Six Exercise & Weight Loss Myths:
Written by Jimmy Pember
April 5th, 2010

 
  1. If you’re not sweating, you’re not working hard enough

    Sweating is the body’s way of cooling itself down. I’ve seen many people put on a sweat suit or plastic bag around them while they workout. This could be potentially dangerous by doing this. By putting on a sweat suit, you will definitely sweat out the liquids in you body. Some of these people believe they are losing weight by doing this, which isn’t so. You will definitely lose water weight, but once you drink some liquids again you will gain all the water weight back. By doing this, you could potentially dehydrate your body. Dehydration can result in a seizures, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and even coma. Sweating isn’t an indicator of the intensity of the workout or the calories you’ve burned. There are numerous factors that will cause you to sweat, room temperature, humidity, clothing, exercises performed, body-fat levels, and body temperature. Often times, a person who is well trained tends to sweat more due to the fact that their body is more efficient at regulating their body heat.

     
  2. X = best exercise equipment for weight loss or is the best form of exercise

    There is no best piece of equipment or best activity for exercise and weight loss. Most of these claims are marketing strategies used by companies to promote and sell their products. While some products may be better than others, it does not mean that one particular product is the best for everyone. The best advice for anyone is to choose an exercise activity to which you enjoy the most and do this activity correctly with proper form and do it consistently. So unless you are an athlete and training for a specific sporting event or activity, there isn’t a specific piece of equipment or activity that is best for everyone. 

  3. By working out my abs, I’ll lose my pot belly

    Wrong! Unfortunately, we are unable to spot reduce. In order to lose your pot belly, you must lose your overall weight. Your body uniformly distributes fat throughout the body. So spot-reduction is not possible. You must expend more calories than what you consume in order to lose weight. By only working your abs, you only strengthen your abdominal muscles and minimally burn calories. To put it bluntly, if you want your abs to show, you must lose the fat that is covering up your abs.

     
  4. If it’s fat free, I can have as much as I want 

    Wrong again! Just because it says fat free, does not mean it is calorie free. Consuming more calories than you can burn will cause weight gain. Don’t be misled by companies marketing foods with labels and catch phrases such as, “fat free”, “low carbs”, “light”, “reduced fat” and etc. You can still overeat on anything, even fat free foods. Remember, any foods you overeat, the excess calories you do not burn off will end up being stored as fat. 

     
  5. When you stop exercising, your muscles will turn to fat 

    Unfortunately, that’s not how muscles work. Muscle and fat are two completely different forms of tissue. When you stop exercising or doing resistance training, you will lose the muscle you’ve gained, or in another words, they will shrink in size. Because you’ve stopped training, the end result is gaining weight and the excess fat you gained will be deposited as fat.  

  6. Gaining weight is part of getting older 

    Not true. Gaining weight as we get older is no excuse! As we get older, we tend to become more sedentary which results in loss of muscle mass and weight gain. The more muscle we have, the higher our metabolism. So when we stop working out, we lose the muscle we’ve gained. It’s a basic principal for muscles, you either use it or you lose it! In order to maintain muscle mass and keep your metabolism from dropping, high intensity resistance training must completed at least once a week for each muscle group. To gain muscle mass and increase your metabolism, high intensity resistance training for each muscle group should be completed at least twice a week.
      

    Jimmy Pember, NASM-CPT, Certified Fitness Specialist
 


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