With any fitness routine, nutrition is an essential component, whether you're a marathon runner, weight lifter, or kickboxer! Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there-and it can be incredibly confusing. It is hard to know what to believe and where to find reliable information-so let's debunk a few common nutrition myths. Nighttime eating has commonly been rumored to be associated with weight gain. The main idea behind this myth is that your body isn't using energy at rest, so whatever you've consumed prior to rest will automatically get stored as fat. However, this is false. Your body doesn't just magically shut down at night! At rest, your body is still working to regulate temperature, keep your lungs breathing, your brain functioning, your heart pumping, and that right there is burning calories, repairing your cells and tissues while you rest. The real culprit behind the myth of “eating at night will make you fat” is actually the tendency to undereat throughout the day-which then causes you to binge and overeat at night. The timing of your meals is essentially irrelevant-as long as you stay within your caloric budget each day. So-how do we combat the tendency to overeat at night? My best advice is to plan ahead for your week (fail to plan, plan to fail!) Pick out one day, or a couple of nights per week where you will plan and prep your meals for the rest of the week, staying within your caloric budget and having all of your meals ready to go. This will make your meals quick and easy to pack with you when you are on the go, easy to reheat, and keep yourself fueled properly throughout the day. If you have a plan and remain consistently fueled with proper nutrition of high quality fats, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates throughout your day and staying properly hydrated, you are setting yourself up for the best chance of success when you’re winding down at the end of your day! You've probably heard the myth that in order to lose weight, you need to cut out entire food groups-and the most common that you’ve heard is carbohydrates. This is false. Carbohydrates are incredibly important and essential to fuel your body and brain so you can have energy. High quality fruits, vegetables, and whole grains like quinoa and organic oats are all great examples of healthy complex carbohydrates as they are full of essential vitamins, nutrients, and fiber, and break down in the digestive system more slowly than simple carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are the carbohydrates you want to stay away from as they are highly processed, have very little nutritional value, and break down in your system very rapidly-flooding your system with an overload of glucose and causing your blood sugar to crash. Some of the main culprits are white bread, donuts, sugary beverages, and packaged/processed foods. Simple carbohydrates can be consumed in moderation-so enjoy an occasional treat! You have seen the ads all over instagram and facebook. Organic fruit and vegetable juice cleanses that are being advertised as essential for your organs to detoxify, and even worse, to lose weight. This is false. First and foremost, when you choose juice over whole fruits and vegetables you are missing out on an important nutrient that helps your body digest food more slowly and effectively: fiber. Removing the fiber and essentially drinking your calories will leave you completely ravenous, lethargic, and can cause headaches, irritability, and nausea. Most importantly- your body detoxes naturally on it’s own using your liver and kidneys. The human body is incredible, so let your body do the work-and save your hard earned cash to treat yourself to a beautiful meal, not detox juices that were promoted to you on the internet! These companies are concerned with your dollar, not your health!"Eating at night will make you fat"
“Carbohydrates are bad and make you fat”
“You should do a juice cleanse to detox/lose weight”
