Fitness Mythbusting

End6ame

List your favorite fitness/diet myths and the truth.

Myth: This one is for the ladies - Heavy weight lifting will make you bulky.

Truth: No, it won’t because women don’t have the testosterone levels required to build or sustain large manly muscles. When women perform heavy strength training, they get stronger and the muscle gets denser. Having more lean body mass will also cause you to burn more calories which will reduce your fat stores and make you look leaner and more “toned” (for lack of a better word) The women that do get bulky typically go out of their way to look like that using drugs and/or supplements and typically all they do is train.

So put down that 5lb dumbbell and get under a barbell, ladies

FemininGuns

Agreed!

Myth: if you eat after 6PM - you'll gain weight.

**buzzard sound** Wrong! I eat up until 830PM. It's what you eat that counts If you're hungry in the evening, conjur up a protein shake with berries or a cup of plain yogurt with a cup of strawberries. It will help your metabolism, thus continuing with your weight loss goal!

RaeN81

Myth: I can never eat ________ again.

Truth: You can still enjoy all the foods you love, provided that you are willing to use self-control to limit portion sizes and frequency.

arsenal45

bump for later

jpg7n16

Myth: Working out at 60-70% intensity burns more fat than at higher intensities, so working out in the "fat zone" will help me lose weight faster than more intense workouts.

Truth: Working out at 60-70% does use a higher percent of energy from stored fat - but does not burn more fat overall. To understand this, think "Which is higher: 80% of 1, or 50% of 2?" (50% of 2 = 1.0, while 80% of 1 = 0.8)

In the end, it doesn't matter what energy source the calories you burned came from. Calories burned from carbs are just as slimming as calories burned from fat.

Do this instead: Focus on overall total calories burned in order to burn more fat. And higher intensity excercise burns more calories than lower intensity exercise. So occasionally work periods of higher intensity into your workouts. The harder you're working, the faster you'll see results!

DJH510

Myth: Calorie burn during exercise is affected by perceived effort.

Truth: The amount of calories you burn during exercise is nothing over and above the amount of physical work you have performed. Obviously a less fit person will have to try a lot harder to perform a small amount of 'work', but this does not mean they use more calories performing that work.

jamie1888

Myth:
Eating fats will make you fat

Truth:
We need fat to survive. Without it, our bodies can't function correctly. Eating it doesn't necessarily make you fat. What can make you fat is if you eat too much of it. This is true for fat, carbohydrates and even protein. A way to stay healthy and get the delicious flavor that fat adds to food is to differentiate between the good fats and the bad ones.

End6ame

Myth:
Eating fats will make you fat

Truth:
We need fat to survive. Without it, our bodies can't function correctly. Eating it doesn't necessarily make you fat. What can make you fat is if you eat too much of it. This is true for fat, carbohydrates and even protein. A way to stay healthy and get the delicious flavor that fat adds to food is to differentiate between the good fats and the bad ones.

THANK YOU!

I almost posted this to start the thread.

jamie1888

Your welcome!

And to add to your post... a lot of people (not just women) think they should focus solely on cardio excercises first to lose weight and then add in strenght training later. When actually, strength training should be incorporated from the start.

abcollins1355

Myth:
You need to wat 1200 calories (or less) to lose weight

Truth:
You have to fuel your body!! You must eat calories that give yourself energy to 1)live and 2) fuel your workouts.
I would never myself eat that low nor advise anyone else to, yet that seems to be the common thinking on here.
You need to figure out what calorie level is best for YOUR body, which depends on height, weight, gender activity level and age.

Eating less only destroys the metabolism you are trying to utilize. There is no "starvation mode". That new buzz word is nothing more than people damaging their metabolism by under eating and over exercising their bodies. This leads to not only stalled weight loss and loss of lean muscle mass, but also over use injuries as well because the body is not recovering properly.

Eating the correct amount of calories preserves lean muscle mass, which burns more calories and keeps your metabolism burning, but also helps with a whole host of health issues.
Becoming easily exhausted, dizzy, light headed, fainting, are all signs of under eating calories.

Do it for a long enough period and your body may never recover.

You need a healthy lifestyle that you can keep for a lifetime. Undereating is NOT a healthy lifestyle that should or could be kept up for a long period of time. This is why 95% of diets fail. Because people decide they need to eat this super low level of calories, exercise like crazy, take pills, and drink all kinds of nasty products to lose weight. Reality is that your body needs food and until people can stop seeing food as enemy number one, their goals will not be realized because it will continue to be a "struggle" for them.

It constantly amazes me at what people think is real!!

msarro

Myth - Eat less food to lose weight.

Truth:
In some cases you have to eat more to lose weight. Search for "700 calories a day and not losing" - its an amazing thread.



Myth - Muscle soreness is caused by lactic acid buildup in your joints.

Truth:
While some lactic acid buildup can occur, most of the time it is metabolized extremely quickly (within 24-36 hours after exercise). The intense-lasting muscle soreness is caused in large part by microtears in the muscles themselves. You're literally tearing the muscles. The body has to repair this, but when it does, the muscle ends up stronger than before.

Leigh14

MYTH: Muscle weighs more than fat.

TRUTH: A pound of muscle weighs a pound; a pound of fat also weighs a pound! Muscle never weighs more than fat. Muscle, however, is more dense than fat. This means it takes up less space. For example: Woman #1 weighs 120 pounds and wears a size 4 jeans; Woman #2 weighs 120 pounds and wears a size 8 jeans. Why? Woman #1's body fat is less than Woman #2. Even though they weigh the same, Woman #1 is made up of more muscle than fat and thus is more compact. :flowerforyou:

kdiamond

Your welcome!

And to add to your post... a lot of people (not just women) think they should focus solely on cardio excercises first to lose weight and then add in strenght training later. When actually, strength training should be incorporated from the start.

This drives me CRAZY!!! I admit I was one of the fools that did endless hours of cardio in the gym...for what? To be a skinny minny? No thanks! Now I do NO cardio, I weigh 5 pounds more and still fit in all of my clothes, and I look 100000x better! Plus it is SO MUCH MORE FUN to lift heavy weights!

I wish I could give a speech on how weight training has changed my body for the better!

End6ame

MYTH: Muscle weighs more than fat.

TRUTH: A pound of muscle weighs a pound; a pound of fat also weighs a pound! Muscle never weighs more than fat. Muscle, however, is more dense than fat. This means it takes up less space. For example: Woman #1 weighs 120 pounds and wears a size 4 jeans; Woman #2 weighs 120 pounds and wears a size 8 jeans. Why? Woman #1's body fat is less than Woman #2. Even though they weigh the same, Woman #1 is made up of more muscle than fat and thus is more compact. :flowerforyou:

While I agree with your base point, your argument is a bit flawed. a pound of anything weighs the same as a pound of anything else, because you are using weight as your constant, instead of the variable. For example, if you were to use volume as your constant, a liter of muscle would weight more than a liter of fat. It weighs more because it is denser.