1. Supplements and superfoods are needed to lose weight

Each year the diet industry spends millions in making us believe that supplements and superfoods are more important than they actually are.

While there are some supplements that can be beneficial once the rest of your diet is in order no amount of supplements can hide a poor diet and over eating.

The first supplement I would recommend would be whey protein (although I don’t actually class this as a supplement, for most it’s necessary as we simply don’t eat enough protein)

As we have covered in other articles protein is essential for retaining muscle tissue when we exercise and also for helping to keep us fuller for longer if we are trying to lose weight and therefore limit our calories.

Apart from a protein supplement the only other recommendation I would make after reviewing a new clients food diary would be to recommend a multi-vitamin covering the RDA if I found they were lacking in vitamins and minerals due to their diet.

There may be occasions for adding a probiotic to aid gut health and if a client isn’t eating oily fish regularly then I would suggest adding a fish oil but apart from that no fancy pills or powders, just lots of clients who have achieved great things with their body and not wasted their money on supplements

2. Eating late at night causes us to gain weight

Another classic! Calories don’t know the time. A piece of toast at 8am still has exactly the same amount of calories at 8pm.

Let’s say we need 1500 cals a day to maintain our current weight. If we ate 1700 cals before 6pm we are going to gain weight. If we ate 1500 cals after 6pm we are going to maintain weight.

You see where I’m going with this?

Nutritional timing has no effect on you losing or gaining weight it all goes back to if you eat more calories than your body needs you will gain weight irrespective of the time.

At Hustle we have had lots of clients who have lost incredible amounts of weight who are also shift workers. They have had full dinners at 4am and are in the best shape of their lives. What we do is teach people how to lose weight, eat the food they want to and fit all of this around their crazy shift patterns!

3. Carbs makes us fat

In at number 1 and my favourite food myth!

No one single food or macro nutrient (protein, carbs or fat) is going to make us overweight. Eating more food than our body needs is going to make us overweight.

The problem with carbs is that most of the good stuff like pizza, chips etc is made up of carbs and contains fats.

Now these foods are highly palatable and are ‘empty’ foods. Meaning it takes us a long time to realise we have eaten too much but by then it’s too late.

Now when we hear people talking about losing weight on “zero carb” or ‘low carb’ diets it’s not down to the removal of the carbs themselves but that they are now eating less food than their body needs.

If they were to replace this reduction of carbs with the same amount of protein then they wouldn’t lose weight (carbs and protein have the same number of calories)

Carbs are our bodies natural energy source and no single food group should ever be excluded unless we have a specific medically confirmed issue.

One of our favourite client transformations was a female who over the years had been led to believe that carbs would make her fat. One of the first things we did was explain to her the role that carbs played or didn’t play in her diet. Suddenly she understood why she was always feeling so tired and demotivated. Once we had her onboard with eating carbs again it was a simple case of slowly bringing carbs back into her diet and by magic, she had more energy and began to lose weight!

So there you have it, our top 3 training myths and mistakes. Often the hardest part of losing weight or gaining muscle is the food side. It’s much easier to get to a class or down the gym as takes less time an effort.

But think of your body goals as a marriage. If either the husband or wife aren’t putting in equal effort then the marriage won’t last.

Likewise, if you don’t get your food and exercise right then you won’t see the results your after.

Our group pt sessions also have online/skype nutrition guidance at o extra charge.

If you’re serious about making changes to your body and confidence please complete the contact form or click here to get started and we would be happy to help!

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