by the experts… let’s see if you have been fooled?
Lifting weights will bulk you up…
“This is a myth that deters a lot of women from strength training, when in fact, what determines the amount of muscle bulk a person has is largely dependent on genetic factors,” Says Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise. Also, women typically don’t have the amount of testosterone needed to build huge muscles… heck, neither do most men. Why do you think steroids are so popular? Building bulky muscles isn’t easy! Oh and how about this nifty little chunk of info, Every pound of muscle in our bodies burns 35 calories a day, while each pound of fat burns just 2 calories per day. Bring on the muscle!
You can sweat off the fat…
Remember those hilarious “sauna” plastic suits from back in the 80′s? We believed that by simply sweating, we would lose fat? This myth is still alive and strong. It is an irrefutable fact that excessive sweating does indeed cause WEIGHT loss, but sadly, this weight is NOT fat, it’s water! As soon as you drink fluids post “sweat”, the weight is back on. The truth is, the harder you work out, the more calories you’ll burn within a given period and thus the more fat you stand to lose. The amount we sweat has nothing to do with it. Always stay hydrated, and leave those plastic suits back in the 80′s.
You can spot reduce…
This means that you believe a specific type of exercise or program will allow you to only lose fat in a specific area. Which just isn’t true. Regardless of the amount of exercise you do targeting a specific area on your body, it is physiologically impossible to lose fat in that targeted area.
“Fat is lost or gained throughout the entire the body,” says Cedric Bryant. “But the last area where people tend to lose it from is the areas where they gain it first. So for most men, the abdominal region is the most difficult area to trim, while in women, the hips, buttocks, and thighs are the trouble spots.”
Of course, keep working out your trouble zones to tone the muscle, cause once that fat comes off you’re going to look fab-fine my friend.
You need to train hard to see your abs…
Plain and simple, if your rippling abs are covered in flab, you’re not going to see them. No matter how many ab exercises you do… you just have to lose the fat first. Again, you can’t spot reduce. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop your ab workouts, it just means you may need to lose a little jiggle before you see em’.
Cardio will boosts your metabolism for hours after your work-out
While exercise does increase your metabolism after your work-out, it’s not as large as what many people think. In fact, the metabolic boost following exercise only burns an extra 20-30 calories — equivalent to about one grapefruit. So don’t think you can eat whatever you like after your work-out. Although, check this out…”Since muscle burns more calories than fat — even while at rest — the more muscles you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate, which means the more calories your body will be burning just to sustain you,” says Molly Kimball, RD, sports and lifestyle nutritionist at the Oscher’s Clinic’s Elmwood Fitness Center.
So what did we learn? Stay hydrated, incorporate weight training to build lean muscle along with your cardio training and eat a well balanced nutritious diet to achieve a healthy weight. That is your magic pill.
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