6 fitness myths busted

Regarding fitness, it’s usually hard to sort fact from fiction. It seems like everyone these days has an opinion, and everyone is a self-proclaimed fitness expert. There’s a lot of hype surrounding health and wellness, from marketing campaigns that aim to sell us something easy, the magic pill, or the latest and most excellent product to make us feel better. There is a lot of misinformation in the health world. Let’s clear up some of the significant fitness myths.

If I train, I can eat whatever I want.

Fake! Healthy weight management is all about calories in and calories out. You must always ensure you burn more than you eat, period.

What’s true is that those who train regularly may eat more than those who don’t because they burn more during training and even at rest because their metabolism is boosted.

But you still have to consider that an apple contains 95 calories, while a slice of apple pie contains 277.

Weightlifting will make women bulky.

Many come to this conclusion after seeing photos of bodybuilder women. But it’s not just lifting weights that made these women bulky; it’s also steroids, taking growth hormones, and a very particular diet that takes a ton of effort.

Ladies, lift weights, build strength, and tone your muscles, it’s all good for you, and you won’t become a bodybuilder.

Crunches will burn belly fat.

This is one of the biggest myths out there. Crunches tone the abdominal muscles, but to burn the fat that covers these muscles, you must perform fat-burning exercises while maintaining a calorie deficit.

You can add abdominal exercises into a fat-burning workout, like, the Tabata workout; with these workouts, you burn fat while sculpting the muscles underneath.

Sleep has nothing to do with weight management.

Sleep plays a vital role in weight management for several reasons. A study of women showed that those who slept less than seven hours a night gained weight. And other studies have shown that even a minimal lack of sleep increases the production of the hormone ghrelin in the body, which triggers feelings of hunger, even when you’re not. Think about it, how many times have you eaten when you were exhausted?

To lose fat and weight, you must not eat fat.

Fake! Healthy fats are essential to our health and well-being because they are vital in internal body functions. They also help prevent chronic diseases, such as heart disease, because they help control bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol.

Fats are also crucial for maintaining healthy hormone levels and using vitamins. Fat is also necessary for muscle growth and helps regulate appetite.

The key is to focus on healthy fats, like, olive oil, fish and fish oils, avocados, flaxseeds, and raw walnuts; a fat-free diet, primarily carbohydrates, and protein, can make any fat loss or muscle-building goal nearly impossible to achieve.

The scale determines your actual fitness level.

Did you know that muscle weighs more than fat? If you train and weightlift with weights, the scale may not represent your actual level of fitness. Then there are the centimeters; some lose centimeters while the scale remains stationary.

And the scale cannot assess an actual amount of body fat; for this, you can use a body fat gauge which offers an accurate reading.

Then there’s the BMI, the body mass index scale that can tell you where you are on the obesity scale; it considers parameters beyond weight.