It’s all wrong. Metabolism, and the Myths.

 

Lifting weights doesn’t get you lean.

This tops the list time and time again. People seem to think lifting weights doesn’t get you lean. This is probably because they’re constantly bombarded with misinformation about how many steps you should do and how much cardio calories burns. The truth is cardio does burn calories, but only whilst you are doing it. Also cardio does very little to stimulate the growth of muscle and we all know the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn and the faster your metabolism will get.

 

You should only eat when you’re hungry.

Your body is a functional organism and should be treated as such – if you want to lose body fat you should feed it at prescribed times when it needs to be fed (every 3 hours is a good rule of thumb), not leave it to when you “feel” like you should eat. If you leave too long between eating your body starts to overly secrete the stress hormone cortisol, (cortisol is a bad thing). In order to mitigate the effects of cortisol your body wants to produce insulin as the two cannot be produced at the same time. What causes a nice big spike in insulin levels? Overeating! Hence when you allow yourself to skip meals you get cravings for sugary or starchy foods you can otherwise do without. And hey presto you get insulin-cortisol seesaw syndrome and a fat belly (due to the cortisol).

 

The fad diets really work.

Avocado diet, lemon juice diet, grapefruit diet, and countless more that we haven’t heard about. Take your pick! Following such a harsh regime will yield a weight loss, but the chances of that being fat are minimal, because you won’t consume enough protein to sustain the muscle you have let alone encourage the growth of more. You won’t consume enough energy to support the body in metabolising fat. You have to consume enough carbohydrates to give your body the energy to power fat loss, enough dietary fat to help the carbs get broken down and used and enough protein to rebuild and replenish damaged cells to stay healthy and strong throughout the process!

We can help you understand the right way to exercise, the right way to eat and the right time to do both.