You might have heard the popular phrase that never trusts a skinny chef. Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay said, that popular phrase is BS. We too believe that it’s important for chefs to stay fit to do their job well. In this post, We are going to give you the main reasons why most chefs are fat.
The life of a chef on earth is Hard Work. most chefs work more than 70 hours work week and long shifts. There are many factors that make chefs fat including Snacking, Drinking, not getting enough sleep, fast foods, and many more.
In this post, we are going to explain how chefs get fat and give you tips to stay fit and healthy. Now let’s talk about the 5 major reasons why most chefs are fat.
5 top reasons why most chefs are fat and tips for you to stay fit
1. Stress:
As we’ve said that most professional chefs work more than 70 hours a week that too in long shifts. which leads to a very stressful life. Stress increases your cortisol levels which makes your body store more fats. We have also talked about it in our previous post Top 3 reasons why chefs die so young. it’s the number 1 reason that affects your health negatively.
We can’t get rid of the work that we have to do and the stress that comes with it. but we can do activities like exercises, meditation, and socializing to reduce our stress in a way that benefits us. Unlike drinking, smoking, and drugs that do provide temporary relief from stress. but they are dangerous to our well-being in the long run.
2. Snacking:
As chefs, we stay around the food all the time. plus we need to taste it throughout the day. that’s part of our job. that’s great for people like us who are passionate about food and in love with it. but that’s not good for our metabolic health. that can leads to type 2 diabetes.
our body gets its fuel from two sources: Glucose and ketone bodies. once we eat the food our body starts burning glucose and providing us with energy. once gulose storage is over our body starts burning fat to create ketone bodies for energy. while we’re eating all the time our body never gets to use fat for fuel and the fat storage in the body starts to increase.
Have you heard of people who have lost weight a large amount of weight by following what they call Intermittent Fasting? In intermittent fasting, people don’t eat for a certain time of the day. generally, they do not eat for 16 hours period and have their meals in the remaining 8 hours of the day.
The simple solution to stop this habit of snaking is to discipline yourself to eat only during your meal times. and spit the food out that you took in your mouth to taste. you’ll feel stability in your energy level during the day.
3. Drinking:
As we have said whether you gain weight or lose weight comes down to one thing. That is the amount of deficiency you create between the calories you consume and burn during the day. Here we are talking about sodas, alcohol, and energy drinks infused with caffeine and sugar.
caffeine might give you a temporary mood boost and increased focus for work. but when it comes to you along with excessive sugar it will backfire on you. temporary boost will come to an end with an energy crash. our body doesn’t react to liquid food and solid food in the same way. you get more hungry and reckless with the choice of food you consume.
A simple way to get rid of this problem is to set rules for yourself about your drinking habits. if you’re addicted to drinking sodas and alcohol. then we would recommend reading Allen carr’s books.
4. Not getting enough sleep:
most of us work more than 70 hours work week. bro, sleep is not a luxury but a necessity for us. most adults require 7 to 9 hours of sleep. our body needs to recover well to function optimally. In sleep, our body and mind get refreshed and healed. how do you feel after you wake up? how are your energy levels during the day?
you might be thinking that there is no way I can get those many hours of sleep. yes, you can’t even I can’t sleep that much daily. that’s where the power of taking naps comes to aid. when you learn to use polyphasically that is sleeping more than once a day. you can reduce your sleeping time drastically. check out the polyphasic.net website for guidance on how to adapt to the sleep schedule that fulfills your needs. I’m currently on everyman2. it’s going to be hard for the first week then it will feel like a superpower.
according to research, we sleep in 90 mins cycles. and the first 15-20 mins are the important part of our sleep. and when we take 20 mins nap regularly. we train our body to quickly get into a deep sleep and complete our required rem sleep.
here is a story about the hunter-gatherer tribe piraha who takes just naps throughout the day. it’s funny but they believe that by sleeping they lose some part of themselves.
5. Fast foods:
generally, chefs are not paid well. what chefs usually eat is what they have got from the restaurant they run. that’s how many survive with low wages. if you are wondering why are chefs paid read this post. plus we don’t have time to sit down and have a meal like normal people. that’s why we mostly eat fast foods day after day which is usually calorie-dense and nutrient-poor. which keeps us snacking more and more and makes us fat.
what you can do about it is be more conscious of what you eat. eat healthily. make your health a priority. keep your calories in check. as chefs we need to have knowledge of calories not just for ourselves but for the world we cook for.
In summary, There are five main reasons we found for why many chefs are fat. they are:
- we don’t cope with stress well.
- we snack a lot.
- we don’t pay attention to liquid calorie intake.
- we don’t sleep/rest well.
- we generally choose to eat fast foods instead of healthy meals.
and we have also given practical tips on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle for you. no matter what we believe that in today’s world people need to trust a skinny chef. if you don’t believe that look at the celebrity chefs of today. you will find many of them in good shape. have a better body and be better chefs.
webliography:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/may/27/fatchefs