Fit By Dori - Online Coaching

Laci, a 34-year-old vegetarian client, and I have worked together for 6 months.

He has hyperthyroidism and always struggled to put on weight. In the past, he was a dancer and a regular gym-goer, always active but unable to reach his ideal body shape due to a lack of proper nutrition and training principles.

With hyperthyroidism, his metabolic rate is very high, requiring him to consume more calories than a typical person. Eating that much can be just as challenging as eating low calories while cutting.

Through the months, we corrected his nutrition and training, applying all necessary principles for progression. We monitored his progress with weekly check-ins and adjusted plans when necessary.

The result is a gain of over 8kg of lean muscle tissue, and Laci now finally has the body he is happy with. 😉

Don’t confuse general fitness with bodybuilding! These are two completely different things.

Bodybuilding is a sport that requires extreme measures. There is no balance in bodybuilding. However, general fitness, or being fit for life, is based on balance.

Social media is a very bad influence nowadays, with many girls competing in bodybuilding shows, making “general” people want to do the same or look like those athletes and fitness influencers while living a “normal” life.

Most people are not built for bodybuilding, just like most people are not built for football or gymnastics. This applies not just physically but mentally as well. We are all different!

Most of the competitor girls and fitness influencers achieved their bodies by going through extreme circumstances. Most of them are not naturally that lean, and such a body couldn’t be maintained for a long period. Many of those girls struggle with health issues, unbalanced hormones, and more.

If you don’t have a naturally lean body composition, your body will never be able to maintain a very lean and defined physique under healthy circumstances.

Instead of constantly stressing your body by being in a deficit and comparing yourself to others, try to accept that you feel well, you are fueling your body properly, you are strong, and you function in a healthy state.

Try to focus more on your training, implement structure and good habits to BUILD the body that you want to see in the mirror. Trust me, it won’t happen if you are in a calorie deficit most of your life!

FYI
When I’m competing, my body weight goes down to the 50s. However, my body doesn’t like to be in that state. In the past few years of competitive seasons, I learned that when my body feels the best, it is around 63-65kg, when I have stomach rolls and cellulite! I would be lying if I said I like my body every day in that state. Of course not! But this is what social media and “modern life norms” do to us. However, I like feeling strong, making improvements in my training, building muscles, not restricting my body, and enjoying food and socialising!

This is a good example of how your balanced plate should look!

It doesn’t matter what your fitness goal is; when it comes to diet, your aim should always be to fuel the body adequately!

This doesn’t happen differently in a calorie deficit when the goal is to lose body fat. We will eat fewer calories and less food, of course, but we still have to aim for managing a balance and not cutting out exact foods and food groups.

When your body is in a calorie deficit (you eat fewer calories than your body uses) and you don’t fuel your body with enough energy, sooner or later you will feel hungry. It’s a normal physiological reaction to an energy deficit. Some people feel it more than others; we are all different.

So, in managing hunger in a deficit, the best thing you can do is to choose meals that are more filling.

My tips to help manage hunger in a deficit:

1. Base your diet mostly on whole food sources that have better nutritional content than processed foods and try to limit highly processed ones.

2. Plan your meals, timings, and try to leave similar gaps between meals.

3. Several studies show that eating fewer, larger meals with good nutritional content helps you feel full longer than smaller meals more times throughout the day.

4. Eat protein with every meal. Try to add at least 20-30g of protein (based on the number of feedings you have a day). The more protein you add, the more filling the meal is. Protein has a higher satiating effect than carbs and fat.

5. Volume is everything! Add volume to your meals by filling your plate with lots of veggies! They provide micronutrients, contain carbs (but much less than other sources), and have a high fiber content, making their absorption incomplete. You can trick your brain by eating bigger meals with lower calories.

6. Choose carb sources that are more filling. My favorite ‘diet’ carbs are potatoes; they have a high satiating effect and more volume than other carbs.

7. Don’t forget to include fat sources in your meals. Fats are essential for hormonal functions and the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. So even if you are in a deficit, don’t cut them out completely! Try to choose ‘good’ fat sources like mono- or polyunsaturated fat sources, e.g., olive oil, nuts, or avocado. But there’s nothing wrong with choosing fatty meats and dairy either.

8.Add flavor to your meal! Use spices and make sauces for your food! You don’t have to cut out these things just because they have been flagged as 'bad'. As long as you can stay within your calorie target, you are fine. Moderation is the key.
But, don’t forget that sauces and dressings can contain higher calories, so it's best if you can make your own.

Don’t forget, you always get out what you put into your work..

If you only give 50%, don’t expect to get 100%

However, there’s nothing wrong with putting in only 50% if you don’t have more in the tank..

But then, don’t complain about why your journey takes longer than someone else’s..

Be patient, consistent and show up every day!

5️⃣Reasons Why Your 🍑 Is Not Growing:

1️⃣Not Eating Enough Protein: The amount of protein you consume is crucial for muscle building. If you consume less protein than necessary for muscle protein synthesis, your muscles won’t grow.

2️⃣Constantly Being in a Calorie Deficit: While it’s possible to build muscle in a calorie deficit under certain conditions, not getting enough calories to function properly can significantly impact stress levels, sleep, and recovery. Additionally, diets are often lacking in essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, affecting bodily functions. This state is not ideal for muscle growth, and eventually, you may also struggle to maintain your muscles. Your body needs fuel to have enough energy for intense training and to create an optimal environment for muscle recovery.

3️⃣Not Having a Plan: Proper muscle development requires the application of progressive overload over time in your training. This means having a plan with specific exercises, logging your sessions, and gradually increasing the intensity of those exercises week by week to get stronger. If you do random exercises every time you hit the gym, you won’t achieve the results you desire.

4️⃣Not Training Hard Enough: Training intensity is key to building muscle. The Gluteus Maximus is the largest muscle in the body and needs significant stimulus to grow. If you don’t use enough resistance or stop when it starts to hurt, then your glutes won’t grow. It’s essential to train as hard as possible, while still maintaining good form and technique, to encourage muscle growth.

5️⃣Lack of Patience: Muscle building is a slow and steady process, requiring immense patience. While fat loss can be relatively quick, muscle building takes much longer. Newbie gains can be exciting, but as you become more experienced in training, progress tends to slow down. This process is especially slower for women compared to men.

The above is true for any other muscle group!

If you wanna have a ‘toned body’ you need to have muscles!

Muscles give the shape of your body!

Don’t forget this 😉

Just think about this.. 🤔

When you take it seriously and want to improve your savings and financial situation because you want to buy a house, you start planning out and tracking your expenses, right?

You do this because if you don’t have a plan in place and just spend money unconsciously, more than likely, you'll never get to the point where you have enough money for the deposit or it will take much longer.

This is the same if you want to change your body composition when it comes to nutrition and training.

Without starting to take care of what you eat and how much, there will be nothing to change.

And with this, I'm not saying that you are unable to reach your goals without tracking every gram of food and exercise.

Tracking calories and macros is a very effective approach, and it's possible to reach the goal in a shorter period of time. But whether something is "effective" is very subjective. It's completely dependent on the individual. It's not always necessary, and it's also not for everyone. It can be very restrictive and obsessive for many and can cause more harm than benefits. If someone hasn’t had a good relationship with food, it can worsen the situation.

Non-tracking methods are also very effective. Of course, it's a slower process, and if you choose to use it to reach your goal, you also have to be aware that it may take much longer than you expected. But it's very sustainable.

In my experience, it is possible to get good results with non-tracking approaches as well. But when you get to a certain point where there are the last few kilograms that need to go, it's better to implement some form of tracking as well. And it shouldn’t be like measuring every gram of food or all calories and macros. Tracking protein intake alone can be very beneficial in the first place.

But whatever approach you choose, whether it is tracking or non-tracking, there should be structure and a plan in place. That's the most important part! Plus, constant monitoring of nutrition, exercise, and important lifestyle variables to track progress and to implement adjustments if necessary!

If you are ready to change, but you don’t know where to start, drop me a message! 📲 Im here to help!

I have shared this or something similar many times in my stories, but it deserves a post!

Just one reason to base your nutrition mostly on whole foods and meals that you prepare yourself!

This bread roll is from M&S Marks and Spencer which is commonly known as a good supermarket with quality products!

I’ve been buying this product for a very long time. It’s good quality bread with not too many ingredients and very tasty. But I noticed that it has been getting bigger over the months. This roll weighs 118g instead of the 60g stated on the label. That is just slightly less than double the weight a roll should be.
This means one roll contains double the calories than the package says.

Current legislation in food labelling allows for an error margin of 20% either side of the labelled value.

This difference is almost 100%, which is just a little bit over that, right?! 😅

So you can easily question after this, what is the guarantee that other nutritional values are still correct? Or not to mention the ingredient list🤔
Who knows what is really in those ready-made foods? 👀🐛🤷🏼‍♀️

I don’t say that you should avoid everything that is processed and cook and make everything from scratch..I wouldn’t do that either.

But try to limit them and base your diet mostly on food sources that are not highly processed, and try to cook and meal prep more instead of just buying something on the way all the time 😉

THIS IS YOUR REMINDER TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY! 😉

AND IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT EXERCISE AND NUTRITION, BUT RECOVERY IS JUST AS IMPORTANT!

LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE 😉

Recovery is not just about taking rest days and prioritising sleep!

Yes, this two also very important, but it includes so much more:
👉maintain proper nutrition to fuel your body’s repair processes
👉effectively managing stress to prevent its detrimental effects on recovery,
👉incorporating stretching to improve flexibility and mobility
👉and regularly releasing tension from your muscles through massages.

Even if you are fully aware of the above, just like me, many times we forget to maintain these practices regularly!

Those who know me well, know that I hate any kind of massages. I simply dislike having someone else touch my body in that way; it feels uncomfortable and boring 🤷🏼‍♀️. Typically, I only seek out massages when I’m already experiencing pain. The last time I had a sports massage was exactly a year ago, before I hurt my back. Now, my body has said that it’s had enough. I injured myself during my warm-up, experiencing a level of pain I’ve never felt before.
In the past three weeks, I’ve visited my massage therapist more frequently than in the last three years. Despite three treatments, my muscles are still in a terrible state. Additionally, my nail job doesn’t help with the situation. The position I work in has caused my hip joint to misalign, and my tight muscles prevent it from moving properly.

When something like this happens, we begin to fully appreciate things. In a better case, we reassess, reconsider, and make changes for the future.

Especially for someone like me, who exercises a lot and is dedicated to achieving goals, it’s easy to overlook the importance of resetting at times!

✌🏼Listen to your body!
Take your rest days seriously! Prioritize sleep!
✌🏼Ensure you’re adequately fueling your body, even if your goal is weight loss!
✌🏼Regularly manage stress!
✌🏼And don’t forget to care for your muscles as well; incorporate regular stretching into your routine and schedule sports massages for maintenance, not just in response to injury!

A little bit of

Picture 1:
In the beginning of my 20’s:
🚬smoking
🍾drinking
💃🏼partying every weekend.
All my exercise was to dance in the parties.
I didn’t care about health, nutrition, or exercise.
Yoyo dieting.

Picture 2:
End of 20’s beginning of 30’s:
❌quitting smoking and drinking,
🥦starting to eat “clean”
🏃🏼‍♀️going to the gym but not having a plan and doing lots of cardio and being in a calorie deficit all the time.

Picture 3:
The last 5-6 years, and turning 37 this year:
🤓having a good knowledge in training and nutrition
🏋🏼‍♀️prioritising weight training
🥩🥔🥑🍔 nourishing the body appropriately and trying to maintain a good relationship with food ✌🏼

I’ve been there too. I started changing my lifestyle when I was around 26 years old.
It took me approximately 10 years to get to where I am today.

It wasn’t easy, especially in the beginning without knowledge of training and nutrition. I had no clue what I was doing in the gym, I was starving myself with very little food, but one thing I knew was that I didn’t want to stay in the same position anymore.

I made lots of mistakes and had many setbacks on the way, but I was continuously striving for better.

Around 2019 I started with a coach and we have worked together for 4 years, I learned a lot from her, and I also educated myself.

Yes, it cost a lot of money, but it was absolutely worth it! It was an investment into my body and health!

The only thing I regret is not starting earlier. 😉✌🏼

Welcome to my page! ☺️

As a Level 3 Personal Trainer and an MNU Certified evidence-based nutritionist, I bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table.

I'm dedicated to being more than just a coach — I believe that a strong coach-client relationship is crucial for achieving good results. I'm here to be your partner in achieving the goals you set out for yourself, no matter which stage of your journey you're at.

My journey began in the world of competitive bodybuilding. Over the years I developed a deep understanding of the human body's potential. Now, with over four years of experience in online coaching and having worked with over 100 clients, I've witnessed incredible transformations firsthand.

I believe in a holistic approach to health and fitness — one that doesn't involve strict diets or cutting out your favorite foods. Instead, I focus on personalised strategies that prioritise balance and sustainability. Together, we'll navigate your unique goals and challenges, creating a roadmap to your best self without sacrificing the joy of life's pleasures.

Join me on this journey to not just change your body, but to revolutionise your relationship with health and wellness. Together, we'll unlock your full potential and pave the way for a better, healthier life.✨