The Biggest Myths About Fat Loss - The Fitness Chef - #309

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
What's happening, you beautiful people? Welcome back to the show. My guest today is Graeme Tomlinson, AKA The fitness Chef. And we're talking about all of the biggest diet and fat loss myths. Given the fact that if lockdown has left us with anything, it's just a little bit of extra weight, most people are going to be getting back into some form of fitness regime right now. And given that, I thought it would be a good time to come and dispel some of the most common misinformation and myths around dieting, weight loss, fat loss and everything else. So today, expect to learn the principles of dieting and losing weight, whether juicing or detoxes work, what low carb and keto actually do, how intermittent fasting works, why slimming clubs don't work, how to keep your fat loss sustainable over time and much more. I'm a big fan of Graeme's work and he's got nearly a million followers on Instagram because he's a no BS kind of guy. He doesn't really care about which team is supporting as long as it's a team which works. If we save just one person from doing another juice detox, I'm going to call this episode a win. But now it's time to learn about the biggest myths of dieting with Graeme Tomlinson.
Graeme Tomlinson, welcome to the show.

**Graeme Tomlinson** (1:32)
Thanks for having me, how are you doing?

**Chris Williamson** (1:33)
I'm well, man. I went to Leeds and back today, and this is how downregulated the stimulus of my life has become. I've spent so much time in the same four walls that a journey to Leeds and back actually felt like an adventure. I spent three and a half hours in the car and literally felt like I'd gone on holiday.

**Graeme Tomlinson** (1:52)
Well, talking of holidays, it doesn't look like that's gonna happen anytime soon.
Yeah, it's been a funny, funny year, hasn't it, with lockdown. To be honest, I don't know about you, but it hasn't actually affected me that much because like yourself, I'm kind of working from home anyway. And the only thing that's changed for me is not being able to go abroad or get on a plane to go to London or something like that. Obviously, obviously not seeing family and friends is not great. But yeah, in terms of work, everyday life, it's not that much different than in the start. It was actually quite nice. It's a bit much now.

**Chris Williamson** (2:32)
I said that every introvert, it's now their dream. You don't have to go and do all of the social events that you never enjoyed. But I'm perfectly fine working on my own, doing my solitary stuff. But after 12 months of being in exactly the same location, even I, and if I'm starting to push it, then for the people that are listening, who are really social and used to going out and spending tons of time with their friends, and it really is challenging. So yeah, man, I'm looking forward, even if we can't go abroad, I'm just looking forward to lead west Yorkshire, not somehow feeling like I should be grateful for it. I should be grateful for the fucking A1. Do you know what I mean? Like this isn't me taking a trip to somewhere exotic. Anyway, anyway, we are gonna talk about fat loss today. You are the fitness chef on Instagram. You are redpilling people on how to really understand calories from foods, what they think is happening, what's actually happening, and the truth behind weight loss. What are the most common errors that you see people making when they're trying to lose weight?

**Graeme Tomlinson** (3:37)
I think one of them is not understanding what you were just saying there, understanding that A, you need a calorie deficit, so consume less calories than you use each day, and to lose fat, that is the principle, that is not a method, that is literally the only physiological way you can lose fat. So unfortunately, it's not sexy enough to be marketed, so it kind of misses a lot of people. So a lot of people start trying to lose fat without even understanding that basic element that's required.
And so once you start from there, and you start going on an extreme intervention like low carb or keto or whatever it is, and you don't understand about the calorie balance, you're almost setting yourself up for failure.
Another one would be, even if you do understand that you need the calorie deficit is making it unsustainable. In other words, having it ultra restrictive and aggressive. So for myself, I know my maintenance calories would be around about 2,200, 2,400 for my activity level. And for the average female, it could be, I don't know, 1,700 to 1,900. But when they go on these calorie counting apps like myfitnesspal, it asks them how much weight do you want to lose? It gives them an option. It would be like one pound of weight, two pounds, three pounds. Of course, they're going to select the biggest amount of weight. Why wouldn't you? I would do that. But unfortunately, what that does is that formulates a calorie target of something like 1,000 to 1,200 calories, which, yes, it's a calorie deficit, but it's quite extreme and unsustainable. You'll be very hungry and it'll be difficult to adhere to it. And the most important thing about fat loss isn't the calorie deficit. It's actually adhering to the calorie deficit over a period of time. So those are probably the two main things that I would say that are very basic for people to understand.