Busting Health & Fitness Myths
I used to love watching the show mythbusters on tv.
The show would take commonly believed ideas and try to prove or disprove them by testing them out.
As a coach, I essentially get to do the exact same thing.
So… Today I’m going to debunk some of the most common health & fitness myths.
Diets work…
Diets DO work … until they DON’T.
All diets claim to get great results.
Paleo.
Atkins.
Low carb.
Cambridge.
Low Fat.
Fasting.
Slimming World.
… Even the werewolf diet
Any diet can help a person achieve weight loss initially.
The problem is the ability to maintain the results.
Before doing a diet…
Here are some powerful questions to ask:
How long can you maintain this current style of eating?
Does your lifestyle allow you to stay regimented on this specific diet?
What happens after you’re done dieting?
For many people, they get great results on a certain dieting system in the short term.
But as soon as they can no longer continue on that diet, for whatever reason, they put all the weight back on.
As well as the weight gain, there may be an even greater cost:
Less confidence due to being a “failure”
Less money from buying diet products or paying a subscription
Malnourishment depending on the diet
Whats the solution?
Rather than going on “A Diet”
Start to improve “Your Diet”
Eat in a fashion that you enjoy, that is sustainable and that is progressively taking you toward better nutrition and your goal.
Progress may be slower.
But the results will last forever.
‘x’ or ‘y’ makes you fat.
This is a short, sweet and simple one.
Anybody who says that “insert food item” makes you fat, is wrong.
You’ve probably heard lots of things that can make you fat:
Carbs.
Sugar.
Fats.
Eating after 6pm.
Fruit.
However…
The only thing that leads to increased levels of body fat is a calorie surplus over a consistent length of time.
Which means technically anything can increase your body fat, if you’re eating an excess amount of calories.
If you enjoy a donut, you can eat a donut and still lose fat.
The problem with labelling specific foods as fattening is that it becomes overly restrictive.
When someone feels heavily restricted it’s so much harder to be consistent.
If ever you’ve done a highly restrictive diet, which I have…
Life just feels like it sucks!
Saying “sorry, can’t have one, I’m on a diet” is not a good feeling.
The solution is to create awareness of your calorie intake… and account for what you want, without consistently being in a calorie surplus
Weight Loss = Fat Loss
There is a difference between weight loss and fat loss.
Weight is measured on a weighing scale and comprises of everything on the scale in that given moment.
It could be:
Fat
Muscle
Bone
Water
Or even the phone we left in our pocket
It doesn’t distinguish between mass.
Think of it like asking somebody “what’s the score to the football game?”
And they reply “there has been 6 goals”
It’s true…. But it doesn’t give you much information.
It doesn’t tell you who scored, when they scored or the momentum of the game.
Scale weight alone then isn’t an indicator of our body fat levels.
Which means then…
If you aren’t happy with how you look due to having too much body fat.
The scale isn’t the only measure of progress you should be using.
I suggest taking your body measurement (hips, stomach, thigh)
And also taking progress photos to visibly assess how lean you are.
If we solely rely on scale weight as a measure of success, then we’re setting ourselves up for disappointed because it can fluctuate so drastically.
This can lead certain people to become very demotivated and perhaps even quit due to weight fluctuations … Despite the fact they were probably getting closer to their goal… they just didn’t know it based on scale weight alone
Lifting Weights makes you bulky
If you listen to the podcast, you should know that I advocate resistance training for almost every goal!
If somebody wants to build muscle, lift weights.
If somebody wants to lose body fat, also lift weights.
How does that work?
Whether we build muscle or lose fat depends on what state our body is in.
Our body can either be breaking down body mass for energy
or
creating new body mass out of a surplus of energy.
There are various factors that influence whether we are in a building state or a breaking-down state…
but the primary factor is our calorie intake.
If we are in a calorie deficit, we are losing mass.
If we are in a calorie surplus, we are gaining mass
So food intake very heavily dictates our response to exercise and training.
It’s worth noting that…
Even if you are in a calorie surplus and you’re lifting weights,, it’s still not easy to add muscle.
It takes, precision, dedication and patience over long periods of time.
It doesn’t happen accidentally.
It’s even harder for women as they have lower levels of testosterone.
Cardio Burns Fat
I believe one of the most strongly entrenched beliefs in health and fitness is that cardio burns fat.
In fact, I even see personal trainers telling their clients this exact thing.
However, it isn’t strictly true.
As just mentioned… the only thing that burns fat is a calorie deficit over time.
Which means fat loss can occur simply from dietary changes alone.
The other half of creating a deficit is increasing calorie burn, of which movement will play a role.
But…
As a society we seem to have taken this way too far.
We’ve created this idea that we have to sweat and basically melt our fat away by burning lots of calories when we exercise.
So when wanting to lose fat, we see people tend to do 2 things:
Drastically reduce calories
Start doing lots of aerobic exercise, like running, swimming or cycling.
This will most likely create some weight loss and fat loss initially, but will eventually lead to a plateau.
(perhaps this has happened to you)
The reason we plateau is because our metabolism will slow down to become more efficient as a result of less food and more cardio.
A slower metabolism means that the body will burn less calories at rest.
Which means to lose more body fat, a person has to either:
Reduce Calories Further
Do even more cardio
Which usually results in a person burning out, running out of time or quitting.
The optimal way to achieve fat loss then is to have a small calorie deficit and keep the metabolism as high as possible.
We can do this by eating foods high in protein, Resistance training and getting good sleep!
Treat your body like a sports car, not a golf buggy.
Summary
The truth is…
I could probably continue busting countless wild claims that I see being made on the topic of health and fitness.
What’s saddening to me is that the vast majority of people believe what social media, tv and magazines say.
This leaves people overly- fixated on their weight, restricted by dieting, afraid of food and not getting the best results from their training.
Myths like the ones I’ve covered today are the reason so many people are unhappy with how they look and feel.
Discovering the truth about getting results will set you free from the lies the health & fitness industry has told for decades.