Kellie has a background in teaching and she’s a qualified neuroscientist – she pivoted to weight loss coaching in order to use her skills to help people achieve their goals
Weight loss coach Kellie Fennell
An Irish weight loss coach has shared her key tips to losing weight healthily and keeping it off long-term.
Kellie Fennell is a fitness and weight loss coach who left her career as a teacher in order to help people achieve their health goals.
The expert has been helping people across the country ditch bad diet habits and become a healthier and happier version of themselves.
“My background is actually in neuroscience, I’m a qualified neuroscientist,” Kellie told RSVP Live. “My goal was always to go down the medical route, but I went to Africa to build houses for orphaned kids in my final year of college, and when I was there, one of the volunteers asked me to go to the local school to teach the kids a little bit of English and I loved it.
“When I got home, I applied for the teaching qualification and I taught maths and science in secondary schools for about eight years. But I always had a passion for health and sport and wanted to do something with teaching fitness. I did a personal training and nutrition course on the side while I was teaching full time, and I took the jump when Covid hit.”
Kellie’s coaching business has gone from strength to strength ever since and she even won Businesswoman of the Year recently. Her focus is on sustainable lifestyle changes and forming new habits and mindsets, rather than crash dieting. One of the biggest mistakes that she sees people make is listening to toxic diet culture and being misinformed about food and health.
“I will get so many women coming to me thinking that they’re not able to eat bread, that carbs are bad, that they have to exercise to lose weight,” said Kellie. “They look at exercise as a form of punishment and looking at their food as a form of punishment as well.
“My work is getting my clients to question those beliefs that have been dictating their actions their whole lives, and realise that a lot of them aren’t serving them and a lot of them are holding them back. Then it’s working on re-educating them, showing them the right way.”
For Kellie, there’s four core pillars to losing weight and being fitter long-term – training, nutrition, sleep and screen time.
“When it comes to movement, it’s actually steps that are the most important,” she explained. “Moving your body throughout the day will not only help you burn more calories, but it’s good for the mind as well. Movement is important but people think it has to be in the gym or running, and those things are great, but it actually has to start with your step count and moving your body.
“Nutrition is really important, but not from a restrictive point of view. What I would advise my clients when they start working with me is three meals a day, and build those meals around a protein source. So many people are undereating protein and not only is it essential for life, it also really helps when fat loss is the goal because it’s the most satiating macronutrient and keeps you full for longer.”
She added: “There’s two other big ones that people don’t always think of when it comes to weight loss and health. First is sleep – I call it the foundation of health. There’s a direct correlation between being underslept and overweight. The ideal amount of sleep each night is seven and a half hours.
“The next thing is screen time. If you’re constantly online and constantly comparing yourself to other people, you’re comparing yourself to a false reality. You see all these amazing people, amazing bodies, amazing lives and you come off and feel bad about yourself. You then might take actions that you don’t want to like skipping your walk or comfort eat.”
You can check out Kellie on her website www.kelliefennellfitness.com or on Instagram @kelliefennellfitness.
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