Myths

Fasted Cardio: Myth or Fact?

Fasted cardio is one of the hottest topics amongst dieters, especially those who compete in body building. The idea of doing cardio on an empty stomach first thing in the morning makes sense to some people – with no immediate source of energy, won’t your body burn stored fat for energy? There’s compelling evidence for and against fasted cardio, so I thought I’d break down the main points of various studies for both sides and let you chose.

FOR FASTED CARDIO

One study that is often cited (Bonen, A. et al. (2008). Effect of training in the fasted state on metabolic responses during exercise with carbohydrate intake. Journal of Applied Physiology. Apr;104(40):1045-55) showed that training fasted actually increased your muscle glycogen stores, making it a great adjunct to endurance athlete’s training. The idea is that increasing the body’s ability to store glycogen will allow athletes to compete at higher intensity long term.

Another study looked at supplementing your fasted cardio with caffeine and yohimbe and found that this increased catecholamines in the body, which helped to break down fat stores more readily. So fasted cardio, at least in the short term, increases the bodys’ ability to burn fat.

But, that’s pretty much where the science ends. The idea of fasted cardio – that your body would used its reserves instead of readily available food – was greater than the research. Now powerhouses such as Dr. Layne Norton and pretty much all of science have decided the cons far outweigh the pros.

AGAINST FASTED CARDIO

A lot of data for this comes from a study done through The Strength and Conditioning Journal (Volume 33). They found that the thermogenic effect of exercise (that is, your long term calorie burn) is HIGHER if you’ve eaten before exercise. They also found that training fasted decreased your overall energy output, so if you felt sluggish you didn’t put as much effort into a training session as someone who ate before.

What is more alarming than this is the catabolic effect fasted cardio can gave. Muscle catabolism is exactly what everyone wants to avoid – why train fasted if you could possibly lose muscle in the process? Proteolysis (the break down of protein) is higher in fast training and nitrogen losses more than doubled in this state.

So what’s the take home message with these studies? Know your goals. If you’re trying to maintain muscle and lose fat then eating something before doing your cardio (oatmeal, BCAAs, egg whites, pop tarts, etc.) can help you from losing muscle and keep your energy high. If you’re an endurance athlete then fasted cardio can contribute to your glycogen stores. With this information you can make appropriate decisions based on your own goals and levels of fitness.

February 9, 2014 Exercise, Fat Loss, Myths, Science, , , , Read more >

Is Social Media Destroying Fitness?

This may seem like a funny topic for a fitness blog to cover.

See, without social media I would have never turned down the fitness avenue that I did. Without the influence of Tumblr I never would have known about powerlifting or figure competitions or any of the sports I compete in. I would probably still be that girl that eats 1200 calories a day and tries to run 5 miles through horrible shin splints.

But with great power comes great responsibility. For every social media maven out there that’s changed someone’s life for the better there are 15 that spout absolute bullshit that is harmful and problematic. Think of Tracy Anderson telling women not to lift more than 3 pounds, or the constant recycling of fitness myths that have long since been busted (like eating every 2 hours to “rev your metabolism”) or the shaming of non-able bodied people. Think of fitspo images, which are just poorly disguised thinspo images, with their endless white thin women highly sexualized with horrible slogans over them.

Really, though, is social media destroying fitness?

Social media has helped the average Joe with a great body become internet famous and suddenly a guru. Instagram accounts become collections of fitspo and Twitter rehashes the same 180 word catch phrase every morning.

Social media has also helped bring people together. Future fitness competitors find their coaches, a newbie can have their squat video critiqued by those who know more, and you’re suddenly a click away from your fitness idol.

By the same stroke you have anonymous Internet “experts” telling you that squatting below parallel will destroy your knees and that benching with an arch is cheating. IFBB pros update their accounts with videos of them performing exercises with horrible form or talking about their dangerously low calorie diet like it’s absolutely normal.

Social media is a blessing and a curse and, I think, needs to take responsibility for its actions. If someone on social media is doing something harmful (like stealing pictures off Instagram and Pinteresting them tied to their weight loss site) they should be called out for it. Social media sites should remove things with harmful content – like diet plans with 900 calories or people without any nutritional background selling diet or exercise plans. While it may be common sense for some to not take advice from a fit 18 year old it’s not that way for young, impressionable men and women looking to lose weight and fast. As a fitness community we should be charged with wanting to keep the name clean and doing no harm. Support, encouragement, blocking those who make harmful comments on pictures, and taking an active role in the content we share.

Fitness has changed our lives for the better – why wouldn’t we want the same for everyone else?

January 4, 2014 Body Positive, Myths, Read more >

If Spot Reduction Does Exist, Why Are There Classes Called “Butts and Guts”?

I’ve mentioned before that “lengthening” muscles doesn’t exist, and that“toning” is a horrible misnomer. I’ve also written about how spot reduction – the idea that a thousand crunches can get you a six pack – is a crock of crap too. To people heavily invested in fitness these aren’t new ideas or concepts. With this knowledge, though, why are there classes like “Buns and Abs” or “Glute Smash” at the gym?

If we look back to my toning article we see that “toning” is really just a euphemism for “decrease fat and increase muscle mass.” If we renamed these classes appropriately they’d be called “Increase Your Heart Rate While Lifting Weights For Multiple Repetitions.” If I were going to the gym to lose a few pounds or to get into shape I definitely would not go to that class. Part of the reason we have these classes named this way is for marketing.

Additionally, let’s look at the clientele. People going to Buns and Abs want to create a tight, firm butt and a thinner waist with definition. Popular media tells these people that exercises like squats with weight, deadlifts, too much running, etc. will create the polar opposite of this. Naming classes this way creates a safe place for these people to be introduced to these exercises and see the positive changes they make for that individual’s body.

Unfortunately, not all classes or trainers use these names for the above reason. At some gyms, such as my school gym, a person can attend a one-day class and pay $50 to become a certified trainer. From then on they can teach any class or train any person at the gym. Obviously not all trainers fall into this category, many of them are incredibly intelligent individuals who undergo rigorous testing to become personal trainers. There are still plenty of trainers who don’t fall into this category and genuinely believe that doing a few hundred crunches a day will create a six pack. These people will perpetuate these myths and create a potentially dangerous environment for those new to fitness.

At the end of the day, we build muscle by challenging it and we lose fat by creating an energy deficit, either through exercise or diet. Where we lose weight is determined first and foremost by our genetics. Fat does not turn into muscle, muscle does not turn into fat, and doing a thousand bicep curls will not get rid of your arm fat. These classes introduce people to weight lifting in addition to cardiovascular activity in an attempt to increase muscle mass while decreasing body fat.

February 22, 2013 Exercise, Myths, , , , , , , , Read more >

Q: Why do people always tell me I’m going to “gain it all back” when I’m on a diet?

Whenever someone mentions that they’re on a diet of any sort, there’s always one person who chimes in with “You’re just going to gain it all back when you stop your diet!” Do these claims actually hold any weight?

Why They’re Right

If you look for scholarly articles about diet adherence you get 181,000 results. These articles will tell you everything from people who go on Atkins to people who make small, noticeable changes to their diet and exercise. In a lot of these studies people failed to adhere to their diets for a long period of time, or they reached their goal weight and then packed on more weight than they had before.

So what gives?

There is no one right diet that fits everyone. If you’re embarking on a new diet and you pick a carb free one, yet you’re the type of person who is cranky and unmotivated without carbohydrates, you’re bound to fail. Likewise, people who enjoy high protein meals aren’t going to do well on a diet low in protein.Picking a style of eating that fits you is often the most important factor.

Second is that certain diets don’t really teach people how to pick what they eat. They give them a meal plan they must adhere to, but do little to educate the dieters on WHY they’re picking certain foods over others. These diets may be easy to adhere to if you never encounter social situations or eating outside of your house…but what happens when you go out to dinner with friends? Without properly educating people about HOW to pick ideal meals these people rarely LEARN anything, other than how to follow diets presented in a book.

Diets also often require sweeping changes for people. One day they’re eating whatever they want, then suddenly Monday (or the first of the month/year) comes around and they’ve eliminated soda, chocolate, bread, decided to exercise 5x a week and always have a clean house. These changes can get overwhelming very fast and can lead to feeling deprived or resentful.

Another huge issue with dieting involves the feelings of deprivation. How many times have you decided to go on a diet, so the night before you go to a buffet or order a giant pizza all to yourself. Some people describe this as a “last supper” type of situation where you’ll never, ever get to eat pizza ever again so you need to eat as much of it NOW. From then on pizza is a “bad” food. Creating this dichotomy leads to deprivation and resentment.

So, using these facts, it’s easy to see why someone would fail to adhere to a diet and then gain all their weight back afterwards. Without learning how to deal with food and exercise in a long-term fashion people often return to their old habits, which is why they were unhealthy in the first place.

Why They’re Wrong

The bulk of weight loss involves a simple calories in vs. calories out fashion. To lose weight, you must be in an energy deficit. To maintain weight, you break even. To gain, you have an energy surplus. So if you’ve met your weight loss goals you can increase the amount of food you eat as long as you’re at maintenance for your weight. People who follow this idea will not gain the weight back.

Additionally, the word “diet” is often vilified. A “diet” is just what you eat. When people learn that I eat high protein and carb-cycle, they immediately ask me if I’m on the Atkins diet. Just because I’m on a diet of high protein high fat foods, doesn’t mean I’m necessarily on a certain diet. Someone may have started their dieting journey with the Atkins diet, found that it worked fabulous for them and continued to eat high protein, high fat and low carb. Since this is a type of diet that is easy for them to maintain longterm they will stick with this type of eating and not gain their weight back.

Other diets teach people to make better food choices, such as Weight Watchers. These diets that focus on making healthier choices both inside and outside of the home teach long term habits. They also don’t involve “exclusion diets,” where the dieters feel like they’ll never eat pizza ever again. By encouraging people to plan their meals or even review their meals in terms of health, they’re learning where they picked up the extra pounds. It teaches people to get the dressing on the side of their salad, or to substitute fried chicken for grilled. These are long term habits.

What a lot of people don’t consider is their support system. Those who go onto a diet with friends or family members for support have long term success because they have personal cheerleaders. If their friends know they’re trying to lose weight and are actively trying to do the same they’re less likely to suggest diet sabotaging behaviors (like getting drunk food or excess study snacks).

If a diet is rewarding it’s more likely to be adhered to. People who see results, who are encouraged by friends and family, and who don’t feel deprived will begin to incorporate these habits into their life long term. They realize that health and weight loss are marathons, not sprints, and make the decision themselves to adhere to diets or changes in their eating patterns.

Weight Loss/Diets/Etc Are All About Your Mentality

Before you embark on any weight loss journey (or even a journey to a healthier state of mind), make sure you ask yourself some questions.

  1. Is this diet going to make me feel deprived?
  2. Can I afford (financially and mentally) to make these changes?
  3. Is this something my friends will support? If not, are my friends really friends if they are sabotaging me?
  4. Do I have a support system when I’m feeling down?
  5. Is this something I can maintain long term?
  6. Do the benefits outweigh the downsides?

Educating yourself on what you’re eating, making small changes here and there, and surrounding yourself with supportive people are the most important aspects of a healthy life and a long term weight loss (and maintenance!) plan.

October 28, 2012 Fat Loss, Myths, Nutrition Read more >

Do high protein diets cause kidney failure?

No.

Extensive studies have shown that high protein diets do not cause any kidney failure. Articles on the topic have been published in everything from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition to JAMA, and they all say the same thing: high protein diets will not cause kidney failure.

First, let’s look at what it means to be in kidney/renal failure or to have kidney/renal disease. In order to see the first signs of kidney malfunction (PU/PD) 66% of your nephrons (the little tubules that work to concentrate your urine) must be damaged. In order to see further clinical signs, and to fit the actually classification of “failure,” you have to lose 75% of your nephrons. Your kidneys have incredible mechanisms for compensating for renal losses.

So where does this myth come from?

In those patients who already experienced some sort of kidney failure, switching to a low-protein diet was shown to decrease the acceleration of damage. Many made the false connection that this meant that the byproducts of protein metabolism are causing actual harm to the kidneys. In reality, it’s not so.

Let’s take a parallel argument.

A healthy, young person approaches you and says, “I would like to run a 5k.” Exercise is good for you, so you tell that person, “Yeah, go ahead!” The person runs the race with no adverse effects. Now say someone approaches you with a broken leg and says, “I would like to run a 5k.” Exercise is still good for you, but for this particular person running may not be a good idea. Running could cause further damage on the already broken leg. If anything, you’d recommend decreasing the use of that leg. Does that mean that exercise is bad? No. It’s just that it’s not a good idea for this particular person.

What a lot of articles fail to mention is what constituted as a “high protein diet.” Protein intake requirements are highly individualized based on type and amount of activity. In some of the studies done people were measured at 2-3x the recommended daily amount (10-30%) of protein and saw no adverse effects. Without being able to pin-point what constitutes as a “high protein diet” there’s really no merit to any claim of its ill effects.

If you are a healthy person with no history of kidney disease there’s no need to be concerned about high protein causing any disease. However, like any medical illnesses, if you’re a person with a compromised kidney then you should always seek medical advice before making any changes to your diet or routine.

August 30, 2012 Myths, Nutrition Read more >