When it comes to understanding weight loss we don’t blame you for finding it hard to separate myth from reality. The reality is, in the nutrition and training space one expert will tell you that the key to weight loss is one thing while another expert will tell you to do the complete opposite.
So to better understand are these experts telling the truth we recommend doing your own research based on scientific facts but for today we are going to share with you four myths about nutrition and training you can safely avoid;
NUTRITION MYTHS
Carbohydrates Are Bad For Weight Loss
There are many myths around food and this is one of the reasons people gravitate towards a range of fad diets with little science and plenty of hype. While there might be situations a person would be best served on a low carbohydrate diet, in many cases it is completely unnecessary.
When it comes down to choosing the right diet, not just the low carb diet, the most important question we should ask ourselves is ‘can I sustain this diet long term?’
The reason is, in a study where they looked at a range of different diets including low carbohydrate to see what diet is more effective for weight loss they come to the conclusion that all diets are equally effective when caloric intake is equal and that a person would be more successful on a diet they can sustain long term (1).
So if you enjoy a low carbohydrate diet then certainly it could well be a great way for you to lose weight and we should also mention that carbohydrates are a great source of fuel for an active person.
Rest assured if you enjoy carbohydrates, you’re moderately active and monitor your total caloric intake, you can and will be successful with your weight loss while including carbohydrates in your diet.
Eating Less Food Helps You Lose More Weight
As mentioned above, caloric restriction is the number one tip you can receive when it comes to weight loss but as is the case in many walks of life we sometimes make the mistake of thinking more is better.
Extreme caloric restriction is known to lead to a lowering of resting metabolic rate which means ultimately you are now burning less energy with everything you do (3) . An example of this would be if you were to eat 800 calories and during your day and then metabolically you burned 1500 calories, this would create a large deficit and you would lose weight.
As the days and weeks pass maintaining that exact same caloric restriction our daily metabolic rate would begin to decrease due to a change in physiological demands. This slowly reduces the caloric deficit we created eating 800 calories per day with our only choice to then continue to lose weight is eat even less (highly not recommended).
We strongly recommend seeking the help of a health professional who will teach you how to maintain a nourishing diet while creating a small yet sustainable caloric deficit.
TRAINING MYTH
Weight Training Won’t Help You Lose Weight
When a client tells us they want to lose weight they often are surprised (some even scared) when we include weight training. The notion that weight training will make us heavier or bulky is one that is common with the female population but the data to support this theory is weak.
Weight training can indirectly help a person lose weight by increasing metabolic rate (2) which increases the overall caloric expenditure while being a great tool for helping a person build the strength and movement capabilities to perform conditioning exercise safely at a higher intensity. This will assist long term weight loss.
So while per minute exercising cardiovascular training is more effective in terms of caloric burn weight training is still a helpful and highly recommended tool for weight loss and management.
Exercise More And You Will Lose More Weight
With great intentions many gym members think that by exercising more they will lose more weight. On the surface it makes complete sense and in many cases there are a lot of people who would benefit from more daily movement but research has shown that the human body is constantly adapting to the training stimulus we put it through and that even know we could be exercising more this might not equate to more calories being burnt (4).
While this is a great sign for your fitness levels and aid in higher levels of training performance it can make losing weight challenging especially if your extra training load is causing you to want to consume more energy. This is one of the very reasons we often hear people say that when they first started their weight loss was going really well only for it to plateau to a point they even started gaining weight.
A fitness tip to avoid these weight loss plateaus is to program your training constantly adjusting the training intensity and volume so that the body is always being challenged before incorporating a deload or lower intensity week to recover before going through another challenging block of training.
As you can see from the nutrition and training myths we have shared with you the body is a complex organism and is built to be as efficient as possible. When it comes to weight loss myths many are built on people’s own beliefs of what worked for them and while it could work for you we should learn simple weight loss principles and not be bogged down by nutrition and training dogma.
Yours In Health & Fitness,
Chris D
P.S.: Whenever you’re ready… Here are 3 ways we can help you achieve weight loss NOW..
1. Join us for Hybrid
Isolation is no excuse to put your fitness on hold, we are running daily classes up to 3 times a day to bridge the gap between now and when gym’s re-open. Just click HERE and type “Hybrid” in the subject line and we will give you the details.
2. Join us for 1v1 training We realise group training is not for everyone, we also know many of you have goals that are specific and personal so you might want a program written specifically for you. Just click HERE and type “Personal” in the subject line and we will get you details.
3. Get a personalised online training program. If you have the motivation but need us to design you a program that works we can design you a fully personalised program in under 24 hours. Just click HERE and type “Online Program” in the subject line, and I’ll get you all the details!
