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Fitness and diet myths that just won't go away
Replies
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MargaretYakoda wrote: »
Which can be a detriment to some. So much easier to overindulge.corinasue1143 wrote: »
Not to mention when people think brown sugar is more healthy than plain old white granulated sugar.MargaretYakoda wrote: »My personal pet peeve
“Cut out all sugar”
“White sugar is the devil”
And all variations of the same.
If I have the spoons for it? I generally respond with a deadpan “If you don’t eat sugar you will die very quickly.”
I also really hate this one’s corollary “It doesn’t have sugar in it. I used honey”
Which will, if I have zero spoons, earn a hard eye roll. If I do have spoons I will inform them that a person’s pancreas can’t tell the difference between white sugar and honey. And their “it doesn’t have sugar, I used honey!” can be very harmful to a diabetic.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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But you have to admit it tastes SOOO much better sometimes, like with pumpkin, or apples, or caramel popcorn, or—-
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Which brings me to another myth:
Portion control takes too much effort.
Because no, it does not.
The right tools do help. But it’s a habit that really doesn’t take too much to develop (assuming the individual isn’t living with food insecurity)
I'm unconvinced, even while having had pretty much the same experience you did in that respect.
What's hard or not hard is subjective and individual. Portion control was not an unmanageable effort for me. I'm not convinced that's a universal.
I read threads here sometimes from people who are struggling with sitting on the floor in their kitchen, eating whole boxes of cereal, sleeves of crackers or cookies, things they don't even want, that they don't enjoy eating, and they don't even know why; they're crying - inside if not outside; they don't know why they can't control something that's objectively in their control. Reading some of those threads, I believe every word is true for them. I've never felt anything like that, so I can't really empathize, just hear and care.
I don't think portion control is a manageable effort for everyone. Some people need to reconstruct their psychology of food from the ground up. That's hard, a huge effort, IMO.
OK that’s fair.
Psychology aside, portion control is easy with the right tools.
But your point about the psychology being hard for some is valid.
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NorthCascades wrote: »My partner’s mother was told that of she went on too long a bike ride, her body, having depleted carb stores, would start cannibalizing muscle.
To completely deplete carbs stores would stop someone dead in their tracks and they'd lay on the ground. Some people read too many bro magazine articles.My partner’s mother was told that of she went on too long a bike ride, her body, having depleted carb stores, would start cannibalizing muscle.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
High intensity endurance exercise can deplete your glycogen stores, it's called bonking or hitting the wall. It's a thing that happens every day. You don't have to completely empty the tank, because your brain isn't exactly disinterested, it needs glycogen too, when it realizes you're burning through the stuff and there isn't much left, your brain tells you your legs are on fire and your lungs are inside out on the sidewalk. It doesn't eat your muscles, but it makes you overwhelmingly exhausted and comes out of nowhere. Last time I bonked I was skiing cross country, dripping with sweat, surrounded by snow, unable to go on.
Just a long bike ride won't do it, for most people you'll need to spend an hour or two near threshold.
Remember the people who think they've added muscle mass simply because they've gotten stronger?
Imagine what they think when they hear that if a person depletes their carb stores, which can happen in a time as short as a small number of hours, the depleted person literally find themselves unable to move?
Good odds that they think the bonked person's body ate up their muscles, y'know? What else, to them, would explain weakness so extreme that a person's unable to move? Get strong = add muscle, so get weak = lose muscle. Simplez.
Now, my comments above are more tongue in cheek than intended to be taken literally. (It's not the same people, among other simplifications/misrepresentations.)
But the point is that there's wide - maybe infinite - scope for stupid misunderstandings of the basis of observed facts.4 -
Gluten free is "healthier". I have so many friends who go gluten free thinking it will make them lose weight when many gluten free things are actually higher in calories than their gluten containing counterparts!9
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Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »Gluten free is "healthier". I have so many friends who go gluten free thinking it will make them lose weight when many gluten free things are actually higher in calories than their gluten containing counterparts!
I had some really good gluten free cupcakes from trader joe's. I did not lose weight. They weren't supposed to taste good!9 -
Eggs are bad... no more raw cookie dough for you!
Wait, eggs are now good... include them with every meal!
No, only the egg WHITES are good!
No, wait, you can't live without the YOLK!11 -
Drinking zero-calorie soda or bubbly water will make you fat. Food with literally zero calories will make you fat.9
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Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »Gluten free is "healthier". I have so many friends who go gluten free thinking it will make them lose weight when many gluten free things are actually higher in calories than their gluten containing counterparts!
Oh, man. My husband discovered that he has stomach issues when he eats gluten, so I've been buying some gluten-free products. He wanted cupcakes. One gluten-free cupcake from a local bakery was 550 calories.
550 CALORIES!! It wasn't a huge cupcake either. They were good though.3 -
SuzySunshine99 wrote: »Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »Gluten free is "healthier". I have so many friends who go gluten free thinking it will make them lose weight when many gluten free things are actually higher in calories than their gluten containing counterparts!
Oh, man. My husband discovered that he has stomach issues when he eats gluten, so I've been buying some gluten-free products. He wanted cupcakes. One gluten-free cupcake from a local bakery was 550 calories.
550 CALORIES!! It wasn't a huge cupcake either. They were good though.
It probably also cost $14 per cupcake....2 -
Like some of you guys were saying the "don't eat white foods". This just popped up today. Guarantee the seedy brown bread is more calories than plain white bread.
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Here's a myth that apparently won't go away, that the choice between whole wheat or white breads is only about calories.8
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I read through most of this thread and there are a lot of insightful people! I don't have a myth per se, but more of a mindset. People who think that what worked/works for them is the only way and that everyone else is wrong. How frustrating for someone who doesn't know any better, and buys into some "fad" plan and gets nowhere.
As someone who tried many different things, I can say that CI vs CO has been what works for me. I weigh and measure almost all of what I eat (while allowing myself to enjoy eating out here in there and estimating because I enjoy eating out), I found a routine that works for me. The reason I tried so many different things was because of weight gain that was accompanied by severe stomach pain. I worked with my GP, ruling out many different issues, and years later finally finding the answer. None of the "diets" that had been suggested to me over this period of time worked. Once the stomach issue was cleared up, I was able to go back to the CI vs CO that worked for me before my medical stuff. After my experience, I can't say enough how important it is to keep advocating for yourself and working with your doctor.
That said, I have friends that have been very successful with IF and Keto, etc. A few were pushy about their methods, but thankfully backed off once they realized that their choices and what works for them isn't what was going to work for me.7 -
Eggs are bad... no more raw cookie dough for you!
Wait, eggs are now good... include them with every meal!
No, only the egg WHITES are good!
No, wait, you can't live without the YOLK!
Oh!
And brown shelled eggs are better than white shelled eggs. 🙄
In that case, the only difference is the color of the shell.
As well as homegrown eggs are better than store bought.
Homegrown egg yolks definitely taste better. But nutritionally the difference is minimal.4 -
YellowD0gs wrote: »Here's a myth that apparently won't go away, that the choice between whole wheat or white breads is only about calories.
yes that is a good point.
I doubt there is any significant difference in calories between same weight slice of white bread vs brown bread.
But I do think brown bread is usually higher in fibre especially the multigrain types - and that is a good choice for many people
I personally prefer taste of wholemeal bread too
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A piece of advice I read years back and still follow to this day: eat for the body you want. Whether you want to gain or lose weight, figure out what a person of your goal weight would eat as regular maintenance, and make THAT your new norm. Your body will over time change to be more in line with this new "normal." Yes, the change will be slower than if you actually calculate out a plus/minus x calories per day, but the benefit is you only have to change your eating habits ONCE. Reach your desired weight, your daily eating plan doesn't change one bit to sustain it, you've already been doing it for a while.
I think this is excellent advice! I haven't actually tried it, because I find it conceptually easier to follow MFP's 500 calorie deficit, but it seems like a great way to beat the "inevitable" gain when you go back to eating maintenance. Also, I'm not sure how accurately I could predict what my ideal self would eat. I think it's around 2400, so I try not to go much over that even when I've "earned" it, but I'm really not sure.
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Well IF someone is say 5'5" 250lbs and trying to get to 140lbs, having them eat maintenance calories for a 140lbs weight would be too large a deficit. Just the shift alone if exercising 1-4 times a week is like 700 calories.Bella_Figura wrote: »In my regain periods I usually remain pretty active (still walk the dog, still dig/weed, still fidget and move around a lot) but I return to suboptimal eating patterns (portion control slips badly, calorie input rises sharply, albeit from reasonably healthy nutrient-dense foods). I allow larger portions to become the norm.
A piece of advice I read years back and still follow to this day: eat for the body you want. Whether you want to gain or lose weight, figure out what a person of your goal weight would eat as regular maintenance, and make THAT your new norm. Your body will over time change to be more in line with this new "normal." Yes, the change will be slower than if you actually calculate out a plus/minus x calories per day, but the benefit is you only have to change your eating habits ONCE. Reach your desired weight, your daily eating plan doesn't change one bit to sustain it, you've already been doing it for a while.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Maybe I'm doing this math wrong, or maybe it's because your example is over 100 pounds of loss? I have about 60 pounds to lose to get to what I think might be my "ideal" weight (150 pounds). The first 3 TDEE calculators that came up say a "very active" 150-pound man would burn 2711 calories per day. That's 720 calories above my current MFP goal of 1990, which means I would gain 0.5 pounds per week at that level if I didn't exercise. If I did exercise as much as my "ideal" me, that would mean an average of 680 calories per day, so that would mean slower than 1 pound per week loss initially and then it would get even slower as I got smaller. That seems reasonable to me? At least reasonable enough to cap my calories at 2711 even on days that I burn over 800 and "earn" them in the MFP system.0 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »One needs to "hydrate" and/or bring a water bottle for a 30 minute leisurely walk around the neighborhood.
Agreed. I normally walk for an hour and I need to restrict water intake for about 30 minutes prior to heading out as there are no public restrooms on my walk route and water goes straight through me. (Although this tactic may be unique to middle-aged lady bladders) If it's very hot outside I do carry a water bottle but don't drink until after the halfway point or my "walk" turns into a sprint.
I know I'm late to this thread, but I just wanted to say that my personal rule is that I don't carry water for any run shorter than 15 miles. It's totally unnecessary (even at high temps). That means that I haven't carried water on a run since my 40-mile ultra in 2013. During all that time, I've only stopped at one water stop during a race, too. That was at a half-marathon, somewhere around mile 10 or 11. I didn't need the water, but when I turned the corner, I could see the next mile of the course going up a long hill and I needed to stop and think about what I was doing!
During my ultra, I drank an excessive amount and it might have played a part in me avoiding cramps and a DNF due to dehydration (it was unseasonably warm in October), but I've since learned that it would have been a dangerous amount (10 L in 10.5 hours) if I hadn't have been eating so much sodium. I did have to pee a lot (7 to 10 times at least), which certainly took a few minutes off my finishing time.
The "need" to hydrate constantly during exercise is certainly a myth and it is one that is propagated by major corporations in order to increase their profits. Actual studies have demonstrated that the winners of major races are often the most dehydrated. I don't know of any evidence that someone has died during recreational or competitive exercise because of dehydration, but I understand that at least half a dozen people have died because of hyponatremia caused by over-hydration and inadequate sodium intake.0 -
I was just commenting that larger amounts of weight to lose wouldn't apply the the example that was given to eat at your goal weight.
Well IF someone is say 5'5" 250lbs and trying to get to 140lbs, having them eat maintenance calories for a 140lbs weight would be too large a deficit. Just the shift alone if exercising 1-4 times a week is like 700 calories.Bella_Figura wrote: »In my regain periods I usually remain pretty active (still walk the dog, still dig/weed, still fidget and move around a lot) but I return to suboptimal eating patterns (portion control slips badly, calorie input rises sharply, albeit from reasonably healthy nutrient-dense foods). I allow larger portions to become the norm.
A piece of advice I read years back and still follow to this day: eat for the body you want. Whether you want to gain or lose weight, figure out what a person of your goal weight would eat as regular maintenance, and make THAT your new norm. Your body will over time change to be more in line with this new "normal." Yes, the change will be slower than if you actually calculate out a plus/minus x calories per day, but the benefit is you only have to change your eating habits ONCE. Reach your desired weight, your daily eating plan doesn't change one bit to sustain it, you've already been doing it for a while.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Maybe I'm doing this math wrong, or maybe it's because your example is over 100 pounds of loss? I have about 60 pounds to lose to get to what I think might be my "ideal" weight (150 pounds). The first 3 TDEE calculators that came up say a "very active" 150-pound man would burn 2711 calories per day. That's 720 calories above my current MFP goal of 1990, which means I would gain 0.5 pounds per week at that level if I didn't exercise. If I did exercise as much as my "ideal" me, that would mean an average of 680 calories per day, so that would mean slower than 1 pound per week loss initially and then it would get even slower as I got smaller. That seems reasonable to me? At least reasonable enough to cap my calories at 2711 even on days that I burn over 800 and "earn" them in the MFP system.
If you only have like 20lbs to lose or less, eating at goal weight should be just fine.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »One needs to "hydrate" and/or bring a water bottle for a 30 minute leisurely walk around the neighborhood.
Agreed. I normally walk for an hour and I need to restrict water intake for about 30 minutes prior to heading out as there are no public restrooms on my walk route and water goes straight through me. (Although this tactic may be unique to middle-aged lady bladders) If it's very hot outside I do carry a water bottle but don't drink until after the halfway point or my "walk" turns into a sprint.
I know I'm late to this thread, but I just wanted to say that my personal rule is that I don't carry water for any run shorter than 15 miles. It's totally unnecessary (even at high temps). That means that I haven't carried water on a run since my 40-mile ultra in 2013. During all that time, I've only stopped at one water stop during a race, too. That was at a half-marathon, somewhere around mile 10 or 11. I didn't need the water, but when I turned the corner, I could see the next mile of the course going up a long hill and I needed to stop and think about what I was doing!
During my ultra, I drank an excessive amount and it might have played a part in me avoiding cramps and a DNF due to dehydration (it was unseasonably warm in October), but I've since learned that it would have been a dangerous amount (10 L in 10.5 hours) if I hadn't have been eating so much sodium. I did have to pee a lot (7 to 10 times at least), which certainly took a few minutes off my finishing time.
The "need" to hydrate constantly during exercise is certainly a myth and it is one that is propagated by major corporations in order to increase their profits. Actual studies have demonstrated that the winners of major races are often the most dehydrated. I don't know of any evidence that someone has died during recreational or competitive exercise because of dehydration, but I understand that at least half a dozen people have died because of hyponatremia caused by over-hydration and inadequate sodium intake.
I agree with this. My aunt always brings a bottle of water with her when she goes for a short 1 mile walk. I also see so many people drinking tons off water in hot yoga (it is only 1-1.5 hours). I have never drank water during it. If you are well hydrated you should be okay for a few hours without water. If not, that means you likely aren't drinking enough in general. I drink a TON throughout the day so I just don't have the need to drink water when I only bike/run/walk for 2-3 hours. I have never done an ultra, but I DEFINITELY would have also had to drink then lol.1 -
not really a myth, but i wish it was:
1. aging has no effect on metabolism
2. child birth/pregnancy has little effect after the child is born and the pregnancy is over. . .
geez i wish that was just a myth1
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