Tired of trying all these fad diets? Counting calories, points, cabbage soup etc. Sick of losing a couple of pounds one week then gaining the next?
Marvyn Bailey has some ideas – but they might not be what you think.
Owner of Marvyn Bailey Personal Training, paleo Nutrition writer and nutritionist says it’s his goal in life to fight the obesity epidemic and educate people on better nutrition, and with 25% of people in the UK classed as obese, he is determined to help us make the changes that will count for a better tomorrow for all of us.
The Paleo Lifestyle has successes to show that his ideas are sound, and he’s writing this article here to bust the myths that could be standing between you right now and the best version of you yet.
His no-nonsense approach to healthy living will definitely get you thinking about your new year regime. By Following Marvyn’s way of eating you may be surprised at the foods you can eat and he promises that those of us in search of a fitter, happier 2023 will try this and not look back!!!
“If you start this January going on yet another calorie-controlled diet, you will lose weight in the short term, but you will put it back on in the long term and end up fatter than you were before,” he says.
But if it sounds like dietary tough love, rest assured that he’s keen on all of us making the best choices we can for a healthy future.
“If you really want to do something different, then make a commitment to real food.
“Most of my clients follow my nutrition advice because they want to lose weight and then they stick with it because they feel so good.
“If you go on yet another calorie-controlled diet, the same thing will happen as has happened before.
“Everything goes wrong metabolically when you cut back on calories. You basically reset your body to needing less energy, so you constantly have to try and eat less and less to stay the same weight and your body just will not tolerate hunger.”
When it comes to being good to yourself, Marvyn is adamant – ditching the ‘processed foods’ that so many of us rely on and getting back to basics is the way forward.
“We’re shown the Eat Well Plate, or as I call it, the ‘eat badly plate’. We are told to follow this through the government’s healthy eating advice. It’s got cornflakes, white bagels, Coca Cola, chocolate, Victoria sponge, battenburg cake – you would not believe it, that is the role model plate for healthy eating.
“Some dieticians are running round telling people to have sugary cereal for breakfast.
“They’re happy with people having white pasta, white bagels. They’re telling people to base their meals on starchy food and that’s why we’re fat and sick.
Processed foods are a massive part of the modern diet, but that’s where we’re going wrong, says Marvyn.
“You would think it would be common sense that we should eat stuff that comes from the ground not from factories – but that is not universally agreed upon.
“I have researched the reasons why we are being sold this is the way we should be eating and I have come to the conclusion that the government and pharmaceuticals don’t want healthy thriving people who live into their 100’s with no health problems.
The pharmaceutical companies want sick people to sell their drugs to and the government don’t want people claiming pensions for 40 years after they have retired and another reason is the government earn millions and millions of pounds every year from unclaimed estates, if people live longer there will be less money left for them.
“For me, there should be no debate.
“If you could eat meat, poultry, fish, eggs, veg, fruit and seeds every day, that’s ideal.
“People think vitamins grow on trees, but you’ve really got to work quite hard to get all the stuff you need.”
The idea of a lower-carb diet is not a new one, but it’s what forms the central tenet of Marvyn’s healthy eating plan.
“When you look at the nutritional content of any animal & plant food, it just smashes any carbohydrate into the ground.
“These people saying we should eat bread should put their table of vitamins and minerals in bread up against my table of vitamins and minerals in liver, mackerel, eggs, steak or pork or any of them.
“There’s no contest.
“Why are you telling me to eat potatoes, bread and pasta when there are no nutrients in these things?
“It’s because you have an irrational fear of fat. Take that away and your whole pyramid crumbles down.”
Marvyn points out that the body needs fat and protein for energy, and that too much carbohydrate actually ends up being stored as fat – but he says that government guidelines are contributing to the misinformation.
“The Government tells us to have at least 1,100 of our 2,000 calories in the form of carbohydrates, that’s 55%.
“The body says, ‘600 calories of those I didn’t need, I needed them in the form of fat and protein, so I’m going to have to store those as fat and I can’t use them’.
“You could actually eat 1,200 calories a day, way less than you need, and you might think you’ll be losing weight like a good ’un, but the body might say, ‘You’ve eaten things that I can’t use and didn’t need’, which is why as a nation we’re not only getting fat, we’re getting sick.”
Another misconception held by the wider public is that hours of exercise is a centre point of weightloss, says Marvyn.
In fact, you may want to hold fire on spending hours and hours in that gym, if you’re keen to shed those love handles, because it’s a myth which he is keen to debunk.
“What I always say to people is, exercise is a great thing to do for every reason.
“So exercise because it’s good for your heart, it’s good for your mind, it’s good for your limbs, your bones, your muscles, your wellbeing and your mood.
Marvyn recommends to spending no more than 45 minutes exercising per day a maximum of 5 days per week, the sessions should be intense with a mixture of high intensity interval training, core strength and functional resistance work.
“scientific research tells us that too much exercise raises your Cortisol Hormone (stress level) and this will result in your brain telling your body to store fat, FACT, so when you see that person in the gym every day for hours and hours a day 6/7 days a week but they never seem to look any different the reason is they are doing too much!!!
“If you try to do more, your body is going to try and get you to eat more.
If you do nothing else for a happy healthy body, Marvyn says do one thing: quit sugar.
“When you quit, you’ll go through withdrawal for a few days – sugar hangover headaches, insulin cravings and all that kind of thing, but they will go in five days and they’ll be back feeling clean and clearheaded and not craving it, with stable blood sugar.
“People who do this can drop pounds in a really short period of time.
“Within five days we’ve had people drop easily 7lb.
“White flour and white sugar make you hold water – you drop 5lb in the first couple of days just with the body dumping the glucose stores, which is what it needs to do if you’re ever going to lose bodyweight.
“If you’ve got glucose anywhere, the body is just going to use that for fuel. Why would it have to break down body fat if you’ve got glucose available?”
Above all, Marvyn is keen for us to ‘stop kidding ourselves’, because then, and only then, will we be able to turn our backs on obesity in 2017 and the years ahead.
“Weight loss is about what you put in your mouth.
“It’s not about how long you do on the treadmill.
“I teach you about eating real food and doing natural activity, to use your bodies in the way in which we’ve evolved to use them.
“You can’t eat junk and get away with it. You can’t have a biscuit, because if you have one, you’ll want another one and you cannot exercise away a bad diet, you just can’t do it.”
Marvyn’s five golden rules for fat loss
1. Eat real food! Oranges grow on trees; cartons of orange juice don’t. Fish swim in the sea; fish fingers don’t. Cow graze in the field; Peperami sticks don’t. That’s the idea.
2. Eat three times a day. Snack on good fats & protein, nuts, boiled eggs and meat. We need to give our bodies time to burn fat and we can’t do that if we’re refuelling all day long.
3. Manage your carbohydrate intake – even what you think of as ‘good’ carbs. To the body, all carbs are, or break down into, sugar. Have non-starchy vegetables/salads at any meal. Limit fruit and starches (sweet potato) to one of the three meals. Fruit is sugar (fructose/glucose); starchy foods are sugar (glucose). If your body has glucose available for fuel it has no need to burn body fat. That’s the golden rule of weight loss – it’s not about calories.
4. Don’t count calories. Let’s say an average woman needs 2,000 calories – approximately 1,500 of those are for what we call basic metabolic needs. If you have flu and are lying in bed all day, your body still needs to fight infection and pump your heart and repair all your cells, and only fat and protein can do that. So you actually need to eat 1,500 calories a day of fat and protein just to do what your body needs to do.
5. Don’t get hung up on five a day. Five a day isn’t evidence-based. It was developed in 1991 by a meeting of fruit and veg producers in California, so it was basically an industry body that got together to make more money!!!