Over the past few years, I've found that intermittent fasting
has been a great tool for keeping in shape, and I'm often
asked how I do it. That's why I'm thrilled to
introduce you to this season's sponsor, the Simple Life app.
They are a clinically proven weight loss tool that has helped
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Their method doesn't involve restrictive dieting.
You simply take the test and Simple will create a
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plan. Welcome to this special bonus
episode of Style DNA where we're talking about something slightly
different, how the way we live and eat can influence the way we
dress. And I'm joined by a fascinating
guest, Ro Huntress, Chief Nutrition Officer at the Simple
Life app, which supports A beautifully structured approach
to intermittent fasting and is something I now use every day.
Just to give you a little background, Roe Huntress is an
award-winning london-based dietitian with 14 years of
experience working across the NHS, private practice and
commercial business. Roe has specialist clinical
experience in a number of areas, including weight management,
metabolic health, gastroenterology and Women's
Health, and seven years of experience working within
international health tech. She has two master's degrees,
the 1st in advanced nutrition and the second in clinical
research, is an author regularly featured in mainstream media,
and is a published academic author in several medical and
scientific journals. Roe is the Chief Nutrition
Officer at Simple App, an AI weight loss coach with
17,000,000 downloads globally. Recently crowned Best Virtual
Health Coach in the 2025 Med Tech Breakthrough Awards, Rose a
passionate advocate for how digital tools can empower
healthier habits and Dr. measurable outcomes across
populations. And one of her key missions is
to make credible, personalized nutrition support accessible at
scale. Hello and welcome.
Row. Thank you SO.
Much that is quite a list of achievements my goodness as I
stumbled through it thinking my God not 1° too you know just
amazing amazing it's lovely to have you here today it's.
Lovely to be here. Thank you so much for inviting
me. Oh my.
Goodness, I'm looking at your list of achievements and feeling
very small. But I am fascinated by health
and Wellness. And I've always, we've been
fascinated by how we feel within ourselves health wise and how
that reflects in our clothes and our choice and of what we wear.
And I am a genuine advocate of intermittent fasting and have
been actually for many years. I would love to know what your
intermittent fasting journey was.
So funnily enough, so my career as a dietitian started in the
NHS and I supported people living with overweight and
obesity. So looking at lots of different
weight management strategies and kind of back in the day, you
know, everything was very much have three meals a day, cut down
your calories. And this is kind of what you do.
But you know, as as science have evolved, has evolved and there's
so many now different dietary interventions with science to
back them up. And we've also then got the
concept that, you know, there often isn't A1 size that fits
all approach. It's kind of paved away for
interventions such as intermittent fasting to come
about. Now, before I even started
working at Simple Life, I, I kind of intermittent fasted
without really intending to and it was just really where my
appetite fell. I'm not generally one of these
people who wakes up in the morning and thinks I need to
eat. Actually, my hunger levels are
quite low in the morning, but I function pretty well.
I mean, you've, you've seen me, I don't, I don't really even
drink that much tea on coffee. I'm kind of like water.
It will sail me through till midday quite perfectly and then
that's when I'll begin or open my eating window for me, because
as much as it helps with weight loss, it also helps with weight
maintenance. And so I feel for me that
actually really helps because then I my calories within my
chosen eating window. If I was to add in another
breakfast, then you know, I would then be kind of increasing
my calories say by three 400. So for me personally, in terms
of my lifestyle, it's something that fits in quite well.
And I think this is a nice thing around intermittent fasting in
that and you tell me your thoughts, but it doesn't often
feel like a diet. It just feels like something
that slots in and I think that This is why it's an option that
just works so well for so many people.
And you can also, you know, in terms of the eating window, you
can adjust that to, to what works for you.
So it's it's got that flexibility and it's got that
ability to be able to fit in quite nicely with people's
lifestyle. I I totally agree.
I mean, I, I use it now as a lifestyle tool and a lifestyle
choice rather than anything really to do with weight.
I'm one of those people that struggled with my blood sugar
all my life. And then when I found
intermittent fasting, that was gone.
I had none of that. But I also, I suppose because I
fast in the mornings, you know, if I previously if I'd had
cereal or a piece of toast or whatever first thing in the
morning, I would be sleepy by 10:30 and hungry by 11.
And this way I am neither of us. So I'm really sharp in the
morning and then I break my fast.
And so, you know, another phase of the day begins.
But what where is that? Why am I so sharp and focused in
the morning when I'm fasting? I'd love to understand the
science behind that. And you know, it's really great
actually to hear as well that you, you've kind of listened to
your body and you've observed what's going on.
And then by trialing something different, you've also then seen
and observed the benefits of that.
So it's great that you're kind of at that place, but it is
really interesting because aside from the weight loss, you know,
we hear from our users and also scientific studies to back this
up. It's the benefits beyond that.
And one of them is that feeling of focus, that feeling of better
concentration. And then from those things kind
of comes a better sense of control and you know,
metabolically when I mean we fast when we sleep anyway.
And then so when people fast in the morning, then that just
continues that fast. And generally it's the type of
fuel that we use in our body changes.
So when we have kind of used up all the glucose, so from the
foods that we've consumed, but then also the glucose that we
store in our body, our body then changes to burn fat, and then we
produce some ketones. And it's basically these can
have the effect, you know, leading to these feelings of
better concentration. Even, funnily enough, reduced
hunger because people think, Oh yeah, because people think when
you're fasting, oh, I'm going to be really hungry.
Actually, we see the opposite happens.
And people, like people's body just settles into that metabolic
flow. And that's why, yeah, it could
work really well. Interesting, How should we be
breaking our fast? What's the best food to break
our fast with? Yeah.
So the best, I mean when we're talking about kind of foods in
general, what we don't want when we've had, you know a really,
really nice steady blood sugar, we don't then want to really
spike it. So we want to think about things
that are going to just have a nice impact on our on our blood
glucose. So including protein in what we
have and then also fibre as well and you can even include some
healthy fats. So these things basically if you
were to have sugar or a fine carbohydrates, these are the
things that would spike your blood sugar.
Whereas pairing it with, with the protein or the carbs, it
basically lowers what's called the glycemic index or the
glycemic response and it just softens that effect.
So that just helps to keep our blood glucose and therefore kind
of like our, our metabolism where, where we want really.
So it's thinking about pairing those things.
And you know, we also want to be, we want to be in control.
We don't want to fast to the point that we're so starving
when we come to then eat, but then we make kind of mindless
choices. So that's also something to
consider in the in the in the length of your fast, because if
it's too long, then it's more likely that you're going to be
making poorer choices. So it's finding a window that
works for you that you're still in control when you come to
break your fast and then choosing kind of like a lower
glycemic response food. Now I I know you're passionate
about a this subject, but B the tech involved with the simple
app, just bringing this knowledge to a really wide
audience. So it just just tell me in your
words how a a new user to the simple app uses it and what it
brings to them. Yeah, and I think you've, you've
hit the nail on the head there in terms of so I, you know, I
used to work in the NHS where everything was very manual.
You know, people would come in to see a dietitian, then you
know, they'd go and fill in a food diary for for two weeks,
then, you know, we'd come back and then we'd spend half the
consultation going through this. But half the consultation,
working out what they're writing was.
Exactly. And then also just that
experience for them in between that, you know, in between the
consultations is very manual, you know, like writing down
everything that you're having, weighing food, sometimes
quantifying it, you know, it's just it's just not fun.
It's not fun. And what we want to do at Simple
Life is basically utilise all these fantastic technologies,
technologies that we have an AI to basically make this journey
as easy and as simple as possible.
Also examples of how we utilize AI include, so we've, we've got
food image recognition, so where people take a picture and then
it will identify the foods on the plate.
It will also give a pretty accurate estimation of the, of
the weights of those foods as well.
So that just makes logging really easy.
And people actually quite like it.
It's kind of like it's quite a fun feature, but also, you know,
if people prefer to write via text, they can or they can do
voice call, voice noting as well about to to log what they're
having. We've also got an AI coach.
So our AI coach is called Avo. And basically this coach guides
users through their journey. So Avo is there every day to do
a daily check in to review what's been happening and to
create a plan for the day ahead. But also Avo's there for any
conversation. So if a user wants to have a
conversation with the coach, if it's to ask about a recipe or
just ask about a question about a particular nutrient or a food,
the coach is there. But the coach may also suggest a
conversation based upon identified patterns or trends in
behaviour. I've noticed this.
Would you like to discuss this? But there's other things as
well. We've got an AI body scan as
well. There is, there's AI workouts.
We also do AI summaries. So when people, if you log a
meal, it will give you a little summary of what's, what's been
going on there, but it will tie it into your history, what's,
what's relevant for you as well. So people, people seem to like
it. And I think really. 18 million
people have seemed to like it. Like, it's not surprising.
Yeah. I I.
Know, I just think it's a really, really exciting era for
nutrition and health because it's making it more accessible.
And as I say, it's kind of, it's making these kind of previously
arduous tasks quite fun. And another thing that we're,
that we've brought in as well is, is gamification.
So, you know, in a clinic setting, you, you can't really
gamify, you know, your, your care with a patient, but you can
gamify, you know, people coming in to do their check in with Avo
and giving rewards. And you know, the nice thing
about that is, is the more that people use the app, the greater
their weight losses or the greater their outcomes are.
So by encouraging people to come back through these mechanisms,
it ultimately gives them the results that they want.
So from our side and you know, from being developers of an app,
it's actually, it's really exciting and it's, it's really
fulfilling to be doing kind of, you know, these fun things, but
with such a pure goal at the end.
Sounds like it should be on the NHSI mean it.
You know, because the weight management side of the
population is so fundamental to the healthcare system, isn't it?
Absolutely. And yeah, who knows, hopefully
in the future that might be something that we that we aim
for. So watch this space.
Amazing with intermittent fasting.
From what I understand, different people should have or
need different fasting windows. Is that true?
Yes, again here one size doesn't fit all and it's it's really,
really individual. We make suggestion based upon
the information that people tell us.
We make suggestions as to what's going to be what's likely to be
the most suitable fasting protocol for them, but equally
it's a, it's a joint decision between between US and them.
And you know, even just what I was saying about before in terms
of how easy does it feel for you?
Because this isn't supposed to be really, really difficult.
It's not supposed to feel really, really restrictive.
And the nice thing about intermittent fasting is you can,
you can start slow, start steady and build it up because even a
lot of people have heard of the 16-8 protocol, but actually 1212
is still a protocol. And what that means is having
your eating window being 12 hours and then fasting for for
the other 12 hours. So if you're a bit apprehensive
or you think, oh gosh, I'm going to be really hungry or I just
don't know how I will be, then a 12/12 is a really nice place to
start. And then you can actually, you
know, you can bring it up incrementally and people think
O12121410168186, but you don't have to go up in twos.
You can go up in ones. I mean, you could go up in half
hours if you want to. So I think you can be steady
and, and kind with yourself. And then it's kind of and then
it's finding just that then that, that that maintenance and
then what works for you. And as we said before, it then
it just slots in, it just slots into the lifestyle.
You know, you don't need to calorie account, you don't need
to weigh your food. It's just something that works.
So it's finding those kind of parameters that work for you
and. It is fascinating.
What about days off? I'd be interested to hear to
hear your thoughts and then I can tell you mine.
I occasionally take a day off and it would tend to be at the
weekend or after a very late night if I'm really honest.
But then I never feel as good on my day off as I do because, you
know, maybe I've had a cooked breakfast or something like that
and it just slows my body down in the morning.
But that's me and it slows me down in the morning.
But every, you know, every now and then I feel like, I feel
like that Pano chocola because I'm in Paris or whatever it is.
And I think that's then it's a treat.
I know what it's going to do to my blood sugar, but it's a price
that I'm prepared to take. What about you SO?
In terms of, you know, a dietary intervention or even a
lifestyle, the most important thing that's going to determine
is its success is the adherence. But sometimes allowing ourselves
that flexibility to not be on it 100% allows us actually to be
more adherent in the long term. So a really nice approach to
think about it is kind of the 8020 rule.
So, you know, 80% of the time, let's be on it, you know, stick
to our fasting protocol, let's eat healthy, let's exercise, but
actually it's healthy to allow ourselves to have that downtime.
So yes, some people may want to have 20%, some people may want
to have 10% and that's absolutely fine to do.
And you know, we see our users who are kind of on it like five
days a week have fantastic results, fantastic results.
So I think it's absolutely fine to have those days off.
And interestingly, I was talking about gamification before and
streaks and we allow streak freezes.
So if people do have a couple of days off, they're, they're still
on the program, you know, they're still doing it, they're
still succeeding. And I think that's the attitude
that we that we should have. We're still succeeding.
We're just allowed that little bit of time, like downtime, when
when we need it. Can you talk to me for a second
about autophagy? Yes.
So in essence, autophagy comes about as process of fasting.
It's generally very, very long, very long fasts.
And where we see this and where we've seen a lot of it as kind
of being more in animal studies and it's autophagy that's kind
of linked with, as I say, we're in this fat burning, we're in
this fat burning kind of metabolic state.
And then it leads to a yeah, it leads to autophagy where the
some people kind of like refer to it as the cells are kind of
cleaning themselves a little bit.
And then this has been linked to longevity.
So there have been claims around intermittent fasting and
longevity. And we've kind of seen this in
the animal models. The the discussion point or the
debate kind of comes around as to can can humans get into that
autophagy state when you know, if we're doing a 16/8 for
example. So it may come about it kind of
like at longer fasts. Longer than 16.
Yeah, yeah, I know it does tend to be a little bit longer than
that. I would say that there's, you
know, there's some promising science around it, but I don't
think we can claim it boldly. So I think a lot the the more
proven benefits around intermittent fasting is
certainly around the weight loss, around weight loss
maintenance, around cardio, metabolic health.
So improvement in blood sugar, as you mentioned before,
improvement in in blood pressure.
We have even seen improvements in the gut microbiome in terms
of people who who intermittent fast.
So I would say in terms of the longevity discussion, it's
certainly it it's a discussion around intermittent fasting.
I would say that in the way that we intermittent fast generally,
I think we need a little bit more evidence to say whether
kind of like autophagy is occurring and whether we can
kind of like lead to those longevity benefits from that
stance. However, on the longevity front,
when our weight is closer to, you know, a healthy BMI, when we
don't, you know, when we have low cardio metabolic risk
factors, being healthy will improve our longevity.
So it's certainly from that aspect, but from the autophagy
aspect in humans, I would say TBC.
Right, let's spin on to you. Were you brought up in a very
healthy home? What spurred your interest in
becoming a nutritionist? So I would say that it it was,
it was a healthy home, but no healthier than, you know, than
than any other. I would just say it was like a
typical household in that sense. I think where my interest came
from was that I did a lot of sport when I was younger, so I
was interested in the fitness side and, you know, about
performance and that kind of thing.
And then, yeah, it kind of led me to my choices in terms of
then like A levels. I was also kind of like sciency.
So I picked like, you know, sciency subjects and then, yeah,
coming towards uni, that's when I saw the open door into
nutrition and I started to understand the influence that
nutrition could have on health and that, you know, it's
fascinated me from that moment and ever since.
Fascinating. And in terms of clothing, what
was your earliest memory of clothes making you feel
different, feel special? I think you can.
I could probably look at this in two different ways.
The first time that I started to think about clothes being
important was probably at school, you know, like when
there's trends and there's certain trends, I remember
certain shoe trends and people were like, oh, OK, you know, oh,
we, we need to have these and did.
You wear a school uniform. Yes, we did.
Which wasn't so trendy, I must say.
But did that, has that impacted your your clothing choices?
I would say that I probably veered away from anything that
looked like my school uniform. But so I would say when I was
younger, we tend to follow trends more.
But I would say when I came more so into my 30s, I think that's
when you start to understand. I think you understand the world
more, you understand yourself more.
And then I feel that you're more in touch with your identity.
And then that was when I started like paving out a style that I
guess worked for me. Tell me about what you're
wearing today. So I am, it actually kind of
looks like a dress, but actually it is a top and a skirt.
And they're both, they're both from Zara.
I was initially thinking colour, but I quite like this one
because it's kind of that it's backless and I just feel it's
got a nice vibe. And to be honest, whatever I
compare with trainers, yeah, it kind of kind of works for me.
So hopefully this is working. Do you have a style icon?
What What helped shape your style today?
So I think that there's people that I definitely feel that are
style icons like Kate Moss, Stella McCartney, Victoria
Beckham, but I love their styles.
For them, I feel like I, you know, they do them well.
And I think for me, it's just been more about finding what
works for me. And I think that comes as you
wait. So I've got kind of like more of
an athletic figure, so lucky. Girl.
Oh, pros and cons pros and cons. But it was then about, OK, how
can I find outfits that are going to work well for my
figure? So I think that's something that
you figure out when you when you get old as well.
And I think like coming into my 30s, I found some some ways and
some styles that I'm quite happy with.
So if I were to ask you how you would describe your style DNA in
three words? Oh my goodness.
What 3 words would those? Be I would say.
I want to say casual because I do like the trainer so casual,
confident, unique. Nice.
And if I were to ask you to sum up your approach to healthy your
healthy lifestyle, what would those 3 words be?
Kind as in being kind to yourself.
Yep. Balance and sustainability in
terms of you being able to sustain your choices.
So if I would say to you, you can dress in two brands, 1 High
Street, one designer, which two would you reach for?
High Street would be Zara. That's quite easy.
I am top and bottom in Zara here.
Actually, designer would it would be between Burberry and
Chloe. In the Chloe's sneakers.
Yeah, so Chloe for the for the accessories, but I do think
Burberry's got some wardrobe staples.
Do you feel like because you take care of your health and
Wellness and your body, it, it affects what you reach for in
terms of your clothing choices? Interesting question.
I would say like when you feel well, you also feel confident,
you feel good in yourself. And I think confidence is
something that can help you to rocking outfit or to feel really
good in your outfit. So I think that's how how some
things are. Yeah, how that is kind of
aligned. We do see a lot of people that
come to us, it's simple as well, because they want to look good
in their clothes. And for some people, weight is
something that can hold them back.
For a lot of people now it isn't something that holds them back,
which I think is a really nice and positive thing.
But we're all different. And there are some people that
do feel confident when they feel that they're kind of like in in
in their best, best physical shape.
So yeah, I would say it kind of like it.
It depends on the individual. And what do you personally reach
for when you want to feel empowered?
When I want to feel empowered, you know, say this is funny
because it's even when I'm doing like a webinar or something or
I'm not even seeing people in person.
I noticed this the other day when I was doing an Instagram
Live is I, I will put perfume on even if I'm doing an Instagram
live or I'm doing a, I'm doing a webinar or something like that.
And I think, and I, I do enjoy kind of like putting makeup on
for, for things like that. So I think that's all part of
it. And yeah, just just an outfit
that's going to make you feel good, good and strong.
And I think it's kind of like a combination of all of those
things. But what?
Would is there a particular item that you would reach for that
it's like your power piece? Oh well, I did.
I was speaking at a conference in Amsterdam last week and they
had a black and white stage called the gallery.
And then I was like, so I looked at the colour ahead of time and
then I do have this quite a striking red jumpsuit.
I think it's a French Connection one actually.
And then I wore that last week and it just just worked perfect.
Would you call yourself a mood dresser or a planner?
I think I'd have to go for. I think I'd have to go for mood,
yeah. And do you, do you meditate at
all? Is meditation part of your
routine or ritual? So it's definitely a part of my
lifestyle, but I'll say it's not a part of my routine.
I'll go for meditation just when when I feel, when I feel like
it, if I've got the time, I've been on a few retreats as well
where you can like go into it a bit more deeply.
But, but when I have the time or it's a nice moment, or if I'm on
holiday I'm on a beach or, you know, it's, it's just sunny
outside, I can take myself to the park and go and do it then.
So not necessarily a part of my routine, but I think it's a
fantastic practice and I do it when it calls.
Me, yes, it's interesting, I was travelling last week and I
didn't do my virtually daily well, it is daily mindful
meditation, which it's guided. I don't do it on my own because
I just don't seem to have the the headspace for that.
And it's funny, I came back and I just didn't feel as sharp and
as focused because I'd had a probably 7 days of not doing any
form of meditation and it was a real wake up call to me as to
how powerful it can be. Right, Let's spin onto some
quick fire questions. Go to outfit for feeling
empowered. I'm going to go for the red
jumpsuit. Heels or flats?
Flats. Guilty.
Secret in fashion? I quite like Marks and
Spencer's, they've got some really nice stilettos that are
really quite comfy. That's a very Democratic answer.
So she wearing Chloe sneakers maybe?
They should be my guilty pleasure for my bank balance.
I think so. Guilty secret in terms of food.
Oh, oh, well, this is the thing, as a dietitian, people expect
you to eat like clean living, clean eating, like all the time.
I'm I'm going to put it out there.
Love crisps, love crisps. Love them.
Also, you know, people expect dietitians not to drink alcohol.
I love a Margarita that. What's the one piece of Wellness
advice that you actually live by?
Be reasonable with yourself. Have reasonable expectations and
it's. It's just so much simpler.
Like that. And finally, my traditional last
question. At the end of the day, what do
you or don't you wear in bed? Oh, considering I'm representing
a brand here, I'll say pyjamas. But I'll also add a caveat that
that's that's not quite the truth.
It's been lovely to chat all things health, Wellness,
intermittent fasting wrapped in with style and fashion.
So thank you. Oh, it's been great.
Thank you so much for having me. I've always believed that
personal style starts from within, and this conversation
proved that. Thank you Ro for sharing how
structure and simplicity can shape not only how we feel, but
how we show up. This bonus episode was brought
to you by the Simple Life app, which makes intermittent fasting
beautifully simple.