The Real-Life Diet of Chris Williamson, Who Thinks Fiber Is Coming for Protein’s Throne

The bro-tein ascendancy is here to stay, so people better get used to it.

Do you think there’s a part of diet that people are under prioritizing?

Fiber, although I think that will be the next thing. People are bothered about ApoB [Apolipoprotein B] people are bothered about LDL [low-density lipoprotein], HDL [high-density lipoprotein], they’re looking to look after their hearts. I’m a super absorber of cholesterol, so I got to be real careful, which is tough because I love eggs with meat. I’ve got to kind of adjust the dials a little bit, which is why I’ve come back off raw carnivore and gone onto something a bit more balanced. Just put some more beans in your diet. Nobody doesn’t like beans. You can put them on tacos, you can put them in chili, you can throw them on the side. I mean the British, obviously our national food is fucking baked beans.

I was going to say, this is getting into beans on toast territory.

See, I didn’t say that just yet. I’m slowly anglicizing everybody’s diet. The other thing that people are underestimating is breakfast tea. No, I’m just lying.

I think the testosterone thing, at the moment, is an interesting question. People’s obsession with testosterone, it’s like the protein of the hormone world. Protein definitely, dietary fiber, I think those are the big pushes at the moment. That’s what I would be keeping an eye on.

Here’s the thing. For most of my 20s I disregarded vegetables because I was like, well there’s no macronutrients in it. What’s the macro that I’m going to get out of this broccoli? It can go screw itself. Over time, maybe toward the back end of my 20s I’m like, I probably should pay attention to my health beyond just how I look. All I was bothered about was being lean and jacked for a decade, and that’s great. Again, as we’ve identified, you’re made of rubber and magic, so you can get away with whatever you want. The push toward fiber is matching what happened with me personally, me thinking I probably should have some of that. My plate should have more than two colors on it, that would be a good idea. You’ll notice we wear a lot of black in the gym, but nudes are the color that we go for when it comes to the plate.

You mentioned the gym. You’re in there every single day, I imagine? Or will you take a Sunday off?

Yeah, Sunday’s typically off. My current split, which is actually the favorite one I think I’ve ever done and the most sustainable: Monday, Wednesday, Friday is chest and back, shoulders and arms, legs. Just four sets per exercise, eight to 14 reps per set, and maybe between six and eight exercises per session. If I get cranking with it I can usually get it done in an hour. It’s sustainable for me. I’ve found, because I’ve got quite a good training age, I can just hold. If I get even two of those sessions in a week—as long as it’s not always the same two, or else my legs would decompose and my arms would decompose—but if I average more than about two sessions a week my body really doesn’t change, which is really fortunate. This entire interview has turned into me evangelizing what young guys in their 20s should do.

That’s perfect.

If you can spend your 20s accumulating sufficient training age, I really think that the body for the rest of your life can be built in your 20s. That’s certainly been the case for me. I can be so much more lax if I’m traveling or if I get sick. My body just largely doesn’t decompose. Yeah, I get fluffier or whatever, but nowhere near as much as I used to, and nowhere near as much as my friends do. Anyway, push-pull legs, chest and back, shoulders and arms, legs. Optional session on a Saturday, which is shoulders and arms again.