Today we’ll be discussing 3 of the 9 Fitness Myths that need to die in 2025. But first, let me tell you one of my favorite nicknames:
St. Nate the Mythbuster
That’s what my client turned dear friend always called me.
Because I was constantly “busting myths” she had heard her whole life.
One of my favorite things to do in the gym, besides coaching people to success with Strength Training, is TEACHING them.
Truth is very important to me. The answers to the question WHY is very important to me.
Knowing what’s true vs what’s myth helps us make the best decisions, have the least amount of “rules”, and gets us the best success on our fitness journey.
And while I could probably make a list longer than the number of Dalmations Cruella de Vil hated…
We’ll keep it to 9, and we’ll cover the first 3 today
Here’s a list of the first 3 Obnoxious Fitness and Nutrition Myths that Need to Die in 2025
- You Can Only Absorb 30g of Protein Per Meal
- Carbs Will Make You Fat
- Do Lighter Weight and Higher Reps to Tone Up
Fitness Myth #1- You Can Only Absorb 30g of Protein Per Meal
If you live your life believing this fitness myth, eating gets very complicated. Because if you’re trying to get in 90g of protein in your day, you need to eat 30g of protein at 3 different meals. It also means you aren’t absorbing all 90g if you eat let’s say 30g at breakfast, 40g at lunch, and 20g at dinner. You’re missing out on those 10g of protein at lunch because your body can’t digest more than 30g at a time.
Fortunately this is utter nonsense.
Your body will absorb all the protein you feed it. Even if you at all 90g at one meal!
Now I’m not advocating such an extreme approach as that will only work well for a teeny tiny percentage of the population because it’s just not enjoyable for most.
But I use the example to give my point– IF you enjoyed eating one meal per day and you got all your protein in at that meal, your body would absorb all that protein just fine!
Basically the bigger a meal you eat, the longer your body takes to digest the meal. Because it wants to make sure it gets all the nutrients it can from the food you ate!
Now let’s think about this logically. Consider the days of old or even circumstances in other countries, circumstances we are not faced with in the West today.
Famine!
If you were dealing with famine, or for some other reason you didn’t have access to much food. Then you came across some food- let’s say you found an animal to eat.
Do you really think humans would have survived those times if they could only absorb 30g of protein in one sitting?
Are you telling me someone starving found some food, and rather than taking full advantage of the opportunity in front of them, they stuck to 6oz. servings of protein every 2-3 hours?
Nahh…that’s crazy!
Humans have survived horrible conditions, and one of those reasons is our ability to absorb all the protein and nutrients we eat. No matter how large the meal.
I think the origin of this fitness myth came from studies showing 30g of protein at a meal would maximize Muscle Protein Synthesis.
This doesn’t mean digestion tops out at 30g of protein.
It just means that the act of eating protein is itself anabolic- meaning it turns on the body’s muscle building machinery.
This is why many bodybuilders recommend eating AT LEAST 3-4 meals per day. And many times eat 5-6 times per day.
If you’re competing in bodybuilding or you’re trying to truly maximize your muscle gains, then eating 30g+ protein at 3-4+ meals per day might make sense.
BUT for the every day man or woman who wants to be lean, strong, and healthy…as long as you’re strength training 2-3x per week and consuming enough protein over the course of the day…you can get really impressive strength and muscle building results.
This is one of those myths I love to bust because it makes peoples’ eating plans so much easier.
At the end of the day, just consume enough protein throughout the day to hit your goals. Splitting that protein intake up in whatever way is more enjoyable for you.
Fitness Myth #2- Carbs Will Make You Fat
Busting this fitness myth just might have your mouth salivating! Get ready!
Do people have success on low carb diets? You betcha!
Why?
For a few reasons. None of which are that Carbs Make You Fat.
First, low carb diets typically prioritize protein and veggies. Two very healthy, filling, and nutrient dense categories of food. They’ll keep you full while keeping calories low.
Second, for the people who have success with low carbs diets…it’s because that way of eating helps them keep their calories in check by keeping them full and energy levels high. For every person who feels great eating low carb, there’s someone out there who doesn’t.
Note***- another important piece of info about low carb diets is that the huge drop in weight you typically see in the first week of cutting out carbs has NOTHING to do with fat loss or kickstarting your metabolism or anything else in that vein. It’s simply that carbs make our body retain some extra water (not a bad thing…this can even have some performance and energy benefits), so when we remove carbs from the diet we lose water weight. That water weight comes right back when you add carbs back in.
At the end of the day, as long as your calories and protein are where they need to be, you can consume any breakdown of carbs and fats and lose weight. Now we do have to consume at least SOME fats as they are essential to our health. We’d die without fat in our diet. Carbs are not actually truly essential for most BUT they do help many thrive!
Which is why we recommend most of our clients consume carbs even when losing fat.
Now when I say carbs, I might be thinking about different foods than you.
I’m talking about rice, potatoes, fruits, etc.
I am NOT talking about ice cream, pizza, or pasta with crazy thick pasta sauce.
Believe it or not, those foods usually have more calories from fat than carbs. But what makes those especially dangerous to our fat loss goals (especially in large quantities) is the combination of fats and carbs makes them HIGHLY palatable…A.K.A. super duper tasty. And it makes us want more of them. Not to mention they’re usually low in protein and nutrients so our body can eat a lot of them before getting full.
Anyways, adding in some single ingredient carbs like rice, potatoes, and fruit while dieting can give you energy and keep you full!
And as long as you control for protein and calories and you get at least SOME dietary fat, you can eat as many carbs as you’d like and still lose fat!
Fitness Myth #3- Do Lighter Weight and Higher Reps to Tone Up
To effectively bust this fitness myth, I have to first talk about the words “tone up.”
I used to hate this word. Because I was a nerd and super into the technical side of things.
I’m over it now because I just realize this is something we use to describe the look we want. Not a bad thing!
But I do like to take the time to explain to someone who wants to tone up what that really means.
Because despite what anyone tells you, you can’t truly (in a technical sense) “tone” a muscle. You also can’t build long-lean muscle, or build bulky muscle.
Muscle is a very simple thing. It can either grow or get smaller. That’s it!
So to tone up, what we need to do is build muscle and lose fat.
Having more muscle and less fat will better reveal our muscles giving us the “toned up” look!
We primarily lose fat through eating in a calorie deficit (strength training and other activity can help create this calorie deficit).
So all we can do in the gym to tone up is build muscle!
That’s right. I don’t care if you’re a 20 year old athlete, a 30 year old trying to get jacked, a 50 year old trying to tone up, or a 70 year old trying to work on your “flab”….
You all share the same goal in the gym.
BUILD AS MUCH MUSCLE AS POSSIBLE.
Now, if you do the highly unlikely thing and feel you’ve built too much muscle or you’re built enough muscle…no worries, just switch to more of a maintenance approach at the gym and you can maintain your physique easily with very little work. More on that in another post though!
Back to the goal of building muscle.
Since we want to tone up, we want to maximize our muscle gains. And the way we do that is by taking our sets CLOSE TO FAILURE. Now sure, you can do this with light weights and high reps (as long as you get close to failure.)
In fact studies have shown you can get similar muscle building results using anywhere from 5-30 reps as long as you are close to failure.
BUT there’s a reason bodybuilders have often recommended 6-12 reps as the ideal muscle building range.
It’s not that there’s anything truly special about this rep range. It’s just a winner from a practical standpoint.
Doing 6-12 reps means doing weights light enough that they aren’t going to wreck your joints from super heavy lifting, but they’re also heavy enough that you reach failure reasonably quickly.
And here’s my beef with the light weight and high reps argument. Yes, it can build muscle which tones you up.
BUT most people who are pushing this aren’t taking sets anywhere near failure. And while I’m sure there are *some* benefits to lifting light weights for high reps and not going near failure….those benefits PALE in comparison to lifting moderately heavy loads lose to failure.
So if you just want to tone up- ditch the super light weights, grab a heavy load, use good form, use a full range of motion, and train close to failure. You can thank me later.
Also, here’s another blog I wrote for more info on How to Have effective Strength Training Workouts!
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