Fitness Misconceptions that drive you nuts?

JoRocka · August 2014

I was with my son in the emergency room because of a problem with his hernia surgery. The doctor there asked him who performed his weight loss surgery and when he said "I didn't have that, I just dieted and exercised" the doctor said "No, you can't lose weight like that".

Another favorite: I have two morbidly obese friends who insist they are fat because they ruined their metabolism but not eating. According to them they only eat one tiny meal each day and that's why they have weight problems.

Actually, I have to disagree with this. I worked at Jenny Craig (I know, I know, don't bother lecturing me) and more times than not, ppl who were very obese (50 plus pounds to lose) did in fact only eat 1-2 small meals a day. Skip breakfast, a salad with meat and bread for lunch, and same for dinner. They were not binge eaters, they did not gorge themselves on fatty sugary foods.

they didn't get morbidly obese from eating a salad for lunch and dinner.

BigT555 · August 2014

I was with my son in the emergency room because of a problem with his hernia surgery. The doctor there asked him who performed his weight loss surgery and when he said "I didn't have that, I just dieted and exercised" the doctor said "No, you can't lose weight like that".

Another favorite: I have two morbidly obese friends who insist they are fat because they ruined their metabolism but not eating. According to them they only eat one tiny meal each day and that's why they have weight problems.

Actually, I have to disagree with this. I worked at Jenny Craig (I know, I know, don't bother lecturing me) and more times than not, ppl who were very obese (50 plus pounds to lose) did in fact only eat 1-2 small meals a day. Skip breakfast, a salad with meat and bread for lunch, and same for dinner. They were not binge eaters, they did not gorge themselves on fatty sugary foods.

i call bullsh*t

marie3221 · August 2014

I was with my son in the emergency room because of a problem with his hernia surgery. The doctor there asked him who performed his weight loss surgery and when he said "I didn't have that, I just dieted and exercised" the doctor said "No, you can't lose weight like that".

Another favorite: I have two morbidly obese friends who insist they are fat because they ruined their metabolism but not eating. According to them they only eat one tiny meal each day and that's why they have weight problems.

Actually, I have to disagree with this. I worked at Jenny Craig (I know, I know, don't bother lecturing me) and more times than not, ppl who were very obese (50 plus pounds to lose) did in fact only eat 1-2 small meals a day. Skip breakfast, a salad with meat and bread for lunch, and same for dinner. They were not binge eaters, they did not gorge themselves on fatty sugary foods.

they didn't get morbidly obese from eating a salad for lunch and dinner.

They did in fact my dear. Large meat servings and a sedentary lifestyle. We saw clients like that everyday. Once they were eating consistently and balanced, they did start to lose weight. I am only describing what I noticed in the center. They thought they were making good choices, but did not bother that really look at what they were eating.

marie3221 · August 2014

I was with my son in the emergency room because of a problem with his hernia surgery. The doctor there asked him who performed his weight loss surgery and when he said "I didn't have that, I just dieted and exercised" the doctor said "No, you can't lose weight like that".

Another favorite: I have two morbidly obese friends who insist they are fat because they ruined their metabolism but not eating. According to them they only eat one tiny meal each day and that's why they have weight problems.

Actually, I have to disagree with this. I worked at Jenny Craig (I know, I know, don't bother lecturing me) and more times than not, ppl who were very obese (50 plus pounds to lose) did in fact only eat 1-2 small meals a day. Skip breakfast, a salad with meat and bread for lunch, and same for dinner. They were not binge eaters, they did not gorge themselves on fatty sugary foods.

i call bullsh*t

I am not going to debate something to strangers over the internet about this. Sorry I even brought it up.

BigT555 · August 2014

I was with my son in the emergency room because of a problem with his hernia surgery. The doctor there asked him who performed his weight loss surgery and when he said "I didn't have that, I just dieted and exercised" the doctor said "No, you can't lose weight like that".

Another favorite: I have two morbidly obese friends who insist they are fat because they ruined their metabolism but not eating. According to them they only eat one tiny meal each day and that's why they have weight problems.

Actually, I have to disagree with this. I worked at Jenny Craig (I know, I know, don't bother lecturing me) and more times than not, ppl who were very obese (50 plus pounds to lose) did in fact only eat 1-2 small meals a day. Skip breakfast, a salad with meat and bread for lunch, and same for dinner. They were not binge eaters, they did not gorge themselves on fatty sugary foods.

they didn't get morbidly obese from eating a salad for lunch and dinner.

They did in fact my dear. Large meat servings and a sedentary lifestyle. We saw clients like that everyday. Once they were eating consistently and balanced, they did start to lose weight. I am only describing what I noticed in the center. They thought they were making good choices, but did not bother that really look at what they were eating.

so they got fat off of eating large portions and having a sedentary lifestyle... not eating a salad and lunch for dinner.

rydn4h2o · August 2014

Muscle weighs more than fat

^^^THIS

JoRocka · August 2014

I was with my son in the emergency room because of a problem with his hernia surgery. The doctor there asked him who performed his weight loss surgery and when he said "I didn't have that, I just dieted and exercised" the doctor said "No, you can't lose weight like that".

Another favorite: I have two morbidly obese friends who insist they are fat because they ruined their metabolism but not eating. According to them they only eat one tiny meal each day and that's why they have weight problems.

Actually, I have to disagree with this. I worked at Jenny Craig (I know, I know, don't bother lecturing me) and more times than not, ppl who were very obese (50 plus pounds to lose) did in fact only eat 1-2 small meals a day. Skip breakfast, a salad with meat and bread for lunch, and same for dinner. They were not binge eaters, they did not gorge themselves on fatty sugary foods.

they didn't get morbidly obese from eating a salad for lunch and dinner.

They did in fact my dear. Large meat servings and a sedentary lifestyle. We saw clients like that everyday. Once they were eating consistently and balanced, they did start to lose weight. I am only describing what I noticed in the center. They thought they were making good choices, but did not bother that really look at what they were eating.

wait- so it was the high calorie food and sedentary lifestyles? So they were over eating... like I said- it's not from 2 salads a day.

Salad twice a day doesn't make people fat- unless it's got obscene helpings of high calorie contents.

CodeMonkey78 · August 2014

"This [magic] pill will.. <insert BS statement here>"
"Burn your belly fat!"
Spot reduction of any kind
Muscle weighs more than fat
Anything Atkins and the mindset that CARBS. ARE. EVIL!!
"Good" Calories and "Bad" Calories (with respect to weight loss -- nutrition is a different subject)

SMDH..

daw0518 · August 2014

Someone probably already said it, but the BODY WRAP fad going on right now! Drives me so crazy, I could scream. I have a bunch of FB friends, including a few cousins, who are selling them & I have to bite my tongue hard whenever I see a post about them - ESPECIALLY when I see people commenting that they want to buy them because they look so miraculous! UGHHH.

In that vein - I guess really ANY fad diet or 'magic pill'. I have another cousin who was taking Skinny Fiber & so excited about losing a bunch of "weight" right off the bat. *eye roll*

amusedmonkey · August 2014

Something even some more experienced people fall for: everyone should do stretching.

Not true. In some cases stretching is detrimental to your chosen sport and creates instability at the joints.

Can you please provide a source for this?

I very interested because I'm wondering if I should change things up for all the activities I participate in.

I don't recall all the resources I was able to dig up, but I researched this topic for quite a bit because I was trying to figure out the best strategies for exercising safely with a bad back and knee, and since stretching is usually recommended to those with back issues it was one of the things I looked into. My curiosity made me branch out to include the effects of stretching on performance and sports injuries in general.

It turns out static stretches may not be a good idea for certain back problems where the range of motion is restricted by the nerves, not the muscles and ligaments. They are also sport-specific, you need to have just enough flexibility that your chosen sport demands, and overstretching may be detrimental to performance. It was also speculated that static stretching before performing exercise does not do much to prevent injury.

Here are a couple of things I still had:
From THACKER, S. B., J. GILCHRIST, D. F. STROUP, and C. D. KIMSEY, JR. The Impact of Stretching on Sports Injury Risk: A
Systematic Review of the Literature. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 371–378, 2004.

Certainly, joint integrity should not be
compromised simply to increase range of motion. Although
some laboratory and clinical evidence suggests that increased
flexibility might improve athletic performance, little
population-based evidence addresses this issue. The best
available data indicate that performance might be lowered at
the extremes of flexibility and that, at least for some muscle/
joint groups, there might be optimal levels of flexibility that
would enhance performance. However, these benefits are
likely to be highly specific to a sport or even to a specific
body movement.
Recently, the President’s Council for Physical Fitness and
Sports reported that stretching not only might not prevent
injuries but also might compromise performance (56). Animal
studies also suggest that stretching does not protect
against acute injury (8). Muscle strain injuries occur during
eccentric exercise when muscles develop tension while
lengthening; fatigue and weakness make muscle more susceptible
to injury (26). Several theories explain how performance
could be compromised or the rate of injury could be
unaffected or even increased because of stretching (82).
These theories include decrease in joint stability making
joint movement less efficient, increased tissue compliance
with a decrease in the ability of tendon and muscle tissue to
absorb energy leading to injury, creation of body positions
with dangerous loading effects that could stretch ligaments
too far, decreased strength before the recovery phase of
training, and increased pain tolerance leading to cytoskeletal
and tissue damage. Finally, because most injuries occur
during eccentric contractions within the normal range of
joint motion, it is not clear how increasing the range of
motion through stretching will decrease injury risk (82)."

From ULTIMATE BACK FITNESS AND PERFORMANCE, STUART MCGILL, PHD, Professor of Spine Biomechanics, University of Waterloo, Canada p. 12-13

Cross-sectional studies of some team sports have shown that the higher
performing athletes are, in many cases, the "tighter" ones! For example, despite the widely held
notion that many athletes should be lengthening hamstrings, it is curious that the better
performers (such as basketballers) appear to be the ones with "tight" hamstrings. They are
"wound like springs" and take full advantage of this. Further, hamstrings contribute shearing
stability to the knee such that lengthening them has been reported to be associated with elevated
disruption of the anterior cruciate ligament.

[...]

Many demanding sports require a very strong and stable torso to transmit forces
developed in the upper body, through the torso, for optimal projections through the legs to
the floor. Some world class athletes have almost total disability according to the American
Medical Association definition for low back disability - based on loss of spine range of motion.
Our research on workers has shown that spine range of motion has little to do with function
at work (Parks et ai, 2003) - Olympic weightlifters have proven they are functional using
minimal spine motion when setting world records! However, they have wonderful range of
motion ability in the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles which they can control with incredible
strength. A spine must first be stable before moments and forces are produced to enhance
performance, and arranged in a way that spares the spine from a potentially injurious load.

SteampunkSongbird · August 2014

"Women always lose weight from their boobs first."

I freaking wish!

earlnabby · August 2014

"Women always lose weight from their boobs first."

I freaking wish!

Me too. Each time I have gained, I gained in my boobs but when I lose it is the last place the fat comes from

JeriAnne84 · August 2014

My gym teacher in high school made the boys do sit ups and the girls do crunches because sit ups will damage a girl's uterus. I don't know if it makes it shoot out and possibly smack someone in the face or what makes them so damaging.

omg- I'd punch someone- that's just SO asinine.

RIGHT?! I just remembered that the other day when I finally realized I could do Rocky-style sit ups, which I've never been able to do - without flapping my arms and legs like a spaz. I thought, man, she'd crap herself if she saw me now doing sit ups "ERMAHGERD YOUR UTERUS!!!"

Someone probably already said it, but the BODY WRAP fad going on right now! Drives me so crazy, I could scream. I have a bunch of FB friends, including a few cousins, who are selling them & I have to bite my tongue hard whenever I see a post about them - ESPECIALLY when I see people commenting that they want to buy them because they look so miraculous! UGHHH.

I hate the body wrap fad! I had a co-worker who started selling them and was doing parties. Always inviting me to try them and I'd have to find nice ways to tell her I couldn't come because if I was blunt about it she'd get butt hurt and tell on me to our boss. This girl was CONSTANTLY trying to lose her baby weight, yet she'd come in with a large turtle shake thing from Baskin Robins everyday and then for dinner eat a 32 piece parmesan bites from Domino's and a medium pizza and ate all of it! It's like those wraps aren't going to suck the crapton of calories you eat every day out of you. That wasn't even counting other stuff she ate, but then she'd complain about not losing weight and actually being heavier than she was when she was pregnant. Well, when you eat a few thousand calories in just a few items, yeah its not going to help your weight loss. I'd tell her that but I didn't know what I was talking about. *EYE ROLL*

She annoyed the s*** out of me and not just for that just because she was just a pain in the *kitten* all together. Plus she never worked and complained about the work we did. Just the thought of her irritates me. lol

But yes, body wraps are dumb.

19kat55 · August 2014

actually that is very possible if they are still over eating or building muscle at the same rate as losing fat. 5lbs muscle is the same weight as 5lbs of fat. but I've seen to many use it as an excuse instead of what is actually happening.

You can't build muscle and lose fat at the same time. You have to eat at a surplus to build muscle and you have to eat at a deficit to lose fat. If you're trying to lose, you might see strength gains as you're lifting but mostly you're burning the fat covering the muscle you do have so you can see it.

My actual BodPod results:

12.13.12 - Total weight 156.9; Fat weight 49.8; Lean Weight 107.1; Percent Fat 31.7; Percent Lean 68.3
3.21.13 - Total weight 156.4; Fat Weight 47.2; Lean Weight 109.2; Percent Fat 30.2; Percent Lean 69.8

What say you now? It is possible, it is very tedious, takes a very long time, and comes from eating very close to maintenance (very slight amount less) and strength training 3-4 time per week.

Erilynn93 · August 2014

"Women always lose weight from their boobs first."

I freaking wish!

My boobs seem to stay the same size, luckily. But they just appear bigger when I lose weight, I assume cause I lose all the weight in my waist first somehow. I guess I'm not complaining, it gives me a nice figure sometimes and makes me appear thinner than I look haha.

My mom is always telling me that instead of making regular smoothies, I should use a nutribullet instead of a blender because 'it emulsifies, not blends'... Yeah... Okay, looks like a blender to me...