Debunking Health Myths
Every industry has its facts, its fallacies and its myths- when it comes to the fitness industry however there are a bunch of myths that never die.
No doubt you’ve heard them all before but today we are going to make our way through debunking some of the big ones where we can hopefully put them to rest for good.
Carbohydrates will make me fat
We have all heard this one, or at least a derivative of it. If it isn’t carbohydrates in general, maybe they only attack after nightfall? For as long as we have been invested in health, performance and most relevant to the carbohydrate myth, aesthetics- this is one scenario that just won’t rest.
Let’s take a look at carbohydrates, what they are important for, are they essential and get to work debunking this myth.
Carbohydrates essentially, are sugars- and they aren’t all created equal. We get carbohydrates from our grains, pastas, sweet potato, potato, fruits and all the way through to our sweetened drinks and sweets. Carbohydrates are usually ranked or measured on their glycaemic index (GI) with simple carbohydrates- think sweets being on the higher end and our starchy carbohydrates- think sweet potato being our more complex carbohydrates with a lower GI.
Each may have their place- sometimes high GI carbohydrates are great post workout whereas the lower GI carbohydrates are better for slower releasing or absorbing energy which we relate to feeling fuller for longer. The higher GI foods cause a big swing in blood glucose taking levels high before plummeting back down. The lower GI foods causing a spike but not quite as dramatic.
We all obviously know that carbohydrates are delicious- myself, I’m still yet to meet one I didn’t like. How then, do we have such a troubled relationship with them?
You see carbohydrates when ingested are converted to glycogen which is then stored away in muscle and liver tissue, surplus to these stores is converted and essentially becomes “stored energy”- this however is just as much influenced by being in a calorie surplus as it is a carbohydrate surplus.
Each molecule of glycogen is bound to multiple molecules of water (carbo- hydrate the devil is in the details) and when we cut carbohydrates out of our diet very quickly we will use the bodies stored glycogen and dispel any attached molecules of water which shows a sudden drop in weight on the scales- when we add carbohydrates back in we see the opposite, our stores fill up, water is bound to it and our weight goes up. This is normal, but when focussed on fat loss can cause a little stress when the number on the scales swings like that.
The simple thing with carbohydrates is we only need, what we need. The more active we are the higher amount of carbohydrates we require- less active needs less carbohydrates.
What is worth mentioning, multiple studies searching for the best diet found that it didn’t matter what diet you were on, the only factor that showed a result in fat loss was when the subject was in a calorie deficit (burning more calories per day than they consumed through food/drink). This was true in high carb and low carb diets. Total calorie intake was more important than macronutrient manipulation.
Body Fat Spot Reduction
Another myth that has sunk its claws in and refuses to let go, the idea that you can pick and choose where you will lose body fat. In a perfect world crunches would burn belly fat. Hip thrusts would burn bottom fat. Tricep pushdowns would melt the bit at the back of the arms.
Sadly, it just isn’t so.
We all store fat differently and it’s dependent on a host of factors from our own genetics, through to our lifestyle choices with a heavy amount of that on the side of genetics.
Body fat as we mentioned above is stored energy, or the result of being in a long term calorie surplus which means consuming many more calories than we burn per day. As we enter a calorie deficit (consuming less calories from food/drink than we burn) our body turns to this stored energy to keep doing our thing, the result we lose body fat. Much the same as we don’t have a great deal of control over where we store fat, the same can be said for losing it.
We may well lose fat evenly across our whole body, it just shows up faster in areas like the face and neck and slower in areas where we store more dense fat tissue like our belly, hips, thighs.
In a perfect world we could just point to an area and the fat would melt away but at this point in time it just isn’t so.
To Get a Result I Need to Live in the Gym
Often it shocks people to find you can get a big result, for many- a life changing result in just two to four hours per week in the gym. Of course the time required is entirely dependent on what your goal is. If you’re looking to drop body fat the above time commitment tied in with sound nutritional practices will yield a big result. For our athletic population time in the gym may be similar, time on the field added on top.
Too often people overcommit in the beginning when the minimal effective dose (the bare minimum to see change) is all that is required. We always recommend starting off with what seems easy to begin with. We are in the business of breaking old habits we no longer desire and are trying to implement new and improved habits moving forward. On paper this sounds easy. In the real world its anything but.
Start out easy and every two weeks add a new layer on top. It should take time, in fact it will take time and that should be ok because you’re now looking to overhaul your health and that is something that needs to be as much a part of your lifestyle as your morning coffee- the good habits eventually become rituals or just a part of the day.
Even still, with all that layering the time required doesn’t need to detract from the rest of your life- at Hybrid we always say “your health and performance should fit into your lifestyle, not take over it”.
There of course are a tonne of other myths out there, these are just three of the big ones that pop up for us time and time again- what are the biggest myths you know in the world of health, fitness and performance?