Recently there has been a big shift to online in the fitness industry. There are more overnight experts and Instagram gurus than ever before. This makes it difficult to sift through all of the nonsense and figure out what is real information.
To make sure you have the right information that you can put into action, I wanted to take a moment today to debunk 3 popular fat loss myths that many of us believe to be true.
Myth No. 1: You can spot-reduce fat
For whatever reason, this is a myth that just won’t go away, this one does not make sense. People come to me all the time looking for help, they say things like, “I want to lose the gut,” or, “I want to lose the fat on my arms.” It is not their fault, they have been misled by a lot of people in the fitness industry who continue to spread misinformation.
Think about it this way, if you cannot choose where the fat accumulates in your body. How can you choose where you lose it?
Here is the truth, how do you lose belly or arm fat? Here’s how, constant and intelligent strength training. Eating a diet of whole, minimally processed foods rich in protein and vegetables. With a mixture of short, intense bursts of cardio with longer, lower intensity cardio.
There are a few more factors, however that is next level stuff and let’s just start with something a little more doable.
Myth No. 2: You have to eat 6x/day to lose fat
This is another myth that I just don’t understand. Yes, people successfully lose fat eating smaller, more frequent meals. People also lose fat eating 3 larger meals, and doing intermittent fasting.
Because a celebrity lost 20 lbs. eating 6 meals a doesn’t mean that’s the end all be all. In fact, with how busy most people are with work, school, kids, etc., it may not be the best way to eat.
And that does not mean you can’t lose fat.
For most of us, timing our meals and how many you eat per day just isn’t important. What is important is that you are exercising consistently, and eating the right foods in the right amounts.
For men, this means 2 palm-sized servings of lean protein, 2 fist-sized servings of veggies, 2 cupped handfuls of whole, unprocessed carbs, and 2 thumb-sized servings of healthy fats as a starting point. For women, it’s 1 each of those.
If this is how your meals more or less look and you eat 3-4 meals each day, you will do better in the long run than following some fad diet you read about in Men’s or Women’s Health. You will be a lot happier too.
Myth No. 3: Fat loss is easy
Looking back, we all laugh at the bizarre infomercials about “6-pack abs,” “buns of steel” and the “You Can Do IIIIT” guy. However the fitness wild, wild west than ever. Those 80’s infomercials are just repackaged as a deceptive ad in your Facebook feed.
Let me ask you this. If fat loss is easy, why is 42% of the American adult population obese?
I can’t even escape the deception when I get in my car. We are bombarded with radio ads guaranteeing 20-40 lbs. of weight loss in 40 days.
If it is that easy to lose it, then won’t gaining it back be even easier?
It’s time to accept the fact that fat loss is hard, and it requires hard work, consistency and discipline. What it doesn’t require is starving your and making exercise a full time job.
Please, don’t get sold on the magic bullet or secret sauce, because there is none.
Your best bet? Keep it simple, stick to what has been proven to work, be patient and play the long game. You deserve this for yourself, and you deserve to know the truth.
Adam