4 Bro-Science Myths Debunked by Real Science

Science is great! It teaches us stuff.

The early days of internet forums generated all sorts of wacky advice. The bodybuilding and fitness communities were no different.

Thus, bro-science was born.

The basis of bro-science is training and nutrition advice that makes sense in general, but has no real science to back it up.

Because of the hierarchy of gym advice, the biggest guy in the gym is often seen as the “expert”. A guy who makes gains regardless, because of the erm... drugs.

“It works for me, and I’m way bigger than you, so who are you to ask otherwise?”

Thankfully, after a few decades of the internet, there is far more Science readily available. The lifting community is now far more educated on how the muscle-building and fat loss works process works.

Here are four pieces of bro-science advice you might have heard, that you can forget about.

Myth #1 — No carbs after 6 pm

Or, it might be no carbs after 7 p.m., or 8 p.m…

Why? Because carbs at night are bad! They automatically turn to body fat when you sleep, because you don’t burn them off!

Or, something. And you can understand the logic behind this theory.

But, that’s not necessarily how it works, as it completely ignores total daily calories.

For example. Say my average total calorie intake to sustain my body weight is 2500. Let’s say I only consumed 1000 calories throughout the day, up until dinner at 7.30 p.m.

I now have 1500 calories that I can still consume, until I'm in a calorie surplus and the energy (calories) is stored as body fat.

Those calories might be made up of 80% carbs (I love eating fruit at night) and my last serving might be at 11 p.m. But, if I only consume 1000 calories at night instead of 1500, I’m in a calorie deficit and will burn body fat, regardless of the nighttime carbs.

Make sense?

What matters is total calorie consumption — our average daily calories above or below maintenance (the number of calories required to sustain our current weight). Carbs aren’t inherently bad and eating food at night doesn’t mean it’s going to turn into body fat.

In fact, eating at night could actually be beneficial to our body composition! A 2015 meta-analysis indicated that nighttime meals could:

• improve protein synthesis in healthy individuals who ate small, nutrient-dense meals before sleeping. They built muscle, not fat.
• improve morning metabolism and satiety, meaning people didn’t get as hungry
• have no effect on weight gain among individuals that exercised during the day

“Nighttime consumption of small (~150 kcals) single nutrients or mixed-meals does not appear to be harmful and may be beneficial for muscle protein synthesis and cardiometabolic health.” — Kinsey & Ormsbee, 2015

The major is with eating at night is that many people overindulge in junk food high in calories. Or, they might have a few beers or a couple of glasses of wine.

These calories add up pretty quickly. But that’s not to say you can’t eat any calories at night!

Again, it’s not about the time you consume calories, it’s about how many calories you consume.

Myth #2 —Cardio on an empty stomach burns fat faster

Fasted cardio was often thought of as the holy grail of fat loss. The first thing a person does upon waking up is to jump on a treadmill or hit the streets on an empty stomach, thinking that it will burn more calories than doing the same amount of cardio with a meal inside you.

hoping that it would somehow help them reach elite levels of body fat while staying anabolic.

It uses the logic that if we haven’t provided additional energy to our body (calories in the form of carbs, protein and/or fats) before exercise, it uses its body fat stores as energy.

Sadly, to break the hearts of all these people slogging it out, fasted cardio has no added benefit to fat loss body composition over fed cardio.

A 2017 review and meta-analysis concluded that “performing exercise in a fasted state did not influence weight loss or changes in lean and fat mass.”

Even though fasted cardio may burn more fat during the session itself, it doesn’t mean you’ll burn more fat overall.

Why? Because any utilisation of body fat for fuel during exercise is offset by utilising more carbohydrates later in the day.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you do cardio whilst fasting or after a meal. Equally, It doesn’t matter if you do cardio in the morning or cardio at night.

What is more important than when you do your cardio is its intensity and your overall nutrition. For most people, performance will be a lot better after consuming nutrients.

“Body composition changes associated with aerobic exercise in conjunction with a hypocaloric diet are similar regardless whether or not an individual is fasted prior to training.” — Schoenfeld et al., 2014

In fact, fasted cardio could reduce your ability to develop your physique — you should consume adequate protein and carbohydrates before your training session.

Carbohydrates directly before a workout can help to delay central nervous system fatigue, improve glycogen stores, and elevate blood glucose. Protein provides amino acids to our muscle cells, crucial to enhancing performance and recovery.

For more about fat loss, check out the article below.

Myth #3 — The 30 to 60-minute anabolic window to consume protein after a workout

You must have protein within 30 minutes of your workout, or, you lose your gains. Your muscles can’t recover and therefore, grow.

Nutrient timing was given high importance in the early days of internet fitness advice.

There isn’t any evidence that it doesn't work, and you see bug guys at the gym all the time sipping protein shakes right after their workout. Therefore, it must be true!

I should do it — I don't want to risk my gains!

Hence, the anabolic window. Bro-science 101.

Nutrient timing is a nutritional strategy involving eating (or consuming through a shake) at the optimum time to give your body the nutrients it requires to optimise performance, recover, grow, and avoid catabolism (muscle breakdown). Typically, these nutrients are protein and carbohydrates.

The anabolic “window of opportunity” is one aspect of nutrient timing. It is the limited time following a workout we have to consume protein to recover effectively.

Consuming a post-workout shake within minutes of finishing a workout won’t do you any harm. But, there’s no added benefit either — IF you had a pre-workout meal with 20+ grams of protein, ideally 1–2 hours before.

A 2001 study found “the ingestion of 20 g whey taken immediately pre-exercise elevated muscular uptake of amino acids to 4.4 times pre-exercise resting levels during exercise, and did not return to baseline levels until 3 hours post-exercise.”

A 2013 review by highly regarded fitness and nutrition researchers Alan Aragon and Brad Schoenfeld found the muscle protein synthesis from a mixed macronutrient meal (protein plus carbs and/or fat) lasts anywhere from 3–4 hours and therefore, there are still elevated levels of amino acid availability from the previous meal.

“Even minimal-to-moderate pre-exercise EAA or high-quality protein taken immediately before resistance training is capable of sustaining amino acid delivery into the post-exercise period. Given this scenario, immediate post-exercise protein dosing for the aim of mitigating catabolism seems redundant.” — Aragon & Schoenfeld, 2013

Therefore, it’s not a requirement to be immediately sipping on a protein shake as you leave the gym.

Meals can be separated by 3–4 hours, meaning if you eat an hour before a workout, which then lasts an hour, you could wait another two whole hours before your next meal and you would still have a sufficient level of amino acids in your blood to maximise recovery and anabolism.

Myth #4 — We should have 6–8 small meals a day to boost our metabolism

You've probably heard it before - eating multiple small meals a day instead of a couple of big meals will boost our metabolism and help us to burn more fat.

It’s not uncommon for bodybuilders or other people interested in fitness or trying to lose fat to have small 6 to 10 meals a day.

Some gym junkies also believe that they need a continuous flow of protein every couple of hours or their muscles could break down; leading to a protein shake first thing in the morning, the last thing before bed, and even some people waking up for a protein shake.

However, it’s just not necessary.

As discussed in the other myths, what’s important isn’t how often or what time you have the calories — it’s more about how many total calories you consume over 24 hours.

A 1987 study compared healthy people eating one large meal a day for two weeks to the same group later eating the same thing spread out over five smaller meals for another two weeks.

They found no statistical difference in body weight gain/loss between the two eating styles.

2500 calories over three meals are still 2500 calories over 6 meals.

Similarly, 2011 research indicated that no changes to body composition occurred through increasing meal frequency.

“Increased meal frequency does not appear to significantly enhance diet induced thermogenesis, total energy expenditure or resting metabolic rate.” — La Bounty et al., 2011

So, there is no point cramming in as many small meals as you can. Who's got time for that anyway?

Instead, focus on what and how much you eat total in a day. Count your calories a couple of times to find your baseline, and then eat instinctively. Unless you’re a bodybuilder aiming to be 5% body fat, you don’t need to count all your calories. Just reduce your portion sizes.

If there’s one essential meal, it’s a pre-workout meal full of nutrition, energy — carbs ideally, and protein.

Final Words

In conclusion, since the dawn of lifting, gym and diet advice has been spread via word of mouth from gym bro to gym bro. Then later, via the internet,

And just since the advice is coming from the guy with the biggest muscles in the gym, it doesn’t make it true!

This article has explored four common bro-science myths, long dunked by science. Those myths are no carbs after 6 pm, cardio on an empty stomach burns fat faster, the 30 to 60-minute anabolic window to consume protein after a workout, and we should have 6–8 small meals a day to boost our metabolism.

Don’t be caught out by these myths! It’s important to remember that diets share one important component - reducing calories. Total calories are the key variable of weight management. Moreover, fat loss is an infinite process — don’t think of it on an hour-to-hour basis.

To build muscle we need two things — adequate protein via our diets and to provide enough stimulus through resistance training to force our body to adapt and build more muscle and/or get stronger.

Don't get hung up on the small details!

Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed the content, you might be interested in this article about 14 fat-burning tips to help you to transform your physique.

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