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By Team GRAZIA

What should you eat before and after a workout?

And 21 other top health and exercise questions, answered

From what to eat before and after a workout, to the most underrated calorie torching type of training – GRAZIA PT Daniel Sten explains the straight-up do’s and don’ts for healthy living and looking amazing.

A photo posted by @karliekloss on Mar 8, 2016 at 9:27am PST

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO STAY ON TRACK WITH A FITNESS GOAL? For weight loss, if you cannot ﬁt into certain items of clothing anymore, take them out of your closet and place them somewhere you can easily see them. This will remind you to stay on track with your weight loss aim – you want to be able to ﬁt into them again, and seeing them will obviously remind you of this. Or go window shopping for a dress or pair of jeans you would love to ﬁt into. Don’t buy them just yet – but take a picture, and regularly look at the photo for motivation. Also, on your fridge, have a photo of what you look like now and your initial measurements next to a picture of a celebrity you’d like to look like, and their measurements. This will also help you stay on track.

SPEAKING OF CELEBRITIES, WHAT STAR DO MOST GIRLS SAY THEY WANT TO LOOK LIKE? Actually, most of the GRAZIA cover stars. Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Jennifer Lawrence, Miranda Kerr. Heidi Klum is also on many women’s wish list.

WHAT IS ABSOLUTELY THE WORST POSSIBLE FOOD YOU COULD EAT FOR WEIGHT GAIN? It’s not food, it’s certain drinks – any type of really sugary canned drinks. They have no nutritional value whatsoever, and are full of sugar, which raises your insulin levels and in turn, you start to store fat.

A photo posted by Hannah Bronfman (@hannahbronfman) on Feb 6, 2016 at 8:21am PST

WHAT SHOULD EVERYONE HAVE IN THEIR DIET AND WHY? You should be consuming oily ﬁsh – salmon, tuna and trout – up to four times each week. They have lots of good fat in it – fatty ﬁsh is great for your cardiovascular health. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, then ﬂaxseeds, walnuts, and avocados are essential too.

WHAT’S AN OVERRATED EXERCISE? All exercise is good. For this question, it really depends on what your purpose is in training. You don’t go to yoga to burn calories – this is for toning and stretching. And you won’t ﬁnd aerobics classes fantastic if you want to build muscle.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE MOST UNDERRATED EXERCISE? Running. All you need is a pair of trainers, and the great outdoors. You don’t need any equipment or a membership to a gym – you just go.

A photo posted by Gigi Hadid (@gigihadid) on Nov 5, 2015 at 1:56pm PST

WHAT’S THE BEST STALLING FOR TIME TECHNIQUE YOU’VE ENCOUNTERED IN A PT SESSION? A lot of people seem to want to drink a lot water when training. Don’t get me wrong, you need to stay hydrated, but before every exercise one client, for example, would stop and say, “Wait, I need a drink,” and after the exercise, “Let’s stop for a minute. I need more water.” It’s best to drink a lot before and after the session. Another client used to say they needed to re-tie their shoe laces every 10 minutes as they were too loose.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO TO PREPARE FOR A PT SESSION? Warm up by running at a steady pace for ﬁve minutes before the session starts.

WHAT ARE THE BEST SUPPLEMENTS TO TAKE? Omega 3 is great for fat burning, heart health and strength, and a branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) helps to provide nutrition to your muscles, plus gives you energy.

WHAT SHOULD YOU EAT BEFORE AND AFTER EXERCISING? It depends on your goal. For weight loss, don’t eat two hours before you exercise. Before this, have a banana or a small bowl of sweet potatoes. Directly after training, have a protein shake and banana.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD WE REALLY BE EXERCISING? Everyone should be exercising no less than three times a week, for at least half an hour to one hour at a time. It needs to include a variety of exercise, including weight lifting and cardio.

A photo posted by SBC F I G H T (@sbcfight) on Feb 13, 2016 at 3:03pm PST

WHAT IS THE BEST POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE IF YOU ARE CRAVING SOMETHING SWEET? Nutritionists are going to kill me, but a diet soft drink, such as a Diet Coke or Sprite Zero because they also have no calories. If you aren’t a fan of diet soft drinks, then have a small piece of fruit instead.

ARE CARBS REALLY THAT BAD? It depends on when you eat them and how much. You need carbs after training because you need to recharge the carbs you’ve lost in your muscle. You can eat more carbs in the morning because you need energy in the day. However, it depends on what type of carbs. Low GI carbs keep you fuller for longer, like nuts, brown rice, and sweet potato.

WHAT’S THE WORST FITNESS MYTH YOU’VE HEARD? Women who say, “I’ll gain muscle if I do weights.” That’s completely untrue. Women need to do weights a few times a week – we all need strength in the body and in fact, doing weights helps us lose fat due to it being a high metabolic exercise, which increases fat burning.

A photo posted by Jourdan Dunn (@officialjdunn) on Apr 4, 2016 at 4:40am PDT

WHAT ARE PEOPLE DOING WRONG WHEN DIETING? They are starving themselves. Starving slows down your metabolism, so that means whenever you eat, your body grabs food and stores it. Regular, small meals throughout the day keeps your metabolism active.

WHAT IS THE BEST EXERCISE FOR WEIGHT LOSS? Interval training, which is cardio training consisting of alternating periods of high to low intensity activity. You can do this through a range of different exercises – running, boxing or CrossFit, just to name three. However, you need to work in weights, too. Plus, a good diet is essential.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN HAVING “CHEAT DAYS”? Yes. Not when you are initially start a weight loss regime – they can come later on once you get into a good routine.

This article originally appeared in GRAZIA Middle East, written by Kate Huchinson

topics: Fitness, Beauty News, Body, Health, Diet, Kate Hutchinson