The 10 Week Wedding Body Challenge: Week Six - DIET & NUTRITION

If you've been ramping up the exercise, adding weight training and fat burning workouts to your regime and generally being active and healthy, there's one more thing to think about, and it's a big one.

Diet.

But we're not advocating the famous 'wedding diet' or anything remotely crash-diet like. If you're aiming to transform your body to look its best (which we are), this will only have the opposite effect.

So PT Scott Laidler explains what you actually have to do to achieve the right kind of weight loss - and not be miserable in the run up to your big day.

"It’s easy to ‘lose weight’ by being overly restrictive with your calories, but being overly restrictive, cutting calories and avoiding carbs will leave you feeling lethargic, irritable, even foggy - not great when you need to be on the ball for final wedding planning," he explains.

"Even more importantly, drastic ‘weight loss’ usually involves losing a lot of water and muscle, which may mean you fit into your dress but your muscles will feel depleted, and soft to the touch - not particularly healthy-looking and hardly ideal for the honeymoon.

Strong not skinny

"You want to achieve a firm, toned and defined figure, not a skinny one. This looks best in your wedding dress and on the beach, and will keep your energy levels soaring and you feeling great."

Plus you need enough energy to actually get through your workouts.

Scott's 'right way' to slim down

"Let’s throw the scales out and aim for positive composition change (losing fat rather than muscle and water) through a balanced and healthy approach to nutrition. Here’s how…"

1) Get the right macronutrient balance
I recommend the following split:
Protein 40-50 per cent
Fat 30-40 per cent
Carbs 10-20 per cent

"This is not what you will see in most recommendations. I have kept the carbs quite low because fat loss is our goal, but with the right type of carbs in your diet you will still be able to keep your blood sugar level and experience abundant energy."

2) Avoid all processed foods
That means no processed foods, microwave meals, crisps, cookies, sweets, soda drinks, anything that contains trans-fats.

3) Eat lots of leafy green vegetables
These are packed with nutrients and you can eat as much as you like of these with absolutely no fat gain.

4) Choose the ‘right’ carbs
Select carbohydrates that will give you energy without affecting your blood sugar levels.  (E.g. sweet potatoes, brown rice, wholegrain oats and quinoa.)

"Remember, your real enemy is always sugar or, in other words, poor quality carbohydrates.

"I’m highlighting this to reassert the importance of healthy fats in your diet. Healthy fats are absolutely essential for healthy hormones, they are also heavily involved in maintaining skin and hair health. So it makes sense that we don’t lose them in the run up to your wedding."

5)  AVOID
•    Never go too low with calories, it will drain you of your energy and lead to poor quality weight-loss.
•    Never try to exercise your way out of a poor diet - you can't. Exercise and healthy eating are a synergistic combination
•    Avoid Thermogenic fat burners (pills that speed up metabolism). If you really need to pull an ace from your sleeve use fat metabolisers like CLA, L-Carnitine and Sesamin

6) Don't 'diet'

"Losing weight through healthy eating isn’t the same as dieting," explains Scott. "Dieting is temporary by nature but really sustained lean living comes from consistently eating the types of foods that create the best environment for your body.

If you're not sure what this shakes down to, take a look at this two-day meal plan to get an idea of the nutrient balance:

To begin with, knocking out your go-to comfort foods such as cakes, biscuits, crisps and takeaways can be tricky and the idea of cooking everything yourself can seem time consuming but 'eating clean' is actually not as hard as you'd think.

Find out more about it and get on the wagon, and you'll see the changes in your body in weeks.

If you need some more guidance (or someone to make you actually do it) Scott offers one-to-one online training for £150 for six weeks, that includes a personalised nutrition plan. Visit www.scottlaidler.com for more details and find him on Twitter @Scott_Laidler.