The Most Common Women's Fitness Myths Part 2

In part one, you learned about the first five common myths I run across on a daily basis. Now, let's look at the final four in part two.

6. Restricting calories and doing more cardio is the best way to lose weight.

It is true that you will lose weight following this advice. However, it will bite you in the butt in the end. No pun intended. Here's why. Restricting calories will definitely make you lose weight. However, this is not optimal. When you restrict calories, your body will react by slowing your metabolism down. When this happens, and you resume eating normally, your metabolism is even slower than it was before. So, when you resume eating what you normally ate before you started restricting calories, you will gain even more weight because your metabolism has slowed down that much more. So what about doing more cardio? Again, doing more cardio will cause you to lose weight. However, here comes another big bite in the butt. Doing too much cardio will cause you to lose precious muscle mass. Losing muscle mass will cause your metabolism to slow down even more! Put those two together and you have a recipe for disaster. Not to mention, when you are doing this to yourself, you are completely robbing yourself of essential nutrients for your health. Here's what will happen: Nails become brittle. Hair breaks. Skin tone is lost. Injuries are more common. Illnesses are more frequent. Mood and mental health are depressed. Sounds like a blast huh? BUSTED!

7. I should skip meals to lose more weight.

Yeah sure. You should skip more red lights and stop signs to get to where you are going faster also. What a joke. How many people do you know that eat only once a day or skip a meal to lose more weight. Like the previous myth, the same things will happen. In addition, your metabolism is going to slow way down. Think about this. Our ancestors were hunters and gatherers. They ate all day long. Other than the fact they were moving frequently, they kept a rather high metabolism. Our metabolism is not that much different from our ancestors. Here are the keys to this little puzzle: Eat smaller, more frequent meals. This, in turn, keeps your blood sugar stable all day long, and keeps your energy stable. Also, it tells your body that you are not in a state of famine and will not slow your metabolism down. Oh it feels so good. BUSTED!

8. Eating after a certain time will make you gain weight.

Most of the tendency here is not to eat past a certain time usually after 7PM. However, this is also another common fallacy I see all the time. Most people are backwards in the way they should be eating. You need an abundant supply of energy in the morning and the eating should taper off toward the evening when you are winding down and the energy requirements are not as high. You know as well as I do, the majority has this one completely backwards. Additionally; it really doesn't matter what time you eat. They key here is what kind of energy balance are you in? Negative? Positive? Equilibrium? If you eat and continue to stay in the negative energy balance, you'll still lose weight, possibly not as much depending on the calorie content of what is eaten. Lastly, having a healthy nutritious meal or snack late in the evening is going to help your body recover faster. When you are asleep, your body is repairing itself from the day's stresses. Adding a new supply of nutrients to your body before sleep will help you recover much faster.

9. I haven't lost any weight! The weight scale say so!

Do me a favor. Throw that piece of crap out the window, or hide it in the closet until you can stop compulsively judging yourself by a weight scale. Why? There are a couple of reasons. Weight Fluctuation: Your body's weight can fluctuate as much as five pounds in one day. Water intake: Water intake has a profound effect on your weight. Time of day: Think you will weigh different first thing in the morning than you will last thing at night? Try a more objective method: Try body fat testing instead. Your body composition can change, but your weight might not. 5.Try measurements instead: waist, arms, legs, hips, etc.

Yep, my job is done here! Another myth BUSTED!

As you can see, there is a lot of BS floating around out there. So please, critically think about what you are hearing. Two, do not take anything you hear about fitness at face value unless it is from a qualified fitness professional. And by a qualified fitness professional, I mean somebody that has been in the industry for years, or a degreed professional, not someone who went out and received a weekend certification. Until next time, train hard, train smart, don't stop believing, and don't take your eyes off the prize!