Food trends come and go, but one thing always stays the same: we want to lose weight. For some reason, we’re obsessed with the possibility of shedding a few extra pounds, and in order to get that, we are willing to try pretty much anything.
We’ve tried vegetarianism, veganism, the paleo diet, keto diet, the gluten-free diet, dairy-free… One day meat is the devil, the next day it’s actually bread that is the devil. Needless to say, the list goes on forever.
And no thanks to the internet, it’s only gotten worse. With “influencers” posting their detox teas and gluten-free, dairy-free avocado toast, it can get pretty hard to understand the difference between being trendy and actually healthy.
Luckily though, there is one health-focused influencer on the ‘gram that really seems to share some logical, attainable knowledge. His name is Graeme Tomlinson and he goes by the handle @thefitnesschef_.
He has been a personal coach and nutrition consultant for over 5 years now and he believes that anyone can lose weight with simple facts. He used science rather than “what’s hot right now” and breaks it down into photos that are very easy to digest. Ha, see what we did there?
Take a look below at some of the most hard-hitting facts about health and wellness that he’s recently shared.
1. Don’t restrict yourself
“Let me tell you something. If deprived, you will eventually eat your desired portion of that food. And the longer you deprive yourself of it, the more likely you are to take excessive consumption of it to the realms of extortion.”
2. Good vs. Bad
“She cannot help but hear the intentionally loud whispers of ‘junk food’… ‘she’ll never learn’… ‘it’s just a matter of time before she gets fat again’ and all 3 bellow out laughter as vociferously as the Marley brothers from the Muppet Christmas Carol…”
3. The problem with our food industry
“In 2019, irrespective of business based reasoning, quality is not available to some underprivileged people. Whilst the price gap regarding convenience is large now, this may infiltrate into all food purchases, such is our societal appetite for nutritional status.”
4. It’s OK to eat eggs
“A recent, well reported recent study found that consumption of 3 or more eggs per week could be linked to ‘risk of heart disease and early death’. Note: ‘linked and risk’. Crucially, these represent mere correlation, not causation. This study also fails to represent other dietary variables which could affect risk of heart disease, or early death…. How one individual processes LDL/HDL can be very different to another. And the ‘blanket’ link between cholesterol and heart related disease is subjective. But since total LDL consumed in overall dietary intake overrides consumption of one food (eggs), it’s probably more useful to address overall diet instead.”
5. Emotion vs. Science
“One can immediately establish that these two nouns are very different. One relies on fact, one does not. One accounts for physiology, one does not. One is objective, one is subjective. And when learning about nutritional processes, one is useful and one is useless.”
6. You can eat more food
“As a caloric deficit is the only way fat loss can occur, reducing caloric intake may be difficult for an individual seeking fat loss. Not least because there is a change in dietary habit and habitual satiety after feeding episodes. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to consume a relatively high volume of food in order to remain satiated and reduce risk of excessive calorie consumption.”
7. Know your vegetables
“The micronutrients listed under each vegetable account for those highest on each’s RDA (recommended daily allowance). A term coined to define the estimated amount of nutrients/energy considered necessary for the maintenance of good health. This includes fighting disease, enhancing function and moderating highly supportive diet.”
8. Carbs don’t make you fat
“The immediate problem with such a dubious claim is the mirky differentiation of carbohydrates as an entity within edible food. Pizza, pasta, chips, bread and pastry all fall inside the umbrella of “Don’t eat it because it’s got carbs and you’ll get fat.” Yet if we examine the exact ingredients in such food we can immediately assert that carbohydrates are not the only caloric variable present. The examples displayed on the right of this graphic represent foods which contain calories from carbs, protein and more pertinently, fat – which houses caloric density.”
9. Vitamin water
“Given that their product is named ‘vitamin water’, one would assume that the main benefit of drinking it would be to hydrate and consume vitamins. We know that hydration and vitamins are two things beneficial to us, so one can forgive the attraction to both of these elements which form the product title.”
10. Good vs. Empty
“Empty (noun) means: containing nothing, not fulfilled or occupied.”
11. How crash dieting isn’t good
“Whilst the first consideration of any weight loss/gain journey is to accurately measure a balance of energy required to lose or gain weight, the second is to associate it with a sustainable method.”
12. Some fruits are better than others
“For nutritional ‘improvement’, you are told to replace processed snacks with fruit. This is mostly down to the universally agreed principle that fruit contains nutrients and fibre, whilst generally not being as calorie/sugar dense as most processed snacks. Therefore it’s consumption is seen to benefit its host on many nutritional levels.”
13. One meal vs. a day of eating
14. Bad fat loss advice
“In the current ‘social media age’, misinformation can infiltrate with ease. As our body fat increases, so does the net worth of those who capitalize on us through ultimately useless advice, which fails to deliver the most basic narrative for fat loss. A calorie deficit.”
15. Keto vs. Regular
“The extreme beliefs that carbs inhibit fat loss and that fat can be shed in a state of ketogenic caloric surplus are both fanciful and false. In fact, they are as deluded as believing that this avocado bun won’t slide around in your hands like a BMW in the snow. Rigorous studies continuously negate direct relationship between moderate carbohydrate consumption and weight gain.”
16. For the Starbucks lovers
“Whilst the only real coffee on this updated graphic is the black (Americano), the top tier can probably still be classed as authentic coffee. Thereafter and below however, most of the ingredients resemble an ice cream sundae and are marginally classed as a coffee related drink. Therefore if one regularly goes out for a ‘coffee’, but consumes a Frappuccino, they are easily tidally going out for dessert.”
17. Intermittent Fasting vs. Eating when you want
“Of course, some will benefit from the simplicity IF’s concept because it inadvertently causes them to eat less. For others, long period without energy be be difficult to follow. There is no right or wrong. It just depends on what one’s preference is in order to sustain the calorie target, and thus the goal.”
18. Sugar is not what causes obesity
“As evidence has shown those who wish to comprehend it, a calorie surplus (by whatever means) causes obesity. Therefore, whilst ratios of sugar and other calorie sources may subjectively nurture satiety and food behaviour, consumption of sugar does not inherently affect the possibility of obesity to an individual any more so than consumption of any food. Over time, consumption of too many total calories for the amount an individual moves will result in obesity, regardless of sugar’s presence within those calories consumed.”
19. High fiber foods
“Though fibre is not a nutrient, it’s inclusion in one’s diet can be important. Consumption of soluble fibre slows digestion through recruitment of water and can therefore increase feelings of satiety. And whilst consumption of insoluble fibre aids the ‘start to finish’ digestive process, foods often contain both types.”
20. Pizza CAN be healthy!
Maybe check out one of these recipes before you order for delivery!
21. Good breakfast vs. Bad breakfast
“The thing is, during this time people would have literally been just as well off consuming equivalent bowls of coco pops instead of Special K – the very cereal that has been demonized as unhealthy, sugar laden and which inflicts all sort of evil on on its host. But it is in actual fact virtually identical to Special K Red Berries in core nutritional values such as calories and sugar.”
22. Eat well for the right reasons
“These concepts can calmly be applied to all foods we consume. Only then can we safely realise that eating food is not an instance of good or bad health, but a nourishing experience which satisfies or does not satisfy one or several nutritional/mental strands. Furthermore, that it is one small piece of an infinitely constructed jigsaw.”
23. Hyped up vs. Forgotten foods
The forgotten foods are just as nutritious as the trendy ones.
24. The myth of speeding up your metabolism
“If we take the metabolic process involved in food digestion, we know that this process requires energy. And given that fat loss requires you to be in an energy deficit, it sounds logical to claim that we can burn calories by digesting food regularly – because we can. But the fundamental flaw with this concept is that the calories we eat also count in the balance of energy – and they count a heck of a lot more than the efficiency of your metabolism.”
25. Clean breakfast vs. Dirty breakfast
“The differentiation between good and bad is one of the vaguest questions known to man. Both eventualities are ultimately quantified by a long list of personal traits and variables.”
Are you blown away by Graeme’s fitness facts? We sure are!
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