https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog daily 0.75 2026-10-17 https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/the-fitness-industry-wants-you-smaller monthly 0.5 2026-10-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/021e00fd-f642-4554-adeb-ed1dd4237dd5/von+squat+coaching.png Blog - The Fitness Industry Wants You Smaller. I Want You Stronger. When did being healthy become so focused on being smaller? Scroll through social media and you'll find endless promises. Lose a stone in six weeks. Drop a dress size. Get your body back. Transform yourself in 30 days. Before-and-after photographs, shrinking waistlines and dramatic numbers on the scales. And the message underneath it all? Smaller is better. But is it? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/96280ace-89e3-491a-a410-e179d41c29d3/von+deadlift.jpg Blog - The Fitness Industry Wants You Smaller. I Want You Stronger. Thin Doesn't Automatically Mean Healthy You can be slim and have very little muscle strength. You can be a healthy weight but have poor cardiovascular fitness. Equally, you can carry excess body fat and be considerably stronger and fitter than someone much lighter. Body weight matters in some aspects of health, but it doesn't tell us everything. The number on the scales doesn't tell you how easily you can climb stairs, lift your shopping, get up off the floor or maintain your independence as you age. It doesn't tell you how strong your muscles are or how well your heart and lungs work. And those things matter. A lot. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/341eecfc-5ee6-4813-91c4-5f86631bee6a/von+shoulder+press.jpg Blog - The Fitness Industry Wants You Smaller. I Want You Stronger. I've Changed How I Measure My Own Progress These days, I'm much more interested in what my body can do than simply what it weighs. Yes, I still have weight-loss goals. I'm not pretending the scales don't matter to me. But I also want to preserve my muscle, improve my strength, maintain my fitness and keep doing the things I enjoy for as long as possible. I've lost weight while becoming stronger, and that's something I'm genuinely proud of. I'm not interested in becoming lighter at any cost. I want to be strong, active, capable and healthy as I get older. And that's exactly what I want for the people I coach. https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/losing-weight-dont-lose-the-muscle-with-it monthly 0.5 2026-10-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/bf8ae449-b865-415b-8036-3e97ce3102fb/von+loose+shirt.jpeg Blog - Losing Weight? Don’t Lose the Muscle With It. Weight-loss injections are everywhere. Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro — whether you use them, dislike them, are considering them or simply keep hearing about them, there’s no denying that GLP-1 medications have changed the conversation around weight loss. And they can produce significant weight loss. But there’s another question worth asking: What exactly are you losing? Because when the scales go down, it isn’t necessarily all body fat. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/30229eff-5eb3-4544-adfc-3d981b75df2c/von+big+and+small.jpeg Blog - Losing Weight? Don’t Lose the Muscle With It. Lose the weight. Keep the muscle. This is personal for me too. Over the last nine months, I’ve lost around 6kg. Not dramatic. Not quick. And certainly not the sort of transformation that makes exciting weekly scale updates. But I’ve preserved my lean mass and got stronger. And now something interesting is happening. People are noticing. Clothes that fitted now hang differently. My shape is changing. And underneath it, I’ve kept the muscle I’ve spent years building. That’s exactly what I wanted. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/24f742ab-d8f5-4210-9f83-72b30288dd7f/von+back+muscle.jpeg Blog - Losing Weight? Don’t Lose the Muscle With It. Build for the body you want to keep For years, we’ve celebrated weight loss almost entirely by the number on the scales. Two stone lost. A smaller dress size. A new lowest weight. Those achievements can absolutely matter. But perhaps we should also be asking: Am I stronger? Am I fitter? Can I do more? Am I building a body that’s going to serve me well in 10, 20 or 30 years? My own 6kg has taken nine months. I’m absolutely fine with that. Because successful weight loss isn’t simply about becoming lighter. It’s about coming out of the process healthier, stronger and better equipped for the years ahead. That’s what Build to Last means. https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/fat-loss-after-50-do-you-really-need-to-work-harder monthly 0.5 2026-09-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/0d1ec5f5-2b13-4eea-b603-b881b7a7712b/von+deka+clean.png Blog - Fat loss after 50: do you really need to work harder? - Does your metabolism suddenly slow down? Fat loss can certainly feel harder as we get older, but it is too simplistic to blame everything on a “broken metabolism.” One large study measuring daily energy expenditure across the lifespan found that, after allowing for body size and composition, energy expenditure remained relatively stable from approximately 20 to 60. After 60, the decline was gradual—not a sudden metabolic cliff. What often changes is everything surrounding our metabolism. We may move less during the day, lose some muscle, sleep badly, experience more stress or recover less easily from exercise. Injuries can affect what we are able to do. Years of restrictive dieting can also leave us alternating between being “good” and abandoning the plan altogether. All these small changes can influence the balance between the energy we consume and the energy we use. https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/can-you-target-belly-fat-what-the-science-actually-says monthly 0.5 2026-10-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/ccbec9a0-b28a-4a32-a9db-5b2b9b4d3a7e/me+crunch.png Blog - Can You Target Belly Fat? What the Science Actually Says. The two types of belly fat When we talk about “belly fat”, we're actually talking about two different things. Subcutaneous fat is the softer fat sitting underneath the skin — the stuff you can pinch around your stomach, hips or thighs. Visceral fat sits deeper inside the abdomen, surrounding the organs. This is the type more strongly associated with metabolic health risks. And here's where the research gets interesting. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of 12 randomised controlled trials involving 591 people found that prolonged exercise significantly reduced both types of abdominal fat. On average: Visceral abdominal fat decreased by 7.1% Subcutaneous abdominal fat decreased by 9.1% The researchers also found that exercise intensity influenced the response, although that doesn't mean everyone needs to start doing HIIT. So exercise absolutely can reduce belly fat. The important question is whether we can control exactly where that fat comes from.. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/11d4f5b9-cb46-4bac-9ede-04f508f6c5b3/me+russian+twist.png Blog - Can You Target Belly Fat? What the Science Actually Says. So can you actually target fat? For years the standard answer has been a simple no. Train your abs and you'll strengthen your abs. Train your legs and you'll strengthen your legs. But your body decides where it takes its stored fat from. However, a 2023 randomised controlled trial made things a little more interesting. Researchers compared aerobic exercise alone with aerobic exercise combined with abdominal endurance training. After 10 weeks, the abdominal-training group lost around 700g more trunk fat, despite the groups having similar reductions in total body fat. Does that prove we can crunch our way to a flat stomach? No. The study involved just 16 overweight men, so it's far too small and specific to overturn everything we know about fat loss. But it does suggest that the old statement “spot reduction is absolutely impossible” may be a little too simplistic. For now, the strongest advice remains: focus on reducing overall body fat rather than trying to choose exactly where it comes from. https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/why-motivation-is-overrated monthly 0.5 2026-08-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/780ba090-0fa6-4d6f-8816-93dda7702689/vons+panicplam.png Blog - Why Motivation is Overrated - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/d2174e5a-ec97-4b02-9373-f54be5e795be/von+skillmill.jpeg Blog - Why Motivation is Overrated - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/why-built-to-last monthly 0.5 2026-08-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/1045896e-c3c2-4f83-8413-21bf154233b9/my+bag2.PNG Blog - Why “Build to Last”? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/category/fat+loss monthly 0.5 https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/tag/strength+training monthly 0.5 https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/tag/over+50 monthly 0.5 https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/tag/menopause monthly 0.5 https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/blog/tag/fat+loss monthly 0.5 https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/about daily 0.75 2026-08-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/c7c27309-e3ef-415a-9022-b47332cbcccf/fat+von.PNG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/ab343973-8d91-41d2-9473-75f3286ac25d/von+and+elaine.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/01386eb6-dcf3-40a4-a38f-02dad7e11304/me+lake.PNG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/e3bf71ed-e026-450c-b920-5850fceff931/me+posing.PNG https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/contact daily 0.75 2026-08-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/dac8a948-e5be-4877-96f1-fe2870eae740/me+at+desk.png https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/appointments daily 0.75 2026-08-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/1780634832.851805-QJKSHCUAWTIDUTZTTXBF/imgg-gg3p-BCIM--B-eb032023.png https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/home daily 1.0 2026-08-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/bd432af8-087a-4dce-a52c-2f5e127d2f5f/von+online+coachimg.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/71c8b005-07be-462b-85cb-beda6a9df64f/von+and+duncan.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/bff1d359-5504-4c10-b8e6-a900e7a4692d/graham.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/56b3c9c1-3df4-400e-9f15-57f087a49c16/me+outdoor+training.jpeg https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/b4edbdd3-a247-49b2-88b1-ba8dbdb9d85f/playlist.m3u8 https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/b4edbdd3-a247-49b2-88b1-ba8dbdb9d85f/thumbnail Home Home https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/coaching daily 0.75 2026-08-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/762fed4b-45e4-41bb-bf3f-a1f0c735f0d4/me+outdoors.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/8ed7d29f-f0e8-47fd-bc8d-670c0449f80d/me+coach.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/1786462611981-KHOXA51XS2679TQBIRH0/unsplash-image-GPRNO3HL0Dw.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/2abd8c38-234d-47f3-9e0d-3acbd226d413/kb+carry+outdor.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/1786463234542-300IT7IUXWCFX8W7LV0Y/unsplash-image-KpOl9jV2aJM.jpg https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/packages daily 0.75 2026-08-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/041f48fc-ecb8-4dcb-8150-dfbba41f84aa/me+dog+walk.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a748b31b60d8d520490ae19/9a1adcf9-5c75-4335-86fe-35c4d4756652/me+coaching.png https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/termsandconditions daily 0.75 2026-08-16 https://www.buildtolastcoaching.co.uk/privacypolicy daily 0.75 2026-08-15