One of the biggest mistakes that we see people make when it comes to getting in shape and building muscle, is constantly being in a calorie deficit and never allowing themselves time to actually build up strength and muscle. This is especially evident in females who take their gym training very seriously. Being so lean that you have instagram worthy abs year round is unrealistic and is going to slow down your long term progress. If you are overweight and are looking to drop body fat of course a long term calorie deficit is the way forward but once you have achieved a healthy / your desired level of body fat, you are going to need to spend time in a calorie surplus to progress with your physique and training. We have been training Emma for around 18 months now and when she started with us she was experienced in the gym and already in pretty good shape. However her gym training had stalled as had her progress because she was already lean and had been in a long term calorie deficit. We have spent the past 18 months gradually building up her calorie intake, strength and performance with periods of fat loss thrown in occasionally to keep the body fat levels in check. She was maintaining weight at around 1600 calories when she started with us, and now she is maintaining weight at 2800 calories and her strength is honestly on a completely different level to what it was when she started. Moral of the story, being shredded all of the time and afraid of increasing calories isn’t a good idea. #aberdeen #personaltrainer #personaltraining #cnfitness #strength #progress

Posted by CN Fitness Personal Training on Thursday, January 9, 2020