Debunking Fitness and Fat Loss Myths
Hey San Antonio,
I’ll be filming for my monthly appearance on The Springtime65 show on public access TV this weekend, and one of the topics I want to discuss is common fitness and fat loss myths, so let me start it off right here!
There’s a lot of bad information out there floating around. Following this bad information leads to lack of results, which, in turn, leads to overwhelming frustration. Let me try to keep things as simple as possible!
Myth: Heavy weights will make you big and bulky.
The Truth: This is absolutely absurd in every way. The main thing to remember that muscle has two states – it is either adding or subtracting. It is binary, and there is no in between state. When you lift weights, you are doing so to stimulate the addition, because any loss of muscle will lead to a slower metabolism, which will ultimately lead to having a higher body fat percentage.
Muscle growth is a very slow process, even for the extremely genetically gifted. Becoming more defined is actually the result of reducing body fat and making muscle more visible. The degree that muscles become visible has more to do with the amount of body fat than the sheer size.
If you’re a female looking to lose fat, understand that intense weight training is essential and you can do so without fear of becoming masculine. There are plenty of guys in the gym that lift weights heavy religiously with hopes of becoming large – however, gaining muscle mass also requires a very intense nutritional regimen, and is not something that happens on accident.
Myth: Isolating a body part with area specific exercises such as crunches, leg curls, and tricep kickbacks will reduce fat in those areas.
The Truth: It is impossible to spot reduce fat via a specific exercise. Fat loss is the product of an increased resting metabolic rate and proper nutrient manipulation to ensure that the body chooses to use fat for fuel as opposed to using lean body mass. Again, training is the stimulus for muscle growth, not for spot reducing fat. Furthermore, the concept that doing a specific type of cardio will lead to leaning a certain part of the body is also absolutely ridiculous. (For example, a hand bike would not specifically reduce the amount of fat in the arms…)
Myth: A calorie is a calorie, and the key to losing fat is to consume less calories than you burn.
The Truth: By far, this is the biggest, most perpetuated misconception in the fitness and nutrition industry. For weight loss, this is true. However, if you are 300lbs and lose 200lbs the improper way, you’ll look like the same version of yourself, only smaller, which doesn’t mean better. The Somalian refugee look is disgusting and is not what you’re trying to achieve. The goal is to look better when you are naked, period. Through proper training in conjunction with a well designed nutritional program, it is very possible to manipulate what type of tissue (fat or muscle) your body is using for fuel. Do not use weight as an indicator of progress – if your personal trainer even suggests that it is important, fire that person… Two people can be the same height and same weight and look radically different.
Myth: Extra Cardio is what is required to drastically change the body and lose fat.
The Truth: Without resistance training and the proper nutritional strategy, high volume cardio will slam the door on any hopes of radically transforming your body. The key to transforming the body is to make the metabolism more efficient when you’re doing absolutely nothing. Once lean body mass is reduced and the body senses starvation (which is what happens on most fad diets), the body requires large amounts of activity to burn calories of any type, and the bad news is that it doesn’t burn them as efficiently as it would if lean body mass had been preserved. Again, the diseased, hungry look is not what most people are after, and cardio does nothing to change the consistency of the body. If you weigh 300lbs and have 100lbs of fat and lose 100lbs, but 75 of that was from lean body mass and not from body fat, your body fat would actually increase from 33.3% to 37.5%. I know, but you lost 100lbs, so that must be good? Nope, although your smaller, you would actually look worse than you did, and your actual “shape” would not improve. You would simply just become a smaller fat person.
Myth: When dieting, you want to eat as little as possible while focusing on foods like lettuce and other low to zero calorie foods.
The Truth: My clients almost often report that they eat more food than they’ve ever eaten when following my guidelines, and lose more fat than they’ve ever lost. You should never be hungry – hungry leads to insanity, loss of muscle and bad decisions. Protein is the key for muscle building and it buffers insulin response, keeps energy levels stable and minimizes fat storage. Eating the right foods at the proper times will lead to the body being properly fueled and adequately supplied for repair, while allowing the body to efficiently burn fat.
There’s a lot of misinformation out there, and any one of these myths is enough to absolutely decimate your fat loss program.
Education is the key to success!
Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454
