How do you feel about celebrities using social media to provide diet and weight loss advice to followers?
In reality how individuals are looking and portraying themselves on social media is not a true reflection of their lives. Due to their fast paced lifestyle, celebs do have chefs, nutritionists, personal trainers, clinicians and surgeons, who help them to get into shape and look good. This makes them ideal influencers for endorsing health advice or products to their followers. Moreover many celebs are sponsored by brands to endorse a diet product.
Unless a celebrity has studied intensively in nutrition and the structure of the human body and how it works then they should NOT be administering health advice to followers. They can share what they have been following themselves with the results but there should be a disclaimer attached as what works for them is not a one size fits all approach. To keep in shape and healthy requires daily commitment and effort as there is no magic pill for weight loss.
What is your opinion on fad diets, which often claim to deliver quick weight loss results but are not always backed by significant research?
A fad diet is typically a low calorie diet with specific foods or an unusual combination of foods. They promise fast results, often without any scientific basis. Three examples of fad diets are: the cabbage soup diet, which involves eating large amounts of cabbage soup over seven days, the lemon juice diet, which involves eating no food and only drinking lemon tea or lemonade made from lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper and slim-fast liquid diets. Do they work? The simple answer is no! These fad diets involve eliminating whole food groups, which starves your body of important nutrients. They can generally provide short-term weight loss results, but are not sustainable in the long-term and can lead to weight gain after the diet is finished. This is because weight loss is related to metabolism which is influenced by the way the hormones are working optimally in the body. Futhermore we have been given teeth for a purpose to bite and chew food, if we don’t use our teeth they weaken. Also headaches, weakness, fatigue and digestive distress can be experienced during these diets and this means that an individual may skip exercise, which is important for weight loss.
What advice would you give to someone looking to lose weight in 2020?
Do not forget the importance of regular structured exercise, which is paramount for fat loss and building muscle density to shape up the body. Regardless of what diet anyone is following, the most effective way to boost metabolism and drop the fat weight is by moving that body of yours J. Weight bearing exercises strengthens the bones and improves posture. Lifting weights, using weights in body conditioning classes cycling, swimming, dancing, bouldering, racket sports, martial arts, anything that you can commit to regularly.
In terms of diet advice, I would say hydrate well and eat healthy balanced meals only when you are hungry. It is easy to snack throughout the day but is better to leave gaps 3-4 hours in between meals to allow for better insulin function. And yo -yoing blood sugar levels has been shown to lead to weight around the middle and type 2 diabetes. Cutting back on refined sugary snacks and drinks is important if you want to lower appetite and lose the weight around the middle. My observations also show that a high fibre diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables and wholesome carbs does support weight loss and better gut health. And we know now that our gut bacteria plays a major role in how we digest foods influencing our overall health.
