“Eat every 3 hours to keep your metabolism burning” is about as stupid of advice as it gets.

The 80’s and 90’s should be known as the decades of “prescribed obesity.” Quite possibly the worst nutritional advice in history came out of those times. Things like…

“Eat carbs early in the morning so you can burn them off.”

“Calories in/calories out is all that matters.”

“Red meat causes heart attacks.”

“Eggs cause high cholesterol.”

“Drink more milk.”

“Don’t eat after 6pm if you want to lose weight.”

“Oatmeal is heart healthy and lowers cholesterol.”

“A banana and yogurt is a healthy breakfast.”

I’m sure a great number of you are reading this list saying to yourself, “oh shit! I do that.”

Let’s just look at the numbers for starters. Obesity rates in the U.S. in 1980 were around 5% for men and 8% for women. By 2008, those rates had doubled to 10% and 15%, respectively. Today, a whopping 42% of the U.S. population is obese and approximately 70% are classified as obese or overweight.

Looking at these numbers it’s pretty clear what we’ve been doing isn’t working! So why would we continue to follow advice that got us here? Blows my mind.

While I am not saying the above list of nutrition advice caused these increases, (factors such as women going into the work force in mass numbers, less cooking at home, government subsidized crops, the breakdown of the nuclear family, technology and many other societal changes played fundamental roles) they certainly didn’t help those people who really wanted to do something about their weight. For those who were making a genuine attempt to improve their nutrition, they were getting some really bad advice.

The truth is…

Eating every few hours wreaks havoc on your gut. Your digestive tract wasn’t designed to be digesting food 24/7. And remember, gut health is one of the two most important factors in weight loss.

It also causes unwanted fluctuations in blood sugar, a huge contributor to insulin resistance. Blood sugar deregulation leads to things such as: retained belly fat, mood swings, feeling tired in the afternoon, irritability, hunger, and in extreme instances diabetes.

As for the other bits of misinformation I listed above, they are easily debunked.

Eating carbs first thing in the morning is the last thing you should do. They cause an increase in blood sugar, leading to hunger and loss of energy later in the day. The time to eat “carbs” (what constitutes a “carb” in most people’s minds is an article in and of itself) is later in the day, when you’ve depleted some of your muscle glycogen. Protein and fat for breakfast gives you sustained energy, limits blood sugar upset, and keeps you feeling satisfied all day. Protein and fat initiate the correct neuroreceptors first thing in the morning as well, kick-starting a cascade of healthly processes throughout the day.

Calories in/calories out thinking is antiquated and simplistic. Your body can’t be dumbed down to a simple math equation. Does it work for body builders who have healthy metabolism and hormone balance? Of course, but that’s probably not you.

Hormone balance and gut health are the two biggest factors for weight loss. I can personally show you dozens of women I’ve worked with over the years, in their 40’s and 50’s, who are eating less than 1000 calories per day with upwards of 45% body fat. It’s just not that simple.

Red meat was demonized by Ancel Keys in the now famous “Seven Countries Study” and caused irreparable harm to the world of nutritional science. This topic is a deep rabbit hole but just start with he was a vegetarian, set on proving vegetarianism was the best diet and threw out data collected from all but 7 countries which supported his hypothesis. This study alone could be considered THE biggest cause of obesity. When people stopped eating meat, they started eating processed foods! (Note to self, trusting the science as you’re being preached to do today is the complete antithesis of how science is performed. By definition, science is meant to be questioned)🙄

Eggs cause high cholesterol. Wrong! If you have high cholesterol, the first thing to investigate is your liver function. Diet actually has very little effect on cholesterol.

Drink more milk? Read as…support dairy farmers. Why on earth are we the only species who, as grown ass adults, are drinking another animal’s milk? Yuck. Let that one sink in a bit.

The time of day you eat doesn’t determine weight loss. Yes, eating within a 12 hour window has health benefits, but your body doesn’t magically store whatever goes in after 6pm. Ridiculous!

We pretty much covered the oatmeal, banana and yogurt topic with the explanation about why you shouldn’t eat carbohydrates first thing in the morning. A breakfast consisting of the above three items together would mean you consumed about 41 grams of sugar to start your day (with the recommended maximum of daily sugar intake at 25 grams). The truth is, 25 grams per day is even too much for health and longevity. Guess your personal trainer advising you to eat carbs first thing in the morning doesn’t know as much as he or she thinks they do.

The bottom line is nutrition is complex but also very simple. Unfortunately, nutritional science is often times influenced by bias and desires profits from the food industry. This sudo-science is then picked up by well meaning but uninformed health and fitness professionals and passed down to you.

Eat what nature provides naturally. Focus on the quality of food you’re eating. Eat colors and avoid white foods (this is the one place it is actually permissible to be woke;). Eat within a 12 hour window to help with hormone regulation and regulate blood sugar.

*For deeper discussions on these nutrition topics, be sure to listen to my EML Radio series with Dr. TJ: “True or False with Dr. TJ”. Visits eviefatz.com/podcasts or find us on all audio streaming sources such as Apple podcasts, Spotify, stitcher and google play