Episode 20: Myth or Fact? Fitness Edition
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Episode Transcription
Emily:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians.
Hannah:
Hi, guys. Welcome back to this episode. Today, we're dabbling more in fitness stuff instead of nutrition. This will be a nice change of pace. What we're going to do today is we're going to go over a whole bunch of different, very popular fitness myths, and we're going to debunk them. Like I already said, we're going to go over what makes them untrue and sort of what some better advice may be. So, Emily, do you want to lead us off with the first fitness myth?
Emily:
Yes. So the first one is very personal to me because I participate in this the most is you've probably heard that running is bad for your needs and running is a myth episode. As you know, this first one is a myth, and we cannot really blame running specifically for the most likely cause of knee pain because running actually does strengthen your joints by that pounding pressure on your joints when your legs are hitting the ground that is utilizing your joints and building your muscle mass or building your muscle mass and strengthening your bone mass as well and your bone mineral density. So running can't necessarily be the primary blame associated with knee pain, because if you are experiencing any type of knee pain, there's probably something else going on there. And in that case, when you're discussing with your health care professional or your primary care physician, they might recommend avoiding running to alleviate the pain associated with something that was already there. But running cannot be exactly the primary cause of your knee pain because it kind of is helping your fitness levels before. Additionally, there are long term studies that show that running doesn't damage your knees. The researchers do provide some type of caution, and they recommend being kind of hesitant if you've experienced any type of knee surgery, because when you have gone through really any type of knee surgery, that part of your body will naturally be more weak at first before your body can take that time to heal completely. So you really should not go straight back into your intense running routine immediately after surgery because your body is trying to heal and putting into that stressful environment can potentially not allow your body to completely heal like we want it to.
Hannah:
Yes. Love it. I'm glad you went over that one because I am not a runner at all. I despise running with a passion. Emily used to help me go with her when we were in College and I loved doing it for Emily, but I hated it. It's so hard.
Emily
We used to go at like, 530 we were so disciplined.
Hannah:
Yeah, different times. But then I found my love for weight lifting, which is our next bullet point, actually. So our next bullet point is that people often think that lifting weights will make you bulky. And I find that women especially think this and it makes them have this fear around wanting to get into a gym and lift some wigs. I think they're going to just automatically bulk up. If you listen to our podcast with Damian, our personal trainer and coaching friend, I love how he put it. You can't just stand and breathe by a dumbbell expect to gain like 10 pounds of muscle. That's not going to happen. If it did, a lot of bodybuilders would be very happy. But it's a good thing if you are someone who is fearful of that. The reality is that you probably heard this too, that muscle weighs more than fat and fat tickets up a lot more space. And so you'll actually get that lean. I hate the word tones, but more tones look that you are looking for. If you do start incorporating more weightlifting and especially as a female, we don't have those hormones that give us like a Manly shape. So the only way you're going to get bulky is if you either are doing some steroid situation, which we're not going to get into. But that could definitely play a role. But in terms of calories, you could definitely get that bulky. Look, if you are eating in a very large caloric surplus and you're gaining fat mass along with gaining muscle mass. So if you are just going to the gym recreationally trying to get just a little bit more healthful, I am willing to bet that you would never get like super bulky. You would only get kind of leaner, which is, of course, probably your goal. So consider that debunked.
Emily:
Our next fitness myth on the list is fasted exercise is the most optimal and best exercise or really kind of the best state to be in when exercising. And as we've talked about so many times, food is fuel. And Additionally, when you're exercising, your body is using these different energy sources and storage systems, primarily glycogen, which is kind of, as we know, like your main energy source. But Additionally, depending on what type of intensity and type of exercise you're doing, your body might turn to fat for energy, and only really with low intensity exercise is their enhanced fat utilization, because the glycogen is kind of depleted, so it'll turn to fat as an energy source. But this can also help with preventing indigestion. Additionally, though, for these types of energies, we recommend a small carbohydrate rich snack just so you are providing your body prior to that with a little bit of energy, and you aren't at risk of running out of energy stores. But kind of going back to the overarching idea that fasted energy is the best. This is kind of like the food you put into your body axis feel. And when you aren't properly feeling your body, you're going to run out of energy or like, run out of gas and your body will actually break down muscle for an energy supply. Because when your body is in that fasted state, it's going to try to turn to energy sources that are more readily overturned into glucose and ATP eventually. And muscle is much more readily available. Or I guess, more easily converted to energy than fat is. So when you're actually in a fasted state, you could be putting yourself more at risk of losing muscle mass. And you are fat mass initially, when you are fasted, that means that I guess we never really defined what fasted me, but fasted means not eating anything prior to exercise, and when you don't eat anything. Additionally, you could experience low stamina. You'll feel more fatigued or tired throughout your exercise. You might not perform as well initially, when you aren't eating anything, there's no glucose sources and that will affect your blood glucose, blood sugar levels, a more layman's term for that. And this can lead to a decrease in your blood sugar levels and in turn will lead to light headedness nausea and kind of feelings of being shaky. So please eat something before you exercise, even if it is something really small. If you don't want any type of fold meal, which you don't need to do, anything really is better than nothing before you exercise.
Hannah:
Yeah, that was really good. I used to think that fasted cardio was a necessity. It was so dumb. I don't know if we touched on it at all during our bikini episode or bikini competition episode or not, which will be out by now, right? Like, when this comes out.
Emily:
Yes.
Hannah:
Okay. I don't think we touched on it there, but I think that's a really big thing that some coaches recommend in bikini competitions is having the athletes do fasted cardio. That's like a really big part of that. And I think the whole concept is that like using fat instead of carbs because glycogen is depleted and all of that. But I feel like the facts from it would not be beneficial enough to make it worth it.
Emily:
No, just eat a snack before you go work out, so you don't feel like crap.
Hannah:
Yeah. Okay. Our next one, the myth is that muscle will turn to fat if you stop working out. This one makes me laugh because I just visualize our muscle morphing into fat tissue. They're totally separate tissues. So your muscle tissue can't just turn into fat or vice versa, just like your skin can't turn into bone, like your brain can't become your heart. Those are all totally separate things, so they cannot just morph into each other. What actually can happen is that if you stop exercising, you can start to lose that muscle mass. And then depending on how you're eating and maybe like moving your body, you can start to increase fat mass. So it's more of just a switch rather than like a morphing from one to the other. So not to say that you can't lose muscle mass, you definitely can. And you will if you stop following your routine. But it won't just automatically turn into Adipose issue or fat mass. That would be crazy. And interesting time. Biologists everywhere would be so confused. That would be wild. But no, your body does not do that. Your body is not evolved enough for that. Let's say that at this point in time, if you're hearing this in the year 3000, don't quote me on that. Evolution has changed a way that we can change our fat to muscle. What the purpose of that would be in terms of bettering our species. But who knows? You want to go the other way? Our fat turn the muscle, which I'd be cool. Wait, was that now what I said? Maybe you did. I don't know. I was thinking about the other one. Oh, no. Muscle to fat.
Emily:
I don't think that there's benefit unless there was, like a huge winter and we went into an ice age. We needed insulation and energy stores for long periods. Then our body maybe evolved to that. But we are not there yet.
Hannah:
I hope that I'm not alive if that ever has to be the case.
Emily:
Okay, so our next fitness myth, then, is you should stretch before a workout. And, Hannah, I feel like I'm really going to reach out to you a lot on this one because I'm not good at stretching at all.
Hannah:
Okay. Yeah, I can take over. I can take over. We'll switch off here. Yeah. So this one, I worded it that way as the bullet to be kind of like a grabber. Like, oh, you shouldn't stretch. You should stretch. But the type of stretching is what matters. Okay, so before you work out, you want to meet you? Yeah, I tricked you. Yes. So before you work out, you want to do dynamic stretching, which is like when you're actually moving your body around, not just holding a stretch kind of like you would do here, because the goal of your dynamic stretching before workout is to get your body prepared for the upcoming demands of the workout. And that's pretty hard to do if you're just holding something like that. And I truthfully haven't looked into it in a while. So don't know too much about the science behind it, but from my understanding that can actually cause more injury or risk of injury if you are just holding static stretches before you work out. So again, to recap, you definitely should stretch before you work out. But you want it to be a dynamic, like constantly moving, getting your heart pumping kind of stretch rather than those ones where you just hold a position for, like, ten to 30 seconds, right.
Emily:
Cool. I learned something, even though, who knows, if I'll still stretch. I'm really good about warming up, but it's after workout. I just like, I'm over it, and I'm just ready to go home. Feel bad about that? I feel like I'm the type of person that I just want to get my workout done as soon as possible. So I just, like, skip any type of key. I'm just like, let's go, and it'll probably come back to bite me at some point.
Hannah:
Yeah. So maybe I should probably do that. Mine kind of has bit me. I've got some pretty tight muscles from never stretching. Not never. I'm good about it. I get spurts. So I'm really good about it. And I just kind of give up. Do what we say. What's the phrase you guys know? I can't do phrases do as we say, not as we do. Yes. But we can all work on this together.
Emily:
Next one we're going to go into is one of my favorite fitness myths is you can spot reduce. And this is when people will kind of be like, oh, I'm working out to get rid of this nice fat under my arm. This is like, one of the most popular ones or, like, my love handles.
Hannah:
Yeah. I feel like these are the ones I know the most. I don't really know what men are trying to lose. I know these so, like, bellies are the biggest one for men. Okay. Anyway, yeah. Anyway, that was definitely a generalization there.
Emily:
Men, let us know. We don't want to put you in a box.
Hannah:
Yeah. Exactly. But basically, you targeting a specific area is not as easy as it sounds. Really. The best way to lose any type of fat mass is with fat loss
Emily:
Yeah. So the only way to lose fat in a certain spot is to just lose fat. In general, you can't really choose where you lose it, though.
Emily:
Yes. Okay. Thank you for that. Nice transition. Now, I know I'm going basically, when you are losing weight, especially with body fat, your body kind of chooses different areas depending on even who you are. And that will come down to, like, your genetics and who, like, all these factors going to your life, you're going to lose fat in different areas kind of in a different order and not always necessarily in the same order. But it's not like your body is choosing to go to those areas you're targeting first. It's going to go for whatever area it deems fit. And really, you can work out your arms and build muscle mass there. But that doesn't necessarily mean that your fat mass is going to go down there, at least right away.
Hannah
Exactly. Yeah. I was going to make that clear, too. That's not to say that you should only work out your legs, and then you'll start losing all the stat in your arms. You should still do, like, if you do strength training, try to incorporate every muscle group. So like what Emily just said you can build muscle there, which will give you that leaner look. But you won't get to just automatically lose fat in your biceps if you're doing a million biceps curls a day. Yeah. So the only way to lose fat anywhere is just to lose fat in general, through a caloric deficit. That's a whole other topic. So, yeah, you can't really choose where you lose it, though. All right. Next one, I think we got, like, three more. Next one is the myth that you need to work out every single day to see results. This is thankfully a myth, and actually working out every day would just be more harmful than good, which we'll get to in the next one. Actually, there's just a lot of reasons why you don't need to do this. First of all, it's exhausting. It's just not going to be sustainable. You might be able to keep it up for, like, a week or two, but then you're going to get burnt out, and then you're going to want to just quit altogether. And so you really want to find that sweet spot where you can exercise a moderate amount and make it more enjoyable. So you don't feel like it's just a chore you have to go do every day over. Exercising can also negatively impact your metabolism and kind of make that just, like, overworked. I suppose that's how I want to put it. So we don't want to do that either. So what the goal kind of should be? And this is very different for each person. But the general recommendation is about two to five strength training sessions in a week. And like I said a minute ago, you do want to incorporate all the different muscle groups there that you can build muscle all over in your body if you don't want to just do leg workouts, for example. And in terms of cardiovascular exercise, like walking, running, biking, swimming. The Physical Activity Guidelines for America recommend shooting for about 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes a week of high intensity aerobic exercise or cardiovascular exercise. So that kind of boils down to you not having to go to the gym and walk on the treadmill for 2 hours a day. That's just not going to be effective for you. It really can be a lot less than that. You might even see better results if you cut back a little bit. But I have a hard time saying that people always take it the wrong way and they're like, oh, it all to work out. That happened to me today with the patient. I was like, actually, most of your results are going to come from what you're eating. And exercise is kind of just an added benefit, the icing on the cake, and they're like, oh, great. So don't have to work out like, no, that's not what I'm saying, and I kind of explain everything I just said, but overdoing it is not good. Under doing it is not good. You really want to be in that sweet spot. Yeah, rest days are important, but that doesn't mean that every day should be a rest day. Yeah, our body needs to recover. So that way it can optimally perform at the next workout.
Emily:
True. So kind of that leads really well into this next myth that we're going to discuss is the phrase I'm sure you've heard sometime is no pain, no gain. And this is just kind of essentially arguing that if you are not pushing yourself really hard, then you will not see results. And this often will kind of lead to over exercising. And as we already discussed overdoing, it can be really harmful. And some specific effects of that really can lead to injury because you don't want to be pushing yourself so hard that you break your body in any type of way because then that will kind of I don't want to say undo, but it will deter a lot of the progress you've already made. If you do injure yourself, because then your body will kind of focus more on healing itself rather than making any type of progress or gains you're trying to reach. Additionally, from over exercising, you'll experience more episodes of fatigue and kind of exhaustion throughout the day, and this will affect not only your performance with any type of sport or exercise or workout performance. It can also affect your everyday life where you're just so tired from overworking yourself that doing simple tasks throughout the day can be really exhausting. And lastly, another effect of over exercising that we really want to discuss is the amenorrhea. And we've touched on this before, but this is essentially the absence of a menstrual cycle or period. And as we discussed, having your period is very important because it's a huge one the main contributors to women's hormonal balances. And it doesn't just affect your body once every, like, four to five, six weeks. However often you have your period, it affects your body every single day, and when you are not having a period, it's affecting your nutrients. It can put you at a higher risk of nutrient deficiencies. It can put you at risk of hormonal imbalances. It can affect your exercise and your performance there. And Additionally, to, like, fatigue, exhaustion, everything like that because it really does affect so much of your life. And over exercising can lead to that loss of period which we do not want. Additionally, we do not want to experience DOMS after every workout just for it to be considered a good workout. And Hannah, don't tell me what this stands for because I'm imagining the slide. I remember learning this…onset muscle soreness, delayed onset muscle soreness.
Hannah:
Nice. You're a genius
Emily:
but you do not experience delayed onset of muscle soreness, which is that those feelings of when you really cannot move your muscles because you have overworked them so much or you really push them in some way after every single workout to be considered a good workout because you don't need to be feeling extremely sore after workouts for it to be considered good.
Hannah:
I'd say, even like sweat, people always say if I didn't sweat. Yeah, feeling super sore and crazy sweaty are not indicators of how good that workout was. There's a lot more that goes into that.
Emily:
Yeah, definitely. And Additionally, with this, no pain, no gain mindset. Sometimes people will sacrifice their sleep schedule for a workout if they have to work really late and their entire schedule gets pushed back and then their morning workout comes around and they'll only get, like, maybe 6 hours of sleep, like five to 6 hours. We really want to make sure you're hitting that seven to nine range, and you're not sacrificing your sleep for your workout because it's okay to sleep in and take care of yourself rather than missing a workout day so the world will not end.
Hannah:
Yeah. What's the phrase? Kind of like trading dimes for nickels or whatever. Is that a phrase? So like if you're sacrificing sleep just to get a workout in, like, it kind of like they balance each other out or they wash each other out. So it's kind of pointless.
Emily:
Yeah. And actually something else I've heard with this, especially is missing a day of exercise is not going to put your progress backwards. Anyway. I actually one of my high school coaches who will remain unnamed, but he told us that every day we didn't work out was three days backwards in progress, and that messed up mentally.
Hannah:
I hate that.
Emily:
Yeah. So imagine all these little high school girls. We're all like, we need to exercise every day or else we're not going to get a starting position. I'm realizing this is so bright. I am glowing. Sorry, I do not want to see that anymore. Sorry, but imagine all these kids every day we felt like we had to work out because we thought we were losing our progress. And it took me so long to realize that was not true. Like, you think your high school coaches, they know everything about whatever sport or just like, exercise in general. And that's a terrible age group to say that, too. Also, you're at a very vulnerable age where things that adults say to you really shape you as an adult. That's no good.
Hannah:
No, that's okay. My coach I won't name told us that we could not lift weights because it would make us a higher risk for injury. We wouldn't be able to play because we get injured. Yeah, I'm like, no, it actually makes our risk for risk for injury decrease because we're building stronger bones and muscles, but it's like the prime time for it. Yeah. Let's just run 6 miles for warm up instead. That's fine. I’m going to get all fired up like eight years later. Anyway, this is actually our last little myth we're going to go over. So last one is that the phrase or the myth that you cannot out exercise or excuse me, move back up. The myth is that you can out exercise a poor diet. So kind of the mindset of working out just so you can eat whatever you want. And I mean, that's fine. It's not like that's going to kill you or anything, but you're not going to get the results you want or as quickly as you want them. If you do find that you're working out really hard, you're very consistent there. But your diet is kind of garbage. Right? And in terms of weight loss, if that's your goal, it really is so much more about what you're eating than it is how much and how often and what you're doing for exercise, that is really a much bigger factor. And again, don't take that as me saying you shouldn't exercise. But if your goal is to manipulate your weight or anything, your diet is a bigger plays a bigger role there. But anyway, if you do have a really good exercise routine, I would think you would want to make that even more beneficial by eating a very well balanced diet, plenty of protein and fruits and veggies and whole grains, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, whatever your goals are, you most likely cannot reach them if you are exercising really well, but not eating the way that your body needs.
Emily:
Right. I don't have anything to add to that. Okay. You summed it up very well. So I think that kind of concludes all the most popular fitness we've heard at this point today. We can definitely touch back. We can do a part two.
Hannah:
We'll totally do a part two, and we could even bring someone on if we wanted to, because that'd be a good one. Sure. Other people have heard other things, different perspectives. Let's do, like a little question box on our Instagram when this launches that day. We'll ask for other ones that you guys may have heard that's so far. You can do that for another episode. When you're hearing this, go check out the Instagram for where you can let us know what Wild fitness myths you've heard. We know we only scratch the surface.
Emily:
Yes. So time for our bonus question, which I don't think I know the answer to what you're going to say, but the question today is do you prefer crispy or floppy bacon? And I'm going to have you go first, Hannah.
Hannah:
Okay. I feel like I always have to explain myself, but my answer is floppy, but I don't like it like super floppy and soggy I want it to be cooked and solid. I don't want it to be just raw and gross, of course, but it's honestly a very fine line. I kind of like it in between. Where when you Bake it, it kind of melts in your mouth, but it's not like crispy, though, so I'd say floppy, but floppy, but leaning towards crispy.
Emily:
That does make sense. Yeah, I am going to say crispy bacon. I know you are, because me and my mom really like a lot of burnt things. For some reason. It depends what it is normally like with me. I don't mind things that are burnt a little bit, which a lot of people probably hate that, but it's just, like a weird smoky flavor to me that I enjoy with crispy bacon. I love crispy bacon, especially when it's, like, super coat, because it just tastes so good to me. It takes all the good taste, and it's just like, Brown and tastes like fire. It's good. It's like salty fire. I definitely agree that if there's a good balance between floppy and crispy, it's really good. It's not like I won't eat bacon. I rarely will ever say no to bacon.
Hannah:
Same.
Emily:
But I think floppy bacon sometimes freaks me out because I'm always wondering if it's cooked enough. I mean, it's like basically just salt. So I'm sure it's fine. It's been preserved.
Hannah:
It's funny you say that, though, because growing up my mom or even now too. But I don't live there anymore. But growing up, she would only eat meat that was 100% cooked through, like, there could be no pink in there whatsoever. And so growing up, that's how you always had to eat it. And so when I met Ross, who was like, not the same. He likes his meat, like, medium well. Well, not even medium well. Well, I'd say more like just medium. He was like, Why are you eating your beef like that? That's like, incorrect. So I get where you're coming from. I was raised that way, but Thankfully, I have relatives like that, too, because I like medium rare, I guess. How do you like your steak?
Emily:
Well, talking about discussion of the Cook well cooked, too, as I like to say, because my dad likes it rare, like still mooing.
Hannah:
Okay, I can't do that. And I think I'm still growing out of making it being pretty well. I don't like it well done anymore. I think that's too far. I know that's, like, basically a sin. I think the best is, like, medium well. It's like my best case scenario. I don't like when it's, like, super bloody. That kind of grosses me out a little.
Emily:
Yeah. That's why I'm weird, because I like medium rare a lot. It's okay if my steak believes that if my bacon is too floppy, I'll breathe. I wish you could explain that one, but I know it's just, like a thing that happens in your head.
Hannah:
Do you love burnt cheese? Like, if you, like, made a casserole and there was burnt cheese on it. I guess you don't do a lot of cheese because you lactose intolerant. But if you did?
Emily
I think I'm going to say yes. I hate… this is something I don't know if, you know, but like, gooey cheese, I despise gooey cheese, like a Brie kind of thing. I like Bree, but when it's like, you see the stretch, the texture freaks me out, and it normally makes my stomach more. I'm not a big fan of, like, lasagna. I'd be perfectly fine with a cheese-less lasagna.
Hannah:
That's the best part of a lasagna.
Emily:
I just want the noodles, like, marinara. Oh, no. Stretchy cheese kind of freaks me out. Like, I really like it on. No, I don't even know if I say, like, a charcuterie board, like, the really stretchy cheese I can't really eat. I think. Honestly, I don't think she'll listen to it, but her kids listen to it. Someone in Bobby's family. Well, that gives it away. They made, like, a smoked Gouda thing the other day where they put it in the oven and it was all melted.
Hannah:
Yes, that's my favorite. That's so weird. Do you not, like, grilled cheeses? And they had, like, this pull?
Emily:
No.
Hannah:
What? Okay, so first the whole peanut butter thing, and now this. I don't even know who you are anymore.
Emily:
I think it was first associated with the pain because I can tolerate more hard cheeses, but the really scary neon, like, Nacho cheese. I'm fine with that.
Hannah:
Well, yeah, that's, like, just salt and MSG.
Emily:
Yeah, basically. But anything that's really stretchy, it's, like, too much for me. I get overwhelmed. But if the cheese is crispy, I'll like it.
Hannah
That's why I asked. My mom is, like, obsessed with burnt cheese, like on a casserole or whatever. She just eat the burnt cheese off of stuff. The same, like, on, like, bagels the thing about the cheese one, I will eat the cheese off of that. That's really good. The question was bacon. I don't know how we got to, like stretchy cheese, but we always find a way to digress.
Emily
Yes. Okay. Well, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. If you like us talking more about fitness stuff, let us know we can definitely do more on this side of the spectrum as well.
Hannah
So. Yeah, hope you guys liked it. We'll see you next week.
Emily:
Yeah. Have a great rest of your day whenever you are listening or watching to this. Bye, guys.
