Gym owner Danny Kane begins the first in a series of articles he’s writing for the Manx Independent on health and fitness.

Welcome to my new column, which I’m excited to share with you all.

I’m Danny, I’m 26, and I own The Meadow Gym in Hills Meadow, Douglas.

My aim is to get as many people in the island as healthy as possible, but also to keep stuff fun while I do it.

If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing you’re not going to keep it up are you?

I was lucky enough to have a half-page spread in the Courier recently covering ’My Life in The Workplace’ where I explained a little bit about why I got into the industry and what I love the most about my job.

Number one is helping people, so hopefully this article will give me another platform to share all the craziness inside my brain.

If one person reads this and either laughs at something they read or takes away one bit of information that will change their daily habits - then it’s a success.

I will start by breaking down some fitness industry myths and explaining why they aren’t true.

Here’s my three favourites that make my skin crawl when I hear them.

1. Carbs make you fat 

Where do I start with this one? Since before I was born it’s been a thing that carbohydrates have been demonized and labelled ’evil’.

There is a belief integrated into our society that people must not consume carbs if they want to be fit and in shape, but - it’s just not true. 

So why do we think this? Let’s explain what carbs are. Carbs are the body’s preferred source of energy.

Examples of them are things like bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, and sweets.

Keto is a popular diet that eliminates carbs, and people have achieved excellent fat-loss results this way. 

But do you know why they lost weight? They ate less food overall. Do you know what makes you fat? Consuming too much food.

The type of food has no relevance. Carbs are amazing and taste unreal, so why cut them out?

2. Protein makes you bulky

I’ll try and keep it simple and explain in a way that everyone can understand. Protein does three things.

Firstly, it maintains muscle tissue.

Secondly, it improves satiety (fullness). The third benefit of protein is that it’s the most complex type of food to digest - meaning that our body burns more calories when breaking it down, making it really beneficial when clients want to lose weight.

Remember: protein is your friend, not the enemy.

3. ’I’m not fit enough to go to the gym’

I’ll try and keep my cool here, and I’ll keep this short by answering the question with three questions of my own.

Would you want perfect teeth before going to the dentist?

Would you cut your hair so it’s nice and short before you go to the barbers?

Would you have your dinner before going out to a restaurant in case you’re ’too hungry?’

l Join me next time where I talk about creating bulletproof daily habits.