Gastroyal is a scam
Let's clarify something very quickly. What Gastroyal claims, communicates, and what Renáta Tolvai and Győző Szabó—whom I otherwise respect—assist with, is simply a consciously constructed media bluff, a well-executed manipulative marketing communication. It's not true that Reni Tolvai lost two dress sizes in a month, nor that Győző Szabó lost nine, not to mention Padödő, and it's impossible to consistently lose 6 kg per week, just to mention the biggest bluffs. This blog, and my own weight loss, are the best examples of the efforts, strict diet, and sacrifices required if someone wants to lose a few kilos. I lost 13 kilos in two and a half months, but that was with a very strict diet and six workouts a week. Anyone who is here on the blog for the first time (welcome, Gastroyal lawyers) can freely read back and track day by day what it took for me to achieve my current shape and shed my excess weight. I wanted to write about the Gastroyal scam before, but only a few sentences within the next Budapestaurant series, then I stumbled upon the Velvet article, and that was the last straw that completely blew my fuse.
There are huge scams here, and the saddest part is that I think many people actually believe them. This is what Tolvai writes, or rather what Gastroyal's marketers dictate to her, and they publish these paid advertisements in the form of articles.
"I get my meals from a club. I eat five times a day, lots of fruits and vegetables, but also meat and pasta. They taste different from what my mom makes, but they are also delicious," explained Renáta Tolvai.
What the fuck? Eating 5 times a day and having vegetables and fruits is fine. Let's start with what kind of meat, because if it's not lean white meat, that's already a fail. But the biggest joke is that it's impossible, I repeat IMPOSSIBLE, to lose two dress sizes in one month while pasta, even in its smallest form, is included, and especially not with the foods that Gastroyal offers. And how big is one dress size?... Depending on body type, 6-10 kg. For Reni, let's take the lower limit and consider 7kg per dress size. This means that the Tolvai girl lost 14 kg in one month by eating pasta and doing no exercise, as the news suggests. Then she adds the sentence for which people used to gather firewood to burn her: "they taste different from what my mom makes, but they are also delicious." Please, girls, and primarily girls, because I know you want to cling to this idea that it's possible this way. NO, IT'S FUCKING NOT. There is no higher power that would make you lose 12 kg in a month under such circumstances, and especially not with the foods that Reni is supposedly fed.
Let's move on and look at what these foods are, because the most egregious things are yet to come. Gastroyal advertises that you can lose 3-6 kg PER WEEK with their meals. Let's see what these foods are that promise such a change. I should add that these are from their featured "best of fat-burning" menu, and Reni also eats these, among others.
What a career. I'm telling you, this is something absolutely incredible because I think it's just as outrageously absurd as BpTv's cures. I'm sitting here in front of the computer, reading Gastroyal's "diet" menu, and I'm unable to write anything because this is a level for which there are no words. They promise a loss of 3-6 kg per week with a diet that includes vanilla cottage cheese pancakes with strawberry sauce, Somlói galuska, and máglyarakás for a snack. Oh, but the word FAT-BURNING is in front of it. Well, then everything is fine. Holy fucking Christ. Two things truly sadden me. One is that Győző Szabó, whose work and talent I hope no one needs an introduction to, lends his name to this, as does Reni Tolvai, with whom a few things can be sold as the winner of Tv2's only usable brand. The other is that many people will believe this weight loss thing without thinking, because they want to believe, and unfortunately, I already know a woman (who else?) who is on a Gastroyal turbo diet. It's always about expecting miracles, and anything but exercise and a strict diet.
This menu is absolutely astounding. Pizza slice with four kinds of cheese, two of which don't even have a lean version, fried!!! meats, sauces, dumplings, bacon (damn it), salami, and sztrapacska, but of course, the little word FAT-BURNING is in front of it. On this basis, they could include anything, just put the magic word in front of it, and thus "FAT-BURNING" lard with red onion, "FAT-BURNING" white bread become diet foods. Ridiculous. But let me not just ramble about how crappy all this is; I'd also like to present some numbers, just to illustrate how big of a bluff Gastroyal is, and how unacceptable and unattainable what they say or put into the mouths of their advertising faces is.
To lose one kilogram of fat, you need to burn 9,000, that is, nine thousand calories, in addition to your daily food intake. So that every autistic person understands: the daily energy requirement of an average woman is 1800 calories. To achieve SUSTAINABLE weight loss, we need to go 15-20% below this number, meaning we need to consume 1400-1500 calories daily. This 300 calorie deficit ensures weight loss, and of course, what we can burn off with exercise. Now, we need 9,000 calories for this, and that's still just one kilogram. Thanks to an initial carbohydrate-free, meaning CARBOHYDRATE-FREE, diet, high-protein foods, and a daily intake of 3-5 liters of fluid, a radical weight loss of up to 4-8 kg can be achieved in the first 7-12 days, as you could see in my first week's summary, because at this time the body releases excess water. I don't know if I've made myself clear. So, the largest part of the initial significant weight loss is not fat, but water. Then, after we've expelled the excess water from ourselves, the 9,000 calorie restriction -1 kg principle comes into play. To deduct these 9,000 calories, a very strict diet is required, which the foods offered by Gastroyal minimally do not meet, because they not only don't fit into a strict diet, but in my conviction, they don't even fit into the concept of a simple diet. Because what is pizza dough, fatty cheeses, Somlói galuska, máglyarakás, fried meats, but the biggest brain death - and now everyone hold on to something - is none other than FAT-BURNING chips!!!!!!!! What Gastroyal does and advertises, in my opinion, largely exhausts the concept of deliberate deception and fraud.
Let's examine Reni's two-dress-size weight loss more closely, and see what this means in numbers. Let's assume she managed to lose 6 kg of fluid in the first 12 days, thanks to a carbohydrate-free diet. The thing fails here already, as this diet is anything but carbohydrate-free. She would have had to lose the remaining 8 kg from her body fat, which means that if 1 kg of body fat is minus 9,000 calories, then 8 kg is 72,000!!!!! Kcal. Do you understand what I'm talking about? It's impossible. No one is capable of this, it's physically impossible because it means that even if she ate nothing, absolutely nothing, for the remaining 18 days and burned 1,000 calories daily with exercise, she still wouldn't be able to lose half of what's needed to achieve the 14 kg reduction. When I run 10 km, even running up to Buda Castle, I burn 8-900 calories, and that's not considered an easy workout. So what are we talking about here?
However, credit must definitely be given for the professional communication, the advertisements, the well-chosen Gastroyal faces, and the marketing team's work of building castles in the air. From a PR perspective, what they have built is almost perfect; it's a great pity that there is no substance behind it, and the whole thing can collapse at the slightest breeze, as it has no foundation whatsoever. It's a shame, because with this much money, time, and energy invested, they could have created a truly healthy and FAT-BURNING menu. Although, there might not have been demand for that, because who would order lean cottage cheese, steamed vegetables, and salad without any dressing?
The Gastroyal scam, of course, bothers not only me but also the so-called profession. Dietitians, nutrition and lifestyle advisors, and personal trainers all share the same opinion as I have described here. Finally, here is a relaxed 10 million HUF fine imposed on Gastroyal by the Hungarian Competition Authority, who have also been bothered on more than one occasion by Gastroyal's irresponsible business policy, pricing, and unfounded promises regarding weight loss. Although I would rather use the words conscious deception and fraud. Anyone interested can click here to read the full report. In any case, I would draw everyone's attention to the last sentence of the first paragraph.
April 11 is Poetry Day. On this occasion, paying tribute to and remembering the great poets, without forgetting Attila József and Zoltán Latinovits, I would contribute to the immortality of literature and poetry with this video...
