Another thing I’m calling bullsh*t on is the oft-repeated claim that a pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day, even at rest. In the past two days I’ve not only seen two fitness pros (who should know better) parroting this, but I did a quick search and found this figure in articles all over the internet. Truth be told, I’ve probably been guilty of saying it at some point in the past. Probably even followed that up with a quote about waiting an hour before going for a swim.
Kai Hibbard, of Biggest Loser fame, is speaking out about the reality of the show. Some say she’s a saint. Some say she’s a fame whore. I say she’s neither. I think she’s a…
Before age 35, my main vegetables would have been potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and iceberg lettuce. And that would have been if I had a side salad at some shitty restaurant, or in the case of tomatoes and lettuce, if I went with the Whopper instead of the BK Big Fish. And yes, french fries =’d potatoes back then. Of course, before age 35 I was also a big, fat, unhealthy mess.
Dieting sucks. Diets are temporary. The weight loss they bring is temporary. They lead to the development of bad habits. They aren’t fun. They don’t make people happy. They’re restrictive. They focus on thinness instead of health. They caused that volcano in Iceland to erupt. Okay, that’s not true, but they do make you do stupid things like count calories, or worse, count “points”.
Let’s look at some examples of the calorie/quality trade off. Take a trip down the frozen food aisle and you’ll see row after row of frozen dinners from Healthy Choice (an oxymoron of a name if there ever was one) and Weight Watchers (not so) Smart Ones. Most people think these are great choices because, along with convenience, they’re usually in the neighborhood of 300 calories or less. That’s great, but let’s take a look at what makes up those calories. Here are the ingredients for…
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