When Bacon and Rest are Your Friends

When I started training for a living in 1998, a lot of long-held exercise and healthy eating rules that had previously been revered were dropping like flies. Two of my favorite “not so much anymore” guidelines are super low fat diets and target heart range. One guideline for trainers that I think is also (with good reason) on its way to the trash heap is that fitness goals should always be S.M.A.R.T., or Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Based. This one has its origins in the project management field, and has limited value (although some) in the fitness world, if improved health and quality of life are your main objectives, rather than sports performance or a precise weight or body fat level.

Here’s my updated take on all three:

1. Very Low Fat Diets – The current consensus among most fitness authorities is that, if you are exercising regularly and fairly intensely, about 20-30% of your calories should come from fat, for satiation, absorption of fat soluble vitamins and body core temperature regulation . Since I recommend (and eat, myself,) eating half of your diet from the produce category, and at least half of that veggies, that means to get up into the 20%+ total fat range, we need to eat, on average, about 35-40% fat in the rest of our diets, since produce typically contains almost no fat. I get that from full fat dairy, fairly lean meat, nuts, seeds, avocados and cooking with olive or canola oil.
2. Target Heart Range – This myth, like the idea you can trim belly fat with core exercises, is like gum on your shoe. It just doesn’t seem to ever go away. There are even fitness products and services who wear the “fat burning zone” fallacy as a marketing banner. It’s misleading and counter to the stated objective. The basic flaw is that, while working out for 20 minutes at 70% effort level burns a slightly higher percentage of calories from stored fat than from stored carbohydrates (say, 50 of 100 total calories burned), if you work out at 90% effort, your mix of fat calories to carb calories may go down slightly, in terms of percentage, but, more importantly, all three numbers go up significantly (for instance, 65 of 180 total calories burned). Besides that, only heavier workloads create a heightened fitness level, so you break through plateaus the lower level of effort creates. Harder (within safe ranges and reason) is better, period.
3. SMART Goals – While I’m all for relevance and think it should be the most influential factor motivating your fitness efforts, there are potential drawbacks for the other characteristics. Specific, measurable and time-based goals require a somewhat arbitrary assignment of metrics that can actually lead to discouragement and abandoning efforts because of disappointing results based on unrealistic expectations. It’s more important that you feel progress, a growing appreciation and commitment to your program and notice the qualitative aspects of your improvements (easier to move, clothes fit better, improved stamina and health markers like blood pressure, cholesterol, resting heart rate, coordination, balance, sleep habits, etc.). And attaining fitness or body fat goals shouldn’t necessarily be the limit of your ambitions, either. If you decide you’d rather add yoga and meditation to your strength and cardio program for peace of mind and stress reduction instead of being able to do 20 push-ups and running an eight-minute mile, that’s exactly what you should do.

Finally, as hinted at in the headline, there are good places for both bacon and rest in my very efficient, intense program. While someone who rarely gets their heart rate over 100 and has five BLTs a week should limit both. I rest on days that follow two tough or one very tough workout day. I also rest between short, high-intensity circuits and sometimes in the middle of them, depending on how long and how hard I’m going.

And the place for bacon, for me, is, once or twice a month, right between my veggie omelet and my mixed fruit bowl. Yum.

Dan Taylor, ACE, NASM-CPT, is a 20+year fitness trainer and writer, former faculty member for ACE and NASM and owner of Pleasanton-based Tri Valley Trainer. They provide personal training and small group fitness solutions at their studio and an innovative, medically endorsed web-based group healthy eating coaching program.