Celebrity Chef Rocco DiSpirito Debunks Healthy Eating Myths for Weight Loss

Eating healthy does not have to be complicated, celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

The restaurateur and owner of Bar Rocco, a new spot in New York City, builds his philosophy and cookbooks around health-conscious dieting. He addressed common misconceptions about healthy eating, particularly for weight loss.

"There is no one fix, there's no one cure for everyone," he said. "Everyone has different needs and their weight-loss journey is going to be different. So, you really have to figure out what your problem is."

This problem could involve a body composition imbalance, lack of exercise or a poor diet overall, DiSpirito said. "Figure out what will help you address those issues most quickly," he advised.

"Even if you're working out, unless you're LeBron James and burning 8,000 calories a game, there's no way to out-train a bad diet, so at some point in our lives, we have to come to a reckoning with what we consume."

DiSpirito recommended starting with basics: consume less sugar, less alcohol, fewer processed foods and fewer processed carbs, and eat more protein.

The top issue he has seen, he said, is that people have "no idea how many calories they're consuming."

"We're all consuming two to three times more than we realize," he noted. "And even when we count and use the apps, there's a lot of fuzzy math going on."

"So, getting a handle on how much you're consuming, even the little picking that you do while you're cooking and cleaning, all that counts and adds up quickly."

As the healthy eating movement grows, DiSpirito called it "very important" for most Americans amid the country's obesity issue.

"Restaurants are definitely thinking about it as well," he said. "[But] I wouldn't say restaurants are making it their [top] priority."

"We still have a lot of work to do just getting people in and seated and fed and their checks to them when they want. But there are some restaurants that are focused on it."

DiSpirito said he provides healthy meal plans for private clients. But restaurants find it tough to embrace healthy eating.

"For restaurants to approach healthy eating is a little difficult, because it's a whole different kind of cooking and a [different] kind of energy," he said.

"Healthy eating isn't fun – so to bring that into a fun atmosphere is kind of difficult. It's difficult to mix the two."

This balance between indulgence and health proves tricky in America's food supply, DiSpirito said. It comes more easily in places like Italy, where food remains natural.

"If you go to Italy, for example, and just eat everything they eat, it feels indulgent ... and it's also very healthy," he said. "And the key is the food supply is still natural. It's still organic."

"There aren't lots of sprayed food [or] sprayed vegetables in Italy," DiSpirito continued. "They don't allow a lot of messing around with food that we allow in the United States, the GMO-ing, the modifying."

"So healthy and indulgent are not mutually exclusive, but in [our] food supply system ... it's very difficult."