INTRODUCTION
So I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and stumbled across a post. Now normally I wouldn’t care about posts like this, however, the page that posted it was a rather large account called Uber Facts, wasn’t a fitness account and you could argue that it was a trusted account! Let us look at the post and then rip it apart and tell you why you should do it, why I could be bad for you and how they have worded it.
THE POST
So what was the post? It was this post from Uber Facts:
They posted “You can Burn up to 20% more body fat by exercising in the morning on an empty stomach!”
Now hopefully regulars of our and anyone that has been into fitness a while will know that this isn’t true. What they are on about is “fasted” workouts. This is “bad” for many reasons. I think the first one we should mention is that not eating before a workout will lead to a rubbish workout. To workout effectively you need fuel, and food is fuel! If you consume calories before your workout you will have a better workout, you will be able to perform better, lift more or go further!
FASTED WORKOUTS
Looking at that post, they are on about “Fasting”. Fasting is NOT a weight loss technique, but a tool. Will it make you lose weight? No! Can you use it to help you lose weight? Yes! When you fast (Spend the morning fasted, say from when you wake up to around 1 pm), what you are doing is moving your calories back. This means you have less time to consume your calories. Allowing you to eat the same amount of food but in a shorter space of time.
Now, this can be useful as you get the sensation you are eating more! It won’t make you burn more calories and if you are fasting, we highly recommend you don’t work out while you are fasted (LISS Cardio is fine while fasted), but anything that will take energy and high intensity is best you fuel and eat food. The goal of a workout is to perform the best you can, to do this you need to fuel the body! You will be surprised how much you improve by just eating a bit more! This isn’t my biggest issue with this post mind!
THE BIGGEST THING WRONG WITH THIS POST
My biggest issue with this post is not just the fact that it isn’t true but also the page that posted it! It was posted by Uber Facts. Now, I follow Uber Facts, I like the stuff that they post. However, they have a huge following (2.1 Million Follower), most of which I would assume is a younger and impressionable audience. Being the page that they are means people will believe what they post at face value. Pair that with the fact that they aren’t a fitness page and you have around 2.1 million people believing that working out on an empty stomach is the best way to lose weight!
They don’t provide any information or research or even where they got this information. As we say, people should always look up information, do your research! No matter how big a page, or person is make sure you verify the fact.
Now, I will say, that this isn’t the only page that does this. This kind of content is still out there. A lot of non-fitness pages still post stuff like this, being Instagram is also very shareable and gets the clicks.
CONCLUSION
Don’t believe everything you read online! Just because a page or a person has a huge following (Like Uber Facts) doesn’t mean they are right. Also bare in mind that there is more than one way to skin a cat. What someone else is doing might not be wrong but might be wrong for you. Several ways to get the same results.
Have you seen any rubbish posts on Instagram? Maybe we will make this a more regular thing to de-bunk some of the rubbish posts on social media!
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.