The post about our HIIT cardio routine will come next week. . . For now, we had to debunk an article!
On Facebook, people post a lot of links to articles and tips for health, “weight loss,” and nutrition; Often times there are quality articles out there, but it seems like almost as often, there are articles posted that are misleading, incorrect, or have their hearts in the right place but don’t understand science.
Case in point, this article.
Now, I admire that they’re trying to give lifestyle advice to people seeking it, but there are a lot of tidbits of information here that are just plain wrong– You can’t completely fault them, though. A lot of what they write are recycled health and nutrition myths that almost everyone believes. (Before I was enlightened, I believed them too. Honest mistake!)
Error #1: Fat is the only result of excessive calories. Let’s start with their explanation of what a calorie is. They very correctly state that it’s a unit of energy, but then they go on to say that if your body doesn’t use it for energy, it will store it as fat. What about eating an excess of calories after hypertrophy (weight training to failure) training? The result of that “unused energy” is muscle tissue. Perhaps they’ll argue that you’re “using” that energy, but if the author tried to claim this, then they would not be able to claim their “Calorie neutral” stance. What’s that?
Error #2: “Practice being ‘calorie neutral. . .'” They explain that this means you should burn the calories you consume before eating more. Their logic states that, they’re pretty sure your 400 calories breakfast will be burned off by the time you eat again. What if you eat a lot of fat, which takes hours to completely metabolize? I know I’m being picky here, but seriously, a beginner error (that I even I made) is treating all calories equal, when you must take macro nutrients into account– All calories are different. (To relate to the muscle building rhetorical claim from error #1, if you’re “calorie neutral,” then you can’t eat enough to gain muscle, ever.)
Error #3: Nutrient timing is too real! Be afraid of dinner! Wrong. A common beginner error is to believe that you shouldn’t eat after 6 or 7 PM, and more importantly, you shouldn’t eat carbs. This is an old wives tale, and I really wish this thinking would go away. To quote the article: “Now, if you eat a 1,000 calorie dinner, I can guarantee you that, unless you will be sprinting for the next 2 hours afterwards, you’ll store these calories as fat to be used later. It doesn’t matter if you eat carbohydrates, fat, or protein, if you’re body doesn’t use it, it’ll store it as fat.” At the end of the day, the only way you’ll store those calories as fat is if you ate above your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) throughout the day. If your TDEE is 2000 calories, and you end the day at 1600 calories, with 1000 of those eaten during dinner, the result is the same as if you ate 4 meals at 400 calories each– You will lose weight as you will be in a caloric deficit.
Notice I said “weight” and not “fat.” They also incorrectly state that the macros don’t matter for fat storage (and thus, body composition). Well, it does if you’re eating above or below your TDEE. Fat and Protein won’t directly contribute to fat gain, whereas carbs can have a direct effect on your Adipose Body Mass / ABM (read: Body Fat). Again– Not all calories are created equal. Graduate past this!
On top of all of that, I would argue, as would others, that you should only eat carbs at night. Thus far I have seen fantastic results by isolating carbohydrate intake to late in the day, after weight training.
Error #4: Eating breakfast kick starts your metabolism! This is something that, I’m pretty sure at one point we advocated, but is now in the myth column as far as nutritional research is concerned. Your body does not need you to “kick start” your metabolism by eating– If you’re healthy and have a healthy metabolism, your body will burn calories just as it should regardless. Admittedly, they claim in the article that you’ll burn them at a “normal” rate instead of an accelerated rate, however, the amount of calories you would burn by “kick starting” your metabolism are negligible. (Also, there are great benefits to skipping breakfast) If there’s any adjustment to be made to breakfast, it’s to avoid carbs at all costs. Carbs in the morning can trigger an insulin response, which can promote fat storage and can start the blood sugar roller coaster early. (We reiterate this in the next point.)
Error #5: If you skip breakfast, you’ll be so ravenous that you will eat junk food! Well, that really boils down to self control, and whether or not you have it. It’s also worth noting that if you eat your carbs for breakfast, you will have a carbocrash earlier, which could lead to making you ravenous. Instead, if you use Intermittent Fasting to push your breakfast later, or stick to low to no carbs, you won’t run into that problem.
At the end of the day, if this advice is helping you to lose weight, keep on keeping on– Just understand that the advice given in this article is flawed, and eventually, your goals will likely need to expand outside of the myths.