We’ve all heard of some crazy diets and exercise routines that have been circulating around in recent years whether on the Internet or through friends and family members. Most of the time, these “advices” or “secrets to a better body” are often dangerous, potentially harmful and quite frankly, sometimes straight out ridiculous. Here are some workout and dieting myths most Malaysians believe:
1. Getting Abs From Crunches
It’s funny how plenty of people still believe this works. You simply cannot spot reduce. You cannot get that 6-pack abs by just crunching 100 times every day without doing anything else because there’s that layer of fats resting above those muscles! “I want to have thinner thighs only” – likewise, you can’t expect to JUST lose flabs from only your thighs and nowhere else. Your body doesn’t work that way.
2. If You Want to Lose Weight, Cardio is Enough
To lose weight, a healthy diet along with cardio and strength training would be the most efficient way. Just running the treadmill for hours and hours every day is not only inefficient, it also sheds unnecessary muscle mass.
More muscles helps your metabolism stay high and muscles require fuel all the time. If you murder yourself doing cardio, your body will get rid of muscle mass and it will be hard to lose fat at all.
3. Women Shouldn’t Lift Weights Because It’ll Make Them Bulky
This is SO WRONG. Women have too much estrogen to build large amounts of bulk. In fact, women SHOULD lift weights as strength training helps decrease body fat, increase lean muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently than just running at the treadmill for an hour.
4. Stretching Before Exercising Will Prevent Injuries
Many people get confused with “warming up” and “stretching”. It’s VERY important to WARM UP before strenuous exercise as it certainly prevent injuries, but static STRETCHING has been shown to, at best have little benefit, and at worst inhibit performance.
5. Skipping Meals Speeds Up Weight Loss
BIG FAT LIE. Quit starving yourself by skipping meals; it only makes you more prone to eat more than you would during your next meal. This is especially the case when you skip breakfast – your first meal of the day.
Plus if you go on this crash diet, your metabolism will crash along with it and you’ll see yourself gaining more weight than before when you eat even the slightest amount of food!
You should snack less, and eat healthily and regularly, along with regular exercising; then, you should be seeing some difference in your body.
6. If You Work Out, You Can Eat Whatever You Want
Let’s get this straight. You cannot expect to lose weight or be healthy and lean just by working out but butchering those hamburgers and chips to your heart’s desire after. That’s just silly. Remember, a healthy diet and regular work out comes hand in hand for good health. There’s no cheating to this.
7. If You’re Heavy, You’re Fat
Remember, the number on that scale does not determine if you are fat or not. Muscle is denser and takes up less space than fat. A smaller, more muscular and leaner person may weigh more than a bigger person with more fat. Those numbers really don’t mean much.
Now that some myths to exercising and losing weight are debunked, start off the right track and please, remember, don’t skip those meals!
