Fitness Myths!

I saw this article online on Shape magazine's website. I usually take magazine info with a grain of salt, but I thought this article was pretty good!

http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/7-stubborn-fitness-myths

The myths are:

1. Myth: Muscle “weighs” more than fat.
Reality: A pound is a pound is a pound—unless you’re defying the laws of physics. No substance weighs more then another one unless it actually weighs more. Simply put: One pound of fat weighs the same as one pound of muscle. “The difference is that fat is bulkier than muscle tissue and takes up more space under the skin,” Greenspan says. In fact, one pound of fat is roughly the size of a small grapefruit; one pound of muscle is about the size of a tangerine. But that tangerine is active tissue, meaning that it burns more calories at rest than fat does.

2. Myth: Weight training converts fat to muscle.
Reality: This is physically impossible, Greenspan says. “Fat and muscle tissue are two completely different substances. Exercise such as strength training will help to build muscle, which encourages fat loss by increasing your resting metabolism so you can burn more calories throughout the day.” To get a lean look, you need to build muscle through weight training while simultaneously losing fat—but one doesn’t magically become the other.

3. Myth: Lifting heavy weights will cause women to bulk up.
Reality: We just don’t produce enough testosterone, the male sex hormone that spurs muscle growth, to get big, meathead muscles. Lifting weights sometimes gets the blame for adding bulk because if you haven’t yet shed extra body fat, it can give the illusion that you’re getting larger, Greenspan says. But muscle boosts your metabolism, so don’t be afraid of those 20-pound dumbbells (or at the very least, work your way up to them).

4. Myth: You can walk off extra pounds.
Reality: Although walking is good exercise and most Americans don’t do enough of it, if you want to lose a noticeable amount of weight, it’s not the best method since it’s low intensity and doesn’t burn a lot of calories during or afterward. To substantially shrink your belly and keep it flat, Greenspan says you want an integrated approach of strength training, cardio (preferably intervals), and a calorie-controlled diet. Adding in a few extra miles on your feet daily as one part of an overall weight-loss plan is good and good for your health, but that alone probably won’t lead to significant results on the scale.

5. Myth: You’ll burn more fat on an empty stomach.
Reality: The body torches about the same amount of flab whether or not you nosh before a workout, Greenspan says. But your body also needs fuel in order to perform at its best, build muscle, and burn calories, so you should always eat something light about 30 to 45 minutes before exercise such as a protein shake, yogurt, or a piece of whole-wheat bread with peanut butter.

6. Myth: You should do cardio and strength on separate days.
Reality: According to Greenspan, there is no scientific reason to keep the two isolated, and you up your chances of hitting your goal—whether it’s health, strength, or a pants size—by combining them. And then there’s that whole time-saving perk. Greenspan suggests doing a circuit where you alternate between combo exercises (squat to row or press, for example) and short, high-intensity cardio bursts (such as sprinting on the treadmill). Going back and forth like this with minimal rest builds strength and gets your heart rate up even more than a typical half hour on the elliptical or Stairmaster at moderate pace.

7. Myth: Long and slow cardio training burns the most fat.
Reality: While it’s true that lengthy, slow workouts will use up more fat for energy, they’re not the way to go for fat loss; instead focus on the total calories burned during and after your workout. Ditch devoting 75 mind-numbing minutes to a slow trod on the treadmill, and do interval training or higher-intensity exercise for half—or even a quarter—of that time, which kills more calories at a faster rate and keeps your metabolism revved post-gym sesh.


What do you think?
«13

Replies

  • BeccaLevine
    BeccaLevine Posts: 315 Member
    Wish my old room mate could see this, she said the reason her boyfriend was getting fatter so that he could start working out and turn that fat into muscle....bahahaha.:laugh:
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    on point five I do not agree with the "eat 45 minutes before workout" statement. I train fasted ..have about 20% of cals at lunch...and then workout about fiveish...and I always have plenty of energy.have also incresed squat by about 45 pounda and deadlift by about 70 pounds over past three months...just saying...
  • Kmenczynski88
    Kmenczynski88 Posts: 70 Member
    on point five I do not agree with the "eat 45 minutes before workout" statement. I train fasted ..have about 20% of cals at lunch...and then workout about fiveish...and I always have plenty of energy.have also incresed squat by about 45 pounda and deadlift by about 70 pounds over past three months...just saying...

    Intermittent Fasting?
  • FullOfWin
    FullOfWin Posts: 1,414 Member
    Looks pretty much correct
  • badbradclark
    badbradclark Posts: 47 Member
    If I don't eat something light before my workouts, I'll bonk. YMMV.

    But your personal experience does not necessarily support the myth. The myth is that if you have an empty stomach when you work out, you will burn more fat than if you had eaten something. The rejection of the myth does not say that you won't have results if you work out on an empty stomach. Again, YMMV.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
    2. Myth: Weight training converts fat to muscle.
    Reality: This is physically impossible, Greenspan says. “Fat and muscle tissue are two completely different substances. Exercise such as strength training will help to build muscle, which encourages fat loss by increasing your resting metabolism so you can burn more calories throughout the day.” To get a lean look, you need to build muscle through weight training while simultaneously losing fat—but one doesn’t magically become the other.

    Myth: One can build muscle and simultaneously lose fat
    Reality: Both processes cannot occur simultaneously except for a few generally short lived special cases (noobs and really fat people). One can give the appearance of simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain by microcycling bulking and cutting, but this is a fairly inefficient and fairly technical non-beginner friendly way fo doing things. Most people will have the best results by focusing on one or the other at a time and switching every few months. Chasing simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss is a bit of an El Dorado that many have tried, but few have found results beyond a token change in each (results that could have been achieved in a fraction of the time via standard bulking/cutting).
  • bostonwolf
    bostonwolf Posts: 3,038 Member
    on point five I do not agree with the "eat 45 minutes before workout" statement. I train fasted ..have about 20% of cals at lunch...and then workout about fiveish...and I always have plenty of energy.have also incresed squat by about 45 pounda and deadlift by about 70 pounds over past three months...just saying...

    I don't think it will much affect your workouts, especially if you are in ketosis. I have, however, completely bonked while working out because I didn't eat enough that day. It only has to happen to you once before you take steps to correct it.

    Now, if you want to have protein available to your muscles immediately after a workout to increase growth, you definitely need to eat or drink some protein BEFORE the workout. Otherwise it won't digest in time to do the job.
  • twinmom_112002
    twinmom_112002 Posts: 739 Member
    There was just a long term study that found running is the best long term solution to fat loss. They put people in 3 groups (weights only, weights and running and running only). The running only group showed the highest loss in body fat over a one year period. Diet was controlled for.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
    There was just a long term study that found running is the best long term solution to fat loss. They put people in 3 groups (weights only, weights and running and running only). The running only group showed the highest loss in body fat over a one year period. Diet was controlled for.

    Are you referring to the one the other day (from Duke I believe), where a reading the study with an open mind would give the interpretation that weights/running was the best, not running alone (fat loss was the greatest, but not weight loss, but it took more effort hence the running is better conclusion from the researchers). In that study diet was NOT controlled for.
  • bgelliott
    bgelliott Posts: 610 Member
    2. Myth: Weight training converts fat to muscle.
    Reality: This is physically impossible, Greenspan says. “Fat and muscle tissue are two completely different substances. Exercise such as strength training will help to build muscle, which encourages fat loss by increasing your resting metabolism so you can burn more calories throughout the day.” To get a lean look, you need to build muscle through weight training while simultaneously losing fat—but one doesn’t magically become the other.

    Myth: One can build muscle and simultaneously lose fat
    Reality: Both processes cannot occur simultaneously except for a few generally short lived special cases (noobs and really fat people). One can give the appearance of simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain by microcycling bulking and cutting, but this is a fairly inefficient and fairly technical non-beginner friendly way fo doing things. Most people will have the best results by focusing on one or the other at a time and switching every few months. Chasing simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss is a bit of an El Dorado that many have tried, but few have found results beyond a token change in each (results that could have been achieved in a fraction of the time via standard bulking/cutting).

    That is incorrect, they can occur simultaneously but it takes knowing how to fuel your body properly to do so. This is actually the healthier option to bukling and cutting but it's a much longer and more difficult process.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    6. Myth: You should do cardio and strength on separate days.
    Reality: According to Greenspan, there is no scientific reason to keep the two isolated, and you up your chances of hitting your goal—whether it’s health, strength, or a pants size—by combining them. And then there’s that whole time-saving perk. Greenspan suggests doing a circuit where you alternate between combo exercises (squat to row or press, for example) and short, high-intensity cardio bursts (such as sprinting on the treadmill). Going back and forth like this with minimal rest builds strength and gets your heart rate up even more than a typical half hour on the elliptical or Stairmaster at moderate pace.

    I have some qualms with this one...not necessarily full disagreement...mostly because if I was doing this, I'd definitely not be maximizing my lift session. I do some cardio on lift days, but it's generally low intensity for heart health...a moderate paced walk hours before my lift session or after it. I would never go back and forth between the two as I would simply not be putting my maximum effort into my lift.
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    There was just a long term study that found running is the best long term solution to fat loss. They put people in 3 groups (weights only, weights and running and running only). The running only group showed the highest loss in body fat over a one year period. Diet was controlled for.

    I read the study and it had nothing to do with "long term". Only that cardio burned more overall weight and and fat than the other two forms of exercise. The weightlifting groups increase lean body weight while losing body fat. Which is what most people hope for. The conclusion the researchers came to was that cardio was the fastest way to lose the most weight and fat.
  • arenkel
    arenkel Posts: 77
    1. Myth: Muscle “weighs” more than fat.
    Reality: A pound is a pound is a pound—unless you’re defying the laws of physics. No substance weighs more then another one unless it actually weighs more. Simply put: One pound of fat weighs the same as one pound of muscle. “The difference is that fat is bulkier than muscle tissue and takes up more space under the skin,”

    I don't think this is actually something that most people misunderstand -- the everyday person just says it in an ambiguous manner. They don't think in terms of density; they think in terms of what they see on the scale and in the mirror.

    Of course a pound is a pound (with the exception of certain precious metals that have independent weight definitions); it would be silly to argue with that. It's similar to saying that 1kg of lead has more mass than 1kg of feathers. It just isn't true. The feathers, under normal circumstances, will obviously be less dense than the lead. In this exaggerated analogy, the feathers are fat and the lead is muscle. They will have the same mass, but have different densities (and thus take up different amounts of space).

    I think the author is somewhat underestimating the level of intelligence of his/her audience.
  • Jizes318
    Jizes318 Posts: 409 Member
    Thanks for this!!
  • deb3129
    deb3129 Posts: 1,294 Member
    I dont know about the other myths, but I will have to disagree with the one about walking. I have lost almost all of my 100+ pounds with watching my calories and doing a lot of walking
  • This is a great article. I want to share this with others. I do believe with walking you will still loose quite a bit of weight but you need to walk over a mile daily and keep your body active and not sit on the couch/chair all day.
  • drgndancer
    drgndancer Posts: 426 Member
    You know, point one annoys the hell out of me. It's technically correct, a pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat, obviously. What nearly everyone means when they use the phrase is that a given volume of muscle weighs more than an equal volume of fat. That's pretty damn cumbersome to say though, so people abbreviate. I don't think anyone believes that the same weight of two things can weight different amounts, that's nonsensical. It's a just short hand statement that fitness "experts" love to take out of context.

    That said, the advice overall is pretty good.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
    2. Myth: Weight training converts fat to muscle.
    Reality: This is physically impossible, Greenspan says. “Fat and muscle tissue are two completely different substances. Exercise such as strength training will help to build muscle, which encourages fat loss by increasing your resting metabolism so you can burn more calories throughout the day.” To get a lean look, you need to build muscle through weight training while simultaneously losing fat—but one doesn’t magically become the other.

    Myth: One can build muscle and simultaneously lose fat
    Reality: Both processes cannot occur simultaneously except for a few generally short lived special cases (noobs and really fat people). One can give the appearance of simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain by microcycling bulking and cutting, but this is a fairly inefficient and fairly technical non-beginner friendly way fo doing things. Most people will have the best results by focusing on one or the other at a time and switching every few months. Chasing simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss is a bit of an El Dorado that many have tried, but few have found results beyond a token change in each (results that could have been achieved in a fraction of the time via standard bulking/cutting).

    That is incorrect, they can occur simultaneously but it takes knowing how to fuel your body properly to do so. This is actually the healthier option to bukling and cutting but it's a much longer and more difficult process.

    "Heathier" is highly dependent on ones point of view and for the most part akin to mermaids and unicorns; it is pretty much a meaningless term.

    The plans that allow you to do both "simultaneously" merely cycle bulking and cutting between each workout. You bulk for a bit right after working out in a window then cut for the remainder of time before your next workout, each bulking/cutting window having different macronutirent and calorie goals and specific feeding timings based around your workout schedule.

    It is no different than any other bulking and cutting, just compressed to the point of appearing simultaneous. With the drawback being the huge amount of ineficiency that the rapid shifting adds to the system.
  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
    7. Myth: Long and slow cardio training burns the most fat.
    Reality: While it’s true that lengthy, slow workouts will use up more fat for energy;

    How can it be "true" and a myth. Hmmm
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    7. Myth: Long and slow cardio training burns the most fat.
    Reality: While it’s true that lengthy, slow workouts will use up more fat for energy;

    How can it be "true" and a myth. Hmmm

    This video sums it up nicely.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up5n86VGC3c
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,472 Member
    I dont know about the other myths, but I will have to disagree with the one about walking. I have lost almost all of my 100+ pounds with watching my calories and doing a lot of walking

    When I started out I was pretty unfit, so walking was a great way to start. If you're very heavy then you're bound to be burning a few calories just moving your body about, even if it's "only" walking.
  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
    I dont know about the other myths, but I will have to disagree with the one about walking. I have lost almost all of my 100+ pounds with watching my calories and doing a lot of walking

    When I started out I was pretty unfit, so walking was a great way to start. If you're very heavy then you're bound to be burning a few calories just moving your body about, even if it's "only" walking.
    This

    I started out just walking. Now I have a balanced routine that includes both strength and cardio exercises. I understand that diet is the single most important aspect of losing weight. And that you're not going to eat a giant pizza and walk it off that afternoon. But, to say that walking is useless is absurd. Those that have led a sedentery lifestyle need to transition from sitting on the couch to moving on a regular basis. A morbidly obese person isn't going to jump up one day and start pounding it out with heavy weights and miles of running, It's much more likely that they will start slowly with something simple like walking and add to their routine as they adjust to the activity level.

    Perhaps the target audience of the Shape article is for people that are already physically fit.
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    I dont know about the other myths, but I will have to disagree with the one about walking. I have lost almost all of my 100+ pounds with watching my calories and doing a lot of walking

    When I started out I was pretty unfit, so walking was a great way to start. If you're very heavy then you're bound to be burning a few calories just moving your body about, even if it's "only" walking.
    This

    I started out just walking. Now I have a balanced routine that includes both strength and cardio exercises. I understand that diet is the single most important aspect of losing weight. And that you're not going to eat a giant pizza and walk it off that afternoon. But, to say that walking is useless is absurd. Those that have led a sedentery lifestyle need to transition from sitting on the couch to moving on a regular basis. A morbidly obese person isn't going to jump up one day and start pounding it out with heavy weights and miles of running, It's much more likely that they will start slowly with something simple like walking and add to their routine as they adjust to the activity level.

    Perhaps the target audience of the Shape article is for people that are already physically fit.

    No where in there did it say walking was useless. The point is that walking alone is not enough and that is true. You cant walk off a bad diet. There is no reason to see this as an attack on walking or those that do it.
  • ZombieSlayer
    ZombieSlayer Posts: 369 Member
    3. Myth: Lifting heavy weights will cause women to bulk up.
    Reality: We just don’t produce enough testosterone, the male sex hormone that spurs muscle growth, to get big, meathead muscles. Lifting weights sometimes gets the blame for adding bulk because if you haven’t yet shed extra body fat, it can give the illusion that you’re getting larger, Greenspan says. But muscle boosts your metabolism, so don’t be afraid of those 20-pound dumbbells (or at the very least, work your way up to them).

    The newest Miss America lifts more than Barbie weights... and it won her the bikini competition and the big title.*


    *not a big fan of pageants, but I love that she lifts heavy (for her) weights.
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    7. Myth: Long and slow cardio training burns the most fat.
    Reality: While it’s true that lengthy, slow workouts will use up more fat for energy, they’re not the way to go for fat loss; instead focus on the total calories burned during and after your workout. Ditch devoting 75 mind-numbing minutes to a slow trod on the treadmill, and do interval training or higher-intensity exercise for half—or even a quarter—of that time, which kills more calories at a faster rate and keeps your metabolism revved post-gym sesh.

    Or even better, actually develop some aerobic fitness so that you don't have to run at a slow trod.

    Bottom line is that somebody who takes the time to develop their fitness properly will burn more calories and fat in their fat burning zone than the person doing HIIT who is constantly chasing the latest fat burning fad rather than taking a methodical approach to developing a high degree of fitness.
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,021 Member
    It's dumb to say that walking is "not the best method" for losing a "noticeable amount of weight."

    Weight-loss is caused by a consistent caloric deficit, not any certain "method" of exercise. There is no "best method" for creating a caloric deficit. You either do it or you don't. When I'm injury-free and well recovered, I prefer efficiency to ease when it comes to working out, so I'd rather do a hard 20 minutes of strength-based circuit training than go for an easy 40-minute walk. But if I burn 200 calories either way, then one method is not better or worse than the other. It's just a matter of which one I would prefer to do, based on my time constraints, how my body feels, the equipment I have available, etc.

    In general, though, I avoid Shape Magazine like the plague. They have very recently added a "fitness expert" or two for whom I have a modicum of respect (Neghar Fonooni being one) to their list of contributors, and I'll read their stuff. But overall, Shape is full of the typical crap that perpetuates the notion that lifting heavy weights is for men, not women (the stuff in this article about testerone levels notwithstanding, though you'll notice their idea of "lifting heavy" for women is to grab 20 lb dumbbells). I get the impression from this list that they were just trying to fill space. People are more like to read "lists" than actual articles, it seems.
  • There was just a long term study that found running is the best long term solution to fat loss. They put people in 3 groups (weights only, weights and running and running only). The running only group showed the highest loss in body fat over a one year period. Diet was controlled for.

    I read the study and it had nothing to do with "long term". Only that cardio burned more overall weight and and fat than the other two forms of exercise. The weightlifting groups increase lean body weight while losing body fat. Which is what most people hope for. The conclusion the researchers came to was that cardio was the fastest way to lose the most weight and fat.

    Long term means length of time in which the study was conducted over (normally a year +), not long term results.
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    There was just a long term study that found running is the best long term solution to fat loss. They put people in 3 groups (weights only, weights and running and running only). The running only group showed the highest loss in body fat over a one year period. Diet was controlled for.

    I read the study and it had nothing to do with "long term". Only that cardio burned more overall weight and and fat than the other two forms of exercise. The weightlifting groups increase lean body weight while losing body fat. Which is what most people hope for. The conclusion the researchers came to was that cardio was the fastest way to lose the most weight and fat.

    Long term means length of time in which the study was conducted over (normally a year +), not long term results.

    It was a 12 week study and very narrow in scope so neither definition of "long term" applies.
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member

    4. Myth: You can walk off extra pounds.
    Reality: Although walking is good exercise and most Americans don’t do enough of it, if you want to lose a noticeable amount of weight, it’s not the best method since it’s low intensity and doesn’t burn a lot of calories during or afterward. To substantially shrink your belly and keep it flat, Greenspan says you want an integrated approach of strength training, cardio (preferably intervals), and a calorie-controlled diet. Adding in a few extra miles on your feet daily as one part of an overall weight-loss plan is good and good for your health, but that alone probably won’t lead to significant results on the scale.

    "not the best"... but still perfectly viable, walking, combined with a caloric deficit, can aid perfectly well in weight loss (which they agree with at the end of the myth blurb).

    "doesn’t burn a lot of calories during"... it can burn a lot of calories, you just have to devote a lot of time to the walk.

    "or afterward"... this is a myth busting article perpetuating a myth (ironic), the "afterburn effect" is a myth. You don't burn more calories once the exercise has ended than if you hadn't exercised at all. If anything, research shows that we burn slightly fewer calories in the 24 hours after exercise (but don't worry, it's negligible).
  • deb3129
    deb3129 Posts: 1,294 Member
    I dont know about the other myths, but I will have to disagree with the one about walking. I have lost almost all of my 100+ pounds with watching my calories and doing a lot of walking

    When I started out I was pretty unfit, so walking was a great way to start. If you're very heavy then you're bound to be burning a few calories just moving your body about, even if it's "only" walking.
    This

    I started out just walking. Now I have a balanced routine that includes both strength and cardio exercises. I understand that diet is the single most important aspect of losing weight. And that you're not going to eat a giant pizza and walk it off that afternoon. But, to say that walking is useless is absurd. Those that have led a sedentery lifestyle need to transition from sitting on the couch to moving on a regular basis. A morbidly obese person isn't going to jump up one day and start pounding it out with heavy weights and miles of running, It's much more likely that they will start slowly with something simple like walking and add to their routine as they adjust to the activity level.

    Perhaps the target audience of the Shape article is for people that are already physically fit.

    No where in there did it say walking was useless. The point is that walking alone is not enough and that is true. You cant walk off a bad diet. There is no reason to see this as an attack on walking or those that do it.

    Not saying it was an attack. But it does say that 'noticeable weight loss' is not normally achieved by just walking...and mine have definitely been noticeable.