I'm going to take the time to slay a few myths regarding exercise / fat loss / nutrition in general right now. Some of you may be suprised at some points I raise, some of you may agree, but I am about to tell it like it is. Don't say I didn't warn you!
Myth 1: Crunches for a 'Toned' Stomach.
I think I've covered my dislike for crunches quite enough aleady, but it always bears repeating. As it happens, I stumbled across some information carried out in a study and published in an old copy of Men's Health magazine. It stated that a person will burn just 1 calorie for every 10 crunches they do. 1 calorie!
So for those of you performing 200 a day crunches routines, I hope those 20 calories were worth the effort!
By the way, most static core exercises (such as the ones I described in the Core Conundrum post) burn at least 30 during a set of 10.
And also, its been joked that the best exercise for a good looking stomach is called the 'table push-away'. Basically, getting a good set of abs is all down to your diet.
Myth 2: How many calories burned DURING the exercise is important.
No, its not. Even though I did just point out that a good core exercise would burn 30 calories during exercise, that was for the sake of example.
Look at it this way: Exercise is BAD for your body. It is. resistance exercise tears your muscle fibres and endurance exercise weakens your joints and ligaments.
But it is the RECOVERY that heals your body so it grows back to be stronger than before. It is the recovery in which any adaptations take place. Now if you've exercised at a good enough intensity, with the right exercises, then your muscles should be gasping for extra calories to be repaired. This is your metabolism rising, and it is these calories that are burned day to day that account for 80% of your total calorie burn and weight loss (provided you are on a slight caloric defecit).
Myth 3: "I want to be 'Toned'. But I don't want to put on any muscle!"
I'm sure someone here is reading this who has uttered those words in the past! I hear it every day pretty much.
Here's the real deal: To be 'Toned' means you have a good level of lean muscle with little fat around that muscle. So if you want to be toned, you actually need some muscle under the fat. Otherwise, you'll burn the fat away (which in itself is unlikely without an adequate amount of muscle in the first place, since muscle is the only tissue in the body that burns calories!) and be left with a flat, soft appearance. and then its back to 200 crunches a day...
Myth 4: Weights will make me 'Bulky'!
Following on from the last point, I also hear this nearly every day, from women of all ages.
I understand many of you are aware of how much nonsense this statement really is, but for the few who don't:
Lifting weights will NOT make you bulky. I see 18 year old boys, who have hormones raging, desperately want to get some female attention, lift weights 5 days a week, eat a tonne of calories and still not build muscle.
Building muscle is a TOUGH. Its a LOT harder than losing fat, thats for sure.
But here are the main reasons you won't build muscle:
1. You aren't eating enough (unless, you are eating 3,000 to 4, 000 calories a day? No? I didn't think so.)
2. you have 10 times less testosterone (the hormone that builds muscle) than men.
3. You arn't lifting weights that are heavy enough, and you aren't lifitng them with excessive volume, both of which are required to grow muscle.
And even if you did somehow manage to grow some muscle, its not as if you wouldn't see it coming. it doesn't happen overnight. The above statement is the equivelant of an obese man saying "I don't want to do use a treadmill or I'll suddenly become slim!"
Ladies, get on the weights, and develop the lean 'toned' look you're always asking for!
Myth 4: Fasted Cardio
Another trend that has emerged due to someone taking a scientific study out of context.
Again, on paper it looks promising: you wake up, having eaten no carbs, so all you have in you to burn for energy is fat, so jump on a treadmill first thing in the morning. Uh, no....
Did you eat carbs yesterday? The day before? Then unless you performed some immense type of endurance event (like 3 triathlons back to back!) then you still have carbs, stored as glycogen, in your liver and muscles the next morning. It doesn't just dissapear when you go to bed.
Or, look at it this way. The claims are that fasted cardio burns 30% more calories than non-fasted.
So if you performed 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 3 times per week, thats about 900 calories you've burned. In 6 months time, that would equate to you burning 23, 400 calories, or just over 6.5 lbs of fat.
If the 30% statement is true, then you'd burn another 0.07 lbs per week.
Hardly incredible is it? The fact is that low intesity aerobic exercise doesn't burn any more calories than the small amount you expend during the wrokout. It doesn't challenge your muscles, so your metabolism isn't raised. Eat one chocolate muffin and thats 30 minutes of exercise down the drain.
Myth 5: 'A calorie is a calorie.'
Basing a diet solely on how many calories you take in is a daft idea. What the message tells people is that they can get away with eating pretty much what they like, as long the total calorie count is below a certain number.
So on this basis, if we had a set of twins on the same exercises program for a month, both told they can eat 1900 calories (just under their maintenance) and one eats 1900 kcals of chocolate and ice cream, while the other eats 1900 kcals of fish, lean meat and vegetable, both will have the same results at the end?
Its not so much how MANY calories you eat, whats more important is the QUALITY of those calories.
Myth 6: Diets in general
I really don't see the need for them. We ALL know what foods we should be eating to reach our goals, but not all of us have the self-discipline to do so (myself included, i'll happily admit).
You can compare all the diets in the world, read every one of those success stories, analyse all the scientific literature, but at the end of the day it comes down to simply this:
Get your carbs from vegetables
Get your protein from meat and eggs
Get your fat from fish.
Get your fluid from water.
That's IT. If you were to follow a 'diet' of just natural foods (Meat, fish, fruit & veg, nuts, eggs and water) for 21 days, you would shed lbs.
If all your carbs came from vegetables, then you would find it almost IMPOSSIBLE to eat more than your maintenance level of calories, as the fibre in veg makes it so filling. Its as simple as cutting out any processed foods and sugars.
If your ancestors couldn't eat it, you shouldn't either. Thats all you ever need to know about diets.
Myth 7: Low Carb, Low Fat, Low Protein, Low Calorie, Low -Anything diets.
These are the biggest offenders of all. the media will always pick on one macronutrient to be the bad guy, and claim it the reason why so many people are overweight. When carbs are singled out, we even have people refusing to eat more fruit because of its sugar content! Its natural sugar, not processed, and your body needs it. Its not as if people have been eating too many apples and thats the reason we have an obesity epidemic is it?
Myth 8 : VLCDs
This may be THE biggest offender of all. This strategy can seriously damage your metabolism, and will lead to rapid weight loss initially, but at a price.
Once again, science has been misconstrued. A lb of fat is equated at 3,500 kcals so it makes sense that subtracting 500kcals a day for week (causing a defecit of 3500) will result in a pound of fat lost? It will work initially, but then it will stop working. So you take a few more calories off per day. then some more and some more, until your eating under a 1000 per day, hoping this will lead to more fat loss.
Always remember that your body adapts to ANYTHING you do to it in the opposite manner. It doesn't know you're trying to look good in a bikini, all it knows is that it is being starved.
To counter this lack of energy (calories), your body will lower your metabolic rate, and will store all incoming calories. These calories will be kept for the most important functions of the body: keeping your brain running, and fuelling the muscles that control your heart rate and breathing. In this case, your body does NOT want to burn any fat, and instead it will cling on to any fat for dear life, as a method of preserving what energy it has.
In simple terms - if you don't let your body have energy, it will store its own and won't let go.
Subtracting 10-20% from your maintenance level of calories should be enough in many cases. If you don't see results from that, keep subtracting 10% each week until you are steadily burning fat but preserving muscle tissue.
Myth 9: Lots of Triceps exercises will get rid of my 'bingo wings'.
Nope, excessive volume of one exercise focused on one part of your body will lead to a gain in muscle size. Which I thought is what women DIDN't want?
Calories are burned from all over your body. Do you honestly think that if an overweight man simply performed only bicep curls and tricep kick backs for a year, that his arms would be skinny but still had fat stored everywhere else?
(Answer : In fact he'd be pretty much exactly the same weight as when he started as bicep curls and kick backs don't burn enough calories to have a significant effect on weight loss).
This also goes for those ridiculous in and out thigh machines. They won't do ANYTHING for you, ladies. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but they are a fad, a gimmick created by the fitness industry to attract people to their gyms, without a care in the world for actually getting you the results you want.
Myth 10: Madonna's Personal Trainer is Good at what she does
I'd always wondered who trained Madonna, and who was responsible for making her into the unhealthy, skeletal wreck of a woman with unbalanced upper and lower musculature that she is now.
Then reading a magazine I came across an interview with this trainer. I can't remember her name but after reading a few lines of what she said I was genuinely disgusted. For I knew that many many women would read the garbage she was spewing out and would take it as gospel. These are some of her 'tips' for losing weight and toning:
- You MUST perform aerobic exercise for at least an hour, 6 days per week
- Do not eat ANY fat in your diet
- Women should never lift dumbbells heavier than 2.5kg or they will get bulky! (although a child, a hoover, shopping bags, hell, even a can of bloody soup all weight more than this!!)
I did some research on this woman and discovered that she is not even a qualified fitness instructor, she only has experience in dance choreography. People, watch out for women and media info like this. A bit of bad information can go a long way.
Okay, I think I've vented enough for one night. Phew, I'm so glad thats all off my chest!
Hopefully those of you reading who have been previously uneducated to the above points can now rid yourself of the silly myths and traditions that plague our gyms and media.
I'd like to hear some of your views on what I've commented upon, and if there is anything I've explained unclearly I'll be happy to discuss it.
Justin
Myth 1: Crunches for a 'Toned' Stomach.
I think I've covered my dislike for crunches quite enough aleady, but it always bears repeating. As it happens, I stumbled across some information carried out in a study and published in an old copy of Men's Health magazine. It stated that a person will burn just 1 calorie for every 10 crunches they do. 1 calorie!
So for those of you performing 200 a day crunches routines, I hope those 20 calories were worth the effort!
By the way, most static core exercises (such as the ones I described in the Core Conundrum post) burn at least 30 during a set of 10.
And also, its been joked that the best exercise for a good looking stomach is called the 'table push-away'. Basically, getting a good set of abs is all down to your diet.
Myth 2: How many calories burned DURING the exercise is important.
No, its not. Even though I did just point out that a good core exercise would burn 30 calories during exercise, that was for the sake of example.
Look at it this way: Exercise is BAD for your body. It is. resistance exercise tears your muscle fibres and endurance exercise weakens your joints and ligaments.
But it is the RECOVERY that heals your body so it grows back to be stronger than before. It is the recovery in which any adaptations take place. Now if you've exercised at a good enough intensity, with the right exercises, then your muscles should be gasping for extra calories to be repaired. This is your metabolism rising, and it is these calories that are burned day to day that account for 80% of your total calorie burn and weight loss (provided you are on a slight caloric defecit).
Myth 3: "I want to be 'Toned'. But I don't want to put on any muscle!"
I'm sure someone here is reading this who has uttered those words in the past! I hear it every day pretty much.
Here's the real deal: To be 'Toned' means you have a good level of lean muscle with little fat around that muscle. So if you want to be toned, you actually need some muscle under the fat. Otherwise, you'll burn the fat away (which in itself is unlikely without an adequate amount of muscle in the first place, since muscle is the only tissue in the body that burns calories!) and be left with a flat, soft appearance. and then its back to 200 crunches a day...
Myth 4: Weights will make me 'Bulky'!
Following on from the last point, I also hear this nearly every day, from women of all ages.
I understand many of you are aware of how much nonsense this statement really is, but for the few who don't:
Lifting weights will NOT make you bulky. I see 18 year old boys, who have hormones raging, desperately want to get some female attention, lift weights 5 days a week, eat a tonne of calories and still not build muscle.
Building muscle is a TOUGH. Its a LOT harder than losing fat, thats for sure.
But here are the main reasons you won't build muscle:
1. You aren't eating enough (unless, you are eating 3,000 to 4, 000 calories a day? No? I didn't think so.)
2. you have 10 times less testosterone (the hormone that builds muscle) than men.
3. You arn't lifting weights that are heavy enough, and you aren't lifitng them with excessive volume, both of which are required to grow muscle.
And even if you did somehow manage to grow some muscle, its not as if you wouldn't see it coming. it doesn't happen overnight. The above statement is the equivelant of an obese man saying "I don't want to do use a treadmill or I'll suddenly become slim!"
Ladies, get on the weights, and develop the lean 'toned' look you're always asking for!
Myth 4: Fasted Cardio
Another trend that has emerged due to someone taking a scientific study out of context.
Again, on paper it looks promising: you wake up, having eaten no carbs, so all you have in you to burn for energy is fat, so jump on a treadmill first thing in the morning. Uh, no....
Did you eat carbs yesterday? The day before? Then unless you performed some immense type of endurance event (like 3 triathlons back to back!) then you still have carbs, stored as glycogen, in your liver and muscles the next morning. It doesn't just dissapear when you go to bed.
Or, look at it this way. The claims are that fasted cardio burns 30% more calories than non-fasted.
So if you performed 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 3 times per week, thats about 900 calories you've burned. In 6 months time, that would equate to you burning 23, 400 calories, or just over 6.5 lbs of fat.
If the 30% statement is true, then you'd burn another 0.07 lbs per week.
Hardly incredible is it? The fact is that low intesity aerobic exercise doesn't burn any more calories than the small amount you expend during the wrokout. It doesn't challenge your muscles, so your metabolism isn't raised. Eat one chocolate muffin and thats 30 minutes of exercise down the drain.
Myth 5: 'A calorie is a calorie.'
Basing a diet solely on how many calories you take in is a daft idea. What the message tells people is that they can get away with eating pretty much what they like, as long the total calorie count is below a certain number.
So on this basis, if we had a set of twins on the same exercises program for a month, both told they can eat 1900 calories (just under their maintenance) and one eats 1900 kcals of chocolate and ice cream, while the other eats 1900 kcals of fish, lean meat and vegetable, both will have the same results at the end?
Its not so much how MANY calories you eat, whats more important is the QUALITY of those calories.
Myth 6: Diets in general
I really don't see the need for them. We ALL know what foods we should be eating to reach our goals, but not all of us have the self-discipline to do so (myself included, i'll happily admit).
You can compare all the diets in the world, read every one of those success stories, analyse all the scientific literature, but at the end of the day it comes down to simply this:
Get your carbs from vegetables
Get your protein from meat and eggs
Get your fat from fish.
Get your fluid from water.
That's IT. If you were to follow a 'diet' of just natural foods (Meat, fish, fruit & veg, nuts, eggs and water) for 21 days, you would shed lbs.
If all your carbs came from vegetables, then you would find it almost IMPOSSIBLE to eat more than your maintenance level of calories, as the fibre in veg makes it so filling. Its as simple as cutting out any processed foods and sugars.
If your ancestors couldn't eat it, you shouldn't either. Thats all you ever need to know about diets.
Myth 7: Low Carb, Low Fat, Low Protein, Low Calorie, Low -Anything diets.
These are the biggest offenders of all. the media will always pick on one macronutrient to be the bad guy, and claim it the reason why so many people are overweight. When carbs are singled out, we even have people refusing to eat more fruit because of its sugar content! Its natural sugar, not processed, and your body needs it. Its not as if people have been eating too many apples and thats the reason we have an obesity epidemic is it?
Myth 8 : VLCDs
This may be THE biggest offender of all. This strategy can seriously damage your metabolism, and will lead to rapid weight loss initially, but at a price.
Once again, science has been misconstrued. A lb of fat is equated at 3,500 kcals so it makes sense that subtracting 500kcals a day for week (causing a defecit of 3500) will result in a pound of fat lost? It will work initially, but then it will stop working. So you take a few more calories off per day. then some more and some more, until your eating under a 1000 per day, hoping this will lead to more fat loss.
Always remember that your body adapts to ANYTHING you do to it in the opposite manner. It doesn't know you're trying to look good in a bikini, all it knows is that it is being starved.
To counter this lack of energy (calories), your body will lower your metabolic rate, and will store all incoming calories. These calories will be kept for the most important functions of the body: keeping your brain running, and fuelling the muscles that control your heart rate and breathing. In this case, your body does NOT want to burn any fat, and instead it will cling on to any fat for dear life, as a method of preserving what energy it has.
In simple terms - if you don't let your body have energy, it will store its own and won't let go.
Subtracting 10-20% from your maintenance level of calories should be enough in many cases. If you don't see results from that, keep subtracting 10% each week until you are steadily burning fat but preserving muscle tissue.
Myth 9: Lots of Triceps exercises will get rid of my 'bingo wings'.
Nope, excessive volume of one exercise focused on one part of your body will lead to a gain in muscle size. Which I thought is what women DIDN't want?
Calories are burned from all over your body. Do you honestly think that if an overweight man simply performed only bicep curls and tricep kick backs for a year, that his arms would be skinny but still had fat stored everywhere else?
(Answer : In fact he'd be pretty much exactly the same weight as when he started as bicep curls and kick backs don't burn enough calories to have a significant effect on weight loss).
This also goes for those ridiculous in and out thigh machines. They won't do ANYTHING for you, ladies. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but they are a fad, a gimmick created by the fitness industry to attract people to their gyms, without a care in the world for actually getting you the results you want.
Myth 10: Madonna's Personal Trainer is Good at what she does
I'd always wondered who trained Madonna, and who was responsible for making her into the unhealthy, skeletal wreck of a woman with unbalanced upper and lower musculature that she is now.
Then reading a magazine I came across an interview with this trainer. I can't remember her name but after reading a few lines of what she said I was genuinely disgusted. For I knew that many many women would read the garbage she was spewing out and would take it as gospel. These are some of her 'tips' for losing weight and toning:
- You MUST perform aerobic exercise for at least an hour, 6 days per week
- Do not eat ANY fat in your diet
- Women should never lift dumbbells heavier than 2.5kg or they will get bulky! (although a child, a hoover, shopping bags, hell, even a can of bloody soup all weight more than this!!)
I did some research on this woman and discovered that she is not even a qualified fitness instructor, she only has experience in dance choreography. People, watch out for women and media info like this. A bit of bad information can go a long way.
Okay, I think I've vented enough for one night. Phew, I'm so glad thats all off my chest!
Hopefully those of you reading who have been previously uneducated to the above points can now rid yourself of the silly myths and traditions that plague our gyms and media.
I'd like to hear some of your views on what I've commented upon, and if there is anything I've explained unclearly I'll be happy to discuss it.
Justin
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