how many calories are there in 1 pound of fat? two thousand? one thousand? no wrong again, there are actually 3500 calories per pound of fat. For each pound of fat that you are interested in losing, thats exactly how many calories you need to burn through exercise and deficit through improvements in your diet in order to lose that pound. The next time you browse through your supermarket or pharmacy and see these great weightloss products that promise you 7lbs in a week or even more, through some gimic or trick that normally involves some version of atkins, albeit under another name or some version of speed that increases your heart rate as well as your metabolic rate, you will realise that you aren’t actually losing fat, just water and fluids in your body. With the summer holidays around the corner, now is the time you will see the most gimics on the market, this weekend alone while up in Monaghan, I saw at least 10 different methods, and watched so many people purchase many of them ,little do they know that they are actually detrimental to their health, that they will put more weight back on than they have actually lost, that there may be side effects such as pulsating heart rate, bad breath, cold sores, headaches, hair loss, spots, lack of energy, arthritis and possible diabetes risk due to the additives in the products that you are taking. Which is heavier, one pound of muscle or one pound of fat?So many magazines around the country have big articles all about this, so think about it, which is heavier? The real answer is they are actually both the same!!The reality is that one is denser than than the other. the pound of muscle is more compact and denser than the pound of fat! The next time you go into your butchers or supermarket, ask for a pound of both and see for yourself the difference. There is another fact about muscle and fat that is also essential to know and that fact is about calories. Each pound of muscle you have on your boday takes 20% more calories to maintain than each pound of fat. In realspeak, this means that the more muscle you have on your body the harder your body has to work to keep it there, this means that you need to eat plenty of lean protein in your diet, protein such as fish, chicken ,eggs or turkey. Protein shakes are in fashion at the moment, with so many people mixing them up after their workouts. To be honest, unless you have a protein diffiency in your diet or have a problem putting on weight , I feel that you are better off eating natural, real protein than the synthetic type that you get through your shakes. If you still insist on using shakes, aim to get the best quality whey protein that you can, the best irish product in optimum nutrition,but don’t use them unless you really have to, eat some real food and you will see even better results. I hope your sitting for the next paragraph! You CAN lose over 7lbs in a week, in my own experience , I have had clients who have lost 1 stone in a week. Yes its healthy and yes its hard work!They are the 2 key ingredients. As regular readers will know ,this column stands to promote health and healthy principles and clear all the confusion that surrounds all the trash health columns in magazines across the country and the world. Now that you have recovered from the shock of realising that it can be done ,do you want to know how? Ok , ill give you the maths. You need to have 1 week off where you aren’t working, you have as few commitments as possible and you are willing to push yourself hard for the week. If you find that you might need some support , then why not get some friends involved? You may certainly need them. Before you start, stock up on the following- porridge(for energy), vegetables ( for a vegetable soup) , spices( to increase the heat of your food) , lemons( for boiling water and lemon mix to help clense the body),pineapple and kiwis(great for digestion) and lean proteins( fish ideally) as well as seven 2litre bottles of water( 1 for each day). You should also pick up some epsom salts , to help you recover each day with a hot bath. These are the basic ingredients. Your exercise schedule will be tough, 6-7 hours per day. Made up of blocks of training as follows: 1 hour pre breakfast(cardiovascular)at 7am, 2 hours post breakfast(resistance and cardio as well as stretching) 10-12, 2 hours post lunch (resistance, cardio and stretching) 2-4 , and then a cardio session from 6-7. Now I know this is scary looking and yes it is tough, but having done the numbers, having done this with several clients, it does work. The cardiovascular workouts can be anything that gets the heart rate up: cycling, running, surfing , walking, swimming, tennis etc and the resistance workouts can be gym classes or dvd’s or the workouts from my book Real Results. Now you have the choice, quick fix that will damage your health or hard work that will leave you healthy, your choice