2 “Eat Carbs, Get Fat”
Debunking Common Fitness Myths
If you see something in print, it must be true? Right? Especially if it’s from a well-known fitness celebrity or nutrition expert? Well, you probably know that’s not true, but you’d be surprised at how many people fall for common fitness and nutrition myths. In this chapter, we’ll set the record straight on what really works and what’s just plain fiction.
FITNESS MYTH: Eating small meals throughout the day will speed up your metabolism exponentially and help speed up fat loss.
FITNESS FACT: The number of meals you eat doesn’t affect your metabolic rate.
Eat more often, jack up your metabolism, right? This fitness “fact” is reported all over the place. Both of us have heard that dozens of times! Well, whoever has ever asserted this should issue a big, fat apology: “I was wrong.”
Your metabolism is much more dependent on your weight, the amount of muscle you have, your gender, your age, and your activity level than how often you eat. Your metabolic rate will not change whether you eat 3 times a day, 6 times a day, or even 10 times a day.
The truth is it’s the number of calories you consume, and expend, that determines whether you’ll lose weight or gain it. If you consume 2,000 calories, you can spread them among three balanced meals or a bunch of snacks throughout the day and it won’t affect your metabolism or whether you lose weight.
However, there is an advantage to eating every four hours or so instead of going longer stretches between meals. Eating more frequently can ease hunger pangs and prevent you from overeating later on. So if you have lunch at noon but won’t eat dinner until 7:00 p.m., have a healthy snack at 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. to tide you over until you sit down to eat. This way you’ll be able to make healthier choices come dinnertime.
FITNESS MYTH: Eating carbs late at night will make you gain weight.
FITNESS FACT: It’s the amount of carbs you eat, not the time of day, that matters.
Eat carbs, get fat. That’s what many of Obi’s clients mistakenly believe, and he has to convince them that their fear of carbs is unfounded. Yet lots of people believe that carbs are more likely to be stored as fat, especially when they’re consumed at night.
Want proof? A study published in the Journal of Obesity in 2011 divided participants into two groups. Both groups consumed the same calorie-restricted diet that included the same amount of calories, protein, carbs, and fat for six months. One group consumed 80 percent of their carbs late at night while the other consumed them throughout the day.
So the group that ate the carbs at night gained weight, right? Wrong! What may surprise you is that the group that ate their carbs late at night lost significantly more weight and more body fat than the group that consumed their carbs in the daytime! The first group also felt more full and were less hungry during the day than the other group. So eating carbs late at night—as long as you’re staying within a healthy number of calories—won’t make you fat.
FITNESS MYTH: Weight training will make women bulk up and look less feminine.
FITNESS FACT: Weight training will give women sleek, defined muscles, not bulky ones.
This is a concern that Obi hears all too often from the women he trains. Let us tell you, if you’re a woman, lifting weights will not make you bulk up! Even women who weight-train regularly don’t produce enough testosterone to develop huge, muscle-bound physiques. The only way a woman can develop that kind of body is to take anabolic steroids, consume lots of extra calories, and train with very heavy weights, like a power lifter. You won’t do that on our program.
The bottom line is that lifting weights is integral for body shaping and fat loss. Weight training shapes a woman’s body like nothing else. When you lift weights, you add definition to your curves, increase your bone density, improve overall fat loss, increase your energy levels, and even improve the quality of your sleep!
High-intensity strength training—the kind you’ll do with our program—will also help you burn more calories after your workout thanks to EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. EPOC is also known as the afterburn effect, and it occurs after high-intensity exercise. On average, EPOC burns an additional 6 to 15 percent of the total calories expended during the workout; the more intense the workout, the higher the EPOC.
Here’s more about how EPOC works. Imagine you drive your car for an hour. When you arrive at your destination, you shut off the engine. While the engine is no longer running, it’s still warm, and will take some time to cool down. That’s what happens after you do an intense workout—your body is still warm afterward. Even after you cool off, your body is still revved for about 24 hours. During that time, it uses extra oxygen to restore itself to homeostasis, a fancy word for its normal resting state. That transition from hot to cold over the next day or so is your body’s EPOC response.
FITNESS MYTH: Eating as little as possible will lead to dramatic weight loss.
FITNESS FACT: You have to eat regularly to lose weight; going without food will inhibit weight loss.
This is another big weight loss myth we constantly hear. Eating as little as possible won’t help you lose weight! When you eat too little, your metabolism drops, which means you burn fewer calories.
You can’t outsmart your body. If you’re not eating enough, your body knows it’s not getting the energy it needs. During times in human history when food was less readily available than it is today, a drastic drop in food intake didn’t mean diet, it meant potential starvation. So as a survival mechanism, when you don’t eat enough, your metabolism slows down to become more efficient and protect its fat stores—to keep you alive! That means the less you eat, the slower your metabolism becomes—and the more sluggish you feel and the more weight you hold on to.
Research has proven that taking in fewer than 1,200 calories a day produces the largest drop in your RMR, or resting metabolic rate. Besides making you feel exhausted, spacey, and outright crummy, starving yourself is unhealthy. If you try to survive on too few calories for too long, you’ll put your body into a catabolic state and lose lean muscle (your body will break it down for energy), which is the biggest driver of your metabolic rate. You’ll also be more likely to binge and may set yourself up for more serious health problems like seizures or even a heart attack.
FITNESS MYTH: All calories are created equal.
FITNESS FACT: All calories are not created equal.
We all have heard of the old theory “calories in versus calories out” when it comes to weight loss. This can be misleading to the average person who wants to lose weight.
Tracking your calories is important if you want to lose weight because the amount of calories, or energy, you consume will affect whether you gain weight or lose it. You need to eat fewer calories than you burn in order to lose weight. That energy comes from three macronutrients—protein, carbohydrates, and fat—and your body processes these differently. Carbs and fats are used for functional energy, and your body expends less energy to digest and use them. Your body burns off about 5 percent of carb calories during digestion, and about 3 percent of fat calories to digest fat. But your body burns a much higher percentage of calories—20 to 30 percent—to digest protein. This process—expending calories to use them—is called the thermic effect of food.
This doesn’t mean you should follow a high-protein diet or any diet that overly emphasizes one type of macronutrient over another. It does mean that you should take in a balance of all three, and make protein a priority with each meal because it’s the ultimate MVP, or most valuable player, when it comes to how many calories your body must expend to use it.
FITNESS MYTH: “Fat-burner” supplements can help you lose weight without exercising or changing your diet.
FITNESS FACT: There’s no magic fat loss or weight loss pill that will, by itself, help you lose weight.
It seems like every day you hear about the latest fat burner or pill that can help you shed body fat. Well, we’re sorry to tell you that there’s no such thing as a fat-burning pill! The only fat burner—and the most powerful one—is a lifestyle that includes a healthy diet and regular exercise. Because dieting is big business. We have a billion-dollar weight loss industry that pushes miracle pills to people who are desperate to lose weight and want an easy solution. Some supplements, like multivitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and whey protein, can help you reach your health and fitness goals, but they’re no replacement for actual food.
Any supplement company, TV host, or article that claims that its pill or supplement will, on its own, make you lose weight, is lying. Save your money. The only way you can lose body fat for good is by eating healthy and exercising.
The only supplement we recommend is fish oil, because most people don’t consume enough healthy fat in the form of omega-3 fatty acids. We also suggest a protein shake post-exercise to help provide your muscles with enough protein to rebuild the damage done during exercise. It’s muscle that fuels your metabolism, not a pill.
FITNESS MYTH: Doing lots of sit-ups and crunches will eliminate your potbelly and give you washboard, ripped abs.
FITNESS FACT: There’s no such thing as spot reduction.
Both men and women crave sculpted, gorgeous abs, so it’s understandable to focus on exercises that will target trouble spots. The trouble is, the whole idea of spot reduction is a myth. Exercising your abs won’t eliminate the fat on top of them. The only way to remove belly fat is with proper diet and a training regimen that will reduce the fat all over your body.
Ab exercises will help build your abdominal muscles, but the only way to make them come out of hibernation is by having a relatively low body fat percentage. Think of the saying, “Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.” You can do as many crunches as you want, but if you don’t eat to reduce body fat then you’ll never see them. On average, a woman has to have a body fat percentage of about 15 or lower to have visible abs; a man has to have a body fat percentage of about 12 percent or lower.
FITNESS MYTH: Cardiovascular activity is the best exercise to help you burn calories and shed fat.
FITNESS FACT: A combination of weight training and cardiovascular exercise is the key to burning calories and shedding fat.
Check out any gym and what do you usually see? Far too often, it’s women on cardio machines and men in the weight area. Many women avoid lifting weights because they think it will make them bulk up (see here) and that all that cardio will burn fat. That’s a mistake.
In the meantime, most guys do nothing but lift weights! When a guy asks Obi what he needs to do to get ripped, his response is, “You need to get on that cardio machine and sweat, my friend.”
Cardio isn’t the answer when it comes to shedding fat—the key is to combine cardio and weight training. Weight training helps you build more lean muscle, which is essential for lasting weight loss. More lean muscle increases your metabolic rate, which means you burn more calories all the time, both in and out of the gym. High-intensity weight training can also produce the EPOC response we talked about earlier in this chapter.
Cardio’s advantage is that you typically burn more calories doing cardio than lifting weights. That helps you shed pounds. If you opt for high-intensity cardio (instead of the more moderate intensity most people do), you’ll get an EPOC response. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing high-intensity weight training or high-intensity cardio—the higher the intensity, the more pronounced the EPOC response.
In short, weight training + cardio = faster fat loss! So don’t choose cardio or weights—incorporate them both for the results you want.
FITNESS MYTH: It is impossible to cheat on your diet and lose weight at the same time.
FITNESS FACT: You can enjoy a few cheat meals every week—as long as you have a reasonable portion.
You may be surprised that we believe in cheating on an otherwise healthy diet, but we promise you can enjoy a cheat meal several times a week and still lose weight! Eating the same foods day after day can be a drag, and cheat meals are a nice break.
Many nutritionists and fitness experts suggest using the 80/20 or 90/10 rule when it comes to diet. That means eating healthy 80 to 90 percent of the time and indulging 10 to 20 percent of the time. We’ve found the 80/20 rule more effective than trying to eat clean 90 percent (or even 100 percent!) of the time. Eating healthy and clean five days a week with a cheat meal once or twice a week is a manageable lifestyle. It’s also likely to help you meet your weight loss goals—research has proven that too-strict dieting is counterproductive because people are less likely to stick with their plan.
The key to making this work is to watch your portions—the portion size of a cheat meal (or cheat treat) should be about the size of your palm. That’s a modest serving (unless you have huge hands like Michael Jordan!).
Making the Cut: Real People, Real Results
Name: Mike Hopper
Age: 33
Location: Hanover, Indiana
Occupation: Barber
Height: 6'1"
Starting weight: 317.5 pounds
Ending weight: 260 pounds (after the first 12 weeks), 219 pounds after 6 months
Before I started The Cut, I was constantly tired and was in pain every night when I got off work. I was also a ticking time bomb. My blood pressure was 144/88, my cholesterol was 258, and triglycerides were 412. I pretty much only ate junk food and fast food, and very few vegetables. I was constantly in pain; it even hurt to bend over to pick up my shoes in the morning. I was tired all the time and had very bad sleeping habits. I also have suffered from very severe migraines for the past seven years, but I haven’t had a migraine since the day I started the program.
After the first 12 weeks on The Cut, my blood pressure was 115/60, my cholesterol was 161, and my triglycerides were 95! My doctor was very happy and I feel amazing! My body doesn’t hurt like it used to, and I don’t have knee or back pain anymore. And it’s not a struggle to put my shoes on every morning! I no longer have trouble walking stairs!
It’s amazing what a difference 12 weeks of healthy eating and exercise will do. I never ate vegetables before the program and now I eat them every day and actually enjoy them. And I went from being over 100 pounds overweight and doing very little physical activity to having all kinds of energy and feeling great. Sure, I’ve tried other diet and exercise plans in the past. Everything worked short-term but was almost impossible to follow long-term. This program is different. There is no reason why it won’t work for you!
I had more weight to lose, so I decided to follow The Cut for another 12 weeks. From a physical standpoint, it’s much easier to work out. When I started, it was hard enough to move on a day-to-day basis, so adding exercise was difficult. Now I can give my workouts 100 percent! Mentally, I’m to the point where there is no question I will reach my goals. I look forward to my workouts now and enjoy eating healthy. It used to be hard eating out with friends when everyone else was eating fried, high-fat foods, and I was eating lean meats, veggies, and plain baked potatoes. Now it doesn’t tempt or faze me. I actually want the healthy options now. The lifestyle is ingrained in me.
FITNESS MYTH: Drinking coffee is unhealthy because of the caffeine it contains.
FITNESS FACT: Drinking coffee is healthy in moderation.
Is coffee bad for you? It depends on which expert you talk to. Too much caffeine (say, more than four or five cups of coffee a day) can cause health issues including insomnia, stomach upset, irritability, nervousness, and muscle tremors.
But caffeine is also a proven performance enhancer athletes have used for years, especially in endurance events. Small amounts of caffeine make you feel more alert and focused, and boost your mood. It may also improve your cardiovascular health—recent research published in the medical journal Heart suggests that regular coffee consumption may help reduce your risk of developing heart disease, and other studies suggest that it may reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes as well.
Both of us drink coffee with no ill effects on our health or physiques. A cup of coffee can also improve your performance in the gym. Just keep your caffeine intake moderate—about three cups or fewer a day—to avoid stomach issues and trouble sleeping.
FITNESS MYTH: Eating fat will prevent you from losing weight.
FITNESS FACT: Fat is good for you, and eating it can help you lose weight.
Let’s get this straight, since there’s a lot of misinformation out there: Fat is not the demon it’s made out to be. As you saw in chapter 1, you get your calories from the three macronutrients—protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Your body needs fat for overall cellular health, for energy, and to absorb vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K. Dietary fat also helps you feel full and satisfied longer as it takes longer for the body to digest than carbs. Keeping fat in your diet will help you stick with your diet. Don’t be worried about the fact that it contains more calories (9 per gram) than carbs and protein, which both contain 4 per gram. Your body needs some fat for optimal health—and sustainable weight loss!
From a health standpoint, you want to opt for the good fats—monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats—instead of the bad ones, saturated fats and trans-fatty acids. Good sources of monounsaturated fats include olive oil, avocados, peanut butter, and canola oil.
The polyunsaturated fats are omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids. Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include fatty fish (including salmon, herring, and trout), walnuts, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, and corn oil. Corn oil, soybean oil, and other plant-based vegetable oils are all good sources of omega-6 fatty acids.
Eating moderate amounts of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats helps you lower your bad cholesterol, raise your good cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, and lower your triglycerides, or the amount of sugar you have circulating in your blood. (High triglycerides are linked to a higher risk of heart disease.) Both omega-3 and omega-6 fats also help reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Limit saturated fat, which is found in red and fattier meat, eggs, poultry, and dairy products; excessive saturated fat has been linked with health conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. (You can still eat meat—just choose lean cuts, which contain a lower percentage of fat.) You should avoid trans-fatty acids, or partially hydrogenated oils, which are found in fried foods and baked goods like cookies and cakes. Research suggests that trans-fatty acids appear to be even worse for your health than saturated fats, so we suggest you eliminate them from your diet, except perhaps for the occasional cheat meal or treat.
So now that you know the truth—and science—behind common fitness and nutrition myths, let’s get into the science of your metabolism. In the next chapter, you’ll learn all about what your metabolism is, what it does, why it slows down, and the different ways you can speed it up.