Training & Nutrition Myths (basically a rant)
For some reason the topics of training and even more so nutrition can make the most intelligent people believe or be scare mongered by the daftest things. Often these ideas or mad notions about nutrition and training have some basis. Most likely they have read about it somewhere in a magazine, newspaper or social media article. This article is all about some myths that I commonly over hear people talking about or directly ask me about in the gym. So without further ado lets clear that one up first:

1) Believe everything you read.

First and foremost magazines and newspapers are designed to make money. If they gave the same sensible message about diet and exercise in every article no one would buy them more than once! Secondly, even if they are reporting on an actual bit of scientific research, a large proportion of nutrition research is carried out by the food companies trying to sell them, making the results very tenuous at best. In fact, in a review by Nestle, studies that were funded by the beverage companies were “four to eight times more likely to come to favorable conclusions about the health effects of those beverages” – shocker!

2) You need strong and well trained abs (or “core”) to have a six pack.

You could have the core strength of a small child with spine with all the strength of a piece of cooked spaghetti but if you were a bloke with 10% or a woman with 15% body fat you’d have some ripped up abs.

3) Weight loss is anything other than getting in a calorie deficit.

If you burn more calories than you put in – you will lose weight and that is a simple fact. If you ate 1500 calories of marshmallows and burnt 2000 calories every day you’d lose weight, it wouldn’t be healthy at all but you would lose weight.

4) Your metabolism is somehow genetically slower than everyone else’s.

Simply not true – your metabolism is so closely linked to your lifestyle – your working life, your exercise habits, dietary habits, lean body mass and age are the major factors to affect your metabolism. I hear this one a lot. Typically by people who swing from one diet and exercise plan from week to week. They never really have any consistency with their training or nutrition – coincidentally they also have “slow metabolisms”, sad times.

5) Clean eating will magically make you ripped.

As I stated above the calorie deficit is the main factor for losing weight. You can just as easily over eat clean foods, especially ones high in fat such as nuts and oils etc. However, basing your meals around real, unprocessed foods (fruit, veg, potatoes, rice, meat, fish, nuts etc.) will dramatically increase your chances or being successful with a diet. This is simply because those foods generally speaking are much more satisfying and filling (largely because they contain not very many calories for relatively large portions – especially meat, fruit and veg). Obviously eating like this will also be much healthier for your insides!

6) Eggs will give you cancer/heart disease/high cholesterol/get you mugged in the street.

Ridiculous notion really. If you have one of the above diseases chances are EGGS aren’t the food that’s caused it. On a serious note, current research suggests that eating transfats can be a risk factor for increasing cholesterol. But there is no legitimate research I have seen to show that eggs cause any harm whatsoever.

7) You can easily get sufficient protein from plants sources.

Think seeds, nuts, lentils, tempeh etc. – unfortunately the only plant sources that actually contain all the amino acids (for a protein source to be considered good it should at least have all the amino acids) are quinoa and soy based products. If you consider a small chicken breast to be a good portion of protein for a meal – to get the same amount of protein from quinoa you’d have to eat ~750 calories worth of it. To get the same amount of protein from cashew nuts (one of the nuts with the highest protein content) you’d have to eat over 800 calories worth of nuts. You get my point – hardly an ideal way to get your protein if your goal is weight loss. I’m not saying these foods are bad for you by any means. I’m not even saying they aren’t sources of protein, I’m just saying they definitely shouldn’t be considered “good” sources of protein. If you’re eating a largely plant based diet, consider supplementation and do your research on what combinations of plants you need to eat to get your full complement of amino acids. When you consider the importance of eating sufficient protein and eating all the essential amino acids on your health, then I would consider trying to get most of your protein from one or all of the following sources: Meat, dairy, eggs, fish, other seafood, protein powder (a great option for vegetarians and vegans in plant based protein powders).
If something you read or hear about seems too good to be true, then it probably is! Get your training and nutrition advice from someone who is qualified, has experience and who’s best interest is you reaching your goals. Don’t get advice from someone on Instagram who looks fit but actually has very little understanding of what they’re doing) and who isn’t trying to sell you a supplement. Train with consistency and try following a nutrition plan to the absolute T for at least 7 days in a row before writing it off.
Rant Over.
Joe Birch BSc MSc Pn1