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Health is wealth.

Unfortunately, that sentiment has created an industry focused far more on profit than individuals’ actual health, and that has caused many false claims about nutrition and physical fitness to be spread without control. Extreme views in the fitness and nutrition world have been celebrated because these lifestyles receive the most attention on social media, therefore they earn the most profit. However, this has caused balanced lifestyle choices to become less attractive as extreme workouts and eliminative diets grow most popular.

Balance, however, is very important in all areas of life, including physical fitness and nutrition. Extreme diets and workouts cannot only cause more damage than they do good; they can actually cause more stress and can have less success because people have trouble sticking to their unrealistic goals.

So, here are five common myths that have been spread in the fitness and nutrition industry, and healthier ways to actually approach creating a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Myth #1: Carbs are not good for you

Despite the focus of the most recent fad diets, carbs are not actually bad for you.

There are a couple of reasons why carbohydrates are thought to be the main cause of weight gain. First, many carbs are calorically dense, so eating a lot of carbs can mean eating an excess of calories. Second, some carbs are high in refined sugar, which is known to cause inflammation and weight gain. Third, some people are very successful on a low-carb diet. People with a naturally large body type tend to function best when they eat more fats and less carbs. The thing is, not everyone who is overweight has a naturally large body shape – most people who are overweight just have an excess of fat. People who have a naturally large body shape (the endomorphic body type) are actually healthy at a larger size – think of football players or higher weight class wrestlers. The average body shape (a mesomorphic body type) actually functions best when they eat a balance of carbs and fats. 

An excess of any macronutrient, whether it be carbs, fats or protein, can cause weight gain, not just carbohydrates. And there are plenty of healthy carbs that can be part of a balanced diet, such as whole-grain bread, fruit, and starchy vegetables like potatoes. 

If you are trying to lose weight, minimizing your carb intake can be helpful, but drastic decreases in intake or complete elimination of carbs are not necessary for success. In fact, trying to stick to such a strict diet can harbor success, and eliminating necessary nutrients can make it harder to lose weight. So, instead of eliminating or drastically reducing your carb intake, aim for a balance between your carb, fat and protein intake and make sure you are eating healthier carb sources. Try to eat more carbs from whole food sources, such as fruit and starchy vegetables, and fewer carbs from packages. You may find that it’s not that carbs make you gain weight, but that you are eating too many of them or that you are eating carbs from unhealthier sources. 

Myth #2: Doing a lot of high-intensity cardio exercise is the best way to lose weight

Cardio exercise is defined as any exercises that raises your heart and respiratory rate. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a healthy amount of exercise includes doing 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio, such as strength training, hiking or playing sports, for five days per week; or doing 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, such as running, bicycling or HIIT training, three days per week.

Many people seem to think that they have to elevate their heart rate to high levels during every workout in order to lose weight. However, having a balance of moderate cardio exercise and high-intensity cardio exercise during your week is the best way to achieve healthy weight loss. Strength training (a moderate cardio exercise) increases muscle mass, which in turn increases metabolic rate, which means you burn more calories throughout your day. In contrast to this, high-intensity calorie exercises burn lots of calories while doing the workout, but they don’t keep up that caloric burn throughout your day. 

For the best results, try to include both high-intensity and moderate-intensity cardio exercise in your fitness program. If you are trying to lose weight, aim to include a total of at least five hours of physical activity in your week. This can include both cardio workouts and lower-intensity exercises, such as walking and yoga. 

Myth #3: Eating 1,200 calories per day is a healthy way to lose weight

There are a lot of diets that promote restricting calories rather than just restricting one macronutrient to achieve weight loss goals.

Calories are a form of energy. How many calories a food has directly translates to how much energy it gives the body. The amount of calories a food has is determined by how much the body will increase in temperature when eating that food. According to US Department of Agriculture, “one Calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius.”

This is all very scientific, so unless you are pursuing a career in nutrition or biomedical science, it’s unlikely you need to understand how this works. What you do need to know is the higher in calories the food is, the more energy it is supposed to give the body. The reason this sometimes doesn’t work, though, is because heavily processed foods tend to be high in calories but low in nutritional value. This means that they will give your body lots of energy, but only for a short burst of time, which will cause you to become hungry again far sooner than you would have from eating a more nutritionally dense food. This can cause people to overeat. When people eat an excess of calories, meaning they eat more calories than they burn throughout their day, their energy balance is thrown off, therefore they gain weight.

This is the thinking behind low-calorie diets. By decreasing the amount of calories you eat in a day, you will create a negative energy balance, which means you will burn more calories than you eat. When this happens, you lose weight.

However, this doesn’t always work. When calorie intake gets too low, the body can go into “starvation mode.” When this happens, the metabolism, which helps you burn calories throughout your day, slows down in an effort to keep your body safe. When your metabolism slows, so does your weight loss. Eating a strict, low-calorie diet for a longer amount of time can also put the body at risk for a number of health conditions, such as hair loss, infertility, constipation, and hypoglycemia. 

The reason the number of 1200 calories has grown in popularity is because this has been said to the be the minimum amount of calories your body needs to survive. This is true, but that does not mean it’s a good calorie amount to aim for. This is the amount of calories the body burns without doing anything else, which means if you do anything beyond lying in bed all day, you are going to burn more calories than this. In order to achieve a healthy, sustainable weight loss, it’s important that you eat fewer calories than you are burning, but not excessively fewer calories. 

Rather than trying to figure out exactly how many calories your body needs to function, I recommend focusing on your macronutrient intake and exercise volume. When you sit down to eat, make sure your plate includes healthy fats, protein, vegetables, and nutritionally-dense carbs. This way, you will make sure that you are not only eating enough calories, but you are getting your calories from vitamin- and mineral-rich sources that will provide your body with the nutrients it needs to perform at its best. And rather than trying to restrict the amount you are eating, focus more on increasing the amount of activity in your day. This way, you will still be consuming all of the nutrients your body needs, but you will still be achieving a negative energy balance because you are burning more calories through your day. By focusing on your macronutrient intake and increasing your exercise volume, you will be able to achieve and sustainable, healthy weight loss and more attainable nutrition and fitness goals.

Myth #4: Cheat meals and days are a necessary part of a fitness program

Cheat meals are an interesting topic because for some people they are a great way to help them achieve their goals, and for others, they discourage goal attainment.

The thought behind cheat days and meals is that, if you spend one meal or day eating an excess of calories, it will jump-start your metabolism. This can work, but most people who have success with cheat days and meals are benefitting from the mental rather than the physical aspect. Regularly scheduling meals or days that they can eat freely helps people to stick to their daily nutrition goals because they know they will be able to eat more of what they want soon. 

However, for some people, cheat meals and days work the opposite way. Because people  have been restricting themselves so severely, when they are finally allowed the chance to eat something they want, they eat in excess. When this happens regularly, it can actually derail progress that happened during the rest of the week. 

The one thing I don’t like about cheat meals and days is that they imply that eating less nutrient-dense foods is “cheating.” No one likes being a “cheater.” It’s a strict diet mindset that, I think, does more harm mentally than it does any good, mentally or physically.

The best advice I can give is to try to achieve a balance in your nutritional lifestyle regularly. When you see a food you want to eat that is less nutrient dense, enjoy the food, but then try to eat healthier throughout the day to achieve a balance in your eating. Find joy in giving your body foods that make it feel good, and then, on special occasions or when you are craving them, enjoy foods that delight your senses. When you focus more on what your body needs rather than restricting yourself from foods, you will find that your body often craves the foods that will best support it. Rather than incorporating cheat days and meals into a strict diet, focus on building a lifestyle that includes occasional treats and indulgences. 

Myth #5: You have to push through pain in your workouts to achieve results

My fitness feed is often filled with quotes like “No pain, no gain,” written in dark letters against backgrounds of heavy weights. I see posts encouraging people to work harder by saying, “Pain is temporary, pride is forever,” and “Let’s see how far I can go.”“When my body shouts, ‘stop,’ my mind screams, ‘never,’” is another popular quote that I actually find alarming. 

Let me explain the problem behind these quotes. They do have the power to motivate someone, but I think they often push people a little too far. When I first began my fitness journey, it was these quotes that ran through my head as I pushed myself to run just one extra mile, lift just one extra rep, or wake up just a little bit earlier to workout. And these can all be great things to do if you’re listening to your body and know the signs of when to push through a workout and when to give your body rest. For me, with little fitness experience at the time, it was these quotes that pushed me to fracture my leg during a run because of the stress I had put on it. 

Unless you are an elite athlete pushing through intense competitions, pain should not be a regular feature of your workouts. You don’t need pain to grow your muscles; what is needed is discomfort. 

What is the difference between pain and discomfort? Pain leads to injuries, while discomfort leads to growth. When you are just starting out with an exercise program, it can be difficult to tell the difference, but as you continue working out, it will become clear when your body is growing and when it is telling you to stop. 

However, there are a couple of ways to determine whether you are experiencing pain or discomfort. Discomfort is eased as soon as you release the pressure you are holding on your body, either by dropping a weight or releasing a stretch. Discomfort can feel irritating, but it isn’t intense. It builds slowly during an exercise, and it goes away, or at least decreases dramatically, when you stop. Pain, on the other hand, is sharp and intense. It comes quickly and lingers even after you stop the exercise. Pain can affect your form, and it gets increasingly worse if you try to push through the workout. 

If you are feeling discomfort, it is okay to continue to push through the exercise for a short while – this can lead to muscle growth and increased exercise adaptation. However, if you feel pain, stop the exercise. Giving your body the rest and recovery it needs can make the difference between a day off from the gym, or weeks to months recovering from an injury. 

There is a lot of confusing, conflicting information in the fitness and nutrition world about how to approach a healthy lifestyle. The best advice I can give is to listen to your own body. It knows what it needs. 

If you need some help navigating the plethora of information about health and wellness, or if you need some guidance in your fitness journey, contact me. Evolve is focused on achieving a healthy, balanced lifestyle through holistic wellness, mindful eating, and activity that fits your way of life. 

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