In yesterday’s blog I talked about BMI and height – weight charts.
And how it’s easy to think (and really the common narrative nowadays is) that they’re rubbish.
I mentioned that I used to think that as well.
I parroted the same phrase that I’d heard others say and I’ve heard countless times since: “They don’t take into account muscle levels. They put bodybuilders and rugby players down as being obese”.
Missing that they do take into account the muscle levels of the overwhelming majority of the population.
And that bodybuilders and rugby players account for under 1% of people.
And that plenty of bodybuilders and rugby players will have a non-obese BMI.
And a proportion of the rugby players within obese BMI will actually have excess body fat.
I changed my mind when I saw the actual statistics and studies.
Cold hard data trumping emotion and opinion.
And I’ve changed my mind on many things over the years.
As I’m sure we all have.
“I used to think that” is a powerful phrase.
When someone expresses a different opinion to you it’s tempting to think that they just need to be given (what you consider to be) the facts.
Many people over the years have tried to explain to me that “BMI is rubbish” as though I haven’t heard the argument that they are about to make a thousand times before.
“I used to think that” helps cut through that.
Suggests that there is additional information that has been discovered since that’s helped change an opinion.
So here’s a few things that I used to think;
– “Hormones are the most important thing for weight loss and weight gain”
Sure they are relevant and maybe a consideration.
And different levels of different hormones might affect how easy we find it to lose weight (or not).
Generally living a healthy lifestyle and eating more fresh nutritious food will probably benefit us in many ways.
But none of that means that a calorie deficit isn’t the most important thing for weight loss.
We’ll gain weight in a calorie surplus irrespective of what our hormones are doing.
And the opposite is true.
Until someone can be placed in a sealed box where energy in versus energy out is controlled to within 20 calories a day and then doesn’t lose weight in a calorie deficit, then I’m happy to keep banging that drum.
– Free weights are for more advanced exercisers
When I first qualified (nearly a quarter of a century ago) I was taught to start people out on resistance machines and build up to free weights.
And I believed that for a while.
But it makes little sense when you think about it.
All day everyday our body is moving in a “free” way.
We don’t sit on a chair and push or pull something that can only move through a restricted path.
So, if our body can move, why not get it to move with some degree of resistance to improve that ability to move?
Sure, we can (and should) be selective and intelligent with our choice of what movements and what levels of resistance to apply.
But that doesn’t mean we need to spend ages on fixed machines to build up to something that we do all day every day.
– Cardio is good for weight loss
In my first fitness job I commonly gave people 30 minutes of cardio on cardio machines.
10 minutes each on the cross trainer, treadmill and bike was pretty normal.
As it was / is for the vast majority of Fitness Professionals.
I believed that would help people lose weight.
And it will.
A little bit.
All else being equal.
But I soon came to realisation that it was massively overrated.
For the majority of people that 30 minutes would give them the net benefit of the equivalent to about a tenth of a pound of body fat.
If that.
The benefits of changes to our eating from a weight loss perspective are infinitely higher and considerably easier.
Exercise in general is great for improving energy levels, fitness, endurance, strength, how our body looks and feels, mood, sleep, s*x drive, mental health, longevity and much much more.
It’s pretty rubbish for weight loss.
I could go up with some more of these, I’m sure.
But I hope you find those “things I used to think” beneficial.
Much love,
Jon ‘the day would never come’ Hall 8888
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