So reading some of the posts in the nutrition section of ausbb, I've realised that a lot of people here believe in a number of nutrition myths. Call it broscience if you like. Anyway, I wrote up Biggest Nutrition Myths to hopefully let some of you see the light. Some of you will probably abuse me, but whatever.
All of this stuff I learnt from people like Lyle Mcdonald, Alan Aragon and Martin Berkhan. These guys are the real deal when it comes to nutrition. All of their conclusions are based on science from the analysis of studies. If you disagree with one of the below, please post a study or an article that references a study to disprove these. If you have a really big problem with one of these, let me know and I'll post the articles and studies for you.
1. Carbs make you fat. No, excess calories make you fat. These calories can come from carbs, fat, protein or alcohol (if you drink). Although, it's unlikely for most people to be consuming excess protein, so usually the problem is a combination of carbs and fat. The fact is, if you aren't losing weight, you aren't in a calorie deficit. The insulin spike of food does not determine how much fat you gain. Note: Carbs should still be reduced during fat loss, however this is because we need to reduce calories and protein takes preferences over carbs and fat. But we don't need to go a very low carb diet to lose fat.
2. Eating 6 meals per day is better than 3. There is no metabolic advantage of eating more frequently. Skipping breakfast or any other meal or doign intermittent fasting will not make your metabolism crash. There is no limit to how much protein can be absorbed in one meal. Eating 6 times per day will not help you lose fat. Some people will feel more satiated on 3 meals per day, others will feel better with 6 per day. Find what works best for you.
3. Eating more food at night/more carbs at night will make you fat. Once again, it doesn't matter when you eat. It's the total calories over the course of the whole day that matters, and restricting carbs after 6pm or something similarly silly will not help you lose weight, unless, of course, it reduces the total amount of calories over the whole day.
4. Separating carbs and fats will improve weight loss. Once again, the total calories over the day is what matters, not how you combine your food or when you eat your food. This may be a good que that works for some people in order to help them stay in a calorie deficit. However, if people use this rule in order to let themselvs eat all the fat them want in one meal and all the carbs they want in another meal, it obviously isn't going to work.
5. Eating "clean" will result in less fat gain. No, once again, calories are what matters. If you eat the same amount of calories and protein on a "clean" diet and on a "dirty" diet, your gains in fat and muscle will be basically the same. This is worth repeating: the effect on body composition of two different diets with the same calorie and protein contents is virtually the same. However, obviously clean foods should make up the base of your diet for health and other reasons. Note: I am not advocating a diet of cake and protein shakes! But having some pizza and cake every now and then will not make you gain more fat that eating perfectly clean, if you account for the calories and get sufficient protein.
In summary, calories are king and of course getting sufficient protein. Everything else matters much less. I might go over some other myths at a later date, but these seem to be the main ones that I can think of right now.
Enjoy and let the abusing me begin.
Edit: Here's 5 more Nutrition myths, with some contributions from Oliver04 (Myths 6-8, which I added more info to).
6. You should worry about GI. Some people think that potatoes or watermelon are bad because they have a high GI. This is basically bullshit. The Glycemic Index firstly fails to take into account the glycemic load (eg watermelon has a high GI but only 6g sugar/125g) and a low GI does not determine a foods insulin index. And even if it did, the insulin spike does not determine how much fat is gained. Not to mention the fact that when you eat different foods together, such as a high GI food with some protein, the rate of absorption of the high GI food is slowed down. Maybe if you are a diabetic you can worry about the GI. For the rest of us, if you are eating healthy, worrying about GI is a waste of time.
7. Not eating enough makes your body go into "starvation mode". According to a study of physiological changes during a controlled starvation in obese subjects (Owen and colleagues, 1998) after 18 days their REE (resting energy expenditure) decreased a whole 8%. This means that low calorie ingestion will slow down your metabolism but not significantly. Also quote by Lyle Mcdonald:
"In one of the all-time classic studies (the Minnesota semi-starvation study), men were put on 50% of their maintenance calories for 6 months. It measured the largest reduction in metabolic rate I've ever seen, something like 40% below baseline. Yet at no point did the men stop losing fat until they hit 5% body fat at the end of the study."
And only 15% of the drop in metabolic rate was due to the metabolism slowing down, while 25% was just due to the drop in body weight. That's after eating half their maintenance calories for 6 months! So forget about your metabolism slowing down, if you aren't losing weight, you are probably just eating too much.
8. Each extra kilogram of muscle burns 100 calories per day. According to 'Dissecting the energy needs of the body' (McClave, 2001) which gives a detailed description of the calorie requirements of various organs and tissues, at rest an extra kilo of muscle burns 13 cal per day as opposed to a kilo of fat which burns 4.5/kg/BW. This amount is insignificant, as it means that by adding 10kg of muscle, you will be burning an extra 130 calories per day. Woop de doo, eat a large banana.
9. You can gain 10 kilograms of muscle in 3 months. The reality is that a beginner is doing very well to gain 1kg of muscle in a month. Along with some fat. Maybe he can gain a touch more than that, in the first couple of months, but without steroids or muscle memory, that's about the best you can get. It slows down even further as you advance from the beginner stages.
10. You can be a natural, ripped 100kg guy, at a height of 175cm. The reality is that there is a limit to how much muscle mass the human body can carry. There's a reason that most natural bodybuilders are less than 90kg on competition day. My favourite model for working out your maximum muscle mass is Martin Berkhan's model. Take your height in cm minus 100, that's your maximum weight on the bodybuilding stage. Now, bodybuilders are at about 5% BF and a bit dehydrated. So, if we take my height of 186cm, 186 -100 = 86kg. Add 2kg for dehydration, we get 88kg at 5%. At 10% BF, I would weigh 93kg. I would only achieve this after several years of dedicated training. Some genetic freaks can outweigh that, but only by a couple of kilos at most.
http://ausbb.com/members/oliver04.html
All of this stuff I learnt from people like Lyle Mcdonald, Alan Aragon and Martin Berkhan. These guys are the real deal when it comes to nutrition. All of their conclusions are based on science from the analysis of studies. If you disagree with one of the below, please post a study or an article that references a study to disprove these. If you have a really big problem with one of these, let me know and I'll post the articles and studies for you.
1. Carbs make you fat. No, excess calories make you fat. These calories can come from carbs, fat, protein or alcohol (if you drink). Although, it's unlikely for most people to be consuming excess protein, so usually the problem is a combination of carbs and fat. The fact is, if you aren't losing weight, you aren't in a calorie deficit. The insulin spike of food does not determine how much fat you gain. Note: Carbs should still be reduced during fat loss, however this is because we need to reduce calories and protein takes preferences over carbs and fat. But we don't need to go a very low carb diet to lose fat.
2. Eating 6 meals per day is better than 3. There is no metabolic advantage of eating more frequently. Skipping breakfast or any other meal or doign intermittent fasting will not make your metabolism crash. There is no limit to how much protein can be absorbed in one meal. Eating 6 times per day will not help you lose fat. Some people will feel more satiated on 3 meals per day, others will feel better with 6 per day. Find what works best for you.
3. Eating more food at night/more carbs at night will make you fat. Once again, it doesn't matter when you eat. It's the total calories over the course of the whole day that matters, and restricting carbs after 6pm or something similarly silly will not help you lose weight, unless, of course, it reduces the total amount of calories over the whole day.
4. Separating carbs and fats will improve weight loss. Once again, the total calories over the day is what matters, not how you combine your food or when you eat your food. This may be a good que that works for some people in order to help them stay in a calorie deficit. However, if people use this rule in order to let themselvs eat all the fat them want in one meal and all the carbs they want in another meal, it obviously isn't going to work.
5. Eating "clean" will result in less fat gain. No, once again, calories are what matters. If you eat the same amount of calories and protein on a "clean" diet and on a "dirty" diet, your gains in fat and muscle will be basically the same. This is worth repeating: the effect on body composition of two different diets with the same calorie and protein contents is virtually the same. However, obviously clean foods should make up the base of your diet for health and other reasons. Note: I am not advocating a diet of cake and protein shakes! But having some pizza and cake every now and then will not make you gain more fat that eating perfectly clean, if you account for the calories and get sufficient protein.
In summary, calories are king and of course getting sufficient protein. Everything else matters much less. I might go over some other myths at a later date, but these seem to be the main ones that I can think of right now.
Enjoy and let the abusing me begin.
Edit: Here's 5 more Nutrition myths, with some contributions from Oliver04 (Myths 6-8, which I added more info to).
6. You should worry about GI. Some people think that potatoes or watermelon are bad because they have a high GI. This is basically bullshit. The Glycemic Index firstly fails to take into account the glycemic load (eg watermelon has a high GI but only 6g sugar/125g) and a low GI does not determine a foods insulin index. And even if it did, the insulin spike does not determine how much fat is gained. Not to mention the fact that when you eat different foods together, such as a high GI food with some protein, the rate of absorption of the high GI food is slowed down. Maybe if you are a diabetic you can worry about the GI. For the rest of us, if you are eating healthy, worrying about GI is a waste of time.
7. Not eating enough makes your body go into "starvation mode". According to a study of physiological changes during a controlled starvation in obese subjects (Owen and colleagues, 1998) after 18 days their REE (resting energy expenditure) decreased a whole 8%. This means that low calorie ingestion will slow down your metabolism but not significantly. Also quote by Lyle Mcdonald:
"In one of the all-time classic studies (the Minnesota semi-starvation study), men were put on 50% of their maintenance calories for 6 months. It measured the largest reduction in metabolic rate I've ever seen, something like 40% below baseline. Yet at no point did the men stop losing fat until they hit 5% body fat at the end of the study."
And only 15% of the drop in metabolic rate was due to the metabolism slowing down, while 25% was just due to the drop in body weight. That's after eating half their maintenance calories for 6 months! So forget about your metabolism slowing down, if you aren't losing weight, you are probably just eating too much.
8. Each extra kilogram of muscle burns 100 calories per day. According to 'Dissecting the energy needs of the body' (McClave, 2001) which gives a detailed description of the calorie requirements of various organs and tissues, at rest an extra kilo of muscle burns 13 cal per day as opposed to a kilo of fat which burns 4.5/kg/BW. This amount is insignificant, as it means that by adding 10kg of muscle, you will be burning an extra 130 calories per day. Woop de doo, eat a large banana.
9. You can gain 10 kilograms of muscle in 3 months. The reality is that a beginner is doing very well to gain 1kg of muscle in a month. Along with some fat. Maybe he can gain a touch more than that, in the first couple of months, but without steroids or muscle memory, that's about the best you can get. It slows down even further as you advance from the beginner stages.
10. You can be a natural, ripped 100kg guy, at a height of 175cm. The reality is that there is a limit to how much muscle mass the human body can carry. There's a reason that most natural bodybuilders are less than 90kg on competition day. My favourite model for working out your maximum muscle mass is Martin Berkhan's model. Take your height in cm minus 100, that's your maximum weight on the bodybuilding stage. Now, bodybuilders are at about 5% BF and a bit dehydrated. So, if we take my height of 186cm, 186 -100 = 86kg. Add 2kg for dehydration, we get 88kg at 5%. At 10% BF, I would weigh 93kg. I would only achieve this after several years of dedicated training. Some genetic freaks can outweigh that, but only by a couple of kilos at most.
http://ausbb.com/members/oliver04.html
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