How to quickly get back to your ideal weight after the holiday break

Return to exercise slowly, favoring cardio

No need to force yourself to do 50 sets of crunches every morning. As trainer Christophe Boulanger explained in our article on losing belly fat: “When you start the process and want to ‘attack the fat’, you should avoid so-called ‘mass-gaining’ sports. “If you don’t do the exercises quickly, with little recovery between each one, you won’t work on endurance and therefore won’t lose fat.” If cardio allows you to burn more calories, it is because it forces the body to work in an area called the “target zone”. The coach explains. “That’s 120 to 150 beats per minute, depending on age, and then the cardiovascular system reaches the optimal heart rate to use up sugar and fat.”

Do simple and effective exercises at home

Not in the mood to get back to the gym? This is not a problem. In our article on the best cardio exercises you can do at home to burn fat, trainer Julie Pujols Benoit gave us some tips for doing cardio at home (properly). To begin with, the coach recommends adapting all the movements that can be done outside, inside; such as back heels, knee raises, or even jogging in place, where you take steps as fast as you can while barely lifting your feet.

“These exercises are inspired by boxing training and get your heart pumping,” says Julie Pujols Benoit. They’re also particularly effective at burning calories and working the entire body, including your back, legs, glutes, and even your abs. For an extra upper body workout, you can also hook up a punching bag and hit in the air with jabs, hooks and uppercuts,” explains the trainer.

Relearn how to eat

As sports nutritionist Deborah Ohana points out in our article on tips to get rid of belly fat, “fat often results from a behavioral problem that in turn leads to poor food intake, otherwise said unbalanced diet, poor reflexes such as: Eating processed foods that are too fatty or too sweet also contribute to the formation of fat,” the specialist informed us.

Well, before thinking about a “diet”, the most important thing is to listen to your hunger and feeling of satiety, “differentiate between what the head and the body suggest”, says the nutritionist. Then, along with sports activities, we reduce fats and sugars and ban those of industrial origin. Deborah Ohana is categorical. “The key is to eat as balanced meals as possible with protein, starchy foods (depending on how hungry you are), vegetables, a piece of fruit and a source of calcium. everything obviously balances out over the course of a week.”