Weight Loss Myth-Busters

Health magazines are filled with tips relating to weight loss. Some work, some do not. What you generally find is that those that do not work relate to things like fad diets and weight loss supplements and pills. More than often those that do work are the simple things that are to do with types of food to eat or avoid and different types of exercise or routine.

The weight loss industry has always been home to ridiculous claims and promises, made to create a market where a new product or plan can find buyers. This article aims to dispel certain weight loss myths and misleading weight loss information that you may have heard at one time or another.

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Myth 1: Targeted fat loss, also known as Spot Reduction:

It is often claimed that you can target bodily areas that are deemed problem areas for weight loss, your hips, your tummy or your thighs. This is complete nonsense; tummy tucks and leg lifts do not target the fat cells concentrated around your midriff, instead they are more likely to reduce muscle mass that resides under the abdomen. A better option is to concentrate on an exercise routine that works all areas of your body and combine it with a healthy, negative calorie food diet, that will build lean muscle mass and increase your metabolic rate, therefore burning body fat.

Myth 2: Cutting back on calories will drastically reduce your body fat:

This is absolute nonsense, your body needs calories to provide it with the nutrients and energy for day to day living, starve your body of calories and you will become malnourished, becoming lethargic and often unwell. This is because your body naturally goes into starvation mode and starts to save as much energy (fat) as possible instead of using it and instead your body begins to burn the tissue that usually eats the most calories, and that is muscle.

So to conclude, reducing calories is actually harmful to you and your body, and once you return to your normal diet you will normally find that you will probably put on more weight than you were carrying before. This is because you will have a much lower metabolic rate due to the reduction in your calorie burning muscle mass.

Myth 3: Only Cardiovascular exercise will help you lose weight:

It is true that cardiovascular exercise does reduce body fat, but it is not true that it is the only exercise that achieves fat burn. Aerobics is equally as effective, yet it is weight training that is the most effective form of exercise for weight loss. Weight training actually builds lean muscle; and this lean muscle burns calories at a very high rate. Do the maths; more lean muscle equals more calories burned equals more weight loss!