5 FAT LOSS MYTHS

On a daily basis clients ask me questions, many of which are based around fat loss. One common trend I've noticed is that there is a lot of misinformation out there which is ultimately going to take you away from your results.

I've outlined below the 5 most common fat loss myths for you to learn from and avoid. 

1. Eat as much fat as you want

I'm a big proponent of eating enough essential fatty acids you need in your diet to optimise body composition changes, hormonal output, cognitive function and general health. However, some people think that on a high fat, carb free diet they can eat as much fat as they want because their body is able to burn all of the energy. 

This is NOT the case, even on a Ketogenic diet the law of thermo dynamics still apply. Yes, you'll be eating more fats on this style of diet but you still need to consider your overall calorie intake otherwise you'll over eat and gain fat. 

2. Don't eat carbs after 6pm

Another very common fat loss myth is that you shouldn't consume carbohydrates after 6pm otherwise they will be stored as fat. This is absolutely not true. It all depends on your calorie intake vs. the amount you are burning and how hard you're training. Nearly all of my clients will consume carbohydrates post training and most will train in the evening. If carbohydrates in the evening are causing somebody to gain weight it's not because they've eaten them at night, it'll be a combination of excess calories and hormonal dysfunction which is a very different story. 

3. Protein isn't stored as fat

Again, people think that it's impossible to overeat on protein. Whilst it is harder to be broken down and stored as fat (compared to fats or carbs), it is still possible if you are over eating. This is something you'd need to worry less about, but don't think for a minute that excess protein will not equate to added body fat under certain circumstances. It's entirely possible!! 

4. If you're not hungry you're not losing fat

If you ask most of my clients about their programme they'll tell you that they have a varied diet which is enjoyable and very rarely are they extremely hungry.

My point is, you don't need to be suffering with serious hunger to lose fat. If you are then I'd suggest your diet is probably not correct at this moment in time. With the correct macronutrient combinations you should be able to manage hunger at different points during the day. 

5. Fat loss is all about calories in against calories out

In some of the points above I've outlined that ultimately your fat loss goals will heavily rely on managing your calorie intake and energy expenditure. However, it is not as simple as this, there are other considerations to be aware of. So many people only focus on calories which is not the right thing to do because it discounts the macronutrient profiles you need to optimise health and body composition, and it also discounts factors such as fibre and nutrient quality which are also extremely important. 

There you can see that there are a lot of myths surrounding fat loss and that ultimately it is sometimes made harder than it needs to be with all of this misinformation.