You’ve probably heard all kinds of fitness myths throughout your life like “you’ll gain fat if you eat late,” “you can spot reduce body fat,” or “you need to do a lot of ab exercises to get a 6-pack.”
Are these types of claims actually true and proven by science?
By the end of this article, you’ll know for sure. We’re taking a closer look at these 10 biggest fitness myths of all time:
MYTH 1: CARBS MAKE YOU FAT
False. Eating too many calories makes you fat.
A study from the Department of Nutrition at Arizona State University found no major differences in fat loss, muscle loss, or overall weight loss between low-carb dieting (~5% calories from carbs) and high-carb dieting (~40% of calories from carbs) when protein intake was equal.
Based on the current metabolic research, low-carb diets do not appear to yield any fat loss benefit over high-carb diets.
In a study analyzing the effectiveness of low-fat versus low-carb diets, researchers from the University of Glasgow concluded, “Differences between low-fat and low-carb diets are marginal. Optimizing adherence is the most important factor for weight loss success”.
Low-carb diets are a sham. Don’t follow them.
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MYTH 2: EATING LATE MAKES YOU FAT
There is some truth to this actually, but many people overemphasize the detrimental effects of eating late by proposing that all calories consumed past a certain time of day turn intro body fat.
In general, it is better to finish eating a few hours before going to bed, but you’re not going to get fat from eating late. It mostly comes down to energy balance: calories in versus calories out.
But if you follow a schedule that allows you to eat a majority of your calories earlier in the day, you’ll likely experience slightly accelerated fat loss compared to eating more of your daily calories in the evening.
MYTH 3: IF THE SCALE GOES UP FROM ONE DAY TO THE NEXT, THEN IT’S BECAUSE I GAINED FAT
This is NOT true.
Daily fluctuations in your body’s water balance, eating schedule, training schedule, sleeping schedule, and stress levels can mask fat loss for a short period of time.
Let’s say that from one day to the next, you “gain” one pound according to the scale. This is totally possible even if you are focusing on fat loss and doing everything right (maintaining a caloric deficit, exercising regularly, etc.)
Well, it takes approximately 3,500 calories of excess consumed energy to gain a pound of body fat. So if you burn 2,000 calories per day, you would need to eat approximately 5,500 calories to gain a pound of body fat in 24 hours. That is the ONLY way you can possibly gain a pound of body fat.
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Daily fluctuations are mostly due to changes in your body’s water balance. A gallon of water weighs around 8.3 pounds.
Measurement errors can also play a role in masking progress. To limit day-to-day body weight fluctuations as much as possible, I highly recommend that you weigh yourself at the same time every day, preferably in the morning before you eat or drink anything.
But even if you weigh yourself every morning at the same time, your body weight can change due to numerous factors. So if you nailed your diet and training the day before, but the scale shows an increase in body weight, don’t stress. It doesn’t mean you gained body fat.
This is why I recommend that you don’t worry too much about day-to-day fluctuations, but rather track your weekly average body weight. Weekly averages offer you a clearer picture of your progress. To do this, you could weigh yourself every day and then calculate your weekly average body weight every Sunday morning. If you find your weekly average body weight dropping every Sunday, then you’re progressing.
All of this being said, please don’t let the scale define your progress. It is simply a measuring tool to make sure you are heading in the right direction. Always remember that your main goal is to improve your body composition, not lose weight.
MYTH 4: WOMEN SHOULD TRAIN DIFFERENTLY THAN MEN
At the end of the day, both men and women want to improve their body composition by reducing body fat and building muscle. And when it comes to the optimal training approach to improving body composition, there is no evidence that says women should train differently than men. Regardless of your gender, heavy compound weightlifting should be your primary training focus.
Many dieters do understand the importance of resistance training but tend to believe that lifting light weights for tons of reps is the key to getting lean and toned. This is completely false.
Performing countless repetitions with light weights does not improve leanness, muscle separation, muscle density, or vascularity. High-repetition, light-weight training also doesn’t burn more calories in comparison to a training program with fewer repetitions centered around heavy weights.
In a study conducted at Ball State University, researchers analyzed the body composition and performance differences between a high-repetition, light-weight training program, and a low-repetition, heavy-weight training program in healthy women. The 34 women in this study were randomly assigned to one of three groups:
Group 1: Performed high-repetition, light-weight training with minimal rest between sets.
Group 2: Performed a heavy-weight strength training program with most of their repetitions between 70% and 90% of their one-rep max (1RM). Note: Your 1RM is the maximum amount of weight that you can lift with proper form for an exercise. If your 1RM on deadlift is 200 pounds, then lifting weights between 70% and 90% of your 1RM would mean that you are lifting between 140 pounds and 180 pounds.
Group 3: Performed no resistance training. This was the control group.
In 24 weeks, Group 1 shredded 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) of body fat and gained 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of lean muscle. That’s not too bad. However, Group 2 blew their results out of the water by shredding 8.8 pounds (4 kilograms) of body fat and gaining 7.3 pounds (3.3 kilograms) of lean muscle.
Group 2 also demonstrated greater increases in upper and lower body maximal strength, increases in muscular power and speed, and increases in high-intensity local muscular endurance. This study proves that heavy-weight strength training is far more beneficial than light-weight training for women who want to shred fat and get toned.
As illustrated by this study, there are enormous benefits of resistance training for women, but the idea of lifting heavy weights is often met with concern. In my experience, many women tend to refuse lifting weights altogether, or they lift weights that are so light that they will never be challenged and will never make progress.
The major fear that holds most women back is that they don’t want to get “big” and “bulky” by lifting weights. But in reality, naturally low testosterone levels prevent women from looking manly.
Women, you must understand that you simply do not have the right mix of hormones that enables men to get big and bulky. Men typically have about seven to eight times as much testosterone as women, yet it takes years of heavy weight training and proper eating for us to get big and bulky.
The super muscular women that you see on the cover of bodybuilding magazines use tons of supplements to achieve their physiques. In many cases, they also use drugs. So you’re not going to lift weights one day and look like the Hulk tomorrow. Your body will slowly change over time and you can always alter your exercise program or meal plan if you get to a point of muscularity that you do not want to cross.
MYTH 5: YOU CAN SPOT REDUCE BODY FAT
The only way to make a particular area of your body leaner is to reduce your overall body fat percentage, which will reduce fat everywhere on your body. This is a function of diet more than anything else.
Another thing you need to know is that people’s bodies are different in terms of where they lose fat first and more easily, determining which areas are more stubborn and last to lean out. Unfortunately, the areas that take the longest to get lean are usually the ones people are most concerned about: the abdominal area in men and the pelvic region, thighs, and butt in women.
There is no supplement, device, or any other trick to spot reduce body fat in a particular area. None. Zero. It is NOT possible, so just focus on healthy overall fat loss.
MYTH 6: WHEN DOING CARDIO, YOU WANT TO GET YOUR HEART RATE INTO THE “FAT-BURNING ZONE”
Cardio machines often show pretty graphs indicating where your heart rate should be for “fat burning” versus “cardiovascular training.” You calculate this heart rate by subtracting your age from 200 and multiplying this number by 0.6. If you keep your heart rate at this number, then you’ll supposedly be in the “fat-burning zone.”
There’s a kernel of truth here. You do burn both fat and carbohydrates when you exercise, and the proportion varies with the intensity of exercise. A very low-intensity activity like walking taps mainly into fat stores, whereas high-intensity sprints pull much more heavily from carbohydrate stores (specifically your glycogen stores).
At about 60% of maximum exertion, your body gets about half of its energy from carbohydrate stores and half from fat stores (which is why many “experts” claim that you should work in the range of 60–70% of maximum exertion). In the short-term, this means that you will burn slightly more body fat. But if you maintain a moderate caloric deficit in the range of 15-30% for more than a few days, then you burn through your glycogen stores.
The average human can store about 500 grams of glycogen in skeletal muscles and about 100 grams of glycogen in the liver, which overall yields approximately 2,400 calories of stored energy. Once you burn through those 2,400 calories of glycogen, and continue maintaining a caloric deficit which means that your body will quickly burn ingested carbohydrates, then your body will be forced to rely on burning stored body fat for energy.
Furthermore, studies conducted by Laval University, East Tennessee State University, and the University of New South Wales have shown that shorter, high-intensity cardio sessions tend to result in greater fat loss over time than low-intensity sessions. Research has also shown that high-intensity training is more muscle-sparing than low-intensity cardio.
MYTH 7: YOU HAVE TO DO CARDIO TO GET LEAN
Numerous studies have proven that cardio alone does not have any fat shredding benefits. This is because dieters who engage in regular cardio tend to eat back the calories they burn.
Doing cardio can certainly help you burn fat when combined with a proper diet, but if you eat too much, your body will simply replace the burned fat with the excess calories you’re feeding it. This is exactly what happened in a study conducted by researchers at the University of Kansas.
Women who engaged in regular cardio (four sessions per week that burned an average of 440 calories per session) saw no changes in body weight or body fat percentage after 16 months! The men in this study fared slightly better, shredding 10.8 pounds (4.9 kilograms) of body weight in 16 months by doing regular cardio (four sessions per week that burned an average of 670 calories per session). But even at that rate, it would take you 30 months to shred 20 pounds!
This research indicates that it is simply too easy to eat back all the calories that you burn from cardio. And this is something that most cardio-focused weight loss programs seem to struggle with.
The typical cardio routine that I see dieters follow goes like this: they burn a few hundred calories in an hour of grueling torture to “earn” the right to eat a bit more food or have a slice of cake after dinner, desperately hoping that their efforts will eventually yield results. This is equivalent to saving up a few hundred dollars from a job that you hate just to buy something that you don’t need, desperately hoping that one day you will be rich.
The only possible outcomes from this approach are lost time, frustration, and no results. The better approach is to burn a few hundred calories with an hour of intense weightlifting. Weightlifting will help you to shred fat while also building, or at least maintaining, lean body mass.
MYTH 8: YOU DON’T NEED TO COUNT CALORIES IF YOU EAT HEALTHY FOOD (COMMONLY KNOWN AS “CLEAN” EATING)
Many vegan dieters tend to think that you can just “eat clean” to lose weight by consuming all of your calories from healthy, nutritious foods. There is a degree of truth to this, since many healthy, nutritious foods are incredibly filling and have low caloric densities. In fact, I practice clean eating myself, and highly recommend it. But don’t fall prey to the illusion that clean eating will be the savior to your fat shredding struggles.
If you burn 2,000 calories per day, but somehow manage to eat 3,000 calories of raw fruits and vegetables, you might have perfect blood work (which is awesome!) but you’re not going to shred any fat. However, if you burn 2,000 calories per day and only eat 1,600 calories of junk food, you will lose weight.
Remember the fundamental principle of fat loss: you must eat fewer calories than you burn to shred fat. This holds true regardless of the foods you consume. To prove that energy balance is the only thing that matters for fat loss, Professor Mark Haub from Kansas State University conducted a weight-loss experiment on himself in 2010. He started the experiment at 211 pounds and 33.4% body fat. Over the course of two months, he lost 27 pounds on a junk food diet of Twinkies, Doritos, and Oreos.
Of course, I don’t recommend that you adopt a junk food diet to shred fat. Fat loss shouldn’t come at the expense of your health. But his experiment reinforced the fundamental law of fat loss. It doesn’t matter if you just stick with “clean” whole foods, if you don’t maintain a caloric deficit, then you will not shred fat.
One gram of carbohydrate found in kale contains the same amount of energy as one gram of carbohydrate found in maple syrup. That’s because one gram of carbohydrate is always going to be worth four calories, regardless of food source. This is why so many vegans fail to shred fat by simply “eating clean.”
By eating nutritious plant foods, they give their bodies an abundance of micronutrients, which is fantastic. But they also feed their bodies an abundance of calories, which stops fat loss. You simply cannot rely on “eating clean” to achieve your fat shredding goals. Nutrient-dense foods are optimal for your health, but that doesn’t mean you can eat as much fruit as you want.
MYTH 9: GLUTEN-FREE IS HEALTHIER
A gluten-free diet is only healthier if you have a diagnosed gluten sensitivity or celiac disease. Gluten is not harmful to other people. Companies know people think gluten-free is healthier, so they put gluten-free on their label and triple their price to make more money. And often there are fewer nutrients in these gluten-free products. So unless you have a diagnosed gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, you do not have to consume gluten-free foods.
MYTH 10: YOU HAVE TO DO LOTS OF AB EXERCISES TO GET 6-PACK ABS
False, you need to have a low body fat percentage. And the only way to get a low body fat percentage is to burn fat, which requires that you consume fewer calories than you burn for some length of time until you reach your desired level of lean-ness. That’s why people say that abs are made in the kitchen.
With that being said, if you want strong abs that “pop,” then you definitely want to do ab training. But the trick is actually adding extra resistance, not just doing bodyweight ab exercises.
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