10 Fitness and Diet Myths
In recent years image has become an important factor in today's society, due to pressure from photo shopped models, magazines and social media websites. Due to this we see a different diet plan or workout every day on how to get that beach body in 20 days. However, these are often just myths to entice you to buy the magazine. Although, this did get me thinking about the top fitness and diet myths. After some research I wrote down the top ten and decided to share them with you.
1. To lose weight you just need to tone your muscles
You often see people trying to lose weight by toning their muscles because they have seen in a magazine article that you can turn your fat into muscle by doing this. However, this is not true because your muscles are already toned but they’re just covered in layers of fat. When trying to make your muscles looked toned you should have a healthy diet mixed with cardio vascular exercises to strip fat and also lift weights to keep muscle size.
2. You can reduce fat in one area
There is always that one person in the gym doing 200 crunches saying that they’re just going to do abdominal exercises to lose that layer of fat on their tummy. However, it does not work like that you have a full layer of fat over your full body and you need to do cardiovascular exercises and a healthy diet to strip that little layer of fat over your muscles because no matter how many crunches and sit ups you do you will never have abs like someone with 8% body fat if you have 20% body fat.
3. Girls should tone men should lift
Some women are afraid to lift properly because they believe they will build too much muscle and look like men which makes them decide to tone by lifting light weight for high repetitions. However, their main goal is to be lean and see their muscles and toning won’t do this because to build muscle you need a rep range of 8-12 reps with a limited rest time. This is because the longer your muscles are under a high weighted tension and will rip which causes them to repair bigger.
4. Carbohydrates are bad
We often look at carbohydrates as a bad thing because they hold so many calories. However, if you want to gain muscle you have to incorporate carbs into your diet because you can’t have a good high intensity workout without the energy from the calories coming from the carbohydrates. To get a right balance of carbohydrates you should take up a macros plan which will tell you how many grams of carbs you should be in taking. Finally, if you starve your body of carbohydrates your brain will not function properly because your brain needs glucose to work and without carbs you won’t get enough to make your brain function properly.
5. Diet fizzy drinks makes you put on weight
This is one of the biggest myths which many people believe but it’s not true in any way. This is because you can’t gain weight from calories that aren’t there and diet fizzy drinks don’t contain any calories due to them not having any nutrients. On the other hand, diet fizzy drink may cause you to bloat but that is different to weight gain.
6. I can have a cheat day once a week
This statement is only true for people who don’t struggle to get lean or maintain a lean physique. However, if you struggle to maintain or acquire a toned physique you should have a cheat day one every 2 or 3 weeks.
7. If a product has no calories you can eat as much as you want
When eating clean you miss out on the best foods and treats but over recent years more and more versions of calorie ‘free’ food has been released. This food claims to be zero calories but anything less than 5 calories can be classed at calorie free. However, many people don’t know this and will eat all of the product thinking it has no calories in but realistically you may have consumed up to 100 calories.
8. Only do crunches for a six pack
People believe that if you do enough crunches they will get a flat belly but that comes from being lean. If you continue eating rubbish you will always have that pesky layer covering your six pack.
9. Stretching before a workout is crucial to prevent injury
Although stretching after a workout can be very beneficial, however stretching before a workout doesn’t increase your range of motion. Furthermore, many studies have suggested that stretching before a workout destabilizes your muscles which in turn make them unprepared for physical exercise especially weight lifting. Instead of stretching before workouts do a warm up which will get the blood flowing.
10. Skipping breakfast is a good way to lose weight
This is one of the biggest myths in fitness and one of the worst things you can do while trying to lose weight. This is because it means you will have been fasting for about 8 hours and will often make you hungry and peckish which will result in you eating more food than you originally would have done.