After eight years as a trainer, Instagrammer and TV personality Chloe Madeley seriously knows her stuff when it comes to diet and fitness. We found out 7 body hacks Chloe wants everyone to know
You probably already know who Chloe Madeley is. Some may recognise her from their TV screens as a presenter or when she appeared on ITV’s Dancing on Ice and Channel 4’s The Jump.
You may also know Chloe, 32 as the daughter of legendary daytime TV hosts Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. And of course rugby fans will know that she is married to former England rugby player James Haskell, who we saw on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here at the end of last year.
Other than TV appearances, Chloe is also a freelance journalist and fitness enthusiast.
How does Chloe even find time to eat and sleep?
As a fitness enthusiast, Chloe has worked and trained as a personal trainer for eight years, and not only is she keen on everything to do with fitness but nutrition too. In fact, over her career Chloe has amassed a whopping 240k followers on Instagram.
‘I started my fitness journey because I fell in love with weight lifting and training, but there’s only so many exercises you can do and learn. Nutrition on the other hand, is an ever evolving science and I find it absolutely fascinating,’ explains Chloe.
‘That’s why I decided to study a principles of nutrition course, and over the past eight years it’s been the nutrition side of things that has interested me most’.
After three best selling fitness books and becoming a Grenade ambassador, Chloe Madeley has been looking to get her fitness message out there as easily and efficiently as possible.
Most recently Chloe has launched her 4-week fat loss ‘Body Blast’ with Grenade, specially designed to create challenging workouts and healthy nutrition, that can support you in your fitness journey, no matter your experience level.
The Body Blast streaming service available on Amazon is the perfect way to take your fitness to the next level – helping beginners to feel more confident when working out.
‘Training is really visual and many people need that visual aid in order to learn how to do the exercises and to get the motivation they need.
‘As a personal trainer I wanted to create something that meant even if I couldn’t be there with people in the flesh, they can switch on their TV or tablet and it will still feel as if I am there helping and motivating them through it. We’re all on this fitness journey together after all, so we all need easy access to get our bodies moving.
‘The workouts available are all home workouts that you can do in your living room. Think body strength exercises such as squat jumps, performed in a circuit training fashion so that there is also a cardio element to it that will get your heart rate up and burn the calories.
‘If you are beginner, this is perfect for you too. If you find you are struggling to keep up with the moves there is always an easier option to follow. I just want you to keep moving for the entirety of the 20-40 minute workout to keep improving your fitness and your strength’.
Well, if you haven’t already rushed to download Chloe’s new 4-week Body Blast, we have 7 body hacks from Chloe herself that may just interest you….
#1 Find something you enjoy getting sweaty for
I am lucky in the sense that fitness and a healthy living is my job as well as my passion and hobby. I don’t have to work hard to stay motivated as it’s something I want to do and I genuinely enjoy.
The feeling of getting up, going to the gym, physically challenging and moving my body is what I love to do on a daily basis and personally, I prefer weightlifting.
Then there are people who love Spin class, and aren’t so keen on weight lifting. But, because they’ve been told Spin won’t help them gain muscle, they will end up in the gym miserably lifting weights, hating every second and giving up after a few weeks. Bye bye motivation.
Some people even hate the gym completely and dislike exercise in general. But believe me there will be some form of exercise out there that you enjoy, you just haven’t found it yet.
believe me there will be some form of exercise out there that you enjoy
That’s why I believe that a healthy lifestyle shouldn’t be seen as an end goal, such as losing a certain amount of weight or getting abs. Instead, healthy living should be an enjoyable part of your life. What exercise you choose to do shouldn’t only depend on your goals but personal preference too.
Anybody who says ‘you should be doing this’, ‘you should be doing that’ and ‘that won’t help you lose weight’ are really closed minded in their approach to fitness and treating it this way is in fact dogmatic.
That is why I encourage anybody and everybody to find a form of exercise they enjoy. I know it’s been said before and it’s totally cliche, but there’s a reason for that, and that’s because it works.
From weightlifting to running to cycling to body combat to spin, however you choose to enjoy moving your body and getting sweaty, aim to make time for whatever that is three to four times a week.
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#2 Cardio is important for fat loss but not essential for gaining muscle
I often get asked, ‘what is the best way to keep fit, lifting weights or doing cardio?’ and ‘what is the best cardio to weights ratio?’
The truth is, it’s completely dependent on individual goals. Which is why it isn’t a good idea to copy other people’s workout or diet plans.
If a client tells me they want to gain muscle, I’ll suggest they do little to no cardio, but instead do intense weight lifting, for ideally four to five days a week. That way they will be really pushing their body to build new muscle tissue.
Plus, for my muscle gaining clients, they will have rest days too, in order to allow their bodies to essentially grow the tissue that had been torn through the intense weight lifting. When you rest, the muscle heals and grows.
one of my key tips when it comes to fat loss is finishing off a weight-training session with ten to 20 minutes of intense cardio
However, if a client wants to lose weight or lose fat I’d suggest a much more even split between weightlifting and cardio.
In fact, one of my key tips when it comes to fat loss is finishing off a weight-training session with ten to 20 minutes of intense cardio such as sprinting on a treadmill, X-trainer, stationary bike or a circuit style HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout, around four to five times a week.
Then as they get further and further into their fat loss they are likely to hit a plateau as the body adapts to what you are doing. When this happens I would get them to ramp up the cardio by five minutes every two to three weeks.
So for example, if you have been doing 15 minutes of intense cardio after a weight-training session, start upping this by five minutes and continue to do so until you reach your fat loss goal.
Also, I know a lot of people in the weight lifting and body building world don’t always agree with cardio as a focus for weight loss, but cardiovascular fitness is important for other factors such as your overall and internal health as well as longevity.
#3 Set goals and make one small change every week
When it comes to sticking to fitness and keeping yourself motivated it’s all about setting a goal. Not an unrealistic one but small, achievable goals that you can work up to and improve upon once you are there.
My clients will tend to fall into one of two brackets, either they don’t really need me to motivate them at all and just need me to steer them in the right direction or they hate training and they need me to motivate them continuously.
For those who do hate exercise, are too busy, are new to the health and fitness world or just not completely sold on the whole exercise thing, you are more likely to struggle with commitment and motivation.
But if you set yourself a goal, no matter how small, you are far more likely to stay on track.
For example, let’s say you have a holiday booked in three months time, set a small goal every week such as walking an extra 5,000 steps a day, switching from biscuits to fruit, staying at the gym 15 minutes longer than usual or trying out a new machine in the gym etc.
Reaching all of these little goals will help keep you motivated and in tune with the bigger picture, which is a fitter and healthier version of yourself.
Plus, once you have conquered the small goals, you’ll be able to set bigger long-term goals such as going from a size 18 to 16 in six months. Only this time you’ll know it’s possible because you will be completing small goals as you go.
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#4 Education, education, education – take time to learn about nutrition
One of the main things I want all women who exercise to know is that you need to educate yourself and understand what a protein, a fat and a carbohydrate is and what they are used for.
These are your three macro nutrients and what your daily calorie intake should be made up of.
Protein should be your dominant macro (even if you follow a plant-based diet), such as chicken, fish, red meat, chickpeas, tofu, eggs, lentils and tempeh.
When it comes to carbs you need to learn how to time your carbohydrate intake before and after your workout (but more on that later). Try to opt for healthy unrefined carbs such as brown rice, brown pasta, sweet potato, brown bread and pulses.
Then the remainder of your diet should consist of healthy fats such as olive oil, avocado, omegas from fish such as salmon and cheese.
People should not be starving themselves to lose weight. Why would you put yourself through that when simply learning how and what to eat will also mean you can still lose weight?
People should not be starving themselves to lose weight.
Plus if you go on a starvation diet you will not only slow down your metabolism but your energy for training will suffer too.
Instead of killing yourself at the gym and starving yourself for fat loss results, read up and educate yourself on nutrition.
My book The Fat-loss Blitz: Flexible Diet and Exercise Plans to Transform Your Body, and my new 4-week Body Blast on Amazon has some great nutrition advice if you are unsure where to start.
#5 Eat carbs before and after a workout
Carbohydrates are your body’s favourite energy source. So if you are about to train and want to make the most out of your workout (aka burn tons of calories), you need to be eating carbs before and after you workout.
Many people say you should only eat your carbs after you workout, but if you don’t eat carbs beforehand where are you going to get the energy you need in order to train?
The carbs you eat before you train will give you enough energy to fuel your session, mix this with a protein source and you’ll also feel fuller for longer. Think eggs on toast, chicken with rice or tofu with pulses.
Everyone has a different metabolisms, but I tend to advise people to eat around about an hour before your training session, as this will give your body time to digest, yet you’ll still have the energy you need to train properly.
Eating carbs after you train will encourage your body to recover
If you find eating an hour before a session still isn’t enough time for your food to go down then try and hour and a half or two hours and see how that workouts out for you.
Then after your training, you need to eat a meal full of protein and carbohydrates. Eating carbs after you train will encourage your body to recover, as carbohydrates are stored in the muscle (as glycogen – our body’s fuel source) and once you have depleted your muscle glycogen stores when training, you’ll need to replenish them after your session.
In terms of when to eat post-workout, I would say try to eat as soon as possible. However, the idea that has been thrown around in the fitness world that you have to eat your post-workout meal within 20-30 minutes is completely wrong.
Even science has shown that it’s still OK to eat your post-workout meal an hour or two afterwards – so don’t panic.
Here’s what I usually eat before a workout:
- If I am on the move and need fast release carbs, I will opt for a banana and protein smoothie.
- If I have time on my hands, I will have a leisurely breakfast with my husband such as scrambled eggs on toast.
Then here’s what I eat after a workout:
- If I am in a rush, I’ll opt for a post-workout smoothie that contains both carbs and protein (oats, banana, protein powder)
- If I have time on my hands, I would probably opt for a brunch and have something like grains and protein (rice, chicken, pulses, fish)
#6 It’s not ALL about the squats for #bootygoals
What people have to understand when it comes to getting your body to look a certain way is that you are not going to build any significant muscle mass, be that your bum, biceps or quads in a short amount of time. It just isn’t possible or healthy.
It takes a significant amount of time, training and eating a lot of food to significantly grow a muscle. Nobody can train for one month and suddenly have the bum they’ve always dreamed of.
Plus, building a lot of muscle often means focusing on lifting weights rather than fat loss, which isn’t the goal of most people who are usually looking to lose weight.
If you do want to focus on lifting and toning the bum area though the key move to focus on are hip thrusts – these are my all time favourite glute exercise.
Plus, the abductor machine at the gym is also great for booty goals; where you open and close your legs under tension? It’s a killer.
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While squatting does grow some people’s glute muscles, it certainly has never worked for me and actually over the years I have found that squats are not the best exercise for the glutes for most people.
A lot of people tend to be quad dominant and when you start squatting you engage your quads a lot more than you engage your glutes. This doesn’t apply to everyone, but I have noticed it on most.
Stay away from buzzwords and trends that you see on Instagram, including the obsession with squats. Instagram is a place where everything is meant to look good, so of course it looks great watching somebody squat if they already have a bigger bum.
A squat is really big dynamic compound movement and the bum looks great when it is in a squat position but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best exercise to engage your glutes.
#7 Remember to live your life
Please remember that it’s okay to take a day off or go out for a meal with your friends. It’s also okay to not always think about what you’re eating and how many calories you are consuming.
Life is about finding a balance between living and enjoying your life as well as trying to be as fit and as healthy as you can be simultaneously.
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