education we provide. In the case of Jen, when she joined, she told us her primary goals were to get fit enough to be able to better enjoy the long hikes she does and improve her mobility. No where did she specifically mention weight loss, yet here she is, down an incredible 30+lbs, and feeling better than ever. So how did she do it? Jen uses the Arkitect 5-Step process to achieving her goals. Let’s break it down.
The first thing we should mention is Jen’s consistency. Over the last 5 months Jen has been to the gym just under 100 times. That means she averaged 4 workouts per week, even during the holiday season with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. 4 workouts per week may seem like a lot, but consider each workout takes roughly an hour, that’s less than 3% of her total week.
Jen’s workouts are primarily strength based with a bit of high intensity interval training mixed in. Why? Strength training has unique benefits to your health that other forms of training (like steady state “cardio”) do not. Strength training not only builds healthy muscle, strong bones, and better mobility, it’s also an excellent fat burner, both while you’re exercising, and after your workout is finished.
Looking at Jen’s habits outside of the gym, she diligently stuck to her nutrition plan. If you want to burn fat and reshape your body, you have to eat in a calorie deficit. That doesn’t mean eating as little as possible, it more or less means you have to find a strategy that helps you to not overeat, as so many Americans do. For us we find food journaling to be the best way to do this, but there are many options that help to reduce calories, whether that be vegan, keto, intermittent fasting, meal planning, etc… There really is no “wrong” way to do it. We just prefer food journaling because we find it simultaneously educates and empowers the client while also getting them the results they want.
While training and nutrition are the two most important factors in changing your body composition, Jen is also diligent about getting 10,000 steps per day, and also making a good night’s sleep a priority. Most people underestimate the amount of calories that can be burned by NEAT or non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Going to the gym for an intense workout is great, but if the rest of your day is spent on the couch, that time in the gym won’t be well spent. Remember, Jen only spends about 3% of her week in the gym. What do you think has the biggest impact on your results, what you do with 3% of your time, or what you do with 97% of your time?
Lastly Jen has taken advantage of some of the tools we provide at Arkitect to help her stay consistent. She works with our coaches to make sure she’s getting the most out of her workouts, she subscribes to Avatar Nutrition to help her with her food journaling, and she participates in our accountability group, where we do daily check-ins to help each other stay on track.
If you’re looking for gyms in Concord, give us a shout, we’d be happy to help you out!
