This is going to be a two part series on the biggest fitness myths. I tend to overwrite and since there’s so much BS out there in the fitness world, it’s hard for me to fit it into one article.
With all of the the conflicting information out in the world, it can be hard to know who and what to believe.
You’re not alone because I use to believe almost all of these myths.
Yepp, at some point in time I fell for these. Luckily I have learned from personal experience and have read legit research that dispels these fitness myths.
Usually, there’s two groups fighting between extreme opposite opinions. The problem is that they don’t provide a solution to what really matters – To help everyday people improve their health and body composition.
Ironically, the answer usually lies somewhere in the middle. But, the middle doesn’t get any attention or make money which is why you never hear about it.
In this article, I am going to clear up the shit and spit out facts so next time someone tries to sell you on one of these myths, you can kick them in the dick and run away.
This is my version of the fitness myth busters based on what I personally hear everyday.
Hopefully by the end of the article, I will clear some things up for you so you can have the knowledge to know when someone is trying to play you.
I’ll try to keep it as short as possible but with no promises. Enjoy.
Where Do These Fitness Myths Come From?
One thing to keep in mind is that the fitness industry is filled with companies and people trying to make a quick buck.
They prey on misinformation and impatience in order to sell you a product. The sad part is it works.
Supplement companies are notorious for this. They make false claims that trigger the pain points of you, so your persuaded to buy their product with the false hope that this is the magic potion that will solve all your problems.
Think of products like detox teas, fat burners, multiple supplements, snake oils, and fad diets like carnivore and keto.
It works because the person loses weight and thinks it was the supplement that did it when in reality, they were in a calorie deficit the whole time.
While some may have good intentions, they are only muddying the waters even more for everyday people who don’t know what to believe.
That said, it’s time to dive into the first five fitness myths and explain why they’re complete bullshit.
Fitness Myths #1: Eating Carbs Makes You Fat
The recent success but fading popularity of the keto, carnivore, and to some extent the paleo diet has made the fear of carbs more prevalent than ever.
The claim is that carbs, and its evil sidekick insulin makes you fat, therefore you should eliminate all of the delicious carbs out of your diet if you want to lose weight.
The keto zealots make you think eating one donut will make you fat. How dumb does that sound? Who the hell ever got fat from eating a donut?
This is by far one of the biggest fitness myths out there right now.
Although low carb diets may help you lose weight faster, it’s important to remember that weight loss and fat loss are not the same.
The rapid weight loss at the beginning of low carb diets comes from the loss of muscle glycogen and water weight.
As a result, pounds of water are flushed out of your body. This is not fat – it is water weight.
Another thing to keep in mind is that low carb diets tend to include more healthier foods which are lower in calories and promote less eating. You’re also eliminating a whole macronutrient from carbs and all of the calories that come with them.
While it may seem magical at first, it’s not.
Eventually, many people hit a plateau and end up gaining all the weight back they lost because cutting out carbs is too rigid, strict, and not sustainable for them.
Now, let me clarify that I don’t have a problem with any specific diet. If the diet works for you and you truly enjoy it, then that’s amazing. (I even use to be a keto zealot haha)
The problem I have is people think they have to eat a certain way to lose fat. As a result, they set strict rules with themselves that they aren’t allowed to eat certain foods because those certain foods are “bad”.
This implies you did something wrong. There is no good or bad food and eating a fucking piece of cake does not make you a bad person or mean that you did anything wrong.
You aren’t a dog that deserves a treat and you’re not a toddler who gets grounded for throwing a temper tantrum. You are a freaking grown ass human being that can have whatever you want when you want.
This type of thinking is what makes these diets unsustainable and destroys your relationship with food.
Listen to me closely: eat your damn carbs. You can have whatever you want and lose weight.
It’s called energy balance. As long as you eat less than you are burning (calorie deficit!) then you’ll lose weight.
What About Insulin? Doesn’t That Make You Fat?
Let’s dive into a quick breakdown of how your body breaks down carbs and uses insulin.
- You place the delicious carbs in your mouth, chew, and swallow them. I’ll use bread as an example.
- The bread is broken down into glucose (little sugars) and released into blood. As a result, your blood sugar rises
- Insulin is then released, which is supposed to help take the sugar, fat, and other nutrients out of your blood (blood sugar) and get it in your muscle cells, fat cells, or your liver cells for later use. Think of insulin as a key to unlock the cell door for glucose to enter.
- Boom. Blood sugars and insulin levels are now down and everything is back to normal.
It’s true that when insulin levels are high, it turns off your body’s fat burning mode.
This is where insulin and carbs get a bad reputation and where the thought of insulin makes you fat comes from.
However, this thought is misleading because your body prefers to use the energy from carbs before anything else since it’s more efficient than using your stored body fat for energy.
Therefore, even though insulin slows down fat burning, it doesn’t prevent you from losing fat.
Insulin is only elevated for a certain amount of time depending on how much you eat. Therefore, during the time it’s not elevated in between meals, your body is able to go back to burning fat.
What matters is the total amount of calories you burn over the course of the days and weeks.
And what about protein? That spikes your insulin. You don’t hear people telling you not to eat protein, right?
As you can see, insulin is not the bad guy here. Without insulin your blood sugars would elevate so high that you’d die. So yeah, I’d say that insulin is pretty damn important.
Then Why Does Our Society Have an Obesity Problem?
The main culprit for the rise in this obesity epidemic is not due to carbs and insulin. It’s a result of the society we live in that promotes sedentary lifestyles such as playing video games and sitting at desk for hours a day. Then you have the easy access to hyperpalatable foods that are easy to overeat.
Boom. A Brutal combo to gain weight.
We eat more and move less than we used to. It is really as simple as that.
It’s not the result from the spikes of insulin from eating carbs.
The total calories you eat are what matter at the end of the day and if you are in a calorie deficit you will lose fat regardless if you eat carbs or not.
Am I telling you to eat all the carbs and you’ll be ok? No. I am saying to stick to the basics: More protein, more fruits and vegetables, be more active, lift heavy ass weights, and fit your carbs in wherever you’d like.
Pick a diet that works for you that includes the foods you like and can sustain forever.
Don’t limit yourself to certain foods just because. Go off of how your body feels more than anything else. If you hate carbs, then eat more fat. If you hate fat, then eat more carbs.
Fitness Myths #2: Calories Don’t Matter as Long as You Eat Healthy Food
Piggybacking off of the “carbs makes you fat” fitness myth, this one makes a little more sense but is still utterly and completely false.
Again, it all comes down to energy balance – calories in vs calories out. So, if you eat more calories than you burn you will gain weight.
“Even if you don’t count calories, calories always count” – a phrase I learned from Jordan Syatt.
When talking about fat loss, it doesn’t matter if you eat healthy food or complete junk, how much you eat matters more instead of what you eat.
That said, just because food quantity matters more, it does not mean that quality does not matter.
Healthy or clean foods contain vitamins and minerals that are essential to your body’s health, function, growth, performance, and overall improved quality of life.
Furthermore, what makes a food great for fat loss is its low calorie density or the amount of calories it contains for how much space/volume it takes up in your stomach.
Usually low calorie dense foods are more filling because they contain less calories and have a good nutrient profile, more protein, and more fiber. So, eating these foods definitely makes being in a calorie deficit easier.
Some examples are:
- lean proteins
- fruits
- vegetables
- yogurt
- eggs
- starchy carbs
- grains that are high in fiber like oatmeal.
As a general rule, 80-90% of your calories should come from whole unprocessed foods. These foods are typically located on the outer isles of the grocery stores and aren’t in wrappers, packages, and boxes.
Save the other 10-20% for your cookies, pizza, and ice cream because you should still leave room for enjoyment. This is great for adherence and can still be healthy for you by reducing food cravings as long as you keep your calories in check.
That said, just because these foods are healthy does not mean you can eat as much of them as you want and expect to lose weight. Obviously, you can do whatever you want, just don’t be mad when you don’t see the changes.
Examples of “Healthy” Foods That Can Be Making You Fat
Unfortunately, plenty of companies out there take advantage of these fitness myths and label their products as “healthy”.
Just because a food is labeled as healthy does not mean you can eat as much of it as you’d like when trying to lose fat. This is especially true for oils, “healthy bars”, smoothies, shakes, avocado, dried fruit, fatty meats, dairy, etc.
Here are a few examples:
- Some fruit juices and smoothies are labeled as being “healthy”. Meanwhile, they are packed with hundreds of calories from sugar and keep you wanting more. Stick to whole fruits that contain all the healthy nutrients and fiber.
- Another culprit I see is oils, sauces, and dressing. My goodness do people abuse these. One serving can be up to 200 calories and I’ve seen people add half the body to their salad or dish which can be anywhere from hundreds to thousands of extra calories added.
But hey, it’s a salad so I guess it doesn’t matter since it’s healthy. Try to buy low fat low calorie dressing and measure out the amount you are using.
- Peanut Butter is considered a healthy food and it also is one of the most delicious tasting things on this planet. On top of being delicious and easy to overeat, it is extremely calorie dense – meaning it is high in calories for a serving.
Just because it’s healthy doesn’t mean you can eat as much of it as you want. If you ate a whole jar, that would be close to 3,000 calories which is far more than what people eat in a day. Either stick to the small serving that is weighed on a food sclae or give PB powder a try for almost half the calories.
For foods that are calorie dense, it’s probably not a good idea to make that a staple of your diet if you have portion control issues because they typically aren’t very filling.
*Important note: Make sure to track and weigh your portions with a food scale so you can accurately keep track of how many calories you are eating.
Fitness Myths #3: Lifting Heavy Weights Makes You Bulky
Ladies, this one’s for you.
(and men too, but I mostly hear this from women)
Besides one of the biggest fitness myths that carbs make you fat, this one irks me the most because it doesn’t make any sense.
It goes something like, “I don’t want to lift heavy weight and build muscle because it will make me bulky.”
No. Just no.
Quick story: I once had a trainer tell me that they were having their clients lift light weight because their client doesn’t want to get bulky…
*Facepalm*
The bulky look comes from having a high body fat percentage. Not from building muscle.
So, if you try to build muscle and eat like an asshole then that’s what you can expect.
If you build muscle and keep your calories in check, you’ll lean out.
The reality is that building muscle for females and even males is hard.
Almost every female, except the genetically physically gifted or the ones who use steroids, can’t build enough muscle to make them look like a bodybuilder.
This is because women don’t produce the same amount of hormones as men such as testosterone and also have to deal with their menstrual cycle, which makes it nearly impossible to build that amount of muscle naturally.
You’d have to train very hard for years, have amazing genetics, and still would likely need to take some form of drugs to get in that shape.
Oh yeah, you also have to eat a shit load of food since it’s way harder to build muscle by eating in a calorie deficit.
Does that sound like weightlifting randomly makes you bulky? For the majority of people no.
Why You Should Build Muscle
You see, building muscle is the key ingredient to a lean and toned body. This is because when you build muscle, you are increasing your metabolism, so your body burns more calories and fat, which shapes out your body.
Ironically, this is how you get lean and toned. By building muscle and getting stronger. Not by toning exercises which don’t exist and is another fitness myths in itself.
So lift heavy, strength Train 2-4 times a week, and read my “Best Exercise For Fat Loss” article for more detail
And don’t be scared to look bulky. It won’t happen.
Instead, you’ll get tighter, leaner, more curves, and look good naked which is what we all want, right?
In addition to looking better, you’ll move better, feel better, have improved skin, hormones, mood, energy, increased metabolism, and overall health.
Can you imagine having these as you age?
Building muscle is the key ingredient to long term health and sustainable fat loss. If you don’t believe me, take a look at my clients results.
Fitness Myths #4: Meal Frequency and Timing Matters To Lose Fat
Although this has faded over the years, at least from my perspective, there is a thought that eating more small meals throughout the day “ramps up your metabolism” so that you burn more calories.
Then you have the fasting zealots who think you should eat one meal a week. Ok, maybe not that extreme but they think eating too frequently is the devil.
To keep it simple, meal timing doesn’t matter for fat loss. What matters is how many calories you eat at the end of the day.
If you lost weight from 2 meals it’s because you ate less. If you lost weight from 6 meals it’s because you ate less.
Same goes for gaining weight. If you gained weight, you ate more food.
Maybe for you, eating 6 small meals a day keeps your body satisfied.
Or, maybe 6 small meals makes you more hungry. As a result, you prefer 3 meals a day.
It’s up to you what you want to do. Don’t over complicate it.
Let me explain why..
How Your Body Burns Calories From Digesting Food
When you eat food, your body burns calories/energy to digest the food, known as the thermic effect of food (TEF), to create it into more energy for later.
How many calories you eat is how many calories your body burns to digest the food. So, if you eat 200 calories, your body will burn 200 calories.
If you eat 6 smaller meals, your body has smaller but more frequent bursts of calorie burn. On the other hand, if you eat 3 bigger meals, your body has less frequent but bigger bursts of calorie burn.
At the end of a 24 hour period, the energy your body uses to digest food would be the same no matter how many meals you eat.
Here is a crappy table I made so you can picture how this works:
Meals | Calories Eaten Per Meal | Calories Burned Per Meal | Calories Eaten Per Day | Calories Burned At The End of The Day |
3 | 667 | ~667 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
6 | 333 | ~333 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
See? No difference in total calories burned. The person who eats 3 meals per day burns 667 calories three times a day. While the person that eats 6 meals a day burns 333 calories six times a day. Both end up burning 2,000 calories.
The only time meal frequency may matter is when you aren’t eating enough protein. In this case, eating more meals per day helps prevent the loss of muscle. So make sure you are eating enough protein.
Generally speaking, it doesn’t matter whether you eat 1 meal, 2 meals, 3 meals, 4 meals, 5 meals, or even 6 meals. In order to lose weight, it all comes down to the same thing – a calorie deficit.
Fitness Myths #5: You Can Spot Reduce Fat
How great would it be if you could pick a spot on our body and magically make the fat disappear?
Although it’s something we dream to be a reality, unfortunately it’s not possible. You can’t spot reduce body fat by working out a certain area of your body from exercise.
If you want to tone your flabby arms, doing bicep curls and tricep extensions won’t do the trick (remember there are no toning exercises).
Or, if you want to lose belly fat, doing endless amounts of crunches until your stomach burns and begs for mercy won’t magically make the belly fat disappear.
This is because you have muscle cells and you have fat cells. You can’t shape them – only build them and break them down.
So, you’re not “toning” a muscle. You’re building it up and losing fat which makes it show more and gives your body that toned look.
How come some places lose fat faster than others on your body?
The reality is genetics play a big role in where your body fat comes off first and last. When you are born, your DNA says where you will store fat first and lose fat last.
Men tend to hold most of their fat in the upper body in the mid section which is where the beer gut comes from, while women tend to hold most of their fat in the lower body in the hips, butt, midsection, and thighs. .
While there are common fat storing areas, we are all made differently which means that we hold fat in different areas.
You may lose arm fat first, while I may lose back fat first. Unfortunately, belly fat is usually the last to come off for most people.
This is because your body has specific mechanisms to purposefully lose fat in the arms, face, chest, and back first while saving the stomach area for last.
It is important to realize that not all fat is bad as some fat is considered essential to protect your organs, keep you warm, and make hormones that are important for your body’s health and function.
It’s the extra stored fat that becomes dangerous and causes health problems.
If you stay consistent and committed to the process, the fat will eventually come off everywhere you want. Some spots just take longer than others and require more strictness (hello stubborn belly fat).
It won’t be easy and it will take a long ass time. Depending on your current physique it could take years. But, that is not to say it is impossible.
Picture yourself and visualize who you want to become, stay patient, stay consistent, and continue to get better every day and after a few years I think you’ll be pleased with the results.
Conclusion:
Hopefully this article helped dispel some of the common fitness myths that you see everyday.
And hopefully it will be easier for you to spot a fitness myth next time you see a crazy claim.
If you are ever questioning whether or not to believe something, ask yourself “does this sound too good to be true?”
If the answer is yes, then most of the time that is the case.
Part 2 will come sometime in the near future. I hope you enjoyed part one.
Thanks so much for reading!
-Bob
Ps. If you have any questions, email me at bobhooverfitness@gmail.com. I will be more than happy to help.
Pps. If you’re interested in 1:1 Online Fitness Coaching, apply here to see if we’d be a good fit.