There’s so much confusing information out there when it come to health, fitness, weight loss and what we should be eating, so I thought I’d do a little ‘myth buster’ email for you.
Here’s some common fitness and nutrition myths that are NOT true…
1. Eating fat makes you fat
- it only makes you fat if you consume too many total calories. Certain healthy fats such as salmon, eggs, avocado and olive oil have tons of benefits for the body and are great to eat, you just need to stay aware of portion sizes as they can be quite high in calories.
2. Eating sugar makes you fat
- again, only if you consume too many total calories. Sugar is obviously not great, but in moderate amounts as part of a generally healthy diet, and when you’re not over-eating in general, it’s absolutely fine and won’t make you gain weight by itself.
3. You should always eat breakfast
- if you’re not hungry first thing in the morning, there’s nothing wrong with waiting until later in the day before you start to eat. Particularly if weight loss is your goal, it doesn’t make much sense to force yourself to eat, when at other times of the day you’re hungry and then have less calories available. Eat whenever suits you – if you’re hungrier later, save your food until then when you’ll enjoy it more.
4. You need to eat every 3 hours to stoke your metabolism
- this isn’t necessary and studies have shown that there’s no real difference on your metabolism by the end of the day no matter how frequently or infrequently you eat. Total calories are what matter most.
5. Protein is bad for your kidneys
- if you’re currently healthy and have normal kidneys, eating more protein is completely fine.
6. Protein is just for men who want to build muscle
- protein is great for anyone – man or woman – who wants to feel fuller for longer, appear lean and toned, and have a strong, fit, healthy body.
7. Salt is bad for your blood pressure
- it’s not – it’s the balance between sodium and potassium that’s a more important marker of health. If you like salt, balance it out by eating more potassium-rich foods such as bananas, spinach, broccoli, potato and beans.
8. Weights training makes women get bulky
- it doesn’t – we don’t have enough testosterone to grow big bulky muscles. Instead it makes us stronger and more toned and aids weight loss.
9. To lose weight you just need to eat healthier foods
- unfortunately not true – calories count above everything else. You could eat the healthiest foods on earth and let nothing ‘bad’ pass your lips, but if your calories are too high you’ll still gain weight rather than lose it.
10. Eating late at night makes you gain weight
- only if you eat too many total calories for the day. If you stick within your body’s calorie needs, it doesn’t matter what time you start or finish eating. If you eat a large amount quite late in the day, you may weigh slightly more the next morning simply because you have more food inside you, but that will drop back to normal very quickly and you won’t have gained fat.
11. You need to do lots of running or other cardio to lose weight
- not true. Cardio helps to improve fitness and burn more calories, but it isn’t essential for weight loss. You DO need to keep active, but this can come from walking and daily activity if you do enough of that. If you want to lose body fat and look more toned, weights training is highly recommended. This will encourage your body to keep hold of muscle and preferentially burn more fat, so you appear lean and toned rather than skinnier and potentially still with a few ‘wobbly areas.’
There’s probably a few things I’ve missed out so if you’re still confused and have a question you’d like answering, just hit me back with an email and I’ll be happy to help.
Speak soon!
Hayley x