While I am standing in the check out line at the super market, I take a moment to glance through various health & fitness magazines. “Lose 30 lbs. in 30 days!” “Use BRAND X, the most powerful fat burner in the world!” Recently, I actually saw an ad that said, “Have your cheesecake and build muscle, too!” The sad part is, many consumers believe this stuff!
Some of my new clients have been exposed to so much myth-information that they don’t even trust common sense, anymore. Their belief system is so firmly in place, they can’t even move towards their personal health and fitness goals until these beliefs are addressed and then thrown out, for good!
The common problems I see are listed below.
- The media makes carbohydrates out to be the enemy. Low-carb diets are everywhere. Minimizing the processed and refined carbohydrates (cakes, bread, crackers) makes good nutrition sense but to make all carbohydrates “bad” does us all a great disservice. Starches, grains, fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates that come from the earth. These foods give us energy. We need them.
- The idea that dietary fat makes you fat is still an idea that is alive and well. Of course dietary fat is more calorically dense than carbohydrates and proteins, but no macronutrient makes you fat. Gaining weight is caused by too much energy in (calories) and not enough energy out (exercise).
