Why I Love & Hate Pinterest - Part 6

Why I Love & Hate Pinterest

Welcome to part 5 of the Why I Love & Hate Pinterest series, in which I’ll spend some time pondering some pins I’ve seen lately that either enraged, encouraged, or exasperated me.

This week, I'm finishing off the problem with a lack of ACTUAL information.

I'm also finishing off this series! It seems to have had a decent response, but I'm probably going to move away from this more bloggy-type of writing to a more informative style from now on.

So let's finish up here...

“Tips on getting a flat stomach…”

Here’s another issue, when these pins actually do try to give good information, they still end up serving us a load of nonsense that isn’t ACTUAL information.

Here’s an example of that:

Once again, I’ve cropped a load of info on the pinner so as not to be a douche.

Let’s dissect this, shall we?

• “5/6 small meals > 3 large meals”. This myth simply refuses to lay down and die. Here’s a tip: if your calorie intake remains the same, there is no difference in affect on metabolic rate or weight loss between eating 6 small meals and eating 3 larger meals (Bellisle, et al., 1997; or here’s a good article to read if you’re not that academically-inclined). Guys, as long as you are eating the right amount of calories and hitting your macro targets, you will not see a difference here.
• “No eating 2 hours before sleep”. Now look, calories are calories no matter what time you eat them. The issue here is that people will often eat unhealthy stuff late at night, and that isn’t good, which is usually what this is getting at. Additionally, there’s often an issue with things like heartburn if you eat before bed, so this point is fair enough, if not actually related to a flat stomach.
• “Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day”. Yeah, drinking water is a good thing. Next.
• “Do 100-300 ab exercises a day”. Wait… What? Why? As discussed earlier in this series there’s 2 issues here – putting heavy focus on spinal flexion is not a good idea, and there’s no evidence to suggest that 100-300 reps of one type of exercise is a good way to ‘flatten’ muscles, and you’ll see nothing happen if you just do the same thing over and over again (no progression). Furthermore, there’s issues with the fact that you can’t spot-reduce, so focussing on the area you want to trim doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll lose fat there. Further-furthermore, all this means sod all if you have too much fat to even see your abs.
• “Do 30 minutes of cardio 5/6 times a week”… What? Why? Not only is this the least exciting way to burn fat, it’s not even the most efficient! If you want a flat stomach and that requires you to burn fat then go do sprints. You’ll be done quicker, have more fun, and even see some muscle growth occur (Esbjörnsson, et al., 2012). HIIT > LISS (High Intensity Interval Training; Low Intensity Steady State).
• “Include plyometrics in exercises”. Not directly related to a flat stomach, but still a good tip. Plyometrics rock. Next.
• “Get at least 8 hours sleep”. The amount of rest you get is a big deal, so this is fine. Next.
• “Eat more fruit & veg; Eat less junk food”. I combined two here because they’re very closely-linked. I completely agree, but be careful of the amount of sugar you intake (note: fruit juice is not the same thing). Next.
• “Eat raw foods, it keeps you fuller for longer”. But do they? Science says yes! (Ello-Martin, et al., 2005) showed that eating low-energy-dense foods (such as fruits, vegetables, and soups) maintains satiety while reducing energy intake. Result. Next.
• “Will power and perseverance”. Uh, sure.

So you see there is some good information there, but there’s also some rubbish on there too. A bit like a jumbo platter at Harvester. Out of the 11 points one is just irrelevant (#11), so we’ll count it out of 10. 3 are unfounded, one is not really related, and the other 6 are decent-to-good advice. Not great shooting, Tex.

Here’s the ‘skinny’ (excuse the pun):

If you want to lose weight then you need to make sure your caloric input is lower than your caloric expenditure. You should also keep track of your macros, to ensure you aren’t just feeding on crap.

You also need a solid programme that will train your entire body in an athletic and challenging manner, to aid in the stripping of the fat covering your abs whilst also building the muscle yet to be revealed. E-mail me and I can do that for you (if these articles haven’t annoyed you too much), or go and hire a PT at your gym as they should be able to help you out massively.

That’s the absolute basics you can take and find out more about, as it’s not exactly the whole picture.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series, and it’s given you a good idea of how to browse Pinterest without becoming misinformed, and how to make sure you achieve your fitness goals!

Come back next week for the start of my next series…

If you found you liked this, then please do follow me on Twitter, Blogger, Instagram, and (if you’re careful) Pinterest.