Despite eating well and exercising frequently, Siobhán Norton wasn’t losing weight as expected. So she began a special new programme – and discovered it was her own life that was getting in her way…
I brush away tears, mortified. “I just… I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” I choke out. “I’m trying so hard. I haven’t been cheating. I swear.”
The man sitting opposite me is unmoved. “Something’s changed,” he replies, his eyes turning back to the screen. “What is it?”
This isn’t a melodramatic break-up – the only thing I’m losing is weight, albeit far more slowly than I had expected. It’s my eight-week check-in of my 12-week programme at Equinox, and the person whose patience I am testing is Lee Brooks, my coach. Despite having made great progress in month one, my test results show that this month I’ve lost muscle… and gained fat.
“I exercised eight times this week,” I wail. “And I’ve been eating so well!”
“What have you been eating?”
“Well, lots of vegetables. I’ve been trying to go plant-based.”
A sigh from Lee. “Let’s have a look at your protein…”
Failing fitness
I’ve always been moderately fit and healthy – I show up to a variety of exercise classes every week, I eat relatively well (bar Friday-night pizza and the occasional chocolate blow-out).
Yet over the past few years, my weight crept up by a couple of stone, much of which has settled around my mid-section. Since being diagnosed with MS five years ago, my energy levels fluctuate wildly, from superwoman to sloth, with my inclination to exercise following suit.
In hindsight, I know exactly why the weight crept on. I hadn’t weight-trained since I first fell ill, as every time I tried I seemed to get injured, plagued by painful trapped nerves in my back and neck. Loss of sensation in my legs meant running went out of the window, too.
The change was distressing – I felt betrayed by my body. And perhaps I punished it in turn, turning to comfort food and sugary indulgence – why look good when I couldn’t feel good?
So when I was offered a 12-week trial of Equinox’s Tier X programme, it felt like a godsend. The elite gym calls it “the most bespoke and advanced form of training and lifestyle management”. I’d be transformed into a supermodel, I crowed to friends; this would change my life for ever.
Total transformation?
So perhaps you can understand a few tears, eight weeks in, on being told my transformation wasn’t quite coming together.
I had almost all the tools at my disposal. Thanks to a number of comprehensive tests, I knew exactly how many calories I should be eating, and how my macronutrients of protein, carbs and fat should be broken down. I knew at what point my body switched from burning fat to burning carbs. I was showing up for two personal training sessions a week, which focused on realigning my body and building lean mass, aka muscle.
But unlike those TV shows where contestants are spirited away from their lives and monitored throughout every step, my real life was very much still going on. I was facing a hellish commute every day, trying to get on the property ladder, and working late into the evenings. Travel, family and friends and work commitments meant a full diary, with little chance to switch off.
Meanwhile, I was filling my head with hours of podcasts and reading about different diets, from vegan to paleo, and getting increasingly confused about what was best for overall health and longevity.
This is exactly what Tier X is designed for, Lee tells me: it’s not about a before and after photo, or a “transformation”. The Tier X coaches’ goal is to give you a programme that will fit around your real life, so that you continue it when the plan is finished.
The coaches work with everyone from working mothers to people who have to travel constantly, or entertain clients. “The changes I first get the client to make are the easiest ones they can achieve,” says Lee.
“The success of changing a behaviour for the better encourages more behaviours to be altered to get someone to their goals. For a travelling client, setting their gym sessions in the diary is a must, which means also trying to stay close to their favourite gym chain or even choosing a hotel with gym facilities that suit their needs. Consistency and frequency is key.”
Time for tests
The assessment is a bit more in-depth than a quick hop on the scales. I spent 20 minutes lying completely still wearing a mask to test my resting metabolism (the easy bit), and had a stint on the bike in the same mask to check how my body responds to exercise (less easy).
My posture was measured, as was my range of movement. My body fat percentage was measured, and I was subjected to an excruciating body scan: there is nothing more horrifying than seeing a rotating 3D image of your body pop up on your email, which represents you down to every dent of cellulite. And, of course, there were the dreaded callipers, where my coach found plenty of inches to pinch.
TIER X TECH
Electronic Blood Pressure
Takes your diastolic and systolic measurements for blood pressure and resting heart rate.
Inbody 570
Body composition measurement: this looks at your segmental lean mass, body fat mass, visceral fat, intra and extra cellular water (these act as inflammation markers)
Fit 3D
Laser guided camera for exact body circumferences
Change to Resting Metabolic Assessment
Breath by breath analysis that uses indirect calorimtry. Assesses your total calories burnt at rest and what macro nutrients your body is using (Proteins. Carbs. Fats)
Active Metabolic Assessment
During this assessment you are taken from rest to max effort, to see how your cardiovascular system responds to exercise. The Vo2 max test shows the body’s maximum ability to consume oxygen, which is the gold standard indicator of physical fitness. The AMR test creates a picture of where you optimally use fats and carbs as a fuel source. This test generates three sets of data results – Vo2 max, aerobic threshold (VT1), Anaerobic threshold (VT2)
Functional Movement Screen
To asses mobility, stability, functional movement. The FMS helps your Tier X coach create a strategy to help your body move as it was designed to.
I was surprised to learn that the left side of my body – the side that had always been affected by MS relapses – was actually the stronger side, and every muscle measured was bigger on the left. Perhaps my body had overcompensated? However, posture-wise, I was listing heavily to the right and leaning so far forward I’m surprised I can stay upright.
I figured my metabolism would be pretty good, as I’m relatively active, but learnt that my body has a tendency to burn carbs rather than fat at rest – meaning any fat I was putting on was staying put. This, I was told, was down to stress – I wasn’t winding down at night-time and preparing my body for sleep. Sounds about right.
“Your body is clever and ultimately wants survival,” said Lee. “If it’s highly stressed and is in ‘fight or flight’ mode all day, its focus is on that and not losing body fat, which is the body’s lowest priority.”
And so the training began. Lee was taking no prisoners – I was given a varied programme involving assisted pull-ups, kettlebell squats and “farmer’s walks” carrying heavy weights. There were no girly push-ups allowed – I was training to do them the right way, beginning from an angled position to help me get my form right.
A lot of the focus was on rebalancing my body – helping to pull those rounded shoulders back. I was surprised to notice that my right knee had a tendency to go rogue – pushing inwards rather than outwards in squats – so we focused on putting that right. In fact, I had to relearn how to squat completely; previously I was practically on my tippy toes, and my goal was to put my weight back into my heels as I sank lower.
I didn’t get a free pass on the cardio front, either. Frantic sessions on the rower, or Jacob’s Ladder – a cruel implement that speeds up the more you climb – got my heart rate going.
Long-lasting results
A month on from wailing at my weight-in, I’m back in for more tests. And, to my satisfaction (or relief), I am back on track. I’ve reduced by body fat percentage from 26.9 to 22.6 per cent. Startlingly, though, my ability to burn fat at night time has decreased, rather than improved – I’m more stressed than I realise, it appears.
My most gratifying change comes from an unlikely source: the posture tests. Three months ago, I stood leaning forward and to the right, with my head hanging forward so much that the incline made it a shocking 7kg heavier on my neck. Now, I stand rocked back properly into my heels, with my head upright – putting zero extra strain on my body. Lee attributes it partly to my weight training – it has strengthened my core and back.
I should perhaps add that there is another shift that has helped me stand upright. When I began my programme I was at a low ebb – my confidence was shot and I had even clocked myself stooping to avoid eye contact with people. I was in life limbo while I searched for a home, and not very happy or settled.
There’s an odd thing about strength training, I discovered – apart from your outward appearance, I felt like I was building an inner strength. I began noticing a bounce in my step when I walked, feeling proud that my core was strong, that I was able to take on whatever life threw at me. I joked that it was probably down to a surge in testosterone, but it felt, weirdly, like a feminist victory – like I was less vulnerable, more confident.
My body still doesn’t resemble a supermodel’s, but I like it a lot more than I did before – it is supporting me, working with me.
I’d forgotten until I sat down to write this that I had listed three goals at the start of my regime. The first two were to lose weight and tone up – I imagine that’s pretty standard. The third was, I had thought at the time, a little corny: I wanted to “feel like I could take on the world”. Guess I got my transformation after all.
Tier X is available at Equinox in London. For more: equinox.com/personaltraining
Tier X – What I learned
You may have to eat more…
Whenever I have been “on a diet” I have always set myself a calorie target of 1200. It’s a totally arbitrary number, picked up from snippets of different advice in magazines and blogs. It clearly wasn’t working – not least because of my regular blowouts because, well, I was hungry. After having my basal metabolic rate measured (the amount of calories I burn before I move an inch every day), I was advised to eat nearly 1700 calories a day. Hurrah!
Carbs were back on the menu, and encouraged, not just in the form of Friday-night pizza, but sensible, slow-burn carbs to help fuel my workouts.
And protein, protein, protein. I couldn’t get my head around how little protein I had actually been eating – I used the My Fitness Pal app to measure my food intake for a number of weeks and it turns out my fat and carb intake was more than generous, but I was falling short on my protein intake.
To get my head around what my portioning should really look like, I signed up for a week of Fresh Fitness Food, a meal delivery company that will cater to whatever macros and dietary requirements you may have. At the beginning they seemed like more protein than I could manage, but one week in I noticed I was feeling fuller between meals, with more energy and fewer cravings.
… and exercise less
As my strength and energy levels improved throughout my programme, I started getting… well, a little cocky. I could game the system with several workouts in one day – after all, athletes can do it, so why can’t I? I shoehorned nine workout sessions into six days, celebrating my aching limbs every morning.
After one “leg day” weights session in the morning, followed by a weight-focused high intensity class in the evening, I was shocked that I couldn’t walk down a flight of stairs the next morning, yet I laced up my trainers and went for a run, my adrenaline helping me push through the pain.
By the time I went for my next weigh-and-measure, I was exhausted, but proud. When measuring my body fat, Lee failed to get the callipers to grasp any fat on my front upper thigh. “Because it’s all muscle,” I gleefully informed him. “No,” he replied. “Your muscles are just full of lactic acid.” Oh. I was also stressed, tired and – you guessed it – not losing fat.
Don’t live and die by the scales
There are lots and lots of quick fixes out there to lose pounds quickly, but if you’re losing more than 1-2lbs a week it’s probably water weight, or even muscle.
Muscle weighs more than fat, so the key to long-term weight-loss is taking it slow and steady. The scales may not swing as much as you like while you are building muscle and losing fat, but your body will be changing, and the weight is more likely to stay off long-term.
Don’t depend on cardio to burn calories
Plenty of people swear by a “s***load of spin” or long-distance running to help the pounds drop off. It certainly doesn’t hurt, but strength training is the holy grail for calorie burn, as the metabolic uplift means you keep burning for long after the session has finished. Plus, the more you build muscle, the higher your metabolism.
What you don’t do is as important as what you do
I always thought rest days weren’t all that important beyond the fact that everyone needs a day off. But physiologically, overdoing it can lead to injuries such as stress fractures and muscle strain. Plus the whole point of lifting weights is to cause micro-tears in the muscles. It’s the rest day – with good sleep, nutrition and hydration – that helps to repair and regenerate the muscles, making them grow back stronger.
You have to engage your brain
When you’re recovering from an MS flair-up, there is often talk about retraining your brain to connect with the affected part of your body, helping your nervous system to find a new path. But this doesn’t just apply to MS patients – if you’re not using a certain muscle for a long period of time, you might have to relearn how to stimulate it.
I was certainly suffering from “lazy ass” syndrome from too many hours at my desk – my glutes didn’t know how to switch on. Lee constantly told me “squeeze your bum, come on, lots of bum squeeze” as we trained. I would look at him askance – I was squeezing for my life’s worth! It was only about eight weeks into the training that I felt my glutes switch on and that real squeeze happen – until then my brain may have been sending the message but it wasn’t reaching its target.
Get it straight
Poor posture is is big part of me abandoning strength training in the past – and why I had so many injuries. “An improved posture is better for daily life, family activities, core activation, hauling around your suitcase to your beach holiday you’re getting in shape for,” says Lee.
“Kind of a shame to have a nice flat midsection but you’re in pain reaching for the suncream and have one shoulder higher than the other from a heavy handbag carried for years. A client that slumps over will instantly look leaner if they stand upright more often and have a flatter midsection, and better posture enables harder more intense training with a greater variety of exercise leading to great results.”
Maybe it is all in your head
I liked the notion of incorporating mindfulness and centring into my programme, but I didn’t really think it would have much bearing on my results. So it was usually the first thing to be jettisoned. How wrong I was. Stress increases cortisol, which in turn causes you to store more fat around your middle.
My test results proved that stress was hindering my weight loss, and I’m still working on ways to wind down in the evenings. If meditation isn’t for you, try running a bath, reading a book or just adopt a slowing-down bedtime ritual. Lee recommends turning off all electronic devices an hour before bed, and banning your phone from your bedroom. I’m still working on that one too.
It’s all about the little victories
This is about change for life, which can seem like a pretty mammoth task. So break it down into smaller goals. I set new goals every month, with varying degrees of success. One was to swap out my regular late-night chocolate binge with chocolate-covered strawberries, one I could definitely get on board with. Another was to cut out booze for July, which I failed at miserably (come on, it was July!).
But breaking things down into smaller goals – like bringing a packed lunch to work three times a week rather than, say, losing 20lb or running a marathon – means you can celebrate the wins without always feeling like a failure if you haven’t quite hit the big goal.
It’s not just about how you look…
…it’s about how you feel. I noticed, when out running, that I had more explosive power in my legs, and more stamina. I noticed that my stomach muscles would engage when climbing the hill to my house with bags of shopping, thus protecting my lower back.
I wasn’t necessarily leaping out of bed with boundless energy every morning, but I could swing my legs to the ground more easily, and descend the stairs without my customary early-morning hobble. It felt – feels – good to have a body that’s working more efficiently, doing what I need it to do.
