How many times have we all scrolled through social media and seen posts screaming, ‘Eat this once a day and lose belly fat’ or ‘Transform your body with just 5 minutes of this a day’? Too many, and it’s absolute nonsense. It’s rubbish for clicks, to prey on our desire to change how we look with minimal effort and as quickly as possible. There are many myths, but below are a few of my favourite ones!
1. If you want to burn fat, you need to exercise the body part where the fat is.
Absolutely not! It is simply not possible to ‘spot’ burn fat. Fat cells stored throughout our bodies are broken down and used as energy during exercise, irrespective of which bit of our body moves. I could swing my arms around all day and still have bingo wings, but you can bet your ass that my practically non-existent chest would shrink even more with every swing! Building muscle in problem areas will most certainly help with looking leaner and more defined, but the fat will burn from wherever the heck it wants.
2. You can get a six-pack simply by doing a million sit-ups a day.
Sadly not, and this actually relates to fact #1. Women, in particular, have more body fat than men; to give us that extra kick in the teeth, we tend to store it around our abdomen. So although spending hours on ab exercises will build muscles, we will only see them if we get rid of the belly fat hanging out on top of them. This means eating healthily and burning body fat. Even then, there is no guarantee of seeing them for much of the day, given our tendency for bloating 😫
3. Lifting weights will make you look ‘bulky.’
Sure it will, if you want it to. If you don’t, then it won’t! By that, I mean if you lift hefty weights and eat the right amount of protein for serious muscle building, you will ‘bulk up.’ However, you can build muscle to achieve a lean, defined look using smaller weights and high reps. Sooo, don’t be afraid of resistance work; it’s beneficial in many ways and can help you achieve goals much quicker than doing only cardio-based workouts.
4. You don’t need to exercise to lose weight; you can just cut out carbs.
I have several issues with this one, but in the main, when you cut out carbs, you are cutting out a whole food group and, therefore, a HUGE chunk of calories from your daily intake. That’s the reason you lose weight. You are no longer consuming as many calories as you were. On average, you need to eat 500 fewer calories than you burn daily to lose 0.5kg per week. If you’re a big cheese fan eating 500 calories worth of cheese a day, then decide to go cold turkey (while still eating carbs), you’d still lose weight. The other problem is that if you cut out carbs to lose weight, as soon as you start eating them again unless you have removed something else from your diet, you will put the weight back on. A healthy diet and regular exercise are the best way to lose and maintain weight loss.
Carbs are not the enemy; too many calories is!
5. You need to spend hours in the gym to be fit and healthy.
No, you do not! I do all of my exercise at home (or outside). Yes, I am lucky enough to own a lot of weights, so I have options, but that wasn’t the case a couple of years ago, and I still only did home workouts. Consistency and quality are the keys, and that doesn’t need to include the mind-numbingly boring practice of counting rep after rep 😴.
Working hard for 20 - 30 minutes with good reps and exercise technique is more than adequate. Provided you are progressively overloading by increasing weight, increasing the time your muscles are under tension, increasing the number of sets, or increasing the time you spend working before rest, you will see results.
Ignore all the false information out there. To set you up for success, start by making regular exercise a habit!
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