Fitness Advice Myths Busted: Real Science vs Internet Fluff

Internet Overload: What's Real and what's Fluff?

When you go online and look up "fitness tips for beginners", you're going to be flooded with information. From macros to workouts, to sleep patterns, and even the odd suggestions about "personal time". We've seen it all and it never ceases to amaze us at the type of content these fitness influencers are willing to put out there.

But all this does is confuse you even more. Here, we're going to be breaking down the science behind what actually grows muscle, how to lose fat, and what's been harming you more than you think.

What makes muscle grow?

This is one of those that combines a couple of different aspects of fitness, but we'll take it nice and slow.

The first thing you have to understand is that when you lift weights, you're creating small tears in the muscle fibers. These micro tears are the primary source for your soreness over the next 24-72 hours post workout.

To recover and build muscle, your body utilizes protein to rebuild the micro tears in your muscles. Each time they rebuild the muscles, they grow a little thicker (or a little longer). This is how muscle growth works. But how do you optimally grow the most muscle?

This is where the multiple aspects of fitness come in and some of the mistakes we see.

Proper Nutrition Intake

As stated earlier, protein is the main source of muscle rebuilding after a workout. This means, your protein intake needs to be high. We generally recommend 1.0-1.2 grams per pound of body weight during a bulk, or 1.4-1.6 grams per pound of body weight during a cut. We'll get into the science of nutrition later.

The next major macro to track is your fats. The common misconception is that you should be eliminating fats from your diet completely, but that simply isn't true. Good fats in your diet contribute to hormone production and brain and organ function. With too little fat, you could find yourself groggy and tired more often.

Finally, you should be filling the rest of your daily calorie intake with carbohydrates (carbs). Carbs are the primary fuel source for your body since they're the easiest to break down and burn. They also help with the feeling of getting a really full pump during workout sessions, which is just the amount of blood that has been forced into the muscles.

Exercise Form and Repetitions

The next thing to understand about muscle growth is your form and the way you perform your reps. Too often what we see is everyone following Sam Sulek's advice and "cheating" the reps. But what they seem to forget is the Sam's of the world have been doing this for a whole lot longer. They know the rep range, they know their bodies, and they know how to cheat the reps while staying safe.

As a beginner, you're going to want to focus first on form, to prevent injury, and then what's known as eccentric or negative sets. Eccentric is just a fancy word for the downward movement of any exercise. This could be the lowering of the bar to your chest on a bench press, lowering from the top position of a pull-up, or lower from the top position of a bicep curl.

In a study conducted by Mountain Tactical Institute (MTI) showed that by performing 5 second negatives on each rep, a person unable to complete a single pull-up could now complete multiple after only 6 weeks of training.

Sleep and Rest

Now we here at MetaMentor are all fans of Lee Priest, a controversial body builder that has made waves within the fitness community. He has a segment where he speaks on "no such thing as overtraining". While this is sort of true, we do have to take a step back and clarify as well.

Your body doesn't just recover throughout the day. A majority of your recovery is done at night while you're asleep, particularly the deep sleep portion of resting.

Deep sleep occurs about 20-25% of your sleep, usually during the first half of sleep. In this time, your body:

1. Releases Growth Hormone

2. Rebuilds Muscle through Protein Synthesis

This is why an adequate amount of sleep is so important, but we see all the time where new, and usually young, fitness enthusiast will continue to stay up late binging The Office while trying to stuff their last bit of macros in for the day (more on why eating this late is bad for you in the next article).

You also need to give your muscle groups adequate time to rebuild as well. The general rule of thumb is allowing 48-72 hours for most muscle groups to recover before training them again. Continuous micro tearing of the muscles without full recovery can lead to long term injury, setting you back from all that progress you've just made.

Now by this point you may be thinking, "well that's great and all, but I'm trying to lose fat, not build muscle." Don't worry, we'll cover that next.

The Secret Formula to Fat Loss

Here you go, the secret formula you've been waiting for! This method is proven and guaranteed to burn fat off, keep it off, and have you looking beach ready all year round. Are you ready for it?

The secret to long term fat loss is nutrition and discipline. That's right. No fancy pills, no high-tech gadget, just pure determination to win. And we'll explain it to you.

The Drug Paradox

For purposes of this article, we'll call this the drug paradox. Now you've been sold on the "next big weight loss drug". Likely, it's been Ozempic or one of the off-brand equivalents. Well, here's the truth about any supplement.

When you start taking supplements, your body changes to adapt to these new chemicals. This is especially true in a lot of steroids. And while they do work, the weight eventually comes back, often times more than before.

Your mind hasn't developed the appropriate habits yet to keep the weight off that these supplements are aiding in removing. So, most times, you'll end up gaining it all back or losing everything (in the case of muscle building) once you stop taking them.

But there is hope still. You can check out our article on Healthy Habits to Building the Best You so that you can keep the weight away without the reliance on drugs.

Now, with all of this, that isn't to say that supplements don't have a part to play in your journey either.

Supplement the Weight Loss

Now a supplement is anything seen as an aid in your fitness journey. Some of the most common are:

• • Protein Powder

1. • Creatine

2. • Pre-workout

3. • Nitric Oxide Boosters

4. • Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA's)

And that's just to name a few. You can find more information on each of them in their own dedicated articles.

These supplements will help you lose fat, recover faster, or build muscle. But the difference is they aren't drugs. These don't change your physiological makeup or alter your muscle structure in a major way. They're subtle.

Exercise the Right Way

Now for fat loss, your exercises are going to look fairly similar to muscle building depending on the equipment available to you. But the key thing to track is the intensity.

For a fat loss workout, you want moderately high volume with short breaks. You don't need a full-on High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) routine to start, but you do want to choose high mobility exercises, superset opposing muscle groups, and reduce rest times to keep your heart rate up.

The common rule of thumb for heart rate is to keep your heart rate at between 50-70% of your max heart rate for your age to be in the optimal fat burning zone. To track this, a good fitness watch would be good, or between sets, you can feel for your pulse and count (we tend to count for six seconds then multiply our number by 10).

Wrap it Up - Keep it Simple

Whether you're a beginner or advanced lifter, the best thing you can do is keep it simple. There's an abundance of information available to you, most of which is full of fancy terms, complicated movements, and way too much fluff material.

If you feel like you need more help, check out our comprehensive AI fitness app!

Meta Mentor has designed a leading fitness app that:

1. Gives you recommendations for macros to follow - not just a calculator.

2. Tracks your personal progress with personalized insights to guide you.

3. Gives you workout and meal recommendations every day.

4. Provides an individualized coaching experience based on your data - no cookie cutter approach.

Check it out for your free 7 day FREE trial!