WHAT did you have for breakfast this morning? Did you opt for a slice of sourdough with some mashed avocado and a sprinkling of seeds? Or did you plump for two slices of bacon and a fried egg? Given its mid-January, when most of us are still nobly vowing to eat more healthily or lose weight, Id imagine a fair few of you went for the avocado option, even if youd rather have had the bacon one.
A new book suggests you made the wrong choice. Yes, its January, and yes, its another diet book, but author Graeme Tomlinson also known as @thefitnesschef insists his is different.
Pretty much all the other books out there impose their own methods and their own ways of dieting on people, and thats unnecessary, he says. It can be extreme and lead people down a path of extreme eating. My aim is to empower people by showing them that they already have a diet that can work for them, which can include the foods they enjoy.
The book is called Eat What You Like & Lose Weight For Life. Thats an appealing proposition and, according to Graeme, its not a complicated one. He believes you can forget intermittent fasting, slimming clubs, paleo, alkaline, Atkins, low carb, juicing, 5:2 and any number of weight-loss plans that promise the pounds will fall off. According to him, all you have to do is eat less and/or move more. Yup, thats it no carefully timed meals, no excluding entire food groups, just eating fewer calories than your body needs to do what it does on a daily basis, aka a calorie deficit.
I know, I know! Ive thought for years that all calories are not created equal, that if you starve yourself, your body holds on to the calories you consume and that calorie counting was an outdated way of eating. Not so, says Graeme (pictured below), who insists its actually the only thing that works.
Pretty much every diet people get weight-loss results from is a calorie deficit dressed up as something else, he says. Thats not to say other things arent important or dont have a role to play but the single most important thing you need to know is that to lose weight, you need to have a calorie deficit.
He points out that to be healthy, you probably shouldnt take in all your calories in the form of chocolate bars (although that would work as long as you were still using more calories than you consumed) and that decent amounts of protein and whole foods, which help us feel full, should form the backbone of what we eat.
But the bulk of the book is dedicated to busting myths (for example, you only burn more fat than normal on a keto diet because youre eating more fat; your body doesnt go into starvation mode when you cut your calorie intake) and to brilliant infographics that show just how easy it is to tweak your existing diet so you lose weight. There are also ideas for meals and snacks, as well as suggestions for some easy swaps you can make.
So what makes this man such an expert? After years spent training to be a professional cricketer, Graeme became a personal trainer and nutrition coach, then started to get sick of the misinformation he saw on Instagram. He says he gets his answers the old-fashioned way.
I look at systematic reviews and meta-analysis of data, he says. Anyone can access that information, you just need to be able to interpret it.
He believes strongly that lasting change doesnt happen overnight. Its about working out what your calorie intake currently is (his website fitnesschef.uk has a tool that can help) and then cutting about 15 per cent of those calories out. A few months later, when your weight plateaus, you cut another 15 per cent and so on until you reach your target weight.
The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to do it gradually while not depriving yourself of the foods you enjoy, he says. Yes, it requires some effort and it wont happen magically, but I think theres a way to enjoy food while doing it.
Dont weigh yourself daily. Take progress photos once a week instead and weigh yourself monthly that will give you a better idea of whether or not youre on track
Forget good and bad snacks a crumpet with 5g of butter has fewer calories than a rice cake and 25g of peanut butter; avocado on toast can have more calories than jam on toast
Count calories over a week rather than daily that allows space for real life. If you have a blowout one night, you can cut back on the subsequent days and still be on track
The Fitness Chef: Eat What You Like & Lose Weight For Life (Ebury) is out now
The rest is here:
Trends: How to lose weight AND eat what you want - Metro Newspaper UK
