The Bachelor’s second runner-up and health coach Helena Sauzier has formally apologised for a series of Instagram posts made by her weight loss business, which suggested snacking leads to weight gain and that drinking coffee stimulates our “brown fat reserves”.
Several health experts have slammed the 25-year-old, who runs a business called The Weight Loss Trilogy with her sister Alexandra Sauzier, for offering “dangerous” diet advice that goes against science-backed health messages supported by most certified qualified doctors, nutritionists and dietitians.
“We highly discourage snacking as it is very important to allow your body to rest and repair itself in-between meal times,” read a now-deleted post on The Weight Loss Trilogy’s Instagram page.
“The body needs to devote a certain amount of time to repair and maintenance. Critically, this cannot take place whilst you are also digesting food. It’s like expecting a mechanic to repair your car whilst you are still driving it. The first thing the body needs to do is clear out old and damaged cells – only then can it get on with building new cells. All of this only takes place several hours after you stop eating. Snacking also prevents ketosis, ie fat burning,” the post continued.
“Surf the ‘hunger wave’ and understand that it is absolutely okay (and healthy) to be hungry and that it will pass.
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“We do realise that this might not be what you want to hear, but it truly is one of the best pieces of advice that we can give you.”
Another post about coffee suggested it is an “appetite suppressant” and “stimulates our brown fat reserves”.
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Helena was the second runner-up on the lastest season of The Bachelor, behind Chelsie McLeod and Abbie Chatfield.
(Credit: Channel 10)But commenters and health experts were quick to slam this advice, criticising the promotion of “non-scientific garbage” and the focus on reducing calories and weight loss, instead of living a happy, healthy lifestyle.
“This non-scientific garbage is not only wrong, it is dangerous. You should be ashamed,” one user commented, while another said, “Shame on you. You are in such a powerful position to create change and you use it for this… so unbelievably toxic.”
Others said this focus on restriction only encourages disordered eating.
“This is appalling. These ‘tips” are exactly the sort of things my ED [eating disorder] used to say to me. Surf the hunger wave? Drink water instead of eat? It takes years to unlearn these toxic thoughts.”
Another wrote: “The information you are giving people is setting them up to fail. All this will do is send their metabolism into starvation mode, slowing it down, causing them to hold and then put on more weight. The best way to lose weight is to speed up the metabolism which means 5 small healthy meals per day. A metabolism is like an engine, in order to keep running it needs fuel.”
Helena recently revealed on Instagram that she was feeling “anxious” in the week after the finale aired.
(Credit: Instagram)Now, Helena and her sister Alexandra have deleted these posts and issued a formal apology.
“We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to all of the people that we have offended or mislead with our posts, in particular the one about snacking,” they said in a statement to Now To Love.
“We were wrong to post this, as we did not explain the context of this comment, nor how we approach the weight loss journey. In turn, the post has come across completely the wrong way.”
The women said they have been helping clients successfully lose weight for ten years and wrote the posts based on their anecdotal experience.
“One thing we encounter commonly is that many of our clients are not eating too much, as well as exercising regularly, but they cannot achieve, nor maintain weight loss. One thing we find that they have in common is snacking throughout the day, at work and at home,” their statement read.
“We promote no particular diet, but we do encourage three healthy and nutritionally balanced meals each day. Many of our clients are now eating more than before, but they lose weight and have more energy. Their pathology results also improve dramatically. We are passionate about the results our clients achieve and the positive impact it has on them.”
Helena has formally apologised over the posts.
(Credit: Channel 10)Helena and Alexandra argued their promotion of fasting was based on solid evidence, citing popular experts including Dr Michael Mosley, the creator of the 5:2 diet and the Fast 800 diet.
“There is an enormous amount of evidence for fasting and the evidence is also clear for short-term fasting, which is allowing 4-6 hours of fasting in-between meals and trying to eat all meals within a 12-hour period,” their statement said.
WATCH BELOW: Helena tells Matt Agnew she wants to leave the Bachelor mansion. Story continues after video.
They apologised for their “choice of wording” in their Instagram posts and said they would take some time to reconsider their approach.
“We were hoping that by using this platform we would have been able to reach out and help others too, but we now realise that the outcome is very different to what we anticipated. We accept that we have made errors with our choice of wording very early on and apologise for this once again. We will remove this post and take some time to reconsider our position.
“This delayed apology was due to completely unforeseen circumstances. We will not be commenting further – please respect that we are utterly heartbroken and distraught by how this has turned out and need some time to process it all.
“We hope that this helps clarify our approach. We’d also like to take this time to thank those of you who supported us through this incredibly challenging time – it means so much to us.”
