Why I Put Myself Through My Own Nutrition Programme

Why I Put Myself Through My Own Nutrition Programme

I didn't start this because I wanted a six-pack.

I didn't even start it because I particularly cared about losing weight.

I started because I had a health problem, and some of the numbers were heading in the wrong direction.

For the last few years, I've been having some issues with my heart. It actually started with me collapsing during training, and despite a lot of tests, blood work and appointments, we still don't really have a definitive answer as to what caused it.

During all of those investigations, though, something else started showing up.

My cholesterol and some of my other health markers weren't where they should be. Over time, there were also signs that I might have fatty liver disease.

Eventually, I was sent for a scan.

It confirmed it.

I'll be honest, I was pretty dumbfounded by it.

I train regularly. I coach. I cook most of my own food. I enjoy cooking and generally eat what most people would describe as a pretty decent diet.

I wasn't drinking heavily. I wasn't living on takeaways and highly processed food.

So I had that obvious question:

There are plenty of possible factors involved in fatty liver disease, and I can't tell you exactly what caused mine.

Stress and pressure had certainly been a big part of my life, and I'd had the ongoing health problems on top of that.

But this experience also taught me something important.

Neither does cooking your own food.

Neither does looking relatively fit from the outside.

You can hammer yourself in the gym several times a week and still have things going on internally that you know absolutely nothing about.

That was probably the biggest wake-up call for me.

My initial instinct could easily have been to train harder.

But I already trained a lot.

More training wasn't necessarily the answer.

Instead, I needed to take an honest look at everything else I was doing.

That's where my own nutrition app came in.

I've seen members use the app and get brilliant results from it. For most of them, the initial goal is fairly straightforward: lose weight, reduce body fat, improve performance or get a bit healthier.

I'd seen it working for other people.

I believed in what we'd built.

So I thought, right, let's properly put it to the test on myself.

Not for a transformation photo.

Not to see how light I could get.

I wanted to see whether I could reduce my body fat, particularly the visceral fat around my organs, while maintaining my muscle and supporting the bigger health changes I was trying to make.

I started properly on 9th June 2026.

This is probably one of the more important parts of the story.

I was already cooking.

I was already eating decent food.

I didn't suddenly start surviving on chicken, broccoli and sadness.

What I needed was more structure and a bit more honesty about the quantities and choices I was making.

I reduced my overall food intake slightly.

I'm a massive fan of cheese and butter, so I pulled those back. Not because cheese or butter are inherently "bad", but because they were easy ways for me to add a lot of calories without really thinking about it.

I became more deliberate with my carbohydrate choices as well.

Potatoes became a regular choice because I found them filling. If a meal keeps me satisfied for longer, I'm less likely to go looking for more food afterwards.

None of this was revolutionary.

That was kind of the point.

I didn't need a ridiculous diet.

The hardest part wasn't motivation.

It wasn't forcing myself to train.

It wasn't even particularly about being hungry.

It was taking an honest look at myself.

When your job involves fitness and you train regularly, it's very easy to assume you're healthy.

Then a doctor shows you blood results and a scan that say otherwise.

That's uncomfortable.

But ignoring it because it doesn't fit how you see yourself would be stupid.

So instead of guessing, I started measuring.

Alongside the nutrition app, we've been using our InBody270 at CrossFit Murrayfield to monitor my body composition.

My first measurement after starting this process was on 9th June.

By 17th August, this is what had changed:

Bodyweight: 82.8kg → 79.5kg
Body fat: 21.6% → 17.4%
Body fat mass: 17.9kg → 13.8kg
Skeletal muscle mass: 37.4kg → 37.7kg
Visceral fat level: 7 → 5
Waist-to-hip ratio: 0.95 → 0.87
BMI: 29.3 → 28.2
Basal Metabolic Rate: 1,772 → 1,788 calories

On the scales, that's only a 3.3kg loss.

But that's exactly why I don't think bodyweight tells the whole story.

The InBody estimates show my body fat mass falling substantially while my skeletal muscle mass has been maintained.

More importantly for me, the visceral fat measurement has moved from 7 to 5.

Visceral fat is the fat stored deeper in the abdomen around the organs. Higher amounts are associated with poorer metabolic health and increased risk of conditions such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Considering why I started this in the first place, that number mattered far more to me than simply getting lighter.

This is the part that matters most.

I recently had my medical follow-up.

That's a much bigger result to me than losing 3.3kg.

And I want to be careful about what I'm saying here.

I'm not claiming my nutrition app "cured" fatty liver disease.

I'm also not claiming that losing a certain amount of body fat will produce the same medical outcome for everybody.

What I can say is what happened to me.

I was medically diagnosed with fatty liver disease.

I changed my nutrition and reduced my body fat.

Our InBody270 measurements showed my visceral fat level trending down.

And on my subsequent medical scan, the fatty liver was no longer present.

I'm still dealing with the original heart issues.

It's been around three years, and despite all the investigations, there are still questions we haven't completely answered.

That's frustrating.

But I can't control every unknown.

What I can do is look at the things I can influence.

My nutrition.

My body composition.

My cholesterol and other health markers with the help of my doctors.

My training.

My recovery.

My stress.

And whether I'm actually paying attention when my body tells me something isn't right.

That's probably the biggest thing I want people to take from this.

You can train hard and still need to look at your nutrition.

You can eat what you think is a good diet and still benefit from actually tracking it.

You can look fit and still have something happening internally that you can't see in the mirror.

And sometimes the most useful thing you can do isn't another workout.

That's my reason for doing this.

The drop in body fat is nice.

Maintaining my muscle is great.

Seeing the visceral fat number come down is even better.

But being told that the fatty liver is no longer showing on my scan?