How to lose weight without dieting – it’s very easy

Graeme Tomlinson, AKA the Fitness Chef, is a man on a mission.

He wants people to ditch fad diets and insists they can still lose weight while eating pizza, chocolate and indeed, any of their favourite foods.

The 31-year-old from Aberdeen has hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram thanks to his no-nonsense approach to food and losing weight.

And nothing annoys Graeme more than the diet industry over-complicating how people can shed the pounds.

He said: "I wanted to break it down so people can understand it.

"There is so much rubbish out there and I wanted to tell them that there's only one way you can lose weight and that's with a calorie deficit.

"People feel deprived and that's when they give up and start to binge - but you don't need to feel deprived."

The formula, Graeme insists, is simple - to lose weight all you need to do is consume fewer calories than you use.

And it doesn't matter where you get those calories from.

Forget superfoods, you can have that biscuit or slice of cake if you want to.

Worried about going out for pizza? Don't be, just eat fewer calories the day before and the day after. 

The key thing is making sure you're aware of how many calories there are in the food your consuming.

The former professional cricketer admits this can be tricky at first as some so-called 'health foods' are actually laden with calories.

And simple treats, like your morning coffee and slice of brownie, can soon add up. 

But Graeme says as soon as people start to make themselves aware of how many calories are in most of their food, it becomes easy very quickly.

He explained: "The best diet for people to follow is the one they can stick to.

"People need to be more aware of the nutritional aspect of the food they are eating.

"It does time initially to work out how many calories are in what you are eating but eventually it will come naturally and you'll be able to tell just by looking."

But the social media star's biggest issue is with the diet industry itself.

Graeme, who started out as a personal trainer before branching out to advise people on Instagram, says the principles behind the best-known diet companies is cutting calories but it becomes too hard for people to understand.

He said: "Slimming World is based around the idea of a calorie deficit but it's based around the model that people don't know what they don't know.

"They create an environment where food is a syn, or there are free foods and it creates a bad relationship with food.

"WW follows a similar system. The points system creates a calories deficit and people lose weight but they don't understand why."

It was the glut of companies selling diet products on social media that prompted Graeme to launch his own page.

His inspirational posts cover everything from how many calories are in your favourite fast foods, to coffees to so-called super foods.

Chocolate, ice-cream and biscuits aren't off limits, as long as you know what's in them.

He said: "People start looking at eating chocolate as bad but if they know it's 250 calories and they know what their calorie allowance is for that day and they know it's not great nutrition, they can eat something more nutritious later in the day."

And what are his top tips for losing weight, aside of making sure you're using more calories than you're eating?

While Graeme won't classify any food as bad he does admit that protein rich foods will fill you up for longer and make you less likely to over eat.

And making sure you move enough to burn off some of what you're putting in your body.

Greame said: "Exercise and any movement is key but that doesn't mean you have to join a gym or get a personal trainer.

"Walking 10,000 steps a day is a great way to burn calories and you also burn calories just by breathing a talking and sleeping - everything you do requires energy."