The Dylan Gemelli Podcast
Episode #23 Opening up about overcoming an eating disorder as a nutritionist, everyday pressures of body image, my diet changes and how I am finally thriving!
Sat, 03 May 2025
In this episode, Dylan Gemelli opens up about his lifelong battle with an eating disorder, how difficult the daily pressures on his body image are, being a nutritionist with this problem, the dietary changes he has FINALLY made and how he is not thriving and so much more. There is a lot of vulnerability shown in this episode but it is important to let others see that we ALL face challenges and battles but it is important to be open and honest about them which will ultimately help you to overcome!!Follow Dylan on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tiktok @dylangemelliHuge thank you to everyone for the support! Please make sure to subscribe, like and comment!!Email [email protected] out https://peptidepro.io and use the code EvolutionaryEmail Dylan for booking, collaborations and/or to apply for the Dylan Gemelli [email protected] Dylan's homepage here:https://dylangemelli.comTo PURCHASE MITOPURE visit Dylan's landing page and use code DYLAN10 to save!!https://www.timeline.com/promotions/dylangemelliFollow The Dylan Gemelli Podcast EVERYWHERE!!!RSShttps://rss.com/podcasts/the-dylan-gemelli-podcastApplehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dylan-gemelli-podcast/id1780873400I Hearthttps://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-dylan-gemelli-podcast-249695201/Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/3In4QlJj4IvHqq0eduKj7mPandorahttps://www.pandora.com/podcast/the-dylan-gemelli-podcast/PC:1001096187Stitcherhttps://www.stitcher.com/show/1096187FM Playerhttps://player.fm/series/the-dylan-gemelli-podcastPodchaserhttps://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-dylan-gemelli-podcast-5933919Listen Noteshttps://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-dylan-gemelli-podcast-dylan-gemelli-HDjBueWOVvG
Chapter 1: What personal struggles does Dylan Gemelli share?
All right, everybody, welcome back to the Dylan Gemelli podcast. So today's episode is a little different. There is no guest today. I am the guest today. But the reason being is it's time to discuss some personal things about myself that have been brought up over the years. The question that I've gotten year after year after year is what exactly is my diet?
Chapter 2: How has Dylan's background in bodybuilding influenced his journey?
And so just a little background for those of you that don't know how I started and where I've come, I did many years, well over a decade, really doing videos that catered more to the bodybuilding world. I discussed steroids, SARMs, peptides, a lot of performance enhancing aspects of things. And That's the background that I've kind of been involved in.
And now it's evolved and changed into where I'm doing a lot of biohacking, a lot of science, a lot of health, cellular health, cardiology, so many different wide varieties of things that I've enhanced my knowledge base on to the where I'm very, very comfortable talking about them. I've gotten credentialed, certified.
as a cellular health coach, integrative health practitioner, and spent so much time working with several doctors that you've seen on my podcast. You haven't seen yet that I've interviewed that will be coming. Anyway, I've been...
very much under the gun and criticized over the years of why aren't you bigger if you're teaching about all these steroids and the ones that i have used because of course i've used some and i've talked about that i certainly haven't in many years now um and i've gotten quite good size over time but never to what was pleasing to everybody else which i never really cared about because i will be honest i i
Don't worry about what other men think about how I look. And I'm married, so it really doesn't matter about what anybody really thinks. Of course, we all want to look good, presentable, and feel good about how we look. And that's why I take good care of myself.
But I guess that I've been hiding behind certain things or critical of myself in certain areas, I guess, to where no one would really know or have any sort of understanding what was actually going on within me. So one of the reasons that I've been hesitant to discuss my diet is because I'm a nutritionist. I teach so many clients and so many people about proper nutrition and health.
but mine has been lacking severely. And one of the reasons why I never put on a ton of size was a, I, you know, as I got up higher in the, you know, 200, 205, 210 range, I didn't feel super comfortable, even though I look back on pictures and think I looked great. I didn't feel great. And part of that too, I think was more of a mental thing because I've been battling a
with my self-image and my eating since I was 11 years old. And that's been a lifelong battle with certainly an eating disorder and a body dysmorphia and being hard on myself.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Dylan face regarding body image growing up?
And I've been in so many situations, whether it was me being a fashion model, which I've done all of the times I've worked in this industry and been criticized, critiqued, abused verbally, which really doesn't matter because it doesn't bother me at this point. But at times, you do take words in a certain way.
And so when I was growing up, I was always with the more popular kids and groups when I was in elementary and in middle school. But I was always really, really overweight once I hit about fifth grade, sixth grade, right around there. And really, even before that, I wasn't super comfortable. And I knew it. And it was difficult. It was knowing it inside.
You know, I was an athlete, but I was always struggling with my cardio and what I was doing. And I always was a top athlete that looked bad, which doesn't make sense. And I struggled. I struggled mentally. I struggled physically to keep up. And the one thing, the one thing, it wasn't lacking any skill set. It wasn't lacking desire, but it was the issue of desire.
my lack of conditioning because I was overweight. And, you know, it got to the point where I would be embarrassed to take my shirt off at the swimming pool around kids. I knew that I was never in my head. I was never going to have a girlfriend. I was just always embarrassed. And, you know, as God bless my parents, because they were so, good and how they raised me.
They were strict on things with school and everything. But the one thing is I'm a single only child in an Italian family. And so it's eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. And my mom would let me get away with the one thing she would let me get away with because she didn't anything else was feeding me whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it. And it got to the point where
I still remember a trip that we took and I was going into seventh grade. So I think it was 11. I want to say it was 1994. So yeah, I was 12. And I remember that, you know, just, it was like these big dinners every night, ice cream, like whatever we wanted for two weeks on vacation. And I came home and I cried in front of the mirror with how I looked.
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Chapter 4: How did Dylan's eating disorder manifest during his teenage years?
actually sobbed and cried and I thought there was no way that I could ever fix this. And it was, it was horrible on me. It was, it was really bad. And I was about five foot eight at the time. And then over that summer going into eighth grade, I grew to almost six foot one. And I remember it was like tackle football and I lost like 30 pounds.
And so going into eighth grade, it was like a totally different person. I looked completely different. And it was like, went from you know, popular, but not really with girls or, you know, you know that guys were taking shots at you behind your back. You just know you were being made fun of even though. And then it totally changed. Everything changed.
But then after several months of people making accusations that I really didn't do any of and didn't even know of from whether it was doing drugs or to being anorexic or bulimic, then it got into my head. And these thoughts got into my head. And then there was this, oh, my gosh, I don't ever want to gain the weight back, which I was really good about.
I never thought about until it just kept going over and over and over and over and over. And that's when it hit me that like, oh, my, I went from, wow, this is amazing how good I feel in the response. and how I was performing in sports to this utter fear. And I mean, just a daily thing that was eating at me. And you imagine at 12 years old, and that's all you're thinking about.
And then I started reading food labels, which you'd say, oh, that's a great thing you were studying. Then I was like, no, it was an obsessive thing. And I didn't even know what the hell I was reading at the time anyway. I mean, we know how many things have changed, but that's when it started. And so from there it was, I don't want to eat anything. Or then it was, I'm going to throw things up.
And that was, imagine being in middle school and then people knowing. I remember I played travel basketball. And I remember being in a hotel room one night with two of my really, really close friends. And they thought I had my earphones on and I paused so that I could listen. And they were talking about it. Like, what the hell was wrong with me? And like, it was disgusting and it was gross.
And like, they knew. Everybody knew it wasn't hard. I remember my parents getting so angry and my dad making a rule my freshman year, if I don't weigh 150 pounds, you're not playing basketball. That's what snapped me out of it at the time. It was fine. Once I fixed that and got over it, it was like, okay. it was a really dark, like six, seven months, but it worked itself out.
But you know, once I got a little bit older in my early twenties, again, it started to hit me again. And then it's just been a battle ever since on what I see in the mirror and what I look at. And anyway, so we go through the modeling aspect. I had really good times. You know, a lot of these times I'm partying though, and using drugs I shouldn't use. Of course I wasn't gaining weight. And, um,
It was a constant something where I'm always worried about if I'm, oh, I'm eating too much or seeing things that really weren't there. And looking at pictures now, I'm like, what was your problem? What were you thinking? I really look at things now and wonder, what was I seeing? But it's still lingered and lingered and lingered all these years. And I always have this fear.
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Chapter 5: What pivotal moment helped Dylan change his diet?
And I put a little bit of shot of this gut health powder I have in there. So that's the morning coffee and start off, get going. So my first meal of the day, which will be a few hours after that, generally depending on my schedule. So I try to get, so avocado sizes, I try to weigh them. So what I try to do is get about 120 to 140 grams of an avocado, which is, that's a large one.
It's a, it's a big one. And I do one piece of Ezekiel bread underneath. And that's the only piece of bread that I really have. I have one piece a day. And then what I do is we'll put six eggs. So I will do two whole eggs and four egg whites. Sometimes I'll do... four egg whites with one whole egg, kind of scramble them and then put an over easy on the top.
Or I'll just do like, you know, the two scrambled with the four egg whites, mix them up, put them on the top. And then there's plenty left over. And then I, I drizzle some olive oil on there. I cook everything in grass fed butter. I like the Kerrygold butter and it is a great start. And I'm satiated for hours. Not, not thinking about eating anything of the sort feeling damn good and
And that's the first meal of the day. Now, one of the snacks I will have throughout the day is I will take a I take full fat yogurt because the low fat or the fat free like plain Greek yogurt stripped of all the nutrients. It's just no good. And it tastes like crap on top of it. So I take a full fat, plain Greek yogurt and then I put it in a big Tupperware container.
not a plastic one, by the way. And so then two scoops of protein I put in there. Now I go make my own protein at True Nutrition. They have a little area where you can design your own protein. And I'll link, I have a coupon code if anybody wants to use it. I really go with the beef protein isolate with some beef collagen and some egg white protein is how I do mine. I'm really big on animal fats.
And, um, I will do mostly that. I will have one set that's a grass fed way that I will mix in every now and then that I also designed there. And then they have their true flavor. So it's Stevia instead of sucralose that's in there. So we try to avoid that. Obviously we don't want that. And, um, I mix that all together in a container and then I pick a fruit.
I either put in blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries, and I'll have a serving of that a day. So it's a nice boost of protein. And if you get a little hungry in the middle of the day there, you got a nice, satiating, you know, little, almost like a mini dessert type of deal basically is what it tastes like depending on what flavor protein powder you put in there.
So that's another little thing that I add in there. And then I either have 12 to 14 ounces of salmon per day, which generally is about four to five days a week. And then I will mix in cod or Chilean sea bass. You gotta be careful that now the Chilean sea bass is, I can eat it every day, but it's a little bit higher in the mercury content. And it's very, very expensive.
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Chapter 6: What drastic changes did Dylan make to his diet recently?
It's like 30 bucks a pound, but it is delicious. So what I do with those is I put some chives on there and I will drizzle some olive oil on there, half a serving of olive oil, and then I'll either put a little bit of almond butter on there when I cook it, or I will put another little bit of grass fed butter on there when I cook it. And it is tremendous.
Some, some of those, like yesterday I had, I believe it was about 14 ounces of cod and that was 70 some grams of protein and only 325 or 330 calories to keep track of everything daily. And so that that's a nice packed punch of protein. And with the salmon, really good fats and the salmon will fill you up a lot more than a white fish. And I forgot I do cut green onions and eggs also, by the way.
So that was another meal. And then I generally do this. And this will be one of my later last meals. And I do this like an hour or two before I go to the gym, generally. So I will get, oh, about one green pepper, one zucchini, some onions. And we cook those up and mushrooms. And I will mix that in with...
Generally, a half a pound of either ancestral bison, ancestral venison, elk, or ground beef, and that is normally 93.7% grass-fed only, and that's 100% grass-fed. I do force of nature for the venison, elk, and bison since those are... you know, more difficult to find. And those are more exotics. And I just rotate every once in a while. I'll treat myself to the 85, 15 ground beef.
It is so, so good, but you know, I, I, then we're getting a little bit higher on the fat content. So I will either cut something else out or still have those just a little less, but I like to have at least a half a pound. The venison is a lot leaner. So I normally go about 10 ounces of that when I do that. And, uh, yeah, I put, um, just a little bit of seasoning on there. And then I have some
Primal Kitchen organic ketchup. I'll put a little bit on there. I like, and it's really just a couple ingredients. It's just very basic water and tomatoes and there's nothing added or no sugar or anything like that. It's a very, very good product. And I do their mustard a little bit on there and It's I love it. It's super filling. I have that every single day.
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Chapter 7: How does Dylan's current fitness routine support his mental health?
And so that that's hitting my numbers generally where we're at. And that's normally a full day for me. And then I try to fast as long as I can there in the evenings and try to, I was eating oatmeal every single night right before bed for like 10 years, literally. And I'm trying to cut that back quite a bit. I, I really even cut back on having much almond butter or, or,
You know, I was doing walnut butter and things like that. And I'll have them here and there. But generally speaking, I've cut that back a ton too. And not really having that all the time like I was either. I'm really focusing on good, clean foods. You know, like I say, I really am a little bit fat heavy on my diet. I found through data that my body just chews through fat.
I got tested with the NOE. It's P-N-O-E at a biohacking convention I was at. And he was showing me all the data. And it was just showing me. My body was eating through fat and I test myself with the lumen every day, see how I'm waking up and my body's always generally in burning fat mode. And, you know, I, I, I'm not, uh, demonizing carbs by any sense.
I just know for me personally, when I go higher carb, I don't respond as well. I do need them. I believe in them. I believe in fruits and vegetables. I just don't believe in like for me personally, uh, Going heavy on carbs. Now, there are definitely people that require that. And I am a nutritionist. I'm not one that goes, oh, it works for me. So it's going to work for everybody.
That is just not how this works, whether it be training, diet, whatever the case may be. It is very, very important to be structurally sound and cater to each individual based on their circumstances and their body responses, their genetic makeup. There's a lot of factors that go into that. Take my wife. She's Asian. And I'm not we joke about this.
But in reality, a lot of times your genetic background will determine what you handle well and what you don't. But sometimes, you know, like I went through that testing and they tried to tell me that I wouldn't that based on my background. Oh, you you. You can eat a lot of carbs and don't do well with fats. And I told the guy, well, that's the polar opposite.
But my point was with my wife is Asian. She gets away with eating the most abundant amount of rice you can imagine daily and still under 100 pounds. If I did that, I've tried it before and it doesn't work. So you have to be cognizant that everybody's different. Body responses are different. Needs and necessities are different. And as a nutritionist, that's what you have to figure out and learn.
But I did want to share... what I'm doing. And now I feel even on the days where I'm sluggish or tired, when I got the right kind of fuel and I've go and, Oh, I did leave out. I have, I know they weren't the best, the quest bars. I have one a day, but I've kind of switched.
Now the Kirkland brand bars don't have sucralose and then they're very similar tasting to the quest bars and they have far less. That's probably the one thing I have during the day that you could say is kind of questionable and
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