Who would you recommend I follow for information and inspiration?

There’s so much information out there and it’s hard to know who to trust. 

Without knowing you, your interests, your lifestyle, and your preferences it’s hard to be too specific, but I can tell you the Top 10 people or accounts who I follow, and why. These are in no particular order. The eagle-eyed among you will spot there’s actually 11!

Jillian Michaels

Jillian Michaels is an American personal trainer and author and some of you may remember, she was on America’s Biggest Loser programme, which have to confess I’ve never actually watched, as it didn’t appeal to me.  However, I follow her on social media because I do find that much of her messaging is very much in line with my own ethos and she’s hugely knowledgable terms of the science behind how diet and exercise works. I don’t necessarily agree with everything that she says but I do recommend to my audience that they watch some of her videos because she’s very straight talking and really knows her stuff. I’ve not done any of her workouts but she does publish new ones regularly, so is worth checking out.

Mel Robbins

Mel Robbins is a multi-talented individual and is particularly known as being a motivational speaker. She’s famous for her ‘five second rule’ as a way of overcoming self sabotage and getting motivated. I follow her on social media because she’s very inspiring and her motivational messages are very easy to digest and take on board. I don’t necessarily agree with everything she says and I particularly disagree with some of her views around how motivation works. Nevertheless I do find her very motivational and I share a lot of her posts with my audience because I know they will resonate and encourage people to not give up on themselves, which is all too easy to do when it comes to weight management.

Professor Steve Peters  

Professor Steve Peters is a consultant psychiatrist who is most famous for his best-selling book The Chimp Paradox, inspired by his work in elite sport. Reading this book was one of the biggest influences on my own personal development since it was published in 2012. I have found it particularly helpful in relation to weight management, even though it wasn’t written with this in mind apart from the odd references. I recommend it to all my clients and followers, and I encourage and help them to apply the relevant principles, amongst other techniques, when I work with them.

Dr Nicole Lipkin

Dr Nicole Lipkin is an organisational psychologist and I first came across her in 2017 while I was still in my NHS management role, and I instantly became a huge fan because everything she said resonated with me. She’s also a really lovely lady. Even though her work is around supporting leaders in the workplace, her ethos can be applied to any kind of leadership role and her ideas influenced my work. They also led me down the path of doing my own Psychology degree, and then making the decision to leave my job and start my own business. I reached out to Nicole to thank her, and she was kind enough to set up a zoom chat all the way from Philadelphia as she was very interested to find out about my journey, so I got to ‘meet’ her.  I continue to follow her as her messaging is very relevant to the leadership role I now have in helping others to manage their weight well for life. If you are in any kind of leadership role I’d definitely recommend following her.

James Clear

James Clear is an author famous for his book Atomic Habits. He really is a true expert on how to overcome unhelpful habits and how to develop new ones. His ethos is central to my work as most of our behaviour around food is habit based, and once we become aware of how and why these habits have formed, and how active they are, we can overcome them to develop healthier ones. I follow him on Twitter, and receive his weekly emails which are always insightful. I regularly share his quotes.

Dr Michael Moseley

Dr Michael Moseley is a doctor, science presenter and journalist and author, and is famous in the weight management field for his Fast 800 amongst other things, and has presented various programmes about weight loss on mainstream TV in the UK. Again whilst I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, and I don’t usually recommend the Fast 800 unless it’s absolutely the right thing for someone, as it requires a lot of dedication to follow, the science he presents behind it, and behind weight management in general, is very compelling.  He does talk a lot of sense. He also backs up what he says by trying things out for himself and is very open about his experiences.

Julia Buckley

Julia Buckley is a well-known online PT who had a big influence on me in the first couple of years after reaching my goal weight for the last time, when I was keen to maintain my weight and not put it back on.  I first came across her when I bought her book The Fat Burn Revolution and then joined her online programme at the beginning of 2013. She, amongst other influences, helped me to get my head around the concept that it’s important to focus on health and strength. I met her a few times in real life when we took part in a Tough Mudder, another obstacle race and a Santa Run, all of which I have great memories of. She has a wealth of online programmes that people can follow, at all levels of ability, and at great value for money.  We have kept in touch and she continues to be a positive influence on me and is very supportive of the development of my own career. It is also through Julia’s community that I met and made a number of lovely friends who I continue to be in touch with to this day. I’d highly recommend Julia if you are looking for some online support with exercise.

Molly Galbraith 

Molly Galbraith is co-founder of Girls Gone Strong and is passionate about helping women to overcome insecurities around their bodies, having been on the journey herself. Her messaging resonates with me and continues to help me maintain my own sense of self-esteem and self worth separate to my appearance. I highly recommend anyone with body insecurities follows her.

James Smith PT

James Smith PT is a bit like Marmite, as he can be very strong in his opinions, and I don’t agree with everything that he says, or how he says it. I do think that generally he talks a lot of sense, and is very passionate about dispelling a lot of the myths there are around weight management.

John Berardi PhD

John Berardi PhD is one of the founders of Precision Nutrition, with whom I did my nutrition certificate. I had been following Precision Nutrition for a number of years as their ethos is very much in line with my own, about working with people where they are at, and supporting them to make changes at a pace that is appropriate for their lives, so they were a natural choice for me when it became time for me to start studying in this field. John has since retired but continues to be a huge influence in the field and continues to share very helpful information.

Professor Herman Pontzer

Last, but definitely not least, is Professor Herman Pontzer, an Associate Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology, who has dedicated decades to studying the science of metabolism. I had not heard of him until very recently but his book ‘Burn’ caught my eye when it was published in 2021, and it totally made sense – it finally explained what I had suspected, and personally and professionally experienced – that doing lots of exercise does not, for many people, help with weight loss, at least not in the way that we think it should. I would highly recommend that everyone reads it.

Various inspiring personal stories

Then of course there are very many personal accounts on social media of people who are on their weight loss journey or have successfully lost weight, and there are too many to mention. So feel free to find and follow people who resonate with you. Just be mindful that not everything on social media is real, and also take care to only follow accounts that inspire you, and not ones which make you feel like you are comparing yourself, and feeling inadequate as a result.  You can also be your own inspiration by celebrating your strength and your own achievements.

So that’s my list. Who would you recommend?