Key Topics Covered

women standing side profile with weightloss cartoon around her.

Building upon our previous episode, we will be unpacking 5 more myths associated with weight loss.

Myth 7 – No Carbs After 5pm

  • This myth is based on the idea that people are not going to “burn off” the carbs because they won’t be moving as much after 5pm.
  • But we are always burning calories. Glucose is still being used overnight, even while you sleep. 
  • Even the argument that we are burning less falls apart when you realise that it is far more about the balance of things over time. Research looking at carb front loading vs backloading typically finds similar results for body composition. 

Myth 8 – Eat More Fat To Burn More Fat

  • This one is more of a misconception than a myth.
  • Technically increasing fat intake does increase fat oxidation.
  • The body tends to burn more of what is readily available.
  • But we care about the NET loss of fat.
  • Let’s say you ate an extra 100g of dietary fat, but only burned an extra 40g, that still leaves a net 60g leftover to be stored, for example.
  • Caloric deficit = fat loss (low carb vs low-fat diets have very similar outcomes in research).

Myth 9 – You Can Spot Reduce Fat

  • The short version and arguably simplified version is that we can’t really spot reduce fat. 
  • Instead, genetically store fat more in some spots than others. If you want to lose fat in an area, losing body fat in general is the answer.
  • If you want to dig deeper, two technicalities are worth addressing.
  • There have been some studies that challenge this idea. For example, a 2023 randomised controlled trial called “Abdominal aerobic endurance exercise reveals spot reduction exists” has been discussed a lot in this space.
  • They compared a program involving 45 minutes of treadmill running vs calorie-matched combined treadmill running (27 minutes) and abdominal endurance exercises (taking the total to 57 minutes), 4 days per week for 10 weeks.
  • Abdominal fat mass decreased by an average of ~700g in this group vs no change in the other group.
  • The ab group lost 6% of their total fat mass while the other group lost 5%.
  • I would still interpret this with caution for many reasons. It was a small sample size. The research has not looked promising up until this point, so it would be wild to entirely change your perspective based on this. 
  • The technicality I would consider is that we have evidence that hormones influence where we store body fat. Example: Changes in women’s body fat distribution pre vs post-menopause. It is possible for us to influence our hormones with our food. In most cases I wouldn’t think about this though.

Myth 10 – Apple Cider Vinegar

  • People propose that apple cider vinegar can help for a variety of reasons. This could be satiety, blood sugar regulation, metabolism or any other reason.
  • This one is easy to dispute. The research simply shows that there is minimal difference in weight loss when people consume apple cider vinegar.
  • One study with 155 participants consuming vinegar (not ACV) found 1.7kg weight loss over 12 weeks. You could interpret that as better than nothing. But there are a few things to address:
  1. Sometimes vinegar causes nausea.
  2. Sometimes building in that habit would change other intakes in general.
  3. Within 4 weeks post-trial, participants were basically back at their starting weight.

It’s clearly not magical.

Myth 11 – Eating Too Low Calorie Puts You In Starvation Mode

  • I hate to pull the cliche but, if starvation mode existed, people wouldn’t starve.
  • We never see cases in controlled settings where people are on low calories and not losing weight.
  • Metabolic adaptation is a thing but 1) It rarely accounts for massive reductions in energy expenditure 2) It also reverses when you increase calories.
  • There are many reasons not to go low calorie. But starvation mode isn’t one of them.

Summary

In this episode, common weight loss myths were debunked, shedding light on the facts behind popular misconceptions. Hopefully, this gave you a deeper understanding of how to approach weight loss in a healthier and more informed way.

Relevant Blogs / Resources

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