Nutrition Advice that Makes Me Laugh (because its really bad)
Do you ever hear something and think, "Wait what?...No. That's ridiculous." Yeah, same girl same. I've had this thought more times that you want to know listening to the nutrition advice offered by Instagram, Facebook, random conversations, Pintrest, etc.) If you know me, you've probably heard me actually laugh out loud (like in this picture) when someone asks me to verify the latest Facebook nutrition trend. I don't mean to be rude, but some are just so silly!
There's a lot of lol-worthy nutrition advice on the internet, so I’m going to give you the inside scoop on some nutrition advice that I’ve heard that’s straight up not helpful. And here’s the thing – a lot of people still swear by this advice and live by it! But let me tell you, the things I’m about to share are nutrition myths, so you can kick them out of your health journey. Here goes:
1. “You shouldn’t eat after X:00”
In certain circumstances, such as GER, other digestive issues or sleep disturbances, avoiding eating large meals before bed can be helpful for comfort while sleeping. However, it’s generally a pretty good idea to have a satiating snack about an hour before bed, with carbs, to maintain your blood sugar levels throughout the night and to prevent you from waking up ravenous.
2. “You should eat low carb or no carb”
Carbs should make up 45-65% of everyone’s diet. Although different people may need to be in different places within that range, carbohydrate is still our main source of energy and should be the biggest chunk of our diets. Even for diabetics, consistent carbohydrate intake is the key – not cutting carbs. Aim to have a source of carbohydrates at all meals and snacks. I never recommend anything less than 2 servings of starchy carb (breads, grains, pasta, rice, peas, corn, beans, etc.) at meals to make sure clients are getting enough throughout the day.
3. “You should track what you’ve eaten in a day with an app/My Fitness Pal”
Tracking your intake, calories burned or how much exercise you need to do to “burn off what you ate” can become obsessive and disordered behavior very quickly. Even coming from good intention. My Fitness Pal and other apps are often not accurate and it takes up a lot of your precious time. It’s important to remember that everyone’s body is different so it’s best to play with what eating and exercise pattern works for you to make you feel the best instead of you working for it.
4. “You should burn off all the calories you’ve eaten”
The food that we eat is used in the body for metabolic processes, cell repair, building muscle, temperature regulation, immunity, and growth. Physiologically, we don’t eat food and it’s stored as fat if we don’t exercise it off – our bodies are much more interesting and way more complex than that. If we could burn off all of the calories we’ve eaten though exercise, our bodies wouldn’t be able to function, and we simply wouldn’t survive.
5. “Weight loss = Calories in < calories out “
A person’s weight is more than food & exercise. Set Point Theory tells us that everyone’s body has a set point, which is a weight range in which the body innately functions best and will fight to be at. The body itself determines this set point based on genetics, environmental factors, medical history, lifestyle behaviors, etc. This is not determined by the individual. This may explain why many people find the number that they’ve labeled as “right/perfect” for themselves feels impossible to achieve – it’s likely below or above their bodies’ weight range. If weight loss was this simple, the diet industry wouldn’t be a viable, multi-billion-dollar industry. We would’ve had weight loss “figured out” by now.
There are a lot of nutrition myths, but these are 5 comments that are casually recommended way too often. Trust me friend, you don’t have to live by this list. Shameless plug – if you want to live in freedom from the list of “should” and “shouldn’t,” I would love to help you along the way. We can laugh about silly nutrition myths we used to believe together before you know it. In addition, if you want 5 Timeless Nutrition Habits of Really Healthy People, I got you on my last post!