10 Weight Loss Myths
A blog post from FreshFit MK
10 Weight Loss Myths
How many have you tried?
Imagine that you have the perfect weight loss nutrition plan, you do your cardio and weight training, but there are no results. Or even worse - you are training and gaining pounds instead of losing them.
Here are some very common weight loss myths.
You have probably tried some of them, thinking you are doing the right thing!
You are training longer, so you are going to burn more fat.
Eeek Wrong. This is the biggest weight loss myth. Spend too long training and you will go catabolic and cause your body to 'eat' itself.
You will: Start to burn muscles for energy and don't forget that your muscles are your strongest weapon for burning fats.
You will create a stress situation and your body will stop burning fat.
Overtraining will actually reverse weight loss results.
Take Long rests between weight training's sets.
30 sec to 1 min is reasonable during a weight loss period. So forget about 3min long rests.
Long Rests will cause:
Fewer fats burned for energy.
Too much time spent in the gym.
A shock when we stand on the scales.
Weight train and forget about the cardio.
The reasons why this is not true are:
Weight training is muscle training. It is anaerobic training which means that your muscles do not need oxygen for the energy process - no oxygen = no fat loss process.
Weight training involves fast twitch muscle fibres. You need to activate your slow twitch muscle fibres to achieve fat loss whilst training.
In conclusion you have to do some cardio unless you combine cardio and weight training in one go (circuit training)
I am on mission for weight loss so how I do it is not important.
If you don't care about exercising safely, what you are going to do once injury occurs?
I'll tell you what - stay at home and gain weight instead of losing it.
So, be careful with your training Rest days are essential, and correct technique, even when tired an absolute must!
It's not important when I do my training.
Of course it is important. Why?
If you work in your training days one after another at the end of week without rest you risk overtraining and gaining fat on the days you are not training, spread your training throughout the week.
If you do cardio after eating a meal forget about fat loss. If you do cardio right before weight training you will counteract the benefits from weight training, but not vice versa.
If I train my bum all the time I will burn the fat from there.
This is called Spot reduction and doesn't exist.
You can tone the muscle in this area, however your body will utilise fat from all over to fuel itself, so to burn fat for a little less wobble work the big muscle groups, legs, back and chest.
It is all right to eat before training, because my body will burn the food. Correct. But if you want to burn fat, you want your body to use up your 'fat stores', so by not eating before training, your body will look to burning fats to fuel itself. This is only true for long slow duration training, not high intensity workouts.
Cardio aIone will lose the weight I want.
Many people spend their time doing only cardio and they don't lose the weight they want. Cardio training isn't always enough to burn the desired calories. You have to do resistance training if you want be able to shift the excess fat. Although cardio at the right tempo will burn fat, resistance training will utilise fats to repair the muscle for up to 18 hours post training, so a combination of both is the way forward.
Diet alone will do the trick.
How many times have you heard, "ooo cabbage diet!"
You want to reduce the weight as easily as possible. "Can I lose 20 pounds in a month with this diet without training" .
UM ?
NO!,
Exercise increases your metabolism, so even when you are doing nothing you are burning more fat than before. Think of your muscles as a fat burning furness, the better the furness the more you'll burn!