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Hey, welcome to the first instalment of `Filtered Fuel', a weekly newsletter I'll be producing that filters through the BS to optimise your health and fitness for the long term.

The Framework:

Something I often find when working with new clients is their perception of converting fat to muscle, especially around the midsection and thighs for women, and chest for guys.

Dan Go @FitFounder You can't turn fat into muscle. You burn fat through a combination of diet & exercise. You build muscle using your workouts & protein intake. They are two separate processes. Stop confusing them. January 16th 2023 385 Retweets 2,352 Likes

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This often gets confused. When it comes to getting in shape my mantra is to keep both diet and exercise separate.

Train for strength. Diet for fat loss.

The goal should be to build your lifestyle around this. If your goal is to build strength and tone up but you're carrying a little too much timber at the moment, focus on getting that down.

Here's how:

Create a diet that focuses on good quality protein, and allows you to drop weight without feeling too hungry, or emotional around food. Include your favourite foods but primarily focus on wholesome foods, not pre packed meal deals and last minute convenient food. Eat as much as you can whilst seeing weight drop on the scale.

From there focus on strength training to maintain the muscle you currently have. And if you've never trained before, you're at an advantage because you can build muscle whilst dropping body fat. Each workout should build from the last one.

When you're looking to drop weight, your body will break down your muscle first. Not a great look. The higher protein diet and progressive workouts counter that.

Stay on this path, reducing your portion sizes and/or calories until your weight loss is steady, say 0.3-0.5% of your weight a week. Don't aim to do more workouts, that will only make things a little harder.

And when you're down to a weight your comfortable with, slowly bring your portions and/or calories up until you're not losing weight anymore but maintaining.

That's the essence of an incredible transformation. It's about staying consistent when you really don't want to.

Daily Workout:

Each week I'll put a little workout in here for you to try and let me know how you get on. They'll be a combo of gym and at home workouts, with bodyweight, barbell and dumbbell exercises.

Focus: Full Body Strength

• A1: Goblet Squats with heels raised.

3 x 8 - Keep the tempo slow with a 2 second down, 2 seconds up tempo.

• B1: DB Romanian Deadlifts
• B2: Half Kneeling Shoulder Press

3 x 10 on both. With the half kneeling shoulder press, press both arms up at the same time, and swap the legs with each set.

• C1: Three Point Dumbbell Row​
• C2: Deficit Reverse Lunge​

Aim for 12 reps on each. Use a bench for the 3 point row, with a 1 second pause at the top of the movement. With the deficit Reverse Lunge, grab a step or a weight plate, and put your front foot on that. Keep the weight on your front leg throughout. Click the link as I walk through both for you.

• D1: Side Planks

Finish with 3 sets of 30 second side planks. Keep a straight line with your body throughout and aim to keep your hips away from the floor. Ensure your resting elbow is directly under the shoulder.

Follow along text for the workout

Got Questions?

Hit me up below and drop your question in there and I'll get back to you.

That's all from me, until next week.

~ Sam

P.S - How did you find the first week of Filtered Fitness?

​👍 Loved it | 👎 Hated it​

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