1) Endurance running is the best way to lose weight
• the amount of eating you need to do to keep up with training can get absurd. Once your race is done, and/or you’re injured, and/or both, it’s easy to get stuck in the gluttonous eating pattern you developed while training, and any weight you may have lost will quickly come back with a few 3-4000 calorie days.
• Your endocrine system is also being affected by the excessive cardio, which causes stress on the body, and raises cortisol levels. This causes you to store more fat, and slows down your recovery time...not to mention all of that hard-earned muscle that gets burned up instead of fat stores.
Photo by Robin Dell Maccaro
2) Low carb (ketogenic) or low-fat diets are the answer
• It always comes back to the same thing with fat loss. You HAVE to be in a calorie deficit. In other words, you HAVE to consume less calories than you burn in order to lose fat. Period. Find the best way to achieve this to make it enjoyable.
Fats are still important to hormonal health, so you don't want to go too low. Carbohydrates are the primary fuel source for activity. Try to get a balance of the 3 macro-nutrients (fats, carbs, protein) for long-term fat loss results and adherence.
3) Doing high reps at a lower weight will get you toned
• This theory is completely backwards, yet I see the concept being misunderstood again and again.
• Lifting heavy weight at low reps = lean muscle. Once you start doing higher reps at a lower weight, you are pumping more blood into your muscles, which will cause a puffier look. This is called sarcoplasmic muscle, which is developed through hypertrophy training. Typically, these rep ranges would be between10-14.
• Myofibrillar muscle development (lean, dense muscle) is the byproduct of strength. Stick to 4-8 rep range and lift heavier if you want to get lean muscle. Progressive overload (small increases in weight and/or reps with heavy weight) with each successive workout will lead to this kind of muscle. You would also need to have low levels of body fat for the muscle to be visible.
• That being said, be careful with the higher reps with heavier loads of weight. This can lead to injury. Start with lower weight in the beginning and focus on your form. You will thank yourself later.
4) Training more frequently will get you faster results
• Your muscles and nervous system can only withstand a certain amount of training intensity/volume in one session. If you never give your muscles a chance to rest, you will constantly being training in a fatigued state, and will never make any progress in your lifts/activities. Therefore, you will not make any progress. (remember progressive overload)
• There are no extra points for training more except the exhaustion that comes with it. Slowwwwwwwwwwwwww down, and develop some patience, grasshopper...
5) You need 1 gram of protein (or more) per pound of body weight to maintain or grow muscle
• Studies have shown that you only need .82 grams (possibly less) of protein to maintain/grow muscle. This gives you more room for fats and carbs which are also necessary for muscle and hormonal development. All that extra protein is most likely causing you to spend more money, eat more calories than you need, and deprive yourself of the other 2 important macro-nutrients (fats and carbs).