The top 5 fat loss myths

March 26th, 2011 |

Author: Diet

There are so many myths about fat loss there in "exercise-earth" I was hired by the magazine Men Fitness to write a myth each month.

After all, now that you've probably heard that if you do not do 60 minutes of cardio in your fat burning zone on an empty stomach while Venus is in line with Jupiter, you'll never burn fat .

The problem with myths is that not only are they wrong and give false hope to millions of people trying to lose weight,but they also waste your time and mental effort.

I also saw these myths used as justification for cheating on a diet, watching countless men and women justify their "treats" because they believe they are on some type of magical exercise
program or nutrition plan.

I could go on for days about fitness myths, but I cut my list from 30 down to the Top 5 Workout Myths Fat Loss today. I'll put the other 25 for future newsletters.

Myth # 1: You have to docardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.

Relax. You do not have to jump on the treadmill at 4:30 every morning. Let common sense to dictate when and how you exercise.

If you want to work first thing in the morning, and I know it's the best time for many readers, by all means, go ahead and do it. There is nothing magical about that time – but it is often the only time of day many many people have to themselves.

We need to think "outside thehour "of exercise and realize that calorie burning and fat burning goes for 24-hours. Forget the theories and look at the big picture.

It does not matter when you exercise – as long as you exercise intensely and consistently. Focus on workouts relatively high intensity to increase your metabolism for many hours after exercise as possible. This is best done with interval training and resistance.

Myth # 2: You should do your cardio in your "fatcooking area.

Again, nonsense.

Although you can burn a greater proportion of total calories as fat when you exercise in your fat burning zone, less calories than you burn through exercise of all such a low intensity.

When you increase the intensity of your workout and get out of your so-called "fat burning zone, you burn more total calories, and therefore more fat.

In addition, the "fat burning zone" training does not put "turbulence" onyour muscles … so you do not burn many calories in the post-exercise. But with interval training, you burn a significant amount of calories for hours after training, and leads to more fat loss.

I worked with hundreds of people who have avoided the fat burning zone while still managing to lose dozens of pounds of fat. The "Burning Zone fat" is one of the biggest fitness myths of all time .

Myth # 3: You have to do cardio for20 minutes before burning fat.

When I hear that, I see a burning switch in my body fat that turns on only after I did "cardio" for 20 minutes. But what if I do the exercise for 19 minutes and 59 seconds? Are
You tell me that I will not have burned any fat? That's ridiculous.

What if I did it on an empty stomach in the morning and my heart rate zone? (Read a sarcastic!)

I will say one last time. We must be moreinvolved in our metabolism 24 hours, not fat or even how many calories are burned during the workout.

Myth 4: Drinking cold ice water will help you burn calories and lose fat.

Standing in line at the grocery store is a great place to pick up the latest fat loss myths. You will also find it through the Internet.

This myth often comes with some calculations showing that drinking 8 glasses of ice water, you can burn 70calories per day. I do not think that really holds true in real life. Regardless, drinking cold water will not burn fat over your body than drinking room temperature water.

Do not get me wrong, I firmly believe that you should drink 12 glasses of water a day, but the temperature of your water will not affect your overall success losing fat.

Myth # 5: Adding one pound of muscle burns 50 calories more each day.

Uh-oh, now I'mthe slaughter of a myth that supports my use of strength training in a fat loss program. But I have an obligation to set the record straight about this widespread myth (although I just saw an expert big-name fitness perpetuate this myth in a recent article!).

This myth sounds so good. Add egg pound muscle, boost your metabolism 50 calories. This does not seem out of line at all.

But do the math for a guy who puts on 30 pounds of muscle. T metabolismactually increased from 1500 calories? Absolutely not. For an ordinary guy, which would require his resting metabolism to increase from 2500 calories to 4000 calories per day. How could he be able to keep any of that muscle with a metabolism like that? It would have to eat like a pig forever.

So when you look at the big picture, you can see this little myth start to fall apart.

This does not mean you should stop your strength training, but just do not use this myth as an excuse to cheat on yourdiet.

Bonus Myth: Negative Calorie Foods make you lose weight

According to "experts", a negative calorie food requires more energy to digest than it gives you when you eat it. And included in the list of negative calorie foods are apples and bananas.

So by this logic, I starved if I had nothing to eat only apples (because I have a net loss of energy by eating a so-called "negative calorie" food).

There is no such thing as anegative calorie foods.

It's a shame that people are promoting this kind of thing, and that's a shame that so many people fall into the trap.

Remember the old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not true."

Instead, I feel the common principles of fat loss apply. It will take consistent effort, working hard at your workouts and your nutrition to get the results you want.

Fat Loss Tips.