Have you tried once in your life to skip dinner? Or eliminating sweets from your diet? Get ready to find out the truth as we get these fitness myths debunked!
Fitness myths #1: No eating after 6 PM
If you eat a slice of pizza at 5:59 PM, it has 400kcal, but at 6:01 PM it has 2500kcal?!?
Of course not, your body doesn’t know what time it is, thus stop starving yourself and skipping dinner, it’s absolutely irrelevant will you have late dinner as long as that meal fits into your daily needs.
Fitness myths #2: Lifting weights will make me bulky
Most women think weightlifting will make them have a manlike built, but that is actually impossible because they lack testosterone (the hormone that impacts muscle growth). Don’t hold on to the picture of female bodybuilders, because those that have manlike built mostly use steroids to boost their shape and increase muscle mass.
Fitness myths #3: I need to do abs exercises to get rid of the belly fat
Activating muscles under a certain fat region doesn’t affect that fat layer at all. This is one of the common fitness myths, and requests of any client hiring a personal trainer. The body does not burn fat where you want it from, but gradually all around, and the most critical region is usually the last one disappearing because it has the most fat compared to the rest of the parts.
Fitness myths #4: Whole grain products are not fattening
Let’s make this clear, whole grains are good because they have more fiber, vitamins, and minerals, making them healthier and slower in raising blood sugar (essential for diabetics).
However, they also have energy value, usually the same as refined food (white bread VS whole grain bread), thus you can’t eat those more than you need, or a surplus of energy (kcal) will be stored as fat.
Fitness myths #5: I can eat fruit as much as I want
The fruit is healthy, full of vitamins and fiber, but it has a certain energy value (mostly carbohydrates), and it is possible to cross the line with intake, which leads to weight gain due to a surplus of energy.
We’re halfway the most common fitness myths. The truth about the next one is stunning.
Fitness myths #6: Bacon is bad
Bacon is infamous largely due to its content of saturated fats, which are responsible for increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. ?
However, it contains an equal amount of monounsaturated fats (healthier type), making it balanced. Since there are 3 desirable types of fat (saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated), we recommend the intake of each for 1/3 of daily fat needs.
You might have also heard about Trans fats (found in French fries and other fried food), which should be avoided due to its damaging effect.
It’s made through the frying process when oil can’t sustain great temperatures and changing its state loses nutritional benefits and increases inflammation and bad cholesterol levels while lowering the good one.
Fitness myths #7: Not allowed to eat more than 3 eggs per week
This myth emerged after the discovery of cholesterol in eggs.
However, at that moment it wasn’t known about different types of cholesterol (good one, HDL, and a bad one, LDL). Eggs actually elevate good cholesterol while having no impact on LDL. So feel free to eat eggs daily.
Fitness myths #8: Cardio is sufficient for getting in shape
When you see fitness models shaped like Greek gods, be assured it’s not solely thanks to cardio sessions.
Cardio is good for fat burning, but it won’t make sufficient tonus and muscle mass. This is due to different muscle fibers in us. There are two general types of fibers, one is slow-twitching giving us endurance (long-distance running for example) and has lower mass volume, and the second fast-twitching giving us power ( sprinting and lifting heavy weights for example) and have greater mass volume.
So if you want a firmer and larger butt or biceps get off the treadmill and lift heavy to affect fast-twitching fibers with greater growth potential.
Fitness myths #9: I can eat as much as I want as long I’m working out
How much time do you need to eat a 100g chocolate bar packed with 550kcal? 10minutes? Less?
1km walking (10min) burns 50-70kcal depending on your body weight (therefore women burn less). So women need to hike 1.5 hours to consume the kcal from chocolate they ate in 10 minutes, and man needs a bit more than 1 hour.
ARE YOU READY TO RACE THE SPOON?
Fitness myths #10: Need to cut the sweets to lose weight
You don’t have to cut anything unless you’re diabetic.
As long as you’re healthy, you can choose to eat 50g of cookies instead of 100g whole grain bread. If your goal is to lose weight, what matters is more energy burned than eaten?
With weight loss, the first problem we have to tackle is the energy amount, after that pay attention to the nutritional value of your food. Once you take control of your portions, go for the habit of preferring whole grains, fruits, and vegetables instead of empty calories without micronutrients.
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