I’m totally honoured to have had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Emilia Thompson for my blog, her voice is a refreshing tonic out there in fitness land providing a no bullshit, evidence based approach to food and exercise; she’s someone I personally respect and feel aligned with. Emilia has some impressive credentials, she is a Registered Nutritionist, has a PhD in Exercise Physiology and previously competed in Bikini (she quit in 2017 after winning BodyPower and coming second place at PCA British Finals). Emilia now works predominantly with individuals aiming to improve their relationships with food, through a focus on nutrition education, mindfulness and self-compassion. She’s also an Educator in Sports Nutrition and lectures at a number of universities and delivers education courses to Personal Trainers. Beyond that, she’s authentic and no nonsense, often controversial and challenges people to shift perspectives in a powerful and positive way. I picked her brains on hormones, body image, fat loss, maintaining, bulking and more! Dive in…

Let’s imagine you have the opportunity to speak to the whole world about nutrition - and that they’d listen - what three things would you say? 

Respect your health and your body and your nutrition will be a much simpler concept to navigate. Know that you are worth taking care of (if you don’t feel that, then practice self-compassion, gratitude and inner work to improve your self worth).

Stop demonising particular foods and associating guilt to them (something we call food neutrality). This only makes healthful nutrition more difficult by exacerbating disordered eating habits.

Stop listening to reality stars, the media, fad dieters and unqualified individuals. Seek out qualified, experienced nutritionists and dietitians for advice and support.

Body image is such a hot topic right now, the body positivity movement is huge, there seems to be a conflict with that and diet culture. How do you navigate that as a person who straddles both worlds? 

Firstly, the body positivity movement is really positive. More-so, the body neutrality movement, recognising that our bodies are so much more than how they look. As with any social movement, there are extremists which contort the message and can lead to exclusion at other extremes. These are the detrimental messages, on both sides of the spectrum.

There’s a lot of cherry-picked data in the anti-diet movement, claiming that all diets fail for example. Yes, after about 5 years the average weight loss with dieting is about 3% of initial body weight (Anderson, 2011)). But who says dieting always has an outcome of maintaining? And this rate is actually higher when diets are well supported and exercise is included. These are examples of the pieces of information that are forgotten in the anti diet message.

Some people need to lose body fat as part of an overall improvement in health, it just shouldn’t be the sole focus. It is ok to want to change your appearance too, and that shouldn’t be shameful. That being said, diet culture does have some really negative messaging, equating thinness to success is unbelievably detrimental.

Social media rarely makes space for nuance, so I aim to present both sides as fairly as possible with the available evidence. Whilst working with clients, I adopt elements from all sides to promote a compassionate message of self love, whilst supporting change from a place of love, be that dieting or otherwise, as I strongly believe there is space for it all.

Stop listening to reality stars, the media, fad dieters and unqualified individuals. Seek out qualified, experienced nutritionists and dietitians for advice and support.

Lots of women I meet say "weight loss is the easy part, it’s maintaining it that’s an issue." What advice would you give to those women? 

Often those who say this have followed a super-restrictive extreme diet, such that when they ‘finish’, they have demonised foods and can no longer live ‘normally’ without fear of gaining weight or around certain foods. Firstly, adopt a diet that is inclusive of your lifestyle and of foods you enjoy, without cutting anything out completely. A moderate calorie deficit is what you need, not zero carbs, zero sugar, zero life. Secondly, practice being mindful with food. Slow down, eat without distraction, notice tastes and textures. You deserve to enjoy food, whatever it is. This will help you notice changes in hunger and fullness and to honour these. Thirdly, instead of focusing solely on scale weight as an outcome, use process-based goals to build habits e.g. gym three times per week, walking to work, protein at each meal. It’s a lot easier to focus on maintaining these as opposed to a specific scale weight (which has its pitfalls as an outcome measure in itself).

What are your 3 top tips for fat loss?

Calorie deficit – fundamental concept of fat loss.
A moderate deficit (through cardio and diet) is sufficient. 
Avoid total exclusion of foods – this isn’t sustainable and disrupts your relationship with food.

Whilst working with clients, I adopt elements from all sides to promote a compassionate message of self love, whilst supporting change from a place of love, be that dieting or otherwise, as I strongly believe there is space for it all.

Is bulking up the only way to build significant muscle? 

You don’t have to ‘bulk up’ to build muscle. But it is ideal for muscle building to be in a slight calorie surplus (a couple of hundred calories is fine). It is more difficult to build muscle in a deficit (although it can be done if you programme nutrition and training meticulously). Remember, building muscle even in a surplus is really slow, adding a deficit just makes it a lot harder and lot slower. That being said, if you’re new to lifting, you’ll find you can build muscle more easily than experienced lifters in a deficit. Often those who try to build muscle without sufficient calories find themselves stuck in a cycle of not seeing progress and feeling frustrated, then giving up and/or thinking they must diet to see change. Usually, it’s the opposite and they need consistency in a slight surplus.

What to do in a fat loss stall? 

Take a diet break, be that for 2 consecutive days, weeks or months. There’s evidence that suggests that people have greater fat loss success with programmed diet breaks. Bring your calories up to your current maintenance. This will help negate some of the negative adaptions with prolonged dieting (reduced daily movement, increased hunger hormones), provide more energy for training and daily life and potentially reduce some stress.

Also just be sure you are still tracking calories correctly and aren’t having those additional bites, licks and taste. We know from evidence that peoples’ adherence to dieting reduces over diet duration, such that we often eat more than we realise in later diet phases, even if we think we are tracking accurately. 

And lastly, if luteal phase is really overpowering and train wrecks progress, what would you do in that instance? 

In my opinion, the impact of the luteal phase on training is currently overstated as another way for people to over-complicate (and sell) their message in the fitness industry. I actually think this in itself can be detrimental, as it encourages some women to feel that they ‘should’ have less energy, which can impact training intensity and motivation in itself.

However, a lot of women may find that they feel slightly weaker, more fatigued and hungrier during this time (BMR can be increased by 100-200 kcal for the week pre-menstruation). For those who do notice it, autoregulating deloads in training can be helpful, such that deload weeks of reduced training volume are taken in the week prior to menstruation. Also, increasing calories to maintenance (if in a fat loss phase) can reduce hunger and promote recovery.

You can follow Emilia on Instagram @emiliathompsonphd and find her at www.emilia.fitness