I was invited to appear on the amazing Health Oddity podcast this week. Hosted by the fab trio of James, Peter and Paul, this podcast strips away the jargon of fitness and gets to the real stories. And this week it’s fitness for the over fifties, my own story, my advice and thoughts from my book.

Take a listen on:

www. bitly.com/ChrisOnHealthOddity

It’s an entertaining and interesting way to spend an hour, especially if you’ve joined me in the better half-century of life!

My new book ‘Fat to Fit at Fifty’ (by Chris Zaremba) is now available!

The book is 340 pages, and is really two books in one.  The first part describes my fitness story – why and how I went from being obese and a heart attack waiting-to-happen at age 50, to winning fitness model contests at age 54. It goes on to say how gaining fitness has enabled me to start a new career at 55, and how my life has been improved by being fit rather than fat.

The second part describes how you could make a similar type of transformation.  Every tip, tactic and strategy that I used to change my own shape is there for you.  The three-stage ‘Fat to Fit at Fifty’ approach to life system is included, which will help you drop your fatness levels, increase your fitness levels – and enjoy doing it, too. I have a phrase I use (a lot) that says getting fit and losing fat over fifty will add years to your life, and life to your years – and this book will enable you to do just that!

Currently available as a paperback on Amazon, click here for UK or here for USA. In other countries, search on my name on Amazon.

BANT is the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine. They have a campaign ‘Food for Your Health’ which aims to improve the nutrition of everyone in the UK.

In this week’s podcast, top nutritional therapist Lorna Rhodes, tells me about the campaign, and gives many healthy eating and lifestyle tips.

Listen to the podcast by clicking here.

Originally broadcast on Good Morning Marlow on MarlowFM, and my thanks to them for allowing it to be rebroadcast here as this podcast.

With the gyms being closed during lockdown, many people will have been doing some exercise at home.  Although I suspect training for shoulders may be down on the list and some will not have trained that area since lockdown started.

As a bit of inspiration, and a suggestion to head for the shoulder press machine in less than a month when the gyms open (if we are all good until then), here is a compilation of the three of my favourite shoulder press machines, all filmed when I was visiting California.

The very first of these three is Arnold’s favourite machine – he is on it every morning about 7am!

See the video here.

Many of you will have heard of the keto diet.  The ketogenic principles involve food that is moderate in protein, high in fat, low in carbohydrate and very low in sugars, which are of course the fastest-absorbing type of carbohydrates.  A usual keto diet ratio for the macronutrients is calories from protein 30%, fat 60% and 10% for carbohydrates.

On a typical diet of 2000 calories, this means 150g of protein per day, 50g of carbs and 130g of fat.

The nice folk over at Keto Supplements UK recently sent me a selection of their snacks for me to try.  Here are my thoughts.

They supplied biltong from three different suppliers, plus some low carb bars and a couple of supplements.  Let me talk about them in order.

The biltong first.  As you may know, biltong is air-dried sliced meat that is a great source of protein.

Usually beef and sometimes with flavouring adding during the drying, I’ve always seen biltong as my number one healthy snack.  It’s South African in origin, which is where the word comes from.

The biltong supplied comes from three different manufacturers.  Ember, with no flavouring added to their British and Irish sourced beef, The Biltong Factory with a Sweet Chilli flavouring added, and finally St Marcus, who point out that their beef is grass-fed, and provided three flavours – unflavoured (Original), Peri Peri and Chilli Chutney.

As you would expect, the macros on all three are similar, showing a massive percentage for protein.  A bag of St Marcus Original or Peri Peri is 60 calories, with a protein/fat/carb split of 83%/11%/6%.  For the Ember brand, the total is 65 calories, and the relevant split works out to be 84%/15%/1%.  I suspect the difference comes from a small amount of brown sugar and honey listed in the ingredients of the St Markus, which are missing on the Ember, although of course even with this added all those low-carbohydrate numbers are well within the keto guidelines.

Interestingly, the numbers are rather different for the St Markus Chilli Chutney flavour – it’s still 60 calories per bag, with the split as protein 76%, fat 11% and carbs 13%.  Just a little high on the carbs for the purest form of keto diet, but still great numbers on the protein front.  I assume the extra sugars come from the chutney which forms 8% of the ingredients of this flavour alone.

Finally on biltong, and the Biltong Factory brand, the overall calories number per bag is 107, with the split is protein 67%, fat 21% and 12% – again there are sugars listed in the ingredients.  A key reason why the calories are more per bag here is due to the pack size – it’s a 40g bag here rather than 28g or 30g with the St Marcus and Ember.

I’ve been having one bag per day as my mid-afternoon snack, and I like them all.  The original can be a bit dry for some people, and the chilli ones may be felt to be a little on the sweet side.  However, I liked varying across all the flavours and brands to get a slightly different taste each day.

Now, the bars.  They are branded ‘Battle Bites’, and I sampled two flavours – the Glazed Sprinkled Donut, and the Mississippi Mud Pie.   The calories in each are around 220, which is comprised 40% protein, 27% carbs and 33% fat.  Notable is that there is a very low sugar content – entirely in line with Keto principles – of 2.5 or 3g (which works out to only 5% of the calories).

These kind of numbers put the products in a very competitive and growing market sector, with some big names there already, such as Carb Killa, PhD and Fulfil.   The first difference – and a big plus in my opinion – is that the Battle Bites come as two separate portions.  This makes it very easy to have half now, and half later.  I often feel like a high-protein snack of around 100 calories, and this fits that bill easily.  From a taste and texture point of view, they are a softer feel and taste more like a cake than the others I’ve mentioned; there’s no chocolate (or more accurately, chocolate-flavour) coating as you find with some of the others.  The Mud Pie is a dark throughout and has cocoa powder as a key ingredient, while the Donut one (which really should be spelled Doughnut but I guess I’m old) is lighter in both colour and texture.   These products are good additions, adding further choice to this market sector.

Finally, the two supplements.  I have just started taking the Immune System Boost supplement and there is a month’s supply in the container.  It contains many of the minerals and vitamins I would expect to see, including Vitamin D and Zinc.  If I get through the next month without catching a cold, flu or worse, then I’ll be happy.

Finally, the fat burner, called UltraBurn.  Again, it has what I would expect to see – relatively big portions of Caffeine, Green Tea and Chromium with a couple of the B group vitamins in large amounts.  The caffeine content is 225g per serving which is more than most so-called energy drinks, and with added minerals too.  I’m planning a video workout series in the Summer this year, so I think I’ll save these until then – if I look lean on those videos, then I’ll put some of that down to this.

I hope that’s of interest, and thanks again to Keto Supplements UK for sending them to me.  If you’re interested, they can be found on https://keto-supplements.co.uk

As you may know, gyms are not allowed to open in Tier 4 areas of England.

I believe they should be allowed to open for the benefits they bring to physical and mental health of members.  Gyms should open, I believe, with everyone enforcing physical distancing (no-one gets closer than 2m to anyone else).  This will mean no classes and no personal training, which is a shame, but I believe it is important to keep the physical distancing in place.  And of course with proper equipment cleanliness and sanitising gel protocols (which were in place at every gym I visited last time they were open).

If you agree with my view, please sign the on-line petition.  It is already over 6,000 signatures, it needs 10,000 to be reviewed by the Government.

Either click here or if you prefer search for ‘Tier 4 gym petition’.

Many thanks.

I am often asked about supplements, so let me explain my thoughts on the subject and my reasoning.

Firstly, a supplement of any kind should only be considered if you have a good, clean, healthy and nutritionally-rich diet.  You can’t (or shouldn’t) use supplements to counteract too much pizza, chocs and alcohol.  But if your diet is good anyway, isn’t nature so designed that it provides all the nutrients naturally?

I don’t take supplements as I think I get what I need from my diet – but I have taken creatine and BCAAs in the past, mainly in the run up to competitions.  These are times when I want to be ahead of what nature provides (but doing so as naturally as possible).

Did they make any difference to me? Honestly? I have no idea. I looked good on stage, but was that the supplements or was that the extra effort I was putting in on the nutrition and gym in the last eight weeks prior to the event? No way of knowing.

In any case, I wouldn’t take anything stronger than creatine or BCAAs.  Remember we do this thing to get healthier, not less so.  I have never tried banned substances – and never will; they have proven detrimental effects on the health of a 20-year old, imagine what they could do to a naturally more fragile body getting on to three times that age.

I do use protein shakes – which I don’t consider a supplement as they have calories and are basic nutrition for me (at breakfast and post-workout).  And the calories get counted from the shakes of course.

I also take high-caffeine zero-calorie drinks (sugar-free Monster and similar) 30-45 minutes before a workout as the science says caffeine helps sharpen the brain, stimulates effort and delays fatigue.  I find that to be the case with me, and I do get a better workout having taken my Monster than without.  But not late at night of course, I also need a good sleep!

I was happy to be invited to be a guest on a new episode of The Dan Wynes Podcast.   As you may know, Dan is a good friend and workout buddy of mine – and therefore he knows exactly what questions to ask me to get the best answers!

On the podcast, you can hear my thoughts on my own fitness transformation, plus what I am doing to help others in the over-50 age group get into shape.  And I tell Dan exactly what I mean when I say that for everyone that the answer to a healthy and fit second half of your first century really is ELEMENTARY.

Search for The Dan Wynes Podcast wherever you get your podcasts from – or jump straight to the episode by clicking on bit.ly/ChrisOnDansPodcast