Scott Murray: The Side Effects of Being Shredded

Your hunger will increase. 

Irish YouTuber and health coach Scott Murray died suddenly at home on February 23, 2023. He passed away from heart failure while cooking his own dinner.

He received a BSc in Health and Performance Science from University College Dublin, graduating with 1st class honors. He had a MSc in Food, Nutrition, and Health, also from University College Dublin. He was an ITEC qualified personal fitness trainer and had a BTEC advanced diploma in Nutrition and Health Coaching. 

He was a bright, funny, kind, sensitive, and generous man. 

When I heard of his passing, I was like, is it real? I don’t believe it. About a month ago I said you don’t look like you’re doing so well health wise. It seems like perhaps you’ve lost a little bit of weight. 

I originally got into fitness back in school, when I was an overweight teen with a poor relationship with food and severely upset about my appearance.

You rely on caffeine for energy.

He said behind the scenes there’s a lot of stress and anxiety. I feel like I can’t shut it down, that it’s always on my mind, and I cope with that with exercise. But don’t worry about me, I’m gonna be fine. 

As a result of the sheer lack of knowledge available at the time, I lost too much weight too quickly and thus ended up the complete opposite: underweight, still with a poor relationship with food. 

He was truly one of the kindest people you can ever come across, with a great heart. He even told me I needed to rest more from my workout.

After years of being the chubby kid, I crash dieted and became a skinny stick insect with practically no gains to show. Not that I have many at the moment to be honest. From there I slowly reversed back up to where I ultimately am today: lean and somewhat muscular, although that is highly debatable.

I’ve seen this in the past and so I was just shocked. I just didn’t think it was actually happening.

I wake up pretty much at the same time every day. I’ll bang out a few urgent emails. I’ll even drink out of the same cup. Then of course I go outside, bang out the morning steps, even the same stroll around my block. 

Everyone really loved that guy. Every comment was so positive, even recent ones where people were concerned about his weight.  I can’t believe how much energy he had while being 5% BF and running on 4 hrs of sleep!

So overall I’m still doing way too many steps, considering how much I burn from my workouts. But overall it’s like 15 to 20,000 steps. Okay, on big-ass recording days, sometimes it goes to like 25,000.

Hope you got the sickest gym up there my man. RIP. 

You’re peeing all the time. 

He just put on a brave face, but behind closed doors he wasn’t. He kinda made me aware of that as well. But he said that he was on the road to recovery. He felt like he was getting better, and he said, as cliche as it was, I see a light at the end of the tunnel. So I was really thinking, oh yeah, this is great. He’s gonna get blood work done, he’s gonna be healthy, he’s got it. It just didn’t happen. 

This tragedy has made me so angry at the diet and fitness community I can’t put it into words. Let me say this unequivocally: the fitness industry DOES NOT CARE about anyone’s health. They do not care if YOU DIE. 

I already know you’re asking, but Scott, what about the things that bring you joy, like traveling, socializing, partying? Look guys, as weird as it might sound, I just enjoy eating food, going to the gym, creating content, and coaching. Helping you guys out. I know it’s sort of hard to believe. 

He had a fierce determination to succeed in all he did.

Your workouts suck. 

He was passionate about health and fitness, so obviously I could see in him what I see in me. And to see fitness possibly being one of the causes of what took him away from us so young, it just really saddens me. 

I wanted him to dial it back a bit and encouraged him to do so. He felt he would be a snowflake for doing so.

I’ve literally been putting off working out all day. I feel like shit. I did not want to do it, so I pushed it to the very last minute at the end of the day. And I already know that would not have ended up well. It’s just gonna be in your head the whole day. So if there’s an opportunity to tick the box, take it, and you will feel so much better afterwards. Knowing that I have this day free to tick off the other boxes is so much more relaxing. 

Oh my God, the shakes are starting.

He said I’m getting my blood work done every year. I’m gonna get it done sooner than later. I’m gonna make my gains back, trust me.

Nowhere near as good as yesterday.

You live in the shops, looking at all the food you can’t have.

Just gives me mad flashbacks to when I was really not that well with anorexia. Hope this isn’t the case for Scott.

The saddest moment was when the pastor said he had a successful following on social media and had thousands of friends. If that’s my eulogy, just walk over to my casket and shoot me again.

Technically, I do eat the same things every day. But when you guys are here I like to spice it up a bit.

This “save them” mentality is so damaging to those who are close and want to help them. It’s not easy to save someone from themselves.

He was always a maverick entrepreneur. At school he and a pal set up a very profitable undercover enterprise selling chocolate bars and sweets. We spent many hours helping him bag up bargain Lidl sweets to be sold at a handsome profit.

You need a hundred bags of spinach just to get full.

Literally making my rounds at the grocery shops again, because I have no life. I have nothing better to do than to provide you value through some sort of video. But anyway, back to liquid calories.

My body literally feels like it’s been run over by a bus or a steamroller.

Not being disrespectful or anything but ngl this dude was always super weird and hard to watch. He clearly had body dysmorphia, but people weren’t really saying anything.

He was without a doubt one of my favorite people. Highly intelligent, quirky, and funny. Extremely driven. RIP, my friend, Mr. Fit Potato.

You dread walking up stairs.

So we’re banging out steps, walking down to get dinner, which itself is gonna be high volume, high protein, low calorie. All of the good points. And just like that we’re at the Lidl. That’s right, two times in one day. But realistically, they already think I’m a freak, so who cares?

All the love this kid gets and all the hate Bostin got shows you a lot. Both were struggling with their own issues, and yet people had sympathy for one and vitriol for the other.

I remember telling him that I was afraid of eating more. He opened my eyes and helped me to eat more and train hard to have balance. I made him a drawing of the things he did for me.

You have to bring a cushion everywhere you go.

I haven’t gained the weight back that I lost during quarantine. I am actually very, very lean at the moment. Probably leaner than I have to be. 

We must look not to his own personal shortcomings, but to that wonderful work he did, to love and support other people. 

I do sort of want to gain back the weight, get a little floppier, so you see these cheeks turn into Mr. Oval Face. Then please, put up with me. 

You spend three hours making high volume meals.

The volume eating meals he showed had virtually no fat. They were literally just vegetables and some protein. Even though it was obvious he had an ED, no one in the fitness community showed concern. What did they do? They supported the actions and promoted the same diets and workouts.

So realistically the message of this video is, staying shredded is not conducive to overall health. You will have all these metabolic adaptations.

You watch calorie challenges all day. Your overall food focus will increase.

He wrote back, don’t worry about me. I’m doing fine. I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I’d like to say that I have the discipline to be able to fight this off.

This wasn’t just some sort of hobby. It was a vocation. His mission, to gather people together and to help them to make sense of their lives, to make their lives better, and to make them more fulfilling.

Okay, here we go Mum. Sum up my lifestyle in one word.

CONSISTENT.

Consistent. Okay. That’s a good one.

DEDICATED.

You can’t sleep.

SAME STUFF ALL THE TIME.

Okay, calm down.

You’re cold all the time.

OBSESSED.