Ep 20 🌈 We Hate The 1200 Calorie Diet

Hello and welcome to episode

20 of The Outlifting Lounge.

This is the show all about

pride, fitness, and everything in between.

I'm Alan.

And I'm Derec.

In today's show, we will be having a little

bit of a moan about something the BBC has

done quite badly this week, but we will praise

something they have done really well as well.

We will also be calling out

some absolute bull**** from Pink News.

And in the fitness section of the show later

on, we will be discussing why a severe calorie

deficit is never the way to go.

Stay tuned.

Let's get started.

So before we begin, Alan, we really should apologise

again for the fact that there was no show

last week, and I will let you do the

apologies because it was your fault.

It was my fault.

Unfortunately, I had man flu.

It was a rough week.

It was a rough week for me.

You were very good at looking after me.

We almost got a bell in so I could just

like ring the bell for you to bring me stuff.

But you did really well.

Luckily, we didn't have our dog Haggis because

my dad's over visiting and he has been

spending all his time with my dad.

So there was a little bit

of pressure off that way.

But he did really well looking after me.

It's like you're my husband or something.

Yeah, I was like Florence Nightingale.

But a wee bit sexier.

Thanks.

We should also point out that anybody

who is watching will see straight away

that we have got new microphones.

New appendages.

And hopefully anybody who's listening in can

hear the difference this week because these

microphones should hopefully be a little better.

Yeah, I mean, it only took us five days

to set them up and get them working.

So hopefully this is going to go all okay.

Yeah, this could actually be a catastrophe

in the making, but hopefully not.

Fingers crossed.

We will see how this turns out.

I'm scared to move in case I hit it.

I'm like, I'm so rigid right now.

I know.

And not in a good way.

Not in the way I like.

Yeah, so new mics, new man.

Let's go.

Let's do it.

So before we go into the fitness section, we

want to touch on a little bit of pop

culture and some LGBT news very quickly.

And the pop culture news we wanted to

talk about this week is the BBC.

The British Broadcasting Corporation?

Is there any other BBC?

No comment...

Yes, the British Broadcasting

Corporation, of course.

Okay, yeah, we're loving them and we're disappointed

in them, both in the same week.

Yeah, the BBC is in our good

books and our bad books this week.

Let's start off with the bad.

Okay, so they have cancelled I Kissed A Boy

and I Kissed A Girl, the only LGBTQIA+

dating show that's on TV at the moment.

And their excuse for it is funding... Okay!

Yeah, but they can afford to pay their

big stars, multi-million pound deals, but they can't

find funding for something that's actually really needed.

Yeah, exactly.

It's a load of rubbish

and it's really, really disappointing.

There's so many straight dating shows, Love

Island, MAFS, Love is Blind, all that

crap, although we do watch MAFS.

And they have gay couples on the show,

but I feel like it's more of a token.

Oh, totally.

You know, so yeah, it's very

annoying that it's been cancelled.

Yeah, so BBC needs to get their act together.

It is really super disappointing

that this has happened.

It's more, it's about representation as well.

You know, when we were growing up, we didn't

have an awful lot of queer TV to watch.

We had Queer As Folk, which was a

revelation for us, but there wasn't a lot.

And it's brilliant that shows like I Kissed A

Boy and I Kissed A Girl came along.

Are there issues with the show that need tweaked?

Possibly.

I mean, the last season maybe could have had

a little more diversity in the casting, but that

is no reason to cancel it whatsoever.

And to cancel it on funding rounds for

the BBC is just really crass as well,

because they should be there for absolutely everybody

and everybody should be represented and have shows.

Yeah, they're basically just saying that, oh,

you're not worth the funding that we

want to give you for this.

Right. Yeah, it's really, really bad.

But what have the BBC done quite well

this week from an LGBT point of view?

Well, Drag Race, they had the Olymp...

Oh, I don't like talking about Drag Race.

No, you don't.

I love it.

It's been a couple of weeks, so I

guess we better talk about it again.

Drag Race had the makeover.

Spoiler alerts, by the way.

Drag Race had the makeover challenge this

week on UK Versus The World, and

they had the UK Olympians on.

And some of them were straight, and some

of them were part of our rainbow family.

Yes.

So let's start off with the rainbow family.

So there was Shanaze, the BMXer, who had a

really, really amazing story and an amazing background.

So she was competing at the

highest level possible, an Olympian level.

She had an injury, she couldn't do it anymore, and

then she became an alcoholic because of that, because she

just didn't have any purpose in her life.

It was suddenly taken away from her.

Yeah, she was very open about it when

she was asked, oh, what did you do

after you stopped, you know, competing?

And she just said, I became an alcoholic.

Yeah.

She was so open about it.

And I can understand why that could potentially

happen, because your focus is so much on

your sport and what you're doing.

And then all of a sudden

that's taken away from you.

It's pretty amazing.

She is a phenomenal role model because of that.

It's so good that she has turned that

into her strength and her power moving forward.

And she uses her platform now to

talk to people and to help them.

Because that's essentially using that show for

that purpose is going to help at

least one person out there.

Hopefully many, many more.

Yeah. But yeah, it's so easy to do that.

When people feel that their sense of purpose has been

taken away from them, you know, it's so easy to

fall into a pit of despair and to turn to

substances, whether it be alcohol or something else.

So, yeah, I thought that was really amazing

that she was there spreading that message.

Yes. And of course, there's Dan Jarvis.

He was very open about his coming out story.

He's a devout Christian.

And he was really open about

how welcoming his church was.

And he grew up in a

really, really small Welsh town.

So it was nice to see and hear about his story.

Yeah, no, it really, really was.

And again, that will really help somebody out

there, hopefully quite a lot of people.

Because there was a lot of people in that

situation where they are in a very Christian background.

Some people like Dan were fortunate that

they were accepted and they had support.

Other people not so much, because you

hear these horror stories about conversion therapy.

And a lot of that

comes from a religious background.

So yeah, really super important to have him on TV

as well as a super positive role model for people.

It just, like, I love the makeover challenge

in Drag Race anyway, but that made it

so much more special, I think.

Yep, it was a really great episode.

And of course, Greg Rutherford was on it as well.

And he's such a big ally,

I actually thought he was gay.

You were like, no, he's not.

I'm like, I'm sure he is.

He's done loads of different stuff in the

past, like covers of Attitude magazine, for example.

But it turns out he's just a really,

really nice guy and a great ally.

He is another in the vein

of Ben Cohen and Joe Marler.

Just these super confident guys who are

really comfortable with their own sexuality.

There is no toxic masculinity about them.

And they're just, they're just amazing guys.

They really are.

And they have no qualms about going and getting

dressed up in drag and walking about in heels.

They don't care what anybody thinks of

them because they don't need to.

They've got the confidence.

They know who they are.

They're comfortable in their own skin.

It's amazing.

Yeah. And he looked good in drag as well.

Just like Joe Marler.

Yeah, but they've done so well.

I think, I think part of the reason

that he looks so good in drag is

because of that confidence that shines through.

There was no holding back for him.

You know, he was out there and he didn't care.

We love that.

We love a strong, positive, straight ally.

Absolutely.

It was a really good episode.

So if you haven't watched it

yet, definitely go and watch it.

Yeah.

And I'm going to say something that

you're going to be happy about.

There's no more Drag Race.

That's enough Drag Race for now.

Let's move on to the news section.

Yay.

So the news story that we wanted to talk about

this week is something that appeared in Pink News.

So that's LGBTQIA+ press, supposedly.

And I think the headline was, Reform

UK are the most supported party among

gay and bi men, new poll shows.

And we wanted to include this because

we want to hit the bull**** button.

It's not true.

Yeah, absolute bull****.

So they had a survey among straight, bi

and LGBTQ+ men and women actually.

And the sample size that they used within the

survey for our community was about 300, which is

just not a big enough sample size.

No. A sample size of anything lower than

a thousand people is not representative.

You can't use that data.

It's absolute trash.

What this boils down to, when you see this

headline that it's like Reform UK are supposedly the

most supported party, what that boils down to is

60 people told them, 60 gay or bi men

told them that they would consider voting Reform.

That is not representative of the UK population.

That is something that you would

probably hear on Family Fortunes.

Our survey said...

Sixty!

You know, it's crap.

It's absolute trash.

It's a load of rubbish.

And especially with all the stuff that Reform have

been coming out with recently about they would get

rid of the Equality Act, you know, like, I

would hope that our community can see through all

the crap that they talk about and, you know,

give them an absolute wide berth.

But polls like this and Pink News,

who should know better, should not be

putting this information out there.

Shame on the BBC for cancelling I Kissed

A Boy / Girl and shame on Pink

News for posting this absolute nonsense without doing

even the slightest bit of fact checking whatsoever.

It is absolute nonsense.

And to, you know, as you said, you've

touched on the stuff that Reform have done.

It's not that long ago, and we're

talking months, since Nigel Farage said that

children should be brought up in a

household with a mother and a father.

Like, we're paying attention, or

we should be paying attention.

Reform are not our friends.

No.

And they will pretend to be.

And then as soon as they get a whiff of

power, they will do everything that Trump is doing.

So, same-sex marriage will come under threat.

Trans rights will massively come

even under more threat.

They are not our friends.

Stay away, is what we would say.

Do not vote for them.

If you are considering voting for them, give

your head a wobble, do some research, please.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So, yeah, have we talked enough?

Have we ranted enough?

Can we move on to the fitness section?

I think so, yeah.

Let's do the fitness.

Welcome to the fitness section of the show.

I have got my iPad, so

that can only mean one thing.

I'm going to read something from

a Reddit that we found.

So, this is from r/beginnerfitness

which we absolutely love.

And the headline on this from the poster

is, is 1200 calories a day sustainable?

I can already see your face contorting.

Haud me back. Haud me back!

As we would say in Glasgow.

Yeah.

Which means hold me back.

Hold me back, which basically means I'm

just about to go off on one.

Yeah, you're going to do your Scrappy Doo.

Yeah. Let me at him.

So, I am quoting the poster here.

They say, listen, I'm a really

big guy, like heavily obese.

I want to change it.

I am 176cm and around 120kg.

I want to at least get down to

95kg by the end of the year.

Is this possible?

If I do three months of

1200 calories a day, then slowly increase, is

this something that is sustainable?

When you do the post-production on this and edit

it, are you going to have my face boiling

with like steam and coming out of my ears?

I think I've done that before

for something like a cartoon.

It should be easy enough to do.

So, I think I should qualify

this and explain a little bit.

The reason why you're getting so angry and worked

up about this is because this is a thing.

This 1200 calorie number has come from somewhere.

Somebody came up with this idea of a 1200

calorie diet and we have heard it from people

quite often when they have initial consultations with us

as online coaches, online fitness coaches.

And yeah, it's...

It grind your gears basically because

I think you've heard it so many times now.

I would love to bitch slap the person

that came up with this 1200 calories.

Absolutely.

So first of all, I want to say like well

done to this poster who has, you know, reached out.

They're at the start of their fitness

journey and they want to get good

advice at the start, which is amazing.

You know, they're not getting into

it like blind, which is brilliant.

And again, it highlights what we talk

about quite often as all that misinformation

that's out there around nutrition and exercise.

So for this particular person, 1200 calories.

I love the fact that you

took a really big inhale there.

You're like... so. So! This is how you

know that Alan's going to let rip now.

1200 calories for this particular person is

not going to be healthy and it's

not going to be sustainable.

They are definitely going to lose a ton of weight

very, very quickly if they go on that journey.

But the first thing that I think about

is that you're going to rebound really quickly.

Yeah, because if you, especially as this person,

they're bigger, they've got a bigger frame, their

basal metabolic rate is going to be higher.

So they're going to need more calories as a

baseline anyway, just to get them through the day.

Yeah, absolutely.

Their calorie needs are going to be a lot higher.

So for an example, I was, had the flu last week.

I was on my back for most of the week.

I know you were.

Again, not in a good way.

No. But according to my Apple Watch, I

burned about 2000 calories a day.

So your body needs a minimum amount of calories.

If you lie for 24 hours and do

nothing, your body needs a lot of calories

just to function, to breathe, for your brain,

for your blood to pump around your body.

So if you're going to be eating 1200

calories, and then you're going to introduce potentially

exercise to that as well, you're going to

be in a huge, huge deficit.

And that is going to have a

really negative impact on your health, your

hormones, and it's just not sustainable.

And I would say the big one as well

is you'll wreak havoc with your metabolism as well.

So when you do kind of come out of that,

it's going to lead to a binge at the end

probably, and because your metabolism is so wrecked, it means

there's a higher likelihood that you're going to pile the

weight on even faster coming out of that.

I mean, the poster was quite transparent, and

I think they're smart enough to know.

Their main question was, is this sustainable?

And to be fair, the people who have replied to

it by a very large margin have said, absolutely not.

It's not sustainable.

And a lot of the stuff that we're saying now

has been given as advice in that thread as well.

But yeah, this is like a warning from us.

It's like a (alarm noise).

If you have heard of this

1200 calorie diet, it is not a diet.

It's not something you want to do.

It's basically a starvation plan, and

it will wreck your body.

Absolutely.

Each person has different calorie needs.

Now, if you start something like this,

1200 calories, yeah, you will lose a

lot of weight really, really quickly.

However, it is not sustainable, like we've said.

So then once it stops being successful for

you, you're going to feel like you've failed.

So what you need to do is find something that's

going to work for you, going to work for your

body, and work for, you know, the exercise that you're

potentially going to be introducing to your regime

as well.

So we always say that a 20% calorie

deficit is a good place to be.

So that's usually, works out around

about 500 calories, usually a day.

That's the best kind of deficit to be in.

But what you need to do is work out

what your calorie needs are for your expenditure, and

then work out your deficit from there.

Yeah, and obviously what we're talking

about now specifically is for somebody

who wants to lose body fat.

So they would reduce their calorie intake.

Anybody that's perhaps on a cut or somebody

that is maybe just going through a lifestyle

change and wants to lose some weight.

It's difficult to know where to begin.

So I think the reason that we do stuff like

this, we do segments like this, and we talk about

these things, is because this is real world.

Anybody who's going through that lifestyle change might

go and try to find some information about

how to lose weight, what the best way

to lose weight is, and they might come

across some very toxic misinformation on the internet.

And hopefully listening to something like

this can help us dissuade you

from being convinced by that, basically.

It is not good advice that you've heard.

If you hear 1200 calories, as

we've said, warning signs, stay away.

And there, you've outlined a totally

healthy way to do it.

What I would say is, like, if anybody feels

like all of this is overwhelming, and they do

need a bit of help, reach out for help.

I mean, that could take many, many forms.

Obviously, we have a paid service.

We have quite a lot of clients

that we help with different fitness goals.

So, it could be something like that,

or it could be a different avenue.

It could be some other form of support

that you reach out for, or some information.

But, if you're getting your information from somewhere

that is giving you advice, such as 1200

calories, that is your red flag.

Leave that straight away, and head elsewhere.

Yeah, absolutely.

There's a lot of free

calorie calculators online as well.

So, even if you just want to start with

that, if you're a bit confused as to what

your expenditure is, and then what your deficit should

be, there's loads of calculators out there that will

work that out for you.

Yeah. And we can do that for you if

you want to reach out to us.

We can work out your calories.

Although we are a paid service, we're always willing

to give people a little steer in the right

direction, and give them some help, because we like

to help people, especially in the LGBT world.

That's because that's what

we're all about, basically.

That's why we do the podcast, essentially.

It's to help to reach out to people who

perhaps maybe aren't ready or don't have the resources

to join our service at the moment.

So we like to reach a wider audience as well.

Absolutely, yeah.

Yeah. So I think one piece of advice I would

give as well is if you are on a

weight loss journey or starting a weight loss journey,

just remember that it is not a sprint.

1200 calorie diet, quote unquote, might seem like a

good way to reach your target really fast, but

that's not what you want to do.

Again, the keyword here is sustainable.

Sustainability, this is for the long term.

This is a lifestyle change that you want

to make for the rest of your life.

It is a marathon, not a sprint.

Yeah, I absolutely agree with that, 100%.

The more you restrict something, the more you're going

to want it, which means that eating that amount

of calories will probably mean that you're going to

end up binging, and then again, you're going to

feel like a failure, but you haven't failed.

It's that diet, again, quote

unquote, that has failed you.

Absolutely.

Best advice we can give.

Anything else to say about this?

No, I think I've ranted enough.

What do you think?

And that's the tea.

All right, let's wrap up the show.

So, that's us for another show.

Just before we finish, I wanted

to touch on something I said.

So, obviously, Outlifting is a paid service.

We operate for gay, bi, and

trans guys who want to transform

their bodies while building unstoppable confidence.

We do that through online fitness coaching that

has lots of different products within it.

So, we're talking online

video check-ins every week.

We're talking about daily

accountability, coaching, conversations, messaging.

We've got recipes.

We've got nutrition support.

So much to our service to

help you succeed in your goals.

If it sounds like the kind of thing that

you might want to avail of, we do offer

a totally free, no-pressure discovery call where you can

come on a video chat, talk with either myself

or Alan, and discuss your goals, your needs.

We can tell you a little bit more about

how we might be able to help, and you

can figure out then if we are a good

fit for you before you would sign up.

So if you want that free discovery call, the

link is in the description or the show notes.

Just click on that, book in, and

we would love to meet you.

But The Outlifting Lounge is free every week,

so make sure that you are subscribed so

you don't miss out on the conversation.

You can find us on Apple

Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

But that's us for another week, we will

be back next Sunday with a brand new

show, but for now, over and Outlifting.