Fitness professional: Fast-paced weight loss for Carnival not healthy

Carnival 2025 is in high gear, and the rush to get fit to look good and keep up the energy on the road on Monday and Tuesday is on.
Fitness professional Kerine Farmer says while losing weight may be part and parcel of keeping healthy, attempting to lose a lot of weight in a short space of time may not be such a good idea.
"People need to understand that if you're talking about losing weight in a healthy way, you're talking about losing anywhere from half a pound to two pounds a week.
"With just a few weeks before you're on the road for Carnival...if you're expecting to lose more than that, you're going to have to do something very aggressive and very drastic and most likely unhealthy.
"We need to be realistic about our expectations, especially if you want to do it in a healthy way.
Farmer has been doing fitness training since 2016, and is certified in a number of fitness areas, among them kettlebell and suspension training, as well as CIRCL mobility – a mobility and flexibility programme designed to help the body move in the way it's intended to.
"I used to combine teaching lunch-time fitness classes at my corporate job, and then when the company that I was working for downsized, I joined the industry full-time in 2018."
She offers CIRCL mobility class online on Wednesdays at 6.30 pm and one-on-one personal training at her clients at their homes.
"But my services are such that if you want to set up a group class on your own time, and I have a slot for it, I would do it. But as of now, the only group training that I have that's ongoing is the CIRCL mobility class."
Farmer says nutrition plays a major role in losing weight in a healthy way.
She advises people whose fitness programmes are specifically geared toward meeting their goal by March 3 and 4, "You should calculate how much you could realistically lose in that time...Reduce your portion sizes of food and make sure there are vegetables on your plate, as well as complex carbohydrates – the type of carbs that have a lot of fibre, like ground provision.
"There should also be lean proteins – not the fried stuff, not the breaded stuff, not the processed deli meats and stuff like that.
"You should have three meals a day that incorporate those things, and you should avoid mid-meal snacking unless it's fruits or some kind of vegetables with low caloric dip or dressing.
"If you're drinking anything, it should be a low calorie beverage with no added sugar. Drink lots of water."
Farmer said although you can lose weight without exercise, you can't build muscle without exercise.
"You always want to make sure that you're trying to preserve as much muscle mass as possible."
In this case she advises prioritising weight training over cardio.
" A lot of people tend to prioritise cardio because it burns more calories. But if you are pressed for time and you don't have a lot of time to be in a gym all the time, I would tell people try to walk as much as possible, try to get in at least 7,000 steps a day. You don't need to be doing any hard cardio because your nutrition should be taking care of your fat loss."
For people who may not be into Carnival but are simply trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle, Farmer suggests putting together a programme for themselves that incorporates a healthy diet and exercise, "Because that is what is going to put you in the best position to live long, healthy, quality life.
"Try to at least cover your walking – 5,000 to 7,000 steps a day. Try to get some flexibility training; there are different ways to work in flexibility, whether it's yoga, or mobility class."
And for those women who are battling with the menopause fat, the 47-year-old trainer said, "Menopause fat is not special fat. It's just fat. So at the end of the day, what is necessary is the same things that are necessary when you're trying to lose any other type of fat."
But, she said, weight training may become necessary because "after 40 women start dropping muscle mass like it's nobody's business.
"So when you don't have muscle mass, you run the risk of not being able to burn calories as efficiently as before. And the hormonal state that we go into at this stage in life, that is also what makes losing fat harder."
For more fitness information follow Kerine Farmer @ itsabout.me/suspensionbellefitness on LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
Comments
"Fitness professional: Fast-paced weight loss for Carnival not healthy"