122. 6 common weight loss myths (I fell for every single one)

In this podcast, I'm sharing 6 common weight loss myths, and I believed each and every one of them at a time! These are extremely common on social media and can lead to a lot of confusion, so I hope this clears some things up for you!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome back to today's video. Today we are talking about six common fat loss myths. I have believed every single one of these. I fell for each and every one of these. They're still so pervasive and common out there too. It is the wild west out on social media, out on the internet. And it is my hope that by sharing these, I will save you so much time because I truly wasted a decade A decade of my life on things that didn't matter and were not rooted in anything factual.
So here we go. 
Before we dive in, if you are interested in working on your relationship with food, building healthier habits, sustainable fat loss, maintaining that fat loss, if you've already lost that weight, whatever it is, overeating, I have a bunch of resources linked below. So be sure to check those out. Fat loss myth number one is you have to track your food in order to get leaner. And this is so common because if you're on social media at all, you see so many people weighing, tracking, measuring their food. And you think, well, they got results. [00:01:00] And therefore the only way to get results is for me to live like them.
And it's just completely not true. So tracking is a tool with the goal of getting you to adhere to a calorie deficit. 
Now here are some potential roadblocks you might run into when it comes to tracking. For some women, when they track their food, they end up thinking about food a lot more and they end up eating more as a result of that, putting them at either maintenance calorie intake or a surplus, which leads to weight gain.
So remember it comes down to energy balance. So we want to get ourselves into a calorie deficit. If we're looking for weight loss. It's outside of water fluctuations here. And if you are one of the lucky few who's in a position to engage in body recomposition, which is where you are gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time, but your body weight will remain the same.
So you don't have a ton of weight to lose. Then you will be at maintenance calorie intake, but still the laws of energy balance, law of thermodynamics. It's a physics law of the universe still apply. Energy can either be created or destroyed. Now, another potential roadblock with tracking is a, that [00:02:00] number has to be helpful.
A lot of women write me and say, Hey, I'm following this number, but I'm just maintaining. Well, that might just be maintenance. for you. That might not actually be a deficit number for you. So you need to make sure that the number that you are following is actually helpful in getting you closer to your goals.
And then secondly, we want to make sure that, okay, let's say that number is accurate. Are you actually adhering to the numbers you're supposed to be hitting? So this is extremely, extremely common, and this is typically. The biggest pitfall I see is we get so focused on these numbers and say, well, I'm putting the numbers in the app with failing to account for, let's say extra bites and licks and things of this, that will put us in a calorie surplus or just above.
The numbers that we're trying to hit and they'll say something's wrong with me. My metabolism is broken I'm doing everything because I'm hitting this number when in reality, they're not actually hitting that number They just think they are and there's nothing wrong with you. If this is you this is extremely common registered dieticians do this in research studies It's just part of human [00:03:00] nature so I would Assess those three things.
A, does it suit your psychology? B, is the number even accurate? And C, are you actually adhering to said numbers? And is it something that you actually are going to be able to enjoy doing long term? Just understand that it's a tool. It is one of many tools that you can use to get to your goals, but you can just take your maintenance lifestyle, the way you maintain your weight and make adjustments to your nutrition and your exercise.
Pick and choose how much you want to do with one or the other or all one all the other to get to your goals I have lost over 30 pounds and 95 percent of The process of losing that weight was done without tracking and for the time I did track It was very very loose tracking and I never weighed nor measured my food.
So it was a rough estimate to begin with and over 50 percent of my clients inside of sustainably lean academy do not track either. So I just, I need you to know that it is one option and if it works for you, I love that for you. And if it doesn't, you don't have to do it. 
Second, big fat loss myth that I am seeing [00:04:00] rolling around the internet is that you have to walk a ton in order to get leaner. Again, it's a tool at the end of the day, it comes down to energy balance. So if you are trying to lose weight, then you need to be in an energy or calorie deficit. Now hitting 20, 000 steps a day, which is a trend I'm seeing on tick tock.
That is a large number of steps for the average person, especially Especially if you have a desk job, I see a lot of the women who are hitting these numbers. They are chasing after young children all day, easily going to get you to step counts or they have very active jobs. So people who are on their feet all day, uh, working at a gym or they are servers, something like that.
 It will be much, much easier to hit that number. And also that is going to be their maintenance lifestyle. So at a certain point you have to say, okay, am I going to maintain this forever? And if not, that's okay. It's just, you need to know how to then titrate that walking or those step counts downward for you to maintain at a reasonable amount.
And when it comes to health, if you're like, well, I walk [00:05:00] 20 K steps a day for my health. If that's what you want to do, great, but you don't need to be walking that much for optimal health research currently suggests around eight to 12, 000 steps a day, but this varies drastically from person to person. So moving your body regularly, love that.
It's absolutely wonderful. It is important for all of us, but just to assume that walking a ton is going to automatically lead to weight loss is misguided. You do not need to be walking 20, 000 steps a day. to get leaner. You're more than welcome to, but you don't need to. Third common fat loss myth is you have to eat clean in order to lose weight. And once again, you're going to notice the theme here. It comes down to energy balance. So eating clean can be helpful typically is for people getting into a calorie deficit or weight maintenance. The reason being is whole foods typically are more satiating.
So they're going to keep you fuller longer and contribute to better appetite regulation than ultra processed foods like chips, Skittles, Twinkies, et cetera. [00:06:00] Further, they tend to be less calorie dense. I'll share an exception here in a moment. And when you're eating a more nutrient rich whole foods diet, you tend to feel better. And when you feel better, you sleep better, you feel better in your workouts, you're more inclined to get up and show up for yourself.
So it creates that upward spiral versus a downward spiral, making it much, much easier to adhere to your calorie deficit or your weight maintenance. But because it comes down to energy balance. You can still overeat, eat more calories than you want to either lose weight or to maintain your weight than you want to.
It still comes down to energy balance, which brings me to the forthcoming myth. The fourth common fat loss myth is you need to eat fat to burn fat. This was so incredibly common when I was coming up in my diet era, unfortunately, in my teens and in my early twenties. With the biohacking and I, I'm kind of shocked to see that this is still so pervasive in many circles typically in that sphere the keto the biohacking and [00:07:00] we need fat for hormonal health, but Eating fat thinking that it's just gonna rev up the metabolism and that magically leads to weight loss Misguided and that led to me having health issues I felt awful and led to me gaining a lot of weight and the reason is Fat is the most calorie dense of all of the macronutrients.
So we have fats, proteins, carbohydrates, alcohols in a separate category. But fat has nine calories per gram, whereas carbohydrates and protein have four. So it's more than double the energy density. And for some people, they are not highly satiated when it comes to eating fats. That's something I would experiment with, but you can put yourself into a calorie surplus or easily at maintenance by eating a lot of fat and it's low volume.
So there's not a lot of food. Now there's context always matters with this stuff because some people find that if they eat more calorie dense foods and smaller portions that they feel a lot better, contributes to a better relationship with food. They just enjoy it more and they actually end up eating less [00:08:00] overall as compared to someone.
It's common in the bodybuilding circles where you see people super high volume, low calorie. That makes me feel terrible and kind of makes me sad. It's not the way that I want to live somewhere in the middle. is suitable for me. You'll need to experiment and figure out what works for you. But the idea that just eating more fat is going to inherently rev up the metabolism and drop body fat is misguided and eating a ton of fat, particularly saturated fat can absolutely be harmful for our health.
Current recommendation is no more than 10 percent of our total daily calorie intake from saturated fat. Something for you to keep in mind. This common weight loss myth is you need to follow your fat loss strategy forever, right? We hear this all the time that if you can't do it forever, then you shouldn't be doing it. And this is really important because there's the lifestyle phase where, yes, if you are overhauling your lifestyle and you're coming from a place of overeating a ton of eating a lot of ultra processed foods, ton of alcohol, never moving your body, then maintaining those habits forever in order to [00:09:00] maintain your health and your body composition.
100%. Those things need to be maintained, at least with a pretty tight degree. But beyond that, typically that's sometimes all people need in order to get to the body composition they want. For me personally, I would still be 20 pounds heavier because I plateaued at that point. So in order to get further results, you employ advanced, more intentional fat loss phases.
And this is where you're deliberately putting yourself into a calorie deficit. And then it's below what would be required for you to maintain your weight. And then you come back to your new optimal maintenance. Because if we stay in that calorie deficit for a long period of time, then eventually we start to feel like crap.
Our biofeedback starts to chirp up at us. We're not going to feel well. And that is a down regulated metabolism. And that is not what we want. We don't want to stay there long term. You eventually want to come to your new key new Optimal, optimal maintenance because you weigh less and then stay there for a while.
And then you can rinse and repeat as needed, but there needs to be more of a delineation between the [00:10:00] lifestyle fat loss phase and then the more advanced intentional fat loss phase. 
fat loss myth number six is genetics are all that matter. Now, genetics, I love this phrase, genetics, load the gun environment, pulls the trigger. Are some people more predisposed to being overweight to having obesity? Yes. And if you struggle with appetite regulation, regardless of how healthy your habits are, how many Nutrient dense, whole foods, protein, fiber, all the good stuff that you were following that helps with appetite regulation that I too need to adhere to, then I would absolutely speak with your doctor if that were me to help with regulating that.
But beyond that, our environment matters a lot. And. We can't help sometimes the environment that we're in but we can curate an environment to contribute to our goals as much as Possible and sometimes we just have to make the hard freaking choices, right? So for an example when I went to Southeast Asia at my 20s backpacking I had pretty much no money to my name I managed to convince some girlfriends to go [00:11:00] with me and I was a pretty healthy eater before I was drinking a lot prior But when I went there, because I didn't have any money to spend, we would eat the hostel breakfasts, which were eggs and fruit typically.
And then the rest of the time we were eating lots of rice, vegetables, and some protein. And we were walking a ton and that environment. I didn't think about my body weight at all. I lost quite a bit of weight on that trip. And you can imagine that if you walked into a hotel for Let's say three months or any environment for three months and the only foods around you were butter, bread, Cheetos, Skittles, cake, wine.
Eventually you'd be like, damn, I don't feel well. It's really hard for me to feel full. I feel like I'm getting hungry three seconds later cause there's no protein here. That environment is going to make it more difficult to adhere to a calorie deficit or adhere to your maintenance lifestyle. Our food choices matter, and if you're stuck inside, let's say it's the dead of winter and there's no treadmill.
So getting outside and being more active, your calorie output [00:12:00] is going to be lower as well. So our environment does matter and we can overcome our environment while acknowledging that there are going to be some differences for people, right? Because if you are in an environment in an urban center where you're Whole foods, let's say, or you're in a rural area rather where whole foods are not readily available, that is going to be more challenging than for someone like myself, where I have a whole foods down the street and I can afford to eat that food pretty easily, right?
So these things do matter. I live in Colorado. Where our winters lately, it's been a little brutal, but I have a treadmill in my apartment building. I can hop on there to get some extra movement and walking outside. I can do that pretty easily. I have a dog that contributes to me walking more. So all of these things add up and really contribute to our appetite regulation, which is really the name of the game.
So often is, are you eating things that are helping you adhere to your goals? Or are you eating a bunch of things that are moving you further away from your goals? not because they're bad, but [00:13:00] because they have different impacts on our appetite, on our satiety, on our enjoyment.
And this is not all or nothing to be very clear, because this can impact your relationship with food. I have cookies on a daily basis. I have bread on a daily basis, but I do. Practice awareness with the portion sizes and the impact eating too many of those things would have on how I feel, which would then lead to worst choices, a downward spiral and the total energy density, calorie density overall, and how that fits into my overall maintenance intake currently, maybe a deficit at some point in the future.
So genetics are one piece of the puzzle and some people have to keep an eye. on things more than others. Absolutely. But we've got to work with what we've been dealt and understand that there's still so many things that we have control over. And this is where knowing where to focus your efforts, knowing how fat loss works, having a high level understanding of nutrition is so important.
And why I just shared the prior myths, right? Because if you're under the impression that, Oh, I just need to eat more fat. and [00:14:00] walk 10, 000 steps a day and I should be losing weight. Something's wrong with me. I'm broken. You're just following the wrong information and that can be really, really damaging as well.
So make sure that you actually understand how the metabolism works, the dynamic nature of it, how to overcome plateaus, how to honor your relationship with food throughout. All this is super important to make sure you're focused on the right things and then curate a strategy that actually is suitable to you.
How you like to live your life, your preferences, how you like to eat and exercise, your values, your appetite. It's going to vary from person to person, but take the time to learn how this stuff works. And if you need help with that, I teach this inside of sustainably lean Academy, full blown fat loss course, best thing you can get leaner with or without tracking.
You can find the details below, but either way, just take the time, even if not with me to invest in how this works and it will change the game for you. I went on a bit of a sermon there at the end because that really revs me up with how important it is to understand how your body works and the truth about nutrition and exercise to save you [00:15:00] time and to protect your sanity and to prevent you from losing trust with yourself because you're just following things that are not.
True and as always I highly highly recommend starting up with your relationship with food if that is not up to snuff You're doing a lot of overeating you have no idea what hunger and fullness cues are you're over here and then you're over here It's just chaos a lot of stress with food start with your relationship with food.
I have 11 overeating training you can get started with below But I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you currently believe any of these myths or if you have in the past, and I will see you in the next video.