The Silliest Diet/Exercise Ideas I’ve Heard

I’ve happily noticed that people love to talk about health related information. However, sometimes I hear things I know aren’t scientifically correct. When this happens, I sometimes point them out but other times it is better if I just snicker quietly and keep quite. I won’t reveal the culprits but these are my favorite diet/exercise fibs!

1. “I know diet soda is better than regular but all the sugar in diet soda makes me really hyper!”

FYI – Diet soda contains no digestible sugar and therefore no calories. It contains calorie free artificial sweeteners. Diet soda does contain caffeine, which may increase your energy level.

2. “Fried rice is better than white or brown because the carbs are cooked off.”

FYI – I don’t even know what to say to this….. Here the carbohydrate information for 1 cup rice: brown long grain: 45 g, short grain white rice: 37g, fried rice: 56g. (taken from: http://www.annecollins.com/dietary-carbs/carbs-rice.htm ) Also, the brown rice is better for you because it has 5 grams fiber as apposed to the 0.2 in white rice.

3. “If a female trained hard enough, they could be just as good at a sport as the best male”.

FYI – This one is tough. I think there are some sports that women can and do excel at. However, men have higher aerobic capacities than women because they have higher blood volumes (78ml/kg in males versus 56 ml/kg in females). Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to working muscles and the higher your aerobic capacity, the higher your performance will be at endurance sports. Men also have much higher testosterone levels than women. Testosterone helps store protein and increases muscle mass. Therefore, men tend to be much stronger than females. The many factors that influence male versus female performance in a sport make it impossible to conclude the statement above.

4. “I don’t need to do any cardiovascular activity because I weight lift.”

FYI-Weight training is great to increase muscle mass, keep your joints healthy, maintain a healthy body composition and increase your metabolism. It does not result in the same cardiovascular benefits as cardio training such as increased blood volume, increase in mitochondria density, and increase in heart health and decrease in blood pressure. In fact, heavy weight training in absence of cardio can increase the muscles of the heart, leaving less space for blood and increasing blood pressure to dangerous levels.

I’ve also heard the reverse “I don’t weight lift because I work my muscles when I run and cycle and I don’t want big muscles anyway.”

FYI-We have two types of muscles, those that respond to endurance training (running, cycling) and those that respond to heavy loads (weight training). EVERYONE should train BOTH muscle types in order to maintain healthy lean tissue. This helps protect your bones and joints, improves flexibility and stability, and helps you enhance your overall athletic performance. You will not develop huge muscles unless you are doing a specific type of weight lifting known as bodybuilding.

It is easy to believe certain health myths and we have all passed on incorrect information accidentally. This is just a reminder to think about and research ideas you may have heard before passing them along and making my silly fact list :)

WHAT TIME OF DAY SHOULD I WORK OUT?

People often ask me what time of day they should work out for optimal performance and fat burn. Immediately my science background brings up images of hormonal circadian rhythms and sympathetic nervous system spikes. I could talk about how in the late afternoon cortisol primes our bodies for action or how men’s testosterone levels are highest in the early morning. Then of course, we must consider that some people are “morning people” while other are “night owls” and that this can influence individual’s performance levels throughout the day.

However, the truth is WHEN you work out is not nearly as important as ACCOMPLISHING the workout. For example, while camping on the beach with friends a few weekends back I awoke to screaming children at 6:30 am. I tried to go back to sleep but the thin tent walls made that impossible. I could have laid there for an hour with a nagging headache. I am certain my hormonal levels were not in optimum “workout mode” at that time but I realized this was a WONDERFUL opportunity to run along the deserted calming beach. The first few minutes were tough but after about 10 minutes, I felt great. Sipping my sangria later that afternoon, I knew if I hadn’t gotten my workout in earlier that morning, I wouldn’t have done it. Maybe I would have burned an extra 42 calories if I had worked out at 5:37 pm because my hormones would have made me push a little harder; but in reality, I burned 400 calories that morning rather than the 0 I would have burned if I waited till later that day.

The point of my story is

1. Know you MUST get in your workout for the day (like brushing your teeth, working out is not an option)
2. TAKE ADVANTAGE of the free time you have (spending 1 hour looking at online jokes or my space pages of friends you haven’t seen in years and will never meet up with again is considered free time)
3. SCHEDULE you workouts in when you ARE MOST LIKELY TO GET IT DONE (for me this is often first thing in the morning).

There are a few guidelines worth worrying about when deciding when to work out:

1. Eat 3-4 hours before you workout so your body has some energy to work hard. If you work out first thing in the morning, grab an easy to digest snack like a cereal bar or banana before heading to the gym and then have a larger breakfast when you get to work.
2. Be sure you are well hydrated. Drink a few glasses of water (14-20 oz) during the 2 hours before your workout. During your workout try to drink 4-6 oz every 15-20 minutes. Be sure you re-hydrate after working out. Most people do not drink enough to replenish their fluid loss because they don’t feel thirsty.
3. Warm-up and Cool-down with about 5 minutes of cardio at a low intensity before and after aerobic or strength training.

Now get out there and MOVE!