‘How I developed The Bigger Body Method to help women lose weight after slimming clubs failed’
After struggling for years with her own weight, personal trainer Gemma Rix realised that slimming clubs were not helping her to lose weight - instead they were making her feel worse because she couldn’t stick to her diets.
She set off to find out what would work for women who have more than just a few pounds to lose. And she created an emotional and nutritional support programme that helped her lose 20kg, which she is now teaching to the women she coaches in and around the Cambridge region. Here she shares the methods she uses to help women regain their health when they have tried everything else.
Why did you devise the Bigger Body Method?
I wanted to make something that is specific for women in bigger bodies who want to lose weight. And I show them a way that actually does work and isn't going to damage of their relationship with food and create further mental health issues.
How does it work?
I build personalised nutritional and fitness recommendations that are specifically tailored to a bigger body. To lose weight we need to create a calorie deficit. But what does that look like if we're in a bigger body? We can’t just assume that everyone has the same like nutritional needs, because a lot of programmes and a lot of personal trainers decide that everyone needs to be eating 1,500 calories to lose weight. If you're in a bigger body, you need a higher calorie allowance just to stay alive.
So by just eating 1,500 calories if you're creating a deficit that is absolutely massive, you can't stick to it. It's impossible, which leads to restriction, failing, and also just really a negative relationship with food. It can lead to weird choices of food when you are trying to stick to a rigid programme. But when we reframe it to suit your body, you can have loads of really delicious food and still lose weight. You don’t have to eat tiny portions all the time.
How did you notice that normal diets and diet clubs weren't working for women with bigger bodies?
Working with my personal training clients, I hear their stories around things like slimming clubs and online programmes that leave them to feel like they have to eat as little as possible to be successful, but then being miserable. I had one lady who thought she couldn't possibly have bagels ever, because that's what this diet has told her. I heard lots of weird nutrition rules from people that they had learned on these diets. I saw these maladaptive and unhelpful strategies that people have been using for so many years. They have been fighting and failing to lose weight for so many years because it doesn't work and feeling frustrated.
Where have these slimming club diets gone wrong?
For instance, one slimming club allows you to eat unlimited pasta. But if you look at how calories work and how an energy balance works, which is essentially how you fuel your body, and if you want to create fat loss, then that doesn't actually make sense. Pasta has energy to it, so if you have this unlimited pasta, it doesn't really work.
Also, none of the diets and approaches really tackle the issues that quite often are holding people back. Nutritional understanding is only one part of it. But what about when you're having a bad day and you want to faceplant an entire Caterpillar cake? I’m not going to lie, I have done that. It's all well and good if you can stick to a diet plan, chances are it will probably work. But if you're having a rough time or there's emotional eating or secret eating and binge eating, you need to learn how to develop the skills to deal with that.
How would you work on someone's emotional eating?
I look at strategies that allow you to put a pause in place. So rather than acting on impulse, you have time to use my PET strategy - that is pause, emotion and tool. Essentially, you're using food as a tool to deal with emotion. Some people use alcohol, some people use smoking. Some people use fitness. And for a lot of people, it is food. I help you develop tools you can choose instead of food. It might be emotional regulation through journaling, or you might need to go and sit and chill with a cup of tea and read. You might need to be creative. We build on that, instead of relying on willpower to force yourself to stick to a diet.
Have you tried this method yourself?
Yes, that was when things changed for me. I realised my diet was pretty good, apart from every time I have a mental health wobble or an emotional day, or I was tired. So it kind of was on my mind for quite some time. I asked for support from the GP multiple times. I asked for support from my psychiatrist, who was dealing with my mental health stuff. Quite a few times, I spoke to personal trainers.
I went to a nutritionist, and the response that generally I got was ‘You need to have more willpower’. Now, my willpower isn't a problem. If I think something's important, I am feisty as hell and will fight my way through it to make it happen. But willpower wasn't enough in this situation, and it wasn't working. And then I realised, if I don't have the willpower for this thing, how do you develop it? What skills do I need? And I started really exploring what that could look like. There is a big waiting list for help on the NHS, but there are books out there that teach the people who support those with a binge-eating disorder, and I looked at what therapists read and what they teach. So I taught those to myself.
What strategies did you learn? And what kind of things can you do to prevent binge eating?
It’s important to set your diet up in the right way. If you're not having breakfast, for example, and you're going hours and hours without food, you just get really, really hungry. Is it any wonder that you're so hungry you can inhale anything, and probably will eat loads of stuff? You have to plan ahead and make sure you are eating something every couple of hours with enough protein, fibre, fruit and veg to feel full. And you need to make it interesting and colourful, including some of the fun foods.
I make sure that every day I have a treat like biscuits, or chocolate or a nice coffee. Because if you try and cut that out completely, it's like a tug of war in your mind. All you can think about is that thing you can't have. So it's better to have it in and plan it in and so you're in control of it.
How do you plan for difficult days?
With clients, I identify their challenge points and when they are likely to mess up. And then I make a plan to tackle it. For me, I'm tired after work. I'm a bit overstimulated and need to eat something because I'm hungry, and I'm in danger of overeating. Before, I would just end up in the chocolate aisle of the surpermarket, and I wouldn't just get one thing - it would be bars and bars of chocolate and a multipack of cakes. And before I get home, the majority of it would be gone.
I changed that by deciding before I went in what I was going to get. I would set a timer, and race the timer to get what I needed without going down the chocolate aisle. Also, I recognise that I am hungry and I do need something. So the rule was, I'm going to get a pack of strawberries and have that on the way home. I help people make their own personal plans ahead of time like this. This is treating yourself with self compassion and understanding.
I also got a coach myself after quite a while, because it is easier when you've got someone challenging you and pushing you in a way that you won't push yourself.
Do calories matter?
Yes, but diet culture says you should eat as little as you can, to be as small as you can and make progress as quick as you can. And actually, if you are in a much bigger body, it takes a really long time to lose all the weight. And it's better that it takes a long time than it being a quick weight loss that you can’t sustain. One of the huge pressures at slimming clubs is you have to get weighed and stand in front of people and either be celebrated or asked what went wrong, depending whether you have lost weight or not.
It doesn’t take into account whether you are retaining water, or had more carbs in your meal last night. Every 100 grams of carbs you consume, your body will retain 300 to 400 grams of additional water and yet your self worth is dependent on that number on the scale. Why should your value be determined like that? You might have a massive win and not binge eat this week, but still put on a pound.
What was the most important turning point for you?
The real difference came with removing the shame around food and just normalising the conversation around the struggles without it being something you need to hide forever more. I create safe spaces for my clients to do that.
Do you have practical tips on how much to eat?
You have to create a calorie deficit, working out your total daily energy expenditure (websites can help with this) and then reducing your calories by a manageable level. Have a go and reduce it a bit more if you are not losing weight. I do still use the My Fitness Pal app to count my calories, but you can learn to estimate portion sizes. I use it as a planning tool, so once a week I will plan my meals ahead and the calories in them. I want my dinner to be roughly 500 calories to fit with my day. And once I have planned those dinners I can keep using them and don’t have to count the calories again. The more predictability you can build in, the easier that is.
You need a decent amount of protein, lots of fruit and veg, a little bit of carbs. And mindful eating, sitting with the TV off and having lots of quiet and peace and sitting down to eat dinner, is important. But it's about figuring out what works. If you need your lunch in your car and need to have picky bits to go and eat while you're driving, we need to figure that out and not say ‘You have to eat in this perfect way or have nothing’.
How do you work with clients?
They have access to me whenever they need it. I always think, if you're having a struggle, why are we waiting a whole week to deal with it? Let's just sort it out. But they do a weekly check-in, which is like an online form with a set of guided prompt questions that encourage them to reflect on what's gone well in the week, what the challenges were. And then we start action planning off the back of that, and then the next day, they'll get a response from me with some advice and feedback on what they could try. I ask questions to get them thinking deeper and making their own decisions and unpicking what it is that's causing the challenge. And then once a month they get a coaching call. So it's in depth, half hour, usually over Zoom, where we unpick and move forward on any repeated issues that keep coming up, which may be a meal-planning challenge or coping with situations without emotional eating.
Follow Gemma on Instagram @thebiggerbodymethod.
