Ep. 71 Top 10 Fitness/Nutrition Myths

In this episode, we dive into 10 common fitness and nutrition myths that have no scientific backing, but have become a bit commonplace in our beliefs - often keeping us stuck. I guarantee you've at least heard one of these, so let's debunk some of this misinformation so you can feel confident in your efforts instead of spinning your wheels. 

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Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!

Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. Hello beautiful people, and welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. All right, so today we are getting into ten of the biggest myths in the fitness and nutrition overall health industry. And we're going to bust some serious myths because unfortunately, some of these are so prevalent and they've really stood the test of time. And they're they have zero scientific evidence or data or studies to back them up. And unfortunately, a lot of things are targeted towards Women specifically, and it's all done out of a predatory marketing standpoint, like it's all done to try to get women to buy certain products, to try certain types of workouts, to do certain types of diets, things like that. So, um, I get a little bit fired up, honestly about this, because I've been working in the fitness industry now for 11 years. I have been everything from a in person personal trainer, um, teaching group classes, running a fitness studio, managing a fitness studio where I was also doing personal training and teaching group classes every day, going to um, facilities where I was doing kind of like PT work, functional training for the elderly. I have done so many different jobs in the fitness industry at this point, and now I own my own online fitness coaching business for women in the outdoors space specifically, and women who want to change their body composition in a way that is not wreaking havoc on their metabolism or their mindset, or their relationship with exercise and food. So, um, I've been around the block now for a long time in this industry, and I've just seen so many of these pervasive myths that really are. Doing a lot of harm to women and kind of holding us back and keeping us stuck oftentimes. And some of these even perpetuate really unhealthy relationships with exercise and food. So I want to bust some of these myths so that as you continue working on your relationship with your own health, your fitness, your nutrition, you can do so knowing that you're not going to buy into some of these BS lies that the industry wants to feed you just because they want you to feel like you have to do these certain things, um, in order to be quote unquote skinny enough or hot enough, or have a snatched waistline, all of these things. Right? So let's get into these ten top myths. So number one is that high rep, low weight is better for women because it's better for toning. So in general, this concept of toning the muscles I want to get toned is often a phrase that you hear in the fitness industry. Um, I just want to be more toned. I don't want to bulk up. I want to tone. Right. Um, you might have said that before. You probably heard that before. So here's where this is just fundamentally incorrect. There's no way to tone a muscle. So muscles. Don't tone, they either grow or they shrink. So they're either growing or they're atrophying. They're going away. So there's no in-between. There's no way to link than a muscle or to tone a muscle, make it less bulky, anything like that. Muscles just are. They're either bigger or smaller. Um, so there's no way to do the act of toning, okay, that's not actually a thing. So what is actually getting toned look like? What does that really mean? So what people typically are saying when they say I want to get toned is that they want to have less body fat, but more muscles, so that you can actually see the muscle tone on a lean frame. They don't want to feel like super large in a bulky frame. They want to feel like you can just see some nice muscle tone, but still feel really lean. Okay, so we achieve that through having enough muscle that it's pushing out against the skin, right? That you can actually see some of those striations. You can see some lines, some cuts of the abs, some nice arms and leg tone. But we are lean enough. We have less body fat on our frame that you can actually see, said muscle, because you can absolutely have tons of muscle and be super strong, but not really be able to see that muscle tone well because. Maybe you just have a little bit more body fat on your frame, so it's covered up with the extra adipose tissue. Nothing wrong with that. But if your goal is toning quote unquote, um, or to have a leaner physique, then you're going to want to focus more so on losing some of that extra adipose tissue so that you can see the muscle come through. Okay. So that's what it means to be toned. So this concept of I have to do high rep low weight work instead of lifting heavier because it's better for toning versus bulking. This is just fundamentally incorrect because like we talked about, there's no type of exercise that's going to tone your muscles. Either your muscles are growing or they're getting smaller. And we want the muscles to grow because that's how you actually achieve a toned physique. If we don't have muscle to show, then we just kind of have that like kind of skinny look, right? You might have heard it called and I don't necessarily love this term, but skinny fat is kind of the term that people have used for when like someone's just really skinny, but they don't necessarily have like a favorable body composition. They don't really have much muscle on their frame. So we need muscle in order to achieve a toned appearance. Having muscle is not the enemy, ladies. That's not what's going to make you appear quote unquote bulky. Okay, so this fear of having muscle and kind of fear mongering for women lifting heavier weights is just so damaging and false because women are rapidly losing muscle every few years. If we're not actively trying to counteract that, and we need to be doing resistance training in a way that challenges our muscles in order to maintain or gain muscle. So just doing. The same body weight or really low rep or low weight? Excuse me, high rep work is not always going to cut it. If you are new to exercise, then this will be a new stimulus for you. And yes, absolutely, you're going to see some amazing changes in adaptations because it's a new stimulus for your body. So you're going to see some results and you're going to be like, wow, heck yes, this is working. However, over time you have to continue to progress. Otherwise we just get stagnant because our bodies do adapt. So this is where you start to feel like, oh, I'm kind of hitting a plateau. Like what used to work for me just isn't really working anymore. That's because we need to constantly have new, challenging stimuli for our body to continue to feel the need to adapt. So if you want to feel more toned, if you want to see more muscle, then you're going to need to continually and gradually lift heavier resistance. Okay? And that doesn't mean that you have to be doing these crazy Olympic weightlifting competitions or throwing around barbells like it doesn't have to be as scary as maybe you're thinking. If you've never spent time in a weight room, it's just slowly, surely lifting a little bit more resistance. Whether that's in the form of dumbbells, cable resistance, intention, more body weight going into things when you're using like a TRX or machines Adjusting those machines to be a little bit heavier. Yes, barbells are a great option if you progress past the point of like being able to hold big enough dumbbells so you have lots of options as to how you can achieve this. Okay, but there's nothing superior about doing high rep low weight because the goal, no matter what, is to just lift a heavy enough resistance that it puts enough pressure on your muscles that they need to adapt and change. That's what creates body composition changes. Okay. So doing that by doing high rep, low weight is kind of an inefficient way to do things because you're going to have to lift really like a million reps over time because your body is like used to that weight by now. And if it feels really light, there's not going to be changes that occur. Okay. So just think about it like, if I'm not actually challenging anything, why would my body change? Okay. So it needs to feel tough. And and having that like high rep burn isn't always the way to go. You are doing some great muscular endurance work, which can be really beneficial, especially if you're like an endurance athlete or you're a hiker and you're out on the trails and doing the same, like step up lunging movements over and over and over again. There are definitely benefits. I'm not saying it's all bad, but for the purpose of having a better physique, better body composition, more muscle tone, you got to lift some heavier weights and not be afraid of that. So then we get to myth number two that heavy weights bulk women. Okay. So kind of along the same lines of what we were just talking about. Um, but unfortunately this is still kind of something that's ingrained in a lot of women's brains, this fear around lifting weights. Maybe you've watched like CrossFit competitions or seeing CrossFit athletes or athletes who are lifting really heavy and you're like, I don't really want to look like that. And that is okay. Like, there's nothing wrong with having a preference of how your body looks and saying, I want to be a little bit leaner, a little bit more slender than that. Whatever. Nothing wrong with having preference to how your body shape looks. But what's incorrect is that lifting heavy weights is going to automatically give you the physique of a competitive weightlifter. Okay, these people who are doing these competitions, this is their life. They train multiple times a day with the goal of muscle growth, and they're eating to gain muscle and gain weight. Okay. So those two things are important because in order to gain muscle you would need to be not only doing the weight lifting, but you would also need to be eating in a surplus in order to gain. Okay, so you'd have to just eat a crap ton of food. Um, so what typically is the culprit when it comes to women feeling bulky while they are lifting weights? Because this is a thing. Like, I totally used to be in this boat where I was lifting weights, but I felt so bulky and I was like, what is going on? I just feel so fluffy and puffy and gross. Um, it wasn't the way it's guys. It was my diet, my stress, alcohol intake. It was all of these other nutrition and lifestyle components. And also I was lifting weights. But what's happened was I continued lifting weights, and I actually started lifting heavier and lifting in a more progressive style, which is what we do in Mountain Metabolic. But I shaped up my diet, I worked on my portion sizes and my relationship with food. I quit with the all or nothing mindset. I really worked on my relationship with alcohol and not looking at weekends like just a free for all. I worked on stress and my emotional health and guess what? I lost 20 to £25 and have kept it off now for the past 3 to 4 years. So it's not about you lifting weights. That's not what's making you bulky, it's these other components. Okay, so before you just blame the style of exercise, look at the other things. Say, am I eating in a surplus? Do I even know how much I'm eating? Like, am I aware of my overall intake? Because yes, you could be eating a quote unquote healthy diet, but if you're eating in a surplus for what is your maintenance based on your body type, your metabolism, your muscle mass, all of these things that are very individual. Then you're going to gain weight. And no matter what you're eating, okay? So don't blame it on the weights. Look at the other components before you just decide. I guess I just need to do Pilates or bodyweight only, or hit or running or whatever. Okay. All right. Number three is that you need to cut out food groups for fat loss. Um. I really hate this. It's so silly. Um, you know, people will tell you. Well, I did keto and I lost £50. I did low carb, I did low fat, I did no sugar. Whatever. Pick your poison. People will come up with all kinds of these crazy diets where they're eliminating something. And they say that it's the, uh, elimination that's causing the weight loss, when really it's just that by eliminating something, they have drastically slashed their calories because if they cut carbs, maybe they were having, like, an insane amount of processed carbs every day. Okay, so it's not about the food group. It's about the overall total daily intake consistently day after day after day. If you are in a surplus, you are going to slowly, steadily gain weight. If you're eating around your maintenance, then you'll maintain your weight. If you're eating in a deficit, you will lose weight. Okay? It really is as simple as that. The law of thermodynamics, that's just the science of it. Um, not to oversimplify it, because the reality of it of actually implementing is not always so simple, but it really is that easy as far as this is how our bodies work. Okay. So cutting a food group is not going to be the ultimate fix. Yes. Can it get you to this end point? Sure. But what happens when you add that food back in? You have no habits built up that will actually sustain the weight loss, which is why so many people will go and do these extreme diets keto, low carb, low fat, paleo, whatever. But then as soon as they go back to quote unquote normal, they gain it all back. And that's super frustrating. What was the point? It was honestly a waste of your time and energy. So instead of going that route, what if you just modified your intake, continued to eat fats, carbs, proteins, veggies, and just scale back on your portions. Just worked on your relationship with food, on not binging things, on not having this all or nothing mindset when you're out at social events or eating out. Um, it doesn't sound as sexy or exciting as cutting a whole food group and saying, I'm doing this specific diet with a name, but I really would encourage you if you always follow diets with a name, to not follow a diet with a name for a little while, and just work on overall portion size, control, and relationship with food. Um, having these labels tends to lead you on this yo yo effect of I'm on the diet or I'm off the diet. What if we just all did this cool diet called sustainable lifestyle change, where we consistently eat about 90% of the time, things that are considered healthy, nutrient dense foods, and 10% of the time we're eating things that are fun foods, things that we really enjoy to keep a healthy relationship with food. So we aren't tempted to binge or be all or nothing. And we really focus on our portion sizes and making sure that we're eating amounts that make sense with our goals, whether it's weight loss, maintenance, or weight gain. Um, okay. Our next one is that eating more frequently will stoke your metabolic fire. You might have heard that phrase before, but the more frequently you eat, the better your metabolism will be. Um, if you eat like six meals a day, you're naturally going to just have, like, the world's fastest metabolism. Um, this is false. Meal frequency really doesn't contribute as much to weight loss or weight gain as as one would think. Okay. So it really again comes down to your total daily intake, whether that's two big meals or six small meals. It really is a matter of preference. If you prefer to eat six small meals, great. If you prefer to eat two big meals spaced out, great. You're looking for are you getting good quality nutrients or you kind of meeting your nutritional needs? Are you having well-rounded meals that have protein source carbs, fats, and micronutrients in the form of, you know, your veggies, your fiber source. Um, and then are you kind of meeting like a protein goal or a calorie goal if you have those, especially if weight loss or weight gain or goals for you, then you need to be kind of looking at those metrics a little bit more closely. It does not matter the amount of times that you are eating. It really just matters. The total average at the end of the day. Okay. Um, so yes, if you are constantly skipping meals and going, you know, 24 hours without eating, your metabolism might start to slow down a little bit because your body starts to sense that there's not enough food readily available, and it's going to potentially compensate to keep you alive. That's a normal response from your from your body. However, this isn't going to happen because you're eating only 2 to 3 meals a day or skipping a meal every now and then. Um, that's really not how this is going to work. And on this flip side of things, it's not going to naturally speed up because you're eating six times a day. Okay. Um, okay. Number five. Eating late at night will cause fat storage. False. This is just, again, kind of silly. Um, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to assume that because we eat past a certain time of day, our body is just going to automatically store everything as fat. Um, because, like, what's that cutoff time? And, like, what if you work an overnight schedule or, you know, you're working third shift or second shift? This isn't a hard, fast and dry rule. This does not make sense. Okay, so eating late at night is not going to cause fat storage automatically. Um, it might not sit well, if you like, just immediately go lay down. After having a massive meal, you might find that your blood sugar is a little out of whack. You might not have great quality sleep. You might have some bloating or discomfort in your stomach from not digesting the food properly, but it's not going to automatically lead to fat storage. Again, it's not about when you're eating, how many times you're eating. It's really about the total amount that you're having on a daily basis, day in and day out, the consistency of that. Number six is that hit style workouts or cardio are best for fat loss. This is a really big one and I can totally see this. You know, this being a valid train of thought because I used to kind of think this way to write like, oh, if you want to be skinny, you do cardio. If you want to like be bulky, you lift weights. However, this is not always how it works because while you are doing workouts like hit or cardio, you might be burning more calories in the moment. However, you are not really doing a whole lot for overall body composition and gaining muscle. Which muscle is going to be a much better kind of investment? Think of it like an investment. Like if you are to do a job where you are making money, kind of trading your time for money, you get an hourly wage, that would kind of be like doing cardio or hit versus building something where you have passive income and you can just make money without having to work so hard every day. That would be the equivalent of lifting weights and gaining muscle, because the more muscle you have on the frame, the higher your resting metabolic rate will be. Okay, so this is why people who are more muscular, more lean. Maybe you look at them and you're like, wow, they are like so toned they can probably eat quite a bit and not gain weight as easily. They have really efficient metabolisms and that's why okay, so they have built up muscle. To the point where they don't have to do an hour of cardio every single day in order to maintain their weight or lose weight. Okay. And I've worked with a lot of clients who come into Mountain Metabolic coaching, and they are doing an hour of cardio a day at least, and they're like, I can't do this anymore. But like, I'm stuck on this, on this hamster wheel. And I kind of have to now. And they're exhausted. And so our goal is to transition them to more of a style of lifting where they are gaining muscle and changing their body composition in a favorable way, where they don't have to do all of this manual cardio burning, calorie burning in the form of cardio because it's just exhausting. And what happens if you go through a season of your life where you can't do that? Like, what if you're really ill, or you have a loved one who's ill and you're and you're in the hospital caretaking for them or things just get busy or you get injured, then you have like kind of no way to stay lean without feeling like you have to keep doing that because your body has adapted to it. Your body expects it. And then when you're not burning all those calories every single day, you're more likely to gain weight easily. So it's really a poor form of long term weight loss or maintenance of that weight loss. Okay, so there's nothing wrong with doing that form of exercise, and a lot of people enjoy it, I enjoy cardio. I actually really like it. But what I've learned is that it's not going to be my form of weight loss. It's not going to be the thing that I do when I'm trying to get leaner. Um, it's going to be something that I do for my heart health, for my overall cardiovascular health, so that I can continue being a fit hiker and doing the activities that I love, carrying my daughter on my back. Um, but it's not going to be something where I'm like, I have to do cardio in order to get my body composition in a better place. Um, that's just not the best form of making that happen. Okay. So the good news is, if you don't love cardio, you don't have to do it. You can change your body composition in a favorable way. Losing fat and gaining muscle, getting quote unquote toned simply through doing slower lifting programs while in tandem with getting your steps up just walking, um, maybe doing some incline walking things that are gentle on your joints that don't feel exhausting, you don't feel like you're going to puke after, and then looking at your diet. That is the biggest thing that will kind of hold people back. Um, it's not just about the exercise. You really do have to look at your calorie intake to. Okay. The next myth number seven is the concept of starvation mode. This is such an interesting thing because I think this is just something that we all like accepted. And we're like, yeah, starvation mode. Of course this is the thing. Um, when really it does not make a whole lot of sense. If you think about the fact that people do actually die of starvation, um, then I think we can just go ahead and say, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If you think about the fact that starvation is the cause of death still, for so many people, um, you look at the show like, like naked and afraid. If you've ever seen that the people who go on that show are not eating hardly anything for like 21 plus days, and they lose insane amounts of weight. They drop weight really fast because they are not eating. Their bodies are starving. Okay, so if starvation mode were a real thing, these people would gain weight instead of losing weight, right? That's what we always say. We're like, I think my body's in starvation mode, so I'm gaining weight. It doesn't make sense when you look at what actually happens when bodies are deprived of calories in food. So let's talk about what actually is happening, because there is a very real thing called metabolic adaptation. However, it's not happening as often as I think. A lot of people assume that they're in starvation mode. So, um, instead of thinking about starvation mode, think about metabolic adaptation. This is something that occurs when someone is chronically deprived of calories. So think about somebody who does go on like a show, like Naked and Afraid. They're deprived of calories for 21 days or longer. Um, I can't remember exactly the time frame. And then they come back and then they're like, they went from famine to feast. Now they're like eating all the things. While their metabolism was very much suppressed during that time when they weren't eating and it adapted to keep them alive. If it was still expecting like 2000 calories a day, their body would just shut down. So their metabolism slowly compensates that for that to keep them alive. Right? Um, it's a survival compensation in our body, so it's a good thing. However, then they go back to eating 2000 plus calories a day, maybe more, because they're like, oh my gosh, I'm so hungry. And then their metabolism has been suppressed. They're more likely to gain weight more quickly. Okay. So this is what tends to happen is we think, um, you know, I'm in starvation mode, but maybe you're actually you dieted like a lot of your 20s. You had crazy eating habits. You would just, like, skip breakfast, drink coffee till 2 p.m., have one meal and then have, like, alcohol in the evening. Like really bad habits around food, not really getting consistent nutrition. And then you have a weekend where you binge on calories, right. So then your body is kind of like in this weird place of your metabolic health is a bit suppressed because you're very inconsistently eating enough calories, but then you'll have days where you eat a ton of calories and then you're more likely to gain weight. Okay. You also have the case where women are just very consistently depriving their bodies of calories, and they're doing it intentionally, like they're dieting, right? They're like eating 1200 calories for months at a time. That is going to also slowly cause your metabolism to adapt downward to that place where it's not expecting a whole lot of food. And then if you do get to that place, then you're kind of like, where do I go from here? There's nowhere to go. I'm not going to go down to only a thousand calories a day. But you're maybe no longer seeing any results because your body has adapted. Okay? That's why we don't want to do these crazy diets or just stay in a calorie deficit for months and months and months, or go to a seriously low calorie deficit. We want to be able to change our body composition with the most calories that we possibly can. To mitigate these adaptations, our bodies are going to adapt our metabolisms are going to adapt as we get smaller, as we are inevitably going lower in our calories. If we're trying to lose weight. However, we don't want these adaptations to be crazy, and we don't want to play all our cards at once and automatically drop calories down unnecessarily low. Okay, so that's where it's so important to go about fat loss in a strategic way with a professional coach. Like what we do with our team, because you don't want to go about things the wrong way. And then there's also, you know, of course times when we think, oh, I've just been like eating hardly any calories. I'm, you know, I think that's happening to me when in reality maybe you haven't actually been tracking your calories and you are just overeating and not realizing it. So that's where keeping track of keeping track of your calories, even for a season of life, is so helpful to have that information. Some women come into our program, they have no idea that they've been under eating, and we actually need to slowly work them to higher calories in order for their bodies to even be receptive to any sort of fat loss phase, whereas other ladies think that they have been under eating and they've actually been overeating. And we can, you know, start to see some changes with a modest calorie deficit. So having that awareness and having that baseline point of what have I actually been doing, what is my body used to do is so important to kind of determine your next steps based on your goal. Okay, long winded answer. Let's move on number eight. The more you sweat, or the more calories that you burn, the better the workout. Um, this is just kind of a flawed way of thinking, because if that were true, if we could just sweat and lose weight, then like, what's the point of working out? Just sit in a sauna, just go to a humid environment and stand there right where it's on a close and just sweat it all out. But that's just water weight that's not actually doing anything for your body composition. That's not changing your muscle to fat ratio. So just simply sweating is not an effective way to lose weight. So because of that, we also know that how much you sweat in your workout is not a good metric of a successful workout. It's actually kind of funny because it wasn't until I started doing workouts where I was like, not sweating at all that I finally started to see my body composition change after years and years of doing like super sweaty hit. Running a ton doing Tuesdays. Um, you know, where I was sweating a lot and, you know, quote unquote burning calories. However, my body wasn't really changing. And if anything, I was just gaining weight and feeling puffier. Um, now that I do workouts where I'm kind of slower lifting and walking, I have a much better body composition, way less inflamed, way less stressed out. I'm not eating a ton to compensate for that because I'm not feeling like, oh my gosh, I'm so hungry all the time. I worked up such an appetite, right? So there's so many things at play here, but focusing on burning calories and sweating is kind of a frivolous goal when it comes to your workouts. So try not to use those as metrics of success. If you get to the end of a lifting session and you're not that sweaty, it's okay. You still, as long as you're picking up weights that are challenging your muscles, you should feel a little shaky, a little bit like, ooh, my legs are wobbly. I'm having a hard time picking up my purse right now as I'm leaving the gym. Those are better metrics of like, if you had a good workout, okay. Um, and also side note on the calorie burning, like the watches and the the machines telling you how many calories you're burning, there's so vastly incorrect, like there's so much error and room for error in those and things that they can't really understand about your metabolic makeup, like the things that are determining how many calories we as individuals are burning. And activity is very complex and very individual. Um, so I would not live and die by those numbers. Um, they're just going to kind of lead you astray. And fixating on those things also really doesn't lead to like a healthy relationship with exercise, in my opinion. Okay. Number nine, uh, things like Pilates and yoga are going to make your muscles longer and leaner. Oh, I hate this predatory marketing. I feel like this is such a not nothing against yoga and Pilates, but I do feel like they kind of put out marketing that says like, this is what you do if you want. Like longer, leaner muscles. Um, and this is very Incorrect. Um, yes, you can definitely improve your posture with things like yoga and Pilates that could give your body the appearance of feeling like taller and longer. But there's no way to physically lengthen your muscles because your muscles are attached to fixed points with your bones and joints. Right? There's nothing that you can do to lengthen like your legs or your muscles or your bones. Your bones are set at a certain age. They are what they are. You're not going to be able to do anything to lengthen those set points. Okay. So because of that you can also lengthen your muscles. Um, that's not going to be something that can happen physiologically. So these types of exercise are really great for flexibility mobility stretching um muscular endurance sometimes with Pilates stability uh balance. But they're not going to make your muscles longer or leaner. Okay. Um, and number ten, this one's kind of controversial, but number ten is that you need exercise to lose weight. You actually do not. Um. And I feel a little weird saying this as a trainer. Like, this is my livelihood. This is my passion. But you really don't need exercise to lose weight. You can lose weight sitting in a hospital bed, unconscious, in a coma for five years. Um, depending on how much food is being fed to you, right. Um, without any activity, any movement whatsoever, you don't need to exercise for weight loss. You can just manipulate the calories that you're bringing in and your total daily non exercise activity such as walking, fidgeting, moving around, taking the stairs. Um, however, exercise is going to be extremely instrumental in your body composition. So what we don't want to have happen is have a big ol weight loss like £50 plus, but you don't support your muscle in the process because you're going to lose a whole lot of muscle as you're losing that fat. Okay? And why that matters is because muscle is your metabolic tissue. It's so important for your functionality as you get older bone density, your basal metabolic rate, staying high as you age. This is why people with muscle just tend to stay leaner and look healthier and younger, um, even when they're in their 50s and 60s. Right? Um, we don't want to lose muscle as we're losing fat. And muscle also is going to be very instrumental in maintaining that weight loss in a way that doesn't feel exhausting. Um, and you don't have to just keep going lower in your calories, similarly to what we talked about with metabolic adaptation. Okay. So while exercise isn't necessary for weight loss, it's going to help you have a favorable body composition, a better overall health, both physical and mental. Um, you're going to be a lot stronger with better bone density as you get older and kind of stave off things like osteoporosis. Um, and you're just going to feel better. Like we just are designed to move and to exercise. We feel better mentally and physically. Your metabolic health will thank you as you get older. So I definitely recommend if you are looking to have effective long term weight loss, to pair both exercise and nutrition and obviously other lifestyle components like your daily movement, your stress, your alcohol intake, uh, your relationships, all of these things. Okay, guys, we made it all the way through all ten of these myths. I hope that this has been helpful and enlightening to you guys. Um, if you have any questions about any of these, you can always shoot me a message at the fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page. Um, I also love to hear any other topics that you guys would like to have on the show. Um, if you are looking to kind of make some big changes, maybe you have been frustrated with your body composition or your weight for a really long time. Maybe you have some big goals as far as hikes that you would like to do, and you'd like to see some body composition changes. Um, definitely check out the link in the show notes where you can apply for our coaching program. This is what we do. It's a it's an investment in your health long term so that you can do this on your own for life. Okay. So yes, you're investing in yourself. It's going to be more than just, you know, a $5 app or buying a PDF. But if you haven't seen changes with those things before, then it might be time to do something different where you have true hands on accountability. A coach who's with you from start to finish, and actual strategy, workouts and nutrition that fit your life, um, so that you can figure out how to do this for the rest of your life and maintain with ease. Okay. So if that sounds like something that you're looking for, definitely check the show notes and tap that link you can apply and then we will go from there. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in today you guys. I always appreciate you listening. Um, give us a little shout out. Give us a rating or review if you enjoy the show, if you get some really good information and value out of it. And I will chat with you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes. Being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.