Bro #1: “Yeah bro, can’t you tell I lost weight? I put on like 10 pounds of muscle too.”

Bro #2: “Crazy how I weigh less, but I definitely put on some muscle.”

I could keep going, but you get the point. Lose fat, gain muscle – at the same time. How many supplements have you seen that claim they’ll let you do this? How many articles have you read that claim you can do this? Plenty, you know why? The consumer market works on fast results, and we all know how impatient we are as humans. We want it, and we want it now. We wouldn’t want it as much if it actually required hard work and dedication, right? So you can see how the fitness industry and media in general work in tandem to provide you with the fastest way to do whatever (six pack abs, big arms, beach body, etc.). However, getting back to reality, the truth is simple. Unless you are using steroids, thinking that you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time is just not going to happen. Well, I shouldn’t be that harsh, let me explain.

The process of thermodynamics is absolute, that means there’s no workarounds. Whatever you’ve read about and been religiously pumped into believing through magazines or the media, you’ll have to let go. The reasoning for that is simple. Our bodies function in one specific way, based on calories (units of energy). Food is made up of calories, which in the end, are used as energy for our every day activities. What we eat per day, is what we take in (calorie wise) and every thing we do (including what happens inside of our bodies) requires energy (calories). Therefore, this translates into: Food (calories in) vs. Activity (calories out).

If we eat more food per day than we wind up burning through our total activity levels that day, we will wind up with excess calories. Over time, if we keep this up, we will put on weight. If we do the opposite and continually burn more than the amount of food we take in per day, over time, we will lose weight. At the same time, there is a maintenance amount of calories that we require (based on our weight/height/activity level) that we will burn automatically per day. For an extreme but simple example, if we remove the activity factor (what we do each day) and just go off of our body’s statistics, just the act of breathing and functioning (while laying still in bed for 24 hours without moving) is going to burn a certain amount of calories, that amount is your maintenance. Therefore, this whole process of calories in vs. calories out is based on whatever our maintenance is per day. If we wind up below our maintenance, we’ll lose weight. If we wind up above, we’ll gain weight (again, over time, unless you literally binge and eat some insane amount in one day). For more on this, read our maintenance calories article.

Now that I’ve effectively summarized the basics (which, in turn, summarizes both of the articles I linked to), let’s get to losing fat and gaining muscle. Understanding the above, you can clearly see that to lose fat, you need to do the opposite of what you do to gain muscle. Right there, you should see how doing both at once does not make sense. In order to illustrate this for you in the simplest of forms, I’m going to use a good old metaphor. So here it goes: Let’s say you are constructing a house -

If you need to build the first floor, but you only have enough materials to build the basement, can you accomplish your objective? On another note, if you’re attempting to remove the window in the basement, but don’t have enough tools to do so, can you accomplish your objective? Without being imaginative, we can clearly see the answer to both questions being a no. Now substitute your body for the house, and your actions for the tools. The end result is the same. If you’re attempting to gain muscle, but you’re not eating above maintenance, you are not giving your body the necessary amount of food needed for it to actually build muscle. If you’re attempting to lose fat, but you’re not giving your body enough of a reduction in calories, you’re not going to able to lose fat because you’re overfeeding your body and it can run off of the excess energy instead of focusing on taking away from your body fat.

In its most basic form, therefore, the concept of lose fat, gain muscle (at the same time) = an oxymoron. How are you supposed to be able to give your body enough nutrients to have enough to sustain itself (and THEN SOME to build new muscle), yet give it less nutrients than it needs so that it can effectively start to burn fat? It’s simple, you can’t. You either have to be eating a bit above to gain muscle, or a little below to lose fat. It sucks, but it’s better knowing this than trying something that’s physically impossible and wasting your time because you’re being lied to, right? I hope so!

Now, to spare ending the article on such a devastating note, there is technically a way to be able to do both. It’s not the optimal way to get things done, but if you don’t mind taking more time to achieve results then you might take a liking to this method. Think about it, if you have to be above to gain muscle, and below to lose fat, where can you theoretically average out to be able to do both? At maintenance! It’s rather widely understood that if you stick to eating right around maintenance for extended periods of time, you’ll be able to accomplish a successful body re-composition (change the way your body looks). Very often that involves losing fat, yet gaining muscle. If you understand how we’ve gotten to this point with all the calorie talk, you can hopefully see how hovering right around your maintenance can bring a mix of both.

Keep in mind, however, that this process is much slower. Usually, if you really get practical, those AT maintenance are supposed to simply stay the same. However, with some heavy training and a strong diet (high protein), some positive body recomp. should be expected. Again, since you’re not focusing on one of the two goals specifically, and allowing your body to be performing at optimal levels by focusing on that goal solely, the results will be much slower. Just like with anything else, doing two things at once is not as productive as sticking to accomplishing one task at a time, this is no different. Nonetheless, it does not mean both can’t be done with time together (lose fat, gain muscle). If you don’t mind taking your time, or you’re not really into the whole bulking/cutting cycle, go ahead, give it a try. Good Luck!

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The unfortunate consequence of the huge media and fitness industries and their propaganda campaigns in all types of fitness magazines, shows, and any other popular source imaginable; is that they’ve effectively gotten the general public to believe that these muscle supplements work, and they work very well. So when an individual goes into a local Vitamin Shoppe or GNC, often times they’re not in there to find a product that works, they’re in there to purchase the product that makes the most creative claims that it works. This is a product (no pun) of these effective campaigns by these companies within the fitness industry to get you to buy into their pipe dreams, and they’ve done a great job. However, the fitness-oriented individual who understands how this process works will not be so easily duped, at least without first understanding some basic necessities when dealing with any types of muscle supplements.

1) Supplements are not created equal – just because it is sitting on the shelf, or you’ve seen it advertised on multiple magazines doesn’t mean that it works. The company simply has money to push the product, and you should be skeptical until you see some real research behind the effectiveness of the muscle supplement that hasn’t been skewed to help push the product.

2) Supplements don’t work magic – even if a muscle supplement does help in one form or another and this has been proven, understand the role that these supplements play. They aren’t there to substitute your diet, or to do the work for you. They are simply supplements, to supplement your already rigorous workouts and proper diet. If you want to reach results, you can reach all the results you need to reach on your own. These muscle supplements are there only to help fill in small gaps or give you that extra you need to reach your goals.

With all this talk of muscle supplements that work and don’t work, it is only fair we point out the supplements that have actually been proven to work.

Protein – Creatine – Multivitamin – Fish Oil.

Now, I’m not saying no other supplements work. They certainly may or may not, but if we’re referring to supplements that unquestionably play a role in helping your body reach your fitness goals, and have been proven extensively to work, those are the three. Everything else is up in the air, with some having more evidence behind them than others. Furthermore, out of these three, only enough Creatine can’t be supplied from eating foods alone (at least, an efficient amount that you can get from a supplement). Since Creatine supplementation isn’t necessary, you could argue there’s no need for any supplement if you step your eating game up. However, no need to go that far as it’s pretty tough to get all of your vitamins in without a supplement. Fish Oil is not a muscle supplement but is included in this list because Omega 3s are so important you should always have them on hand for overall health. Again, these muscle supplements are great to fix any gaps in your daily routine and diet, not as standalone powerhouses like many expect them to be. There’s a little more to expand on, however.

a) Protein Powder – this has been a staple muscle supplement for as far back as we can care to look back to. However, it is not the fact that protein powder has some special ability in it that allows it to be an effective supplement. It is simply protein, in powder form, that you can ingest for a quick dose of protein in order to help you reach the amount you should be taking in per day. We discuss this concept in How Much Protein Per Day.

Some people think that by working out and taking in a protein shake post-workout they will wind up putting on muscle. The process doesn’t work that way! Protein is a basic building block of life, essential to the building and repair of muscle. Protein powder is simply a powdered version that one can use to help you reach a higher protein amount for the day (necessary for eventual repair and growth of the muscle you punished in gym). For example, if you haven’t had too much protein today because your meal choices weren’t high in protein-rich foods like meats and fish, you can use a protein shake as a supplement to help you reach your protein goals. It will give you that extra protein necessary. The protein powder is not a muscle supplement that will do anything on its own!

In order to actually put on muscle mass, a protein powder is irrelevant if you do not eat above your caloric maintenance. There is a certain amount of calories per day you need to take in so that your body grows, if that amount is not met, all the protein shakes in the world won’t help you put on muscle (well, unless you drank enough to give you enough calories to grow – certainly illogical and not recommended). Therefore, here’s the verdict:

If you use a protein powder, understand that it is merely a tool to help you reach an optimal protein count for the day, and without an overall diet that gives your body more energy than it expands (puts you above maintenance), it will not be very useful if you are using it with the goal of putting on muscle.

2) Fat Burners – whether fat burners actually play a role is debatable. Certain fat burners are muscle supplements in that they claim they help your body retain muscle as you try and lose weight (fat!). Again, this is all not exactly proven and set in stone. However, to illustrate how these supplements can’t be thought of as magic pills they are a great example.

When you buy a fat burner, it does not contain pills that will magically slim you down by following the recommended doses (although you’d be surprised, the writing on the bottle claims otherwise, no?). With that said, we return to the principle of calories per day outlined earlier. If you’re eating above your maintenance calories for the day (the amount required to keep you at your current weight), no matter how many of these fat burner pills you take it won’t make a difference. The fat burner isn’t a stand alone actor, it is simply a supplement that you should be using along with your proper diet and workouts. As a result, you must be eating below your maintenance calories and using it to help out with minor things such as appetite suppression (to help you eat less calories overall for the day) or metabolism increase (to help you burn a bit more calories for the day). Under those circumstances, it will act as a supplement to your already proper diet.

Someone who is going to take a fat burner but the diet is all over the place, unknowingly eating above maintenance but hoping to lose some fat, will be very disappointed, even though the bottle and the reviews clearly state the product works. That’s where this misunderstanding occurs between the consumer, and the company producing the supplement. It’s not easy to get your diet in check, it’s not a simple process. Many times we are led to believe that a quick fix is there and it will bring instant results, unfortunately, this is not the case. Make sure you have everything else in check (diet, workout routine) before you purchase a muscle supplement to help you achieve your goals. They may claim otherwise, but they are only (at best) supplements. Furthermore, make sure you don’t believe outrageous claims or any product that makes it seem it does work you know you should be doing. It will almost certainly be a waste of money. There’s those few muscle supplements that definitely do work, the rest do not have such concrete evidence. You can go ahead and try them, but even if they do wind up working for you, remember…they’re only a supplement, use them as such. Good luck!

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Although there certainly isn’t a lack of common fitness and diet myths being circulated on an every day basis amongst individuals, spot reduction has its very own place. It is a myth so far removed from reality that it is unfortunate its prevalence is so widespread. People are told it is possible, and unknown to them, waste their time attempting to achieve the impossible. Repeat after me:

Losing fat exclusively from a particular part of your body is not possible. This is also known as “spot reduction”.

The fitness industry has not made it very easy to resist the temptation of believing that an individual can decide where on their body they can shape up. This myth is on the cover of magazines, the basis of a variety of products, and often the talk of individuals in the gym. However, the single best example of it in action is the attempt to do exercises to lose belly fat. You can’t!

For example:  “Six easy ab exercises for achieving a six pack”, “tighten your waist with this rigorous ab routine”. Want to have a slim waist? Do this exercise, do that exercise. In the end the claimed result is the same, you lose belly fat and pop out aesthetically pleasing abs. Could it get any easier? Doubtful.

Spot reduction is a fallacy because you do not have control over where you can lose fat. Everybody is wired differently, some people gain fat in certain areas faster than others. On the flip side, they lose fat in certain places faster than others. That’s entirely  not up to you to change, you are powerless in this process. Therefore, doing exercises to lose belly fat and thin your waist line is the equivalent of trying to swim across the Great Lakes. Sure you could try, but you won’t get anywhere. Instead, your efforts need to be consolidated into what actually works. You want to do exercises to lose belly fat? That’s perfectly fine, but to get that slim waist involves proper dieting, without which those same exercises you’re doing won’t work.

It is unbelievably common to think that sitting down and doing ab exercises is going to improve your waist. Millions of people do it. They get an ab routine that supposedly “works”, and they crunch away. Ask yourself this question, if it truly were that easy, wouldn’t everybody walk around with great abs?

Exercises to lose belly fat are ineffective if they are not combined with a proper diet that is aimed at helping you lose weight. That diet is the single most important component. In order to understand how this process works, visit our Calories Per Day article. By the way, you don’t need to hit yourself over the head about all those wasted crunches, they certainly have their place. To understand how the whole concept works, imagine all those people who want to invoke spot reduction in order to get a lean stomach. They do these exercises to lose belly fat and hopefully develop a six pack. However, everybody already has a six pack. It is just covered with a layer of fat. It is the fat you must remove to make a difference, sort of like a tarp hanging over that brand new BMW. You won’t enjoy the look of it unless you remove the cover, correct? Alright, enough with the cheesy metaphors, let’s get to business!

Although spot reduction certainly isn’t possible, a combination of doing exercises to lose belly fat and a proper diet that is below your maintenance calories will help you achieve that slimmer waist. It is a two-pronged approach. The ab exercises will strengthen your abdominals and your diet will cut down the fat layer covering them, leaving you with a proud stomach for all of your efforts. Doing ab exercises alone can help you develop a stronger core, but it won’t melt the fat away. As a result, you’re still going to be in the same place, just with a stronger stomach. If that’s all you are after, crunch away. Otherwise, buckle down in the kitchen because that’s what matters.

Now, since we’ve certainly beat being general to death with a stick, let’s get to some details. The particular exercises you decide to do are pretty irrelevant, again, you can technically not do a single crunch but if your diet is on point you can wind up with abs. So in regards to the particular exercises to lose belly fat, there are none. Just do whatever ab exercises you’re most comfortable with. They are the secondary component. In terms of diet, if we’re sticking primarily to lowering the calories in order to lose weight over time, check out our Easy Ways to Lose Weight article. It has a bunch of great tips that you can implement into your every day culinary routine so that you might actually not mind dieting a bit. Sometimes, you don’t have to go strict for dieting to work out. (for starters, stick to grilled instead of fried foods, eat your veggies, and load up on mashed potatoes instead of fries)

It is also important to note that not everybody is looking to get a six pack, some just want to lose belly fat and have a leaner midsection. For people with that specific goal, doing ab exercises is honestly a waste of time. If you’re up for it, go ahead. However, it is certainly not necessary because if you put in your work in the kitchen you will succeed in your objectives. If there’s one thing that you can grab out of this article, remember that the hardest work isn’t figuring out which ab exercises work the best. What matters is the amount of calories you wind up eating each day. Working out can only help, but for those just looking to slim down who don’t have that extra time, put the time in where time never escapes – eating.

If you start seeing results but they are not yet apparent in your stomach in particular, don’t worry. Unfortunately, the stomach is one of the last places to lose weight. Keep going strong and over time you’ll start seeing results there as well. Looking fit and staying fit is a journey, it certainly isn’t a sprint. Now no more spot reduction, go get the job done properly. Good luck!

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For example: are bananas fattening? Is rice fattening? Are nuts fattening? These are common questions posed by people all the time as they look for a way to enjoy a healthy lifestyle that will help them keep those pounds away. However, there is a very big problem with these questions, and this problem arises from a common myth that we’re going to examine and dismiss.

To begin, there is no single food item that is fattening. Of course, when I refer to a food item I’m referring to a serving size. Therefore, eating a cup of nuts is a food item, as is eating a banana. Eating a whole jar of peanut butter, on the other hand,  is clearly not what I’m referring to! With that said, no particular food item is fattening because it does not contain the amount of calories necessary to make you put on fat. Let’s go over a quick summary of why that is and how this whole process works.

In order to put on weight, you need to eat enough food to go over your caloric limit for the day, for at least a couple of days. What this means, is that you need to take in more calories into your body through food than you burn through your activity and every day lifestyle. If this happens over a span of time it will lead to weight gain. This does not happen after one day (unless you’re a competitive hot dog eater?) and it certainly won’t happen due to one meal you ate (unless you really rake it in uncontrollably, but this is really unlikely).  Perhaps during the days of fast food king sizes and no diet sodas this was a bit more likely to occur from one meal, but it is highly improbable now so let’s not focus on it. Just understand that this is the process required to put on weight – eating above your maintenance.

The term fattening then, can only mean an amount of calories that will put you over your daily limit. Again, no single food item can do this to you. As we just mentioned, since you’d have to really go for the gold to have a meal do this to you, a particular food can’t be fattening. Therefore, bananas aren’t fattening. Nuts aren’t fattening, and neither is rice (the examples we’ve been using). Keeping this in mind, it is not the type of food that matters as much as the quantity of it. Sure, a couple of slices of pizza aren’t fattening because they don’t equal remotely enough calories to put you over the amount you need to start putting on weight gradually, but a pie and a half may be a different story. As far as nuts go, for example, you’d probably have to eat a huge Costco bag to have some problems. Having some nuts here and there will not hurt your weight!

I bet many people wouldn’t claim that salads are fattening, right? Well, you’d be surprised. Loading a salad with high calorie dressing and mozzarella balls might raise your salad to the level of a burger if you’re not careful.  Again, what’s important is calorie levels and quantity, not the type of food (for body composition).

Understanding that foods are not “fattening” is important because it allows us to enjoy what we like as long as we use sensible portions and know when to eat certain things over others. For example, if you’ve been eating ice cream and Wendy’s all day, is it wiser to finish off with some pizza or some grilled chicken and veggies? The latter, of course. It is lower in calories, and will limit your total intake for the day when compared to the pizza which will only exacerbate it. Does that make the pizza itself fattening? No, but coupled with the high calorie meals and snacks you’ve been eating throughout the day might mean that it’ll put you over your maintenance calories for the day, which is what we’re trying to limit.

A good example I often use when discussing items that are supposedly fattening, is to imagine two different eating scenarios for the day. In the first, imagine the example given above. You’ve been eating high calorie foods all day and you want to continue with an evening snack that consists of another high calorie food, is there a chance you’ll go over your daily requirement? Yes. In the second, imagine you’ve barely eaten all day. If you have that same high calorie food, will it matter? No, it’ll actually do your body good because you certainly don’t want to starve yourself.

I understand that many people can claim that a food is fattening because it is high calorie per serving, but that does not make it fattening. Bananas are higher in calories than grapes, that doesn’t mean bananas anything in the grand total of the day as long as you are able to understand that you can’t constantly pig out. Sure, have a high calorie meal, but make sure you follow it up with a lower calorie meal. Moderation is the key. This also means that you don’t need to avoid certain foods, as long as you understand some are more calorie dense than others and you take that into account. For a better understanding of this, check out our Clean Foods Bad Foods: Benefits of Both article. Good luck!

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To understand where IIFYM has its origins, it is important to understand that it developed out of the concept of Calories In vs. Calories Out. Put simply, an individual burns a specific amount of calories in a day. That amount is the amount that individual requires from daily food intake to maintain their current weight. If the individual starts eating less, this will result in a caloric defecit, which will eventually bring about weight loss. If an individual eats more, this will result in a caloric surplus, which will eventually bring about weight gain. The concept is easy to understand because it works off of a basic premise: an individual’s weight depends on the difference between the amount of calories they intake (calories in) vs. the amount of calories they burn (calories out). For more on how this process works and what the ideal calorie counts are for people trying to lose fat or gain muscle, visit our Calories Per Day article.

With that background in mind, another necessary concept must be understood: macronutrients. Naturally, whether an individual is looking to lose fat or gain muscle, the protein amount they eat per day should be decently high. This is vital in order to preserve muscle on a cut, or build muscle on a bulk. Outside of this requirement, an individual is free to choose whether they want to focus on lowering their fat intake, or their carbohydrate intake. These 3 groups (fats, proteins, carbohydrates) are the macronutrient groups that account for practically any calorie in any food (with the debatable exception of sugar alcohol). As such, in order for an individual to meet his or her calorie amount for a particular day while making sure their protein intake is high, that individual must manipulate the fat and carbohydrate amounts they intake to account for the increased protein intake. Otherwise, in simplest terms, the individual will wind up eating too many calories. This macronutrient manipulation is important because each macronutrient has varying calorie amounts. Proteins and Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, while fats have 9 calories per gram. If an individual has 50 grams of fats in a meal, as opposed to someone who has 50 grams of carbohydrates, the former will intake 200 more calories than the latter. This, of course, is important because it guides how many calories that individual will wind up taking in for the day, which will guide whether they will be losing fat, maintaining their weight, or putting on muscle. As a caveat, don’t automatically assume fats are bad because they have so many more calories per gram. Read our article on Fats in order to clear up any confusion.

With all of this necessary preceding material now out of the way, let’s tackle IIFYM. If if fits your macros is a concept that logically followed the natural combination of the two important components discussed above. If calorie counts are the decisive factor in determining any weight changes, and macronutrient manipulation decides how many calories we ingest, the bare minimum basic result that follows is IIFYM. For example:

If an individual requires 2,500 calories per day to maintain his weight and he does not wish to change, that individual can eat whatever he pleases as long as his ultimate calorie count winds up totaling 2,500 calories per day. Here is where many people, often critics, misinterpret IIFYM. An individual following IIFYM does not suddenly have free rein to grab a bag of doritos and a couple snickers ice cream bars and call it a day because the total comes out to 2,500 calories. The concept is called IIFYM for a reason. An individual may choose any food he wants to reach his 2,500 calorie total for the day, but the combination of those foods must meet his required macronutrient ratio. In other words, if an individual follows a standard 40/40/20 nutrition plan, 80% of his diet will evenly consist of proteins and carbohydrates, and 20% of his diet will consist of fats. That means 1000 calories must wind up coming from protein, 1000 calories must wind up coming from carbohydrates, and 500 calories must wind up coming from fats. What foods the individual eats to achieve those macronutrient totals is irrelevant, as long as they are reached. Yes, that means allowing an individual to break away from eating perfectly clean and having some “dirtier” foods. For an article expanding on this particular topic, check out Clean Food vs. Bad Food: Benefits of Both.

To expand on this example, imagine individual #1 goes to Burger King for lunch and has a 1000 calorie meal. The meal has a whopper and fries, which provides him with more carbohydrates than he desires, and less proteins than he desires. Individual #2 eats 1000 calories of grilled chicken and brown rice. He gets an amount of both that is satisfactory for his ultimate macro goals. These two individuals may have different macronutrient totals for that 1000 calories stemming from this single meal, but IIFYM must be understood based on the total caloric intake for the day, not one meal. As a result, the discrepancies in macros with this single meal will even out once the total calories for the day are consumed. How? Well, individual #2 only needs an X amount of protein for the day, the rest of his calories will come from carbohydrates or fats. This allows individual #1 in his next meal to catch up on lost ground by eating a protein-focused meal, limiting the excess carbohydrates he most likely had from his Burger King meal. Individual #2, on the other hand, will probably wind up having a smaller version of his previous meal. Whereas individual #1′s meals shift and vary in regards to macro totals per meal, he will mix and match his foods to cover for any one particular meal. Individual #2, on the other hand, will consistently ration his portions to wind up with his totals. As long as individual #1 keeps track and counts his macros, both individuals will wind up with the same macro ratios and total caloric intake while eating completely different foods. Individual #1 will have accomplished this thanks to IIFYM.

Now, of course IIFYM does not give anybody the right to pig out. Meal choices must be made with macronutrient ratios in mind, that is the key to success. However, it does allow the individual the flexibility to play around with his diet, and eat foods he often craves. The only major caveat to IIFYM is that often “dirtier” foods are higher in calories and digest faster (leaving you hungrier sooner), which gives them the “dirty” title in the first place. An individual following IIFYM must keep this in mind when choosing a particular food choice, and offset any higher calorie count for a single meal by eating a smaller meal later in the day and including cleaner foods that digest slower. However, that’s exactly what IIFYM is, it allows the flexibility necessary to play around with your food choices to come up with your desired caloric and macronutrient totals. Ideally, you should not use IIFYM as an excuse to eat “dirty foods” all the time. Instead, keep a clean diet overall and mix and match between clean and dirty foods to come up with your daily totals. This will guarantee you can eat what you like when you crave it, but at the same time allow yourself an easier time actually hitting your desired macronutrient ratios. Good luck!

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Yes, I did not make that up. Although to some it may seem ridiculous, for those who are unaware of the validity of this entire “absorption theory” it may not seem so. So how much protein can your body really absorb at once? Certainly more than you might believe!

The whole basis of the claim that your body has a limit on how much protein it can absorb at once is…well, unfounded. It really has no valid origin that it has been derived from, and I don’t really understand how it has become such a popular myth. Well, then again I could certainly see how the supplement industry would benefit from such claims. However, its origins are far from important. What we want to focus on is dismantling this myth with some common sense explanations.

The body is a wonderful thing, and its adaptive abilities have allowed us to become the efficient species we are today. Imagine the time before agriculture, when we still had to hunt for food and would go long periods of time in between our hunts. Would all that meat we’d devour in one sitting get tossed out by our bodies because we had too much protein at once? Would the body go: “oh look, that’s about 80 grams right there….25 will do, the rest is out!”? No, it would adapt the large feed to its needs and provide energy for a long enough period to allow for another hunt.

Putting the historical factor aside, think about how our bodies function on an every day level. You have to consider the average digestion rate when looking at the question of how much protein your body can absorb at once in its entirety. If you have a regular sized meal, it takes roughly 3 hours to digest (let’s assume it is regular in its proportions of protein/carbs/fats also). This means that the amount of protein you’ve given your body is going to be digested over the course of those 3 hours. That digestion rate, in and of itself, defeats the entire purpose of the absorption theory myth. You will never be digesting anything “at once” unless you drink down excessive amounts of whey protein.

If we look at a popular diet known as intermittent fasting (IT), where individuals eat all of their calories in a 4 hour window of time each day, it further illustrates how adaptive the body is and how digestion rates play a major factor. Imagine eating 3 thousand calories in a short time span, and fasting for the remainder of the day. Do you think your body will reject the food not knowing when you will eat again? No, it will adapt. Furthermore, the time it takes to digest all that food is going to multiply.

How much protein your body can absorb at once is a question that really shouldn’t even be asked. Just know it’s nowhere close to the ridiculous limits claimed by those who cling to this common misconception. For an individual who trains hard and stresses the body enough for it to need to recover several times a week, it is imperative to feed the body what it needs to recover well. The last thing on its mind will be sorting out whether you gave it 25g of protein or a supposedly “unnecessary” 40g. Worry instead about figuring out your Maintenance Calories and working off of that number to achieve your goals of building muscle mass or losing fat.

As an ending note, the only real time I can see the body really wasting protein intake would be when the individual doesn’t even train. At which point, what’s the difference? Unless you’ve just had a very satisfying meal and you decide to chug 6 scoops of whey for fun (as you can see, I’m trying to go as far off the wall as I can while still remaining realistic), how much protein your body can absorb at once is not something you should sit and contemplate about. Feed your body well, train hard and smart (Mind Muscle!), and the results will come. For something very closely tied to this topic, check out our How Much Protein Per Day? article. Good luck!

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It’s understandable this may come as a shock, and perhaps even be revolting to some, but it’s the truth. The problem is the fact that this myth has been so deeply rooted in popular fitness culture that it’s hard to let it go, and it’s hard to think otherwise. However, I’m here to show you how the toning concept doesn’t even exist, let alone particular exercises that tone your body or methods to train. This is real life, not a sculpture class.

To begin, when people wish to tone their body or a muscle group, what they essentially want to achieve is something called aesthetics. They want the muscles to pop out by being lean, and they want it to look good and pleasing to the eye. Most often, this toning misconception is applied to the abs, where people believe that exercises can make you lose belly fat, and since this concept is specific to the overall article you’re reading about here, I suggest you read it. Just as you are unable to use exercises to remove fat from your waist, you cannot use exercises or repetitions to “tone”. The factors as to why that is not possible, are exactly the same. So let’s get to them, with a specific understanding in this article as it is applied to toning.

Exercises to tone do not exist because the reason the muscle does not look aesthetic (the way you want it, and the way you try to get it to look by toning) is because of high body fat. If we have someone who is at 10% body fat, and someone who is at 16% body fat, they will look radically different even if they have the same muscle mass, because of how much body fat covers that muscle. When you are attempting to tone, what you are attempting to do is spot-reduce fat in order to uncover the muscle. Not only can you not spot reduce fat, but you cannot do an exercise and hope that it transforms how visible your muscle is. All of these problems are created by body fat, so the only way you can fix these reasons and achieve what you want (aesthetics), is through burning that fat away while allowing that muscle to remain. As the body fat drops, and the muscle remains, you will be able to achieve what you originally wished to achieve through the concept of toning (which you wouldn’t succeed in if you had kept at it).

In review, let’s go over the common misconception.

Myth:

Specific exercises, or high repetitions, allow you to remove away the fat that is covering the muscle (tone).

Truth:

How much your muscle shows is body fat specific, and the only way you can achieve the end result is to drop enough body fat. For that, you need to be able to figure out your maintenance calories per day.

Just today at the gym I was doing a few sets of a bicep exercise with a friend I ran into, and we got on the topic of how many reps we do. I told him that I vary it up for various reasons, and he told me that he keeps his reps high in order to stay lean. Since his reps are high, he’s able to grow his muscle without any accompanying fat. Needless to say, even among people who are rather fitness oriented, the myth pursues. Like I said, its the biggest myth to let go because of its popularity. If you like to train with higher repetitions, that’s fine as long as you reach muscle fatigue (tax your muscles enough to grow), but it has nothing to do with how you wind up looking overall. All of that is related to your body fat levels compared to your lean body mass levels, nothing else. If you want to look more aesthetic, drop some fat, which means work on what you do in the kitchen by following that article about maintenance calories. As long as you work hard in the gym, and stick to a proper diet, you’ll achieve what you desire. However, the way you exercise is not going to affect your results (unless you are under-performing at the gym, then of course…but that’s a given).

Certain exercises can only help you burn more calories (squats vs. bicep curls, as an example, you should see the difference is obvious in calories burned based on the sheer amount of physical activity involved in the former), but there are no exercises to tone your body. How fat drops and from where is up to your body to decide, if you’re doing everything else correctly (diet and hard workouts). Similarly, high reps or low reps don’t matter as long as you are reaching muscle fatigue and taxing your muscles enough to grow (or maintain themselves the way they are as you shift to dropping fat to uncover them). Good Luck!

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Most people tend to focus their progress solely on the scale. If their weight fluctuates, they act accordingly. Gained a couple of pounds? Time to diet. Lost a couple of pounds? Everything’s going great. The problem with this, however, is that actual fluctuations in weight that can change your body composition for the longer-term do not occur in a day or two (well, unless you’re participating in severe binges composed of cake-eating contests – we’ll assume that’s not the case). Therefore, looking at the scale from day to day to gauge whether you’ve lost or gained weight is not a proper way to assess what’s going on.

If you want to be sure you’ve gained or lost weight, you must check the scale on a weekly basis and see what the results are from week to week. Daily changes mostly occur based on the foods you eat, and are not an accurate depiction.  Without veering off track, the reason they’re not accurate is because they are based off of the amount of water weight that is in your system. Ever wonder why you look your best upon waking up? The amount of water weight in your system is low, because you have not eaten since the night before. As a result, your body’s glycogen stores are lower and your body has dumped some water out of your muscles and liver. This makes you feel leaner, and look leaner, albeit temporarily. Once you eat, you’ll start looking fuller and feel as if you’ve gained a couple of pounds in one day. Rest assured, that’s not the case.

Without writing a thesis on this topic, the reason we’re discussing water weight is because that’s the only thing that sweating affects. Sweating, in and of itself, does not help you lose weight. What it does, however, is lower the amount of water weight in your system. Naturally, if you’ve got a couple of pounds of water weight in your body and you begin to sweat profusely, you’re going to sweat some of that weight away. People mistake this slight fluctuation with actual weight loss, and that’s how this myth came about.

Now, a good benefit of getting people to sweat is the fact that producing sweat usually involves engaging in some type of physical activity, which will burn calories. By burning calories, you can aid your fat loss goals by increasing your caloric expenditure. Consistently being in a slight caloric deficit (by burning more calories in a day than you consume) is the key to successfully losing fat. To learn about the optimal caloric deficit, visit our Calories Per Day article.

Outside of pushing you to burn more calories by doing physical activities and sweating, sweating itself plays no other beneficial role in weight loss. As you’ve learned, water weight is a daily fluctuation that is based on what you eat, so even if you sweat some water weight away, it can be back after one meal. Imagine if sweating actually played a major role in losing weight, don’t you think people would simply sit in a sauna and come out 10 pounds lighter each day? Maybe some believe that’s possible, but they’re certainly misinformed. Sure, by sweating some people may quickly see a weight fluctuation, but it is a temporary difference. Always keep that in mind. The key to successful fat loss is not sweating, but consistency with diet (and physical activity, ideally).

In order to really focus on losing weight, you need to learn how to eat below your maintenance calories, and over time accomplish your goals in a healthy and satisfying way. Weight loss is a long-term objective, and sweating isn’t a long-term solution. Focus on the only thing that matters, the calories. Good luck!

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You’ve heard this, and you’ve probably applied it. I still see it every time I look at a popular fitness magazine. The premise stems from the fact that carbs are used for energy to keep us going throughout the day, and if you take them in at night when you are least active, or as your last meal before bed when you are about to go to sleep, there is not enough activity to burn them and they will just make you fat. Before I start, I’d like to point out that you are still active while you sleep (your body is still breathing and all the organs are functioning, are they not?) and to keep it short, that the fact your activity levels at night are indeed lowered has almost nothing to do with the situation. Having carbs at night will not destroy your waist line, believe me.

If you’ve managed to read any other articles on the site, you’ve probably come across our article on calculating your Maintenance Calories, if not check it out. What’s important to keep in mind even if you haven’t read it is that weight loss/gain is based on the relationship between how much calories you take in vs. how many you burn throughout the day. This concept is also known as Calories In vs. Calories Out. Therefore, the fact your activity levels are lowered at night, will only play into the equation if you are nearing your maintenance amount consumed through foods for that day, and you go over that amount by eating a meal before bed. In other words, if you require 2,000 calories to stay at your current weight, and you wind up only having 1500 calories throughout the day, you can have 500 calories of skittles right before you fall asleep and nothing will happen. This is certainly not recommended for other reasons, but that’s how this entire concept works. Carbs at night do not make you “fat”, it all depends on calories and those calories come from fat, carbohydrates, and proteins equally.

Using a different example, imagine you’ve reached your 2000 calorie limit before your last meal for the day. If you eat nothing but grilled chicken and salad for your last meal, you’ve gone over your caloric limit and if you do this every single day, over time you’ll wind up putting on weight. Now, are we going to say that grilled chicken at night brought about those extra pounds? No. Maybe it was that twinkie earlier in the day, but that’s neither here nor there. What is important is that your overall caloric intake was greater than it should’ve been, and it was that extra caloric count that over time brought about weight gain. Therefore, carbs at night are only as relevant as all the other food you ate that had calories that day, regardless of when you wind up eating it (morning or night). Just to be extra clear about this, let’s do a final example:

As we’ve discussed, anything you consume can put you over your maintenance if you reach it and continue eating before you go to sleep at night. Keeping that in mind, if you are in control of how much you eat throughout the day, there is no reason you can’t have carbs at night and still stay the same, or even lose weight. For example, if I’ve been eating a few small meals throughout the day and my maintenance calories are 2,000, and the combined meals have amounted to 1,200, I have 800 to spare. It’s 10pm, I’m about to hit the sack, and I’m hungry for some tacos. I heat up 2 and obliterate them until satisfaction, considering each one is 300 calories and they are loaded with carbs, I have consumed 600 calories. Sorry for the math, but if we add it all up, that leaves me with 200 calories and I’m going to bed. If I keep this up, over time I will lose weight. Can you see how carbs made no difference even though I ate them late at night?

The reason this myth became so popular is simple to understand. Carbs are our biggest sweet tooth, basically anything we enjoy eating has carbs. So to get people to watch their diets, an idea sprang up where it would be easy to convince people to drop some weight if they made people scared to eat carbs late. Limiting carb intake “after 6pm” or whatever hour you’ve read about, allows you to keep the amount of food you eat at night low (since most foods have carbs). Therefore, a decent food intake during the day + low intake at night, on average, would allow people to stay under their maintenance. This would effectively, over time, allow them to lose some weight. Of course, this is the explanation behind the scenes, what you saw was the propagation of this anti-late carb myth, with mostly invalid reasoning behind it (although extracted from actual truths – they had to have had some legit reasoning, even if it was severely twisted for their overall objective!).

Another major reason why carbs have been the source of attack (when we’ve demonstrated that only overall calories matter) is because they make a person retain water weight. Water weight makes us look more bloated, it’s our body’s way of retaining water. The more carbs we eat when compared to fat or protein, the more water weight we’ll wind up holding onto. So, this was a secret ingredient that validated the scare tactics explained above because people believed that they were actually putting on weight overnight, when it was simply just some extra water retention (which is temporary – drinking more water can quickly get rid of it).

In conclusion, you’ve learned about the exception where carbs can indeed make you fat if you eat them at night (as can protein and fat…if you go over your daily requirements), and as you saw, in reality, carbs weren’t to blame for that happening…but calories. To get a better understanding of what calories are really about, check out What is a Calorie?. If you watch your intake throughout the day, and have calories to spare at night, there’s nothing wrong with having some ice cream or whatever snacks or foods you enjoy. They won’t make you fat! It’s all about overall intake, and if you can keep those foods, snacks, or ice cream, from making you go over your maintenance by eating appropriate portions that keep your calories in check, you’re good to go no matter what time you eat them. With that said, don’t fear carbs and have them whenever you want. Just keep your calories in check. To get some more information on this topic, check out our Nutrition Facts article. Good Luck!

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“Want to feed your body properly and put on muscle? Eat 6 meals a day.”

The pesky thing about this whole idea is the fact that it can be applied to both fitness goals. Whether you’re trying to lose weight (lose fat!) or put on muscle, the 6 meals a day concept seems to fit in perfectly into the equation. Now when things just seem so perfect they usually wind up a disappointment, don’t you agree? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we can certainly apply that belief to this. The only difference I’d like to point out is that following the 6 meals a day ideology won’t hurt you, it just won’t do what you expect it to. If it does, it is not as a result of the fact you were actually eating 5-6 meals a day. With me so far? Let’s break this down by looking at the usual claims made to support this concept of constant eating.

1) 6 meals a day will increase your metabolism – no, it won’t. This is one of the most popular myths regarding this entire “diet”, and research has proven time and time again that there is no increase in metabolism for those who eat more meals throughout the day as opposed to those who eat only a few. The reason this has become such a sensational claim rests with the misinterpretation of the thermic effect of food (your body burning calories to digest what you put in it). However, whether you eat 400 calories 6 times or 800 calories 3 times, 5-10% of that used for digestion comes out to the same amount at the end of the day. Increasing the number of times you eat to bring out the thermic effect won’t change anything when the total caloric intake is the same. You want to rev up your metabolism? Hit the gym, that’ll never disappoint.

2) Your body can only digest a certain amount of protein at once – sure, if you’re competing in the hot dog contest and eating an overwhelmingly high amount of food only to take a nap right after. How much protein you can consume at once is certainly not a question you even need to be concerned about (unless you’re like the above example or an equal). The idea that getting food in consistently every 3 hours or so in order for your body to constantly get nutrients into it and be most efficient in helping you achieve your goals is…well, ridiculous. Our bodies are quite efficient, we’re not robots. If you want to dive deep into this topic, just read the linked article.

3) You’ll start losing muscle if you don’t eat for long periods – you’re right, if you’re trapped in a cave and don’t have food for 3 days. Going catabolic (body breaking down muscle for energy) requires intense conditions that you won’t replicate over the course of a day. Think of it this way, it actually would take you a round of some strong effort to put yourself in a muscle-wasting state. It’s not easy to do, and 6 meals a day certainly isn’t required to save you from it.

4) Eating a large meal will cause the body to store fat – apparently, this alerts the body that we might be preparing for a fast and it will try and put on as much body fat as it can in expectation that we might not eat again for a while. Definitely, in the heads of the supplement industry. I have an idea, split that large meal up into a small one and add a protein shake or a few meal bars to the equation and now all is right with the world, right? No.

The only thing that matters in regards to an individual losing fat or gaining muscle is their maintenance calories and whether they’re going above or below them for the day. If the amount of calories it takes for you to stay the same is 2,400 and you eat that in one large meal and don’t eat again for another day, your body is not going to store any fat because that’s the amount of calories it utilizes to keep you where you are. Where is it going to get this fat from when all of these calories will be used in order to maintain the state you’re in? They don’t come out of thin air, like some would have you believe.

5) Fat will come off easier as the body doesn’t try to cling to it – this is the opposite of the above. So let’s use the same example. If I’m trying to lose fat and my maintenance is 2400 calories for the day, if I have one meal consisting of 2000 calories and nothing else for a whole day, my body will be in a caloric deficit and over time I will lose some weight. I require 2400, and I only get 2000. If I continue this, I’ll shrink until my body only requires 2000 and then I’ll be equal (maintenance) and stagnate until I alter my diet again (very simplified, but gets the point across). Again, your body will not manufacture calories from thin air to make up the difference, it doesn’t work that way.

The above are the most popular “benefits” that those who believe in the 6 meals a day concept push forth constantly. They’re not true, but that doesn’t make the 6 meals a day concept wrong. It can certainly be the best way to eat, but that is solely dependent on the individual. The point that’s important to get out of this is that eating those 6 meals a day is not responsible for any claimed benefits described above, and your fitness goals will be achieved due to factors outside of the amount of meals you eat a day. Calories are your #1 priority, and if you know your maintenance you can achieve your goals whichever way you’d like to eat. For some eating 6 meals a day is perfect because it keeps them from overeating, for others eating that amount of times a day will cause them to overeat. The choice of meal frequency is up to you, just know that that frequency is not going to magically aid you or hurt you. It is the calories that do the work in changing your body. For a similarly related topic, check out our Clean Food vs. Bad Food: Benefits article and how it relates to achieving your goals. Good luck!

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