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Abbey’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Abbey Kent – Student

Before I met Charlie I was the biggest and unhappiest I had ever been. I had no motivation or drive to do anything, the number on the scales was going up and up and my clothes were getting tighter. Then one day I decided that enough was enough. I finally plucked up the courage to email her – I really wish I had done it sooner! Charlie is the most amazing girl I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, from day 1 she was just a complete joy to be around, she knew what she wanted to do with me but also knew what my personal end goals were. She took the time to explain that being healthy isn’t just about exercise, it’s more about the right nutrition too. I can hand on heart say that if you are debating whether to train with Charlie, debate no more. She gave me back so much confidence and happiness and I now love my body!

Oli’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Oli Bennett-Hughes – CrossFit Athlete and Coach

Working with Charlie has helped ten fold with my training and  also broadening my knowledge of foods and nutrition for optimising performance!
Not only does she break down the exact amounts of macronutrients you need but she went above and beyond to give me dozens of great recipes and food choices to maximise the ease of the plan, constantly available to answer any questions when I needed.
She knows how to make healthy food taste great and is clear to see through her passion for health and nutrition! My body weight goals have been achieved and my performance followed suit! If you want to improve performance, health and achieve your body goals I would hole heartedly recommend Charlie!

Julie’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Julie Richards – Mum of 3 and Spinning Instructor

It was December, time to party hard and celebrate. It’s Christmas!’ I’d say to myself as I rammed another Terry’s chocolate orange in.

Thank God I found Charlie at the start of January. Charlie took my measurements, took my photos, helped me sort out my macros and explained about nutrition in simple terms. She was extremely patient and understanding and made sure I left feeling confident and ready to get started.

Over the 3 months Charlie regularly checked in with me asking how I was doing or if I had any questions and gave me delicious recipes and delicious healthy meal ideas. She made me realise that I didn’t have to starve myself to lose weight. Her knowledge in nutrition is second to none and with her help and guidance I smashed my goals.

Charlie has got me on track for the rest of my life and to her I am extremely grateful.

If you need help in anything to do with fitness and nutrition Charlie is without a doubt your girl!

Lee’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Lee Byrne – CrossFit Athlete and Runner

Charlie is a one-of-a-kind nutritionist! She portrays a high level of professionalism and sincerity in every task she undertakes. Her comprehensive approach combined with cutting edge interventions and in depth personalized assessment and testing make her a very unique dietitian/ nutritionist. She firmly believes in eating right and training right , thereby giving her clients the ability to quickly achieve and maintain their personal health goals and live a happier, healthier and longer life

Katy’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Katy Austin-Walters – Preparing for her Wedding Day

I signed up for a 12 week programme with Charlie as I wanted to get in shape for my upcoming wedding. I have also always been curious as to what I could achieve with a professional diet and exercise plan and this seemed like the perfect time to find out. I started off at 8 stone 12 and my goal was to get down to around 8 stone 4 as well as to tone up and generally increase my energy levels.
Charlie is a bundle of energy and gorgeousness. She is clearly an expert in her field and looks incredible herself which gives you something to aspire to. She is a fountain of knowledge in so many areas, even down to beauty tips and general life guidance! Her friendliness and motivational support really helps you get through your programme. I never thought I would be going to the gym by myself at weekends and using some of the equipment she has taught me to use. The fitness programme was great and I loved what I could achieve from weight training rather than loads of cardio which isn’t my favourite! It has been a fantastic educational experience for me and the knowledge I have gained will help me with my health and fitness for the rest of my life.
I have toned up in all the right places and got down past my goal to 8 stone 2. I felt great in a bikini on my hen do in Spain and my wedding dress fit perfectly. To some it may seem like an extravagance to hire a personal trainer but I don’t know what is more important that your fitness, health and wellbeing and it’s worth every penny.
Thank you Charlie 

Damon’s Before and After Transformation

By Transformations

BEFORE

AFTER

Damon Reynolds – Bodybuilder

I heard about Charlie through another friend who had some brilliant results. I myself have been bodybuilding /weight training for 2 years. I was happy with my progress but wanted to take the next step and start to look at my diet and nutrition to show off the muscles I had built under my layer of fat.
I did mention to Charlie that under no circumstances would I do cardio as its just not for me. Her reply was music to my ears “with proper diet control this wouldn’t be required to gain the results I wanted”. Charlie put me on a macros diet. I was shocked how many calories I was actually allowed. I emailed Charlie and she explained everything to me. I found charlie to be brilliant at returning any of my emails and text’s within an hour or two which is just brilliant.
My results for the 1st month were brilliant! Never before had I lost so much weight in such a short time scale. Charlie did ask me to eat more as she said I was losing it to quickly, but I felt myself being full all the time on this diet and I struggled to do so. Following on from my initial month im not as strict as I was when I was dieting but the weight has stayed off. I haven’t lost anymore weight but I can see in the mirror my body changing for the better and my waist is still shrinking.
On the short of it I found charlie to be very professional knowledgeable and caring in her role as mentor and I can’t thank her enough for pointing me in the right direction.

Why Eat a High Protein Diet!

By Nutrition

Everyone knows they need a high protein diet to get a banging body, but no one seems to understand why?

Protein is one of the most important macro nutrient for a person trying to maintain muscle while reducing body fat, or for a person trying to gain muscle.

It is also the macro nutrient which most people don’t eat enough of!

Here are some reasons why you should eat more protein:

Reduce Body Fat

Research has proven that consuming a high protein diet will reduce body fat significantly more than when eating a high carb diet. This is because carbs cause a insulin response which puts your body in fat storage mode. Increasing protein intake will increase lean body mass which in turn increases your metabolism. This means your body will burn more calories!! Yay for protein

Better Skin, Hair and Nails

Protein responsible for growth and repair. Not only for your muscles but for all the cells in the body. Your body is constantly replacing old cells using the protein you eat as building blocks. Protein is essential for healthy hair, nails and skin. If the body doesn’t get enough protein it won’t be able to replenish the cells leaving you with flabby legs, weak hair and a wrinkly face. gross…

Better Immune System

Protein helps to create antibodies which are responsible for getting rid of bad bacteria and viruses which enter the body. Having a enough protein in your diet ensures you make plenty of antibodies to fight off disease and infection.

Solid Muscle Tone

Protein is muscle sparing meaning it will help you maintain your muscle while you try to loose weight. This will prevent you from becoming a fat/skinny… (you know when your skinny but flabby with no muscle). Having a high protein diet will ensure your muscles recover from your training sessions, building you a beautiful toned bod!

Keep You Fuller For Longer

There is nothing worse, when trying to loose weight, than being hungry ALL the time. Research has proven that eating a high protein meal will keep you fuller for longer than having a high carbohydrate or fat meal! This means less hunger pains and more weight loss!

‘How Much?’ You Say

As a general rule, a good starting point is 1g per lb of body weight. Everyone is different so it will completly change from person to person

You can get more protein in your diet from meat, fish, eggs, and diary products like cottage cheese. Nuts and nut butters have protein in them, but to get enough protein you would end up consuming way too much fat! How ever much I would like to sit and eat tubs of cashew butter, it won’t get you a lean bod 🙁

Tina’s Testimonial

By Transformations

Tina – Business Owner and Keen Gym Goer

Charlie takes an intelligent approach to fitness. In PT the workouts are interesting and varied but appropriate to age and fitness level. She has an intuitive grasp of how far to push and is always positive and encouraging. Yet for one who is adept across a variety of disciplines: weight training: yoga: cardio to mention a few: her knowledge is considerable.

I would not hesitate to recommend Charlie as a Fitness practitioner.  With such an incredible work ethic and her sunny personable approach , I have no doubt that she will go far.

Why Sleep is Important for Fitness

By News

Sleep is vital for recovery and hormone balance such as reducing cortisol levels. With out optimal sleep we can say good bye to fat loss and muscle gain..

The 8 hour rule of sleep is just a random number thrown about for how much sleep we need. We actually need 90 minutes to get through a full sleep cycle. That included stages of light and deep sleep which are critical for recovery of an athlete.

You should aim for 5 sleep cycles every 24 hours which totals 7.5 hours a day. This is usually enough for the average person. A high level athlete might add another sleep cycle a day to aid recovery.

These 5 sleep cycles would ideally be taken through the night, although that is not essential. You could have 4 through the night and an extra 90 minute nap in the day if thats more convenient for you.

This totals 35 sleep cycles a week. If you don’t feel better after a week of 35 cycles. Increase to 6 cycles a day. Or if 5 feels too much. Decrease to 4 cycles a day. Everyone is different!

Eating Less Doesn’t Cause Fat Loss

By Diets, Nutrition

Yes, thats right..Eating less doesn’t cause fat loss. Diets do not work!

Want to know why?

Eating lower calories than your body needs to survive will more often than not start to burn into your muscle tissue rather than fat. Do you really want to use up your muscle which you have slaved away in the gym to build?

Why does your body burn muscle?

Well..When you go on a calorie restrictive diet, your body will think it is starving and begin to change its hormones to ensure fat stores stay as high as possible for survival. High muscle mass is not actually essential so your body will use your muscle tissue as energy.

When eating less, your body wants to HOLD onto fat.

What else do we know about muscle? Muscle tissue burns lots of calories which makes you have a high metabolism, which means you can eat more. Soooooo this means when you reduce your calories and your body thinks it needs to survive, whats the first thing its going to get rid of? Muscle tissue, because it is ‘expensive’ to maintain. This means your muscle mass will slowly reduce, so you can say good bye to strong legs and toned glutes 🙁 It also means you will have a lower metabolism so will have to eat less and less calories to maintain your weight.

2 years later, I still pose exactly the same. ?

A post shared by Charlie Francis (@charliefrancisfitness) on

So in the long term, as soon as we decide to stop starving our self and go back to eating a ‘normal diet’, this is now seen to our body as over eating and we will begin to pile on body fat.

The adverts for weight loss programmes never tell you that their diet will not work unless you stay on their unmaintainable starvation diet forever and maintain in a chronically food deprived state for the rest of your life. They don’t tell you if you do go back to your ‘normal diet’ you will gain even more weight back than when you started.. This is because they are bullshit money making scams which will ruin your life. Continually taking money from you while actually making you fatter in the long run.

So actually going on a low calorie diet is worse than doing nothing!!!

After we have been starved for a period of time the number one goal is to get any lost fat back in our fat stores so that if we starve again we don’t die. Just incase, our bodies make sure we store some extra fat for emergencies. This is called ‘Fat Super Accumulation’. Fat super accumulation after a restrictive calorie diet is one of the main causes for obesity. What is awful about this is that it doesn’t even require us to eat loads. You only have to go back to a normal diet to gain a load of fat.

Going on a low calorie diet will not only cause you to be fat in the long run.. It will effect your hormone levels. You will be cranky all the time. You won’t sleep because your grumbly tummy will keep you awake at night. Work will make you grumpy and you will be unproductive. You will be shit in bed. Yes thats right… Your sex drive will be non-existent. Your performance in the gym will be shocking. Loading up the barbell is a workout in its self, let along lifting the damn thing. Every simple life activity the hardest task in the world with the extreme lack of energy.

At roughly 10% body fat, I vividly remember thinking getting up to change the channel on the TV was too much effort. I ended up watching antique road show for hours on end because I couldn’t be bothered to move basically.

Diets don’t make you lean and lovely. They make you ill, sad, fat and slow.

How do I know this? Because this has all happened to me. It has happened to probably most of you reading this post and we all know dieting doesn’t work. You ruin relationships. Your a fucking bitch all the time. You fall out with your family. You are unhappy and at the end of it all you end up fat with no friends, severely sleep deprived and malnourished. Dieting is bad for your health both physically and mentally.

The ONLY way to get a healthy and banging body is to eat a nutritious, realistic and maintainable diet supported with a MAINTAINABLE exercise routine. You must eat enough calories to support life and normal hormone function but not support fat storage. If your body is in a happy healthy state, hormones will be held at a level where fat can be lost at a SLOW rate but fat loss will be able to be maintained in the long run. The ultimate goal is to keep a high metabolism throughout the process to ensure you can eat a normal diet while performing well in the gym. There is no set amount of calories anyone should eat, everyone is SO different so when looking for a personal trainer/nutrition coach, check they have experience in the area and that they don’t make their clients eat 800 calories a day and perform hours of cardio.