8 Health and Fitness Myths

The health and fitness industry has exploded in recent years. And because of this, there’s way more misinformation and BS out there than ever before.

With everyone from Dr. Phil to Cameron Diaz putting out fitness and diet books, it just seems like everyone is a heath and fitness expert.  So..

Here are the top 8 Health and Fitness Myths that you need to stop falling for.

Favourite Fitness Myths #1. Cardio is the ONLY thing you need to do to lose weight.

This is one of the fitness myths can be confusing.  Although cardio is important, there’s a point where there’s diminishing returns. Meaning, you need to do more cardio for the amount of calories burned. Your body adapts to all exercise and cardio is no different.

As well, cardio does not build muscle. You need muscle to increase your resting metabolic rate- the amount of calories you burn while you’re just sitting still.

You’ll burn calories more efficiently by doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

Favourite Fitness Myths #2. You need to “Get in Shape” before you start going to the gym.

It’s a common fear that people will feel judged at the gym. That there will be bleachers full of people criticizing them on their form and on their work out outfits.

This is a fitness myth that kills motivation. Here’s the shocking truth..you’re really not that important. When people are working out, they’re only concerned about themselves. That’s it. Everybody’s doing their own thing and focusing on themselves.

And besides, everybody has to start somewhere. Nobody was born looking like Duane “The Rock” Johnson.

Favourite Fitness Myths #3. Low-Carb diets are the best for fat loss.

Okay, while I agree that there’s no shortage of sugary, delicious carbs on every street corner, totally eliminating carbs from your diet can be a dangerous thing.
Carbs fuel brain function.
Carbs like brown rice and quinoa are ideal.
And broccoli is a carbohydrate and who ever heard of anyone getting morbidly obese from eating too much steamed broccoli.

4. Juicing as the key to weight loss.

Okay, a glass of carrot juice is absolutely delicious. But somewhere along the line, all these juice places started popping up and juicing became a replacement for eating, cooking, and chewing your veggies. You need the fibre in vegetables since it’s a critical element to your digestion. Also, the fibre is filling, meaning that you’ll probably eat less carbs and protein is you’re already full on healthy veggies. Also, if you’re buying a fresh veggie juice cocktail at your local juice bar don’t be surprised if it’s mostly fruit juice which is almost entirely sugar.
So when it comes to juicing, you’re basically replacing fibre with sugar. A tasty treat every now and then but it certainly shouldn’t be a regular habit.

5. Lifting weights makes you bulky (this is mostly for the ladies)

This is one of the fitness myths that usually stops people from lifting weights.

Now, just because you start lifting weights doesn’t mean you’re going to start looking like that green dude in Age of Ultron within a couple of days.

Getting super jacked and looking like a green super hero takes a soul crushing amount of work. You have to lift weights more often than most people are willing to do. And it’ll take a massive amount of food.
Most women don’t have the testosterone to get super huge by lifting weights. If you start lifting weights, you’ll probably build your strength, improve your posture and increase your metabolism. All good things 🙂

6. Detoxing is a great way to stay healthy and lose weight.

This fitness myth always makes me laugh. Some time ago a supplement company came up with an idea to sell a package of herbs as a way to cleanse the body.
There seems to be endless Detox products out there on the internet. All of them promising outlandish benefits and miraculous results but really all they do is keep you in the bathroom for a week straight.
We already possess two amazing detoxifiers- our kidneys and our livers.
By the way, we can also “Detox” ourselves by not eating refined sugar and by not drinking alcohol. Detoxing by not consuming toxins..crazy..but it might just work…

7 Working out is all you need to do to lose weight.

Now, exercise is awesome. You’ll look better, feel better and you’ll love yourself for doing it.
But that doesn’t mean you can go out and drink a 6 pack of beer and eat an entire medium pizza because you did a killer 45 min Strength and Conditioning class.

Ultimately, diet needs to play a major role in your road to weight loss and living a healthy lifestyle.

Diet and exercise need to work together like Chewbacca and Han Solo.

Working out can sometimes turn into a wacky punishment vs reward system.

People think, “I drank a little too much this weekend; so, now I’ve got to go to the gym everyday this week.”
Or perhaps we go, “My leg workout was so crazy yesterday that I can’t even feel my feet today; so, I’m going to eat this whole bucket of fried chicken because I deserve it.”
Exercising should simply be a part of your healthy lifestyle. It’s not a punishment.
And food should not be a reward, eating healthy is just something that you enjoy doing.

8. You can “Spot Target” certain body parts for weight loss

Sorry, but you can’t get rid of belly fat just by doing crunches.
This is one of my absolute favourite fitness myths. I’ve had students come up to me grabbing the fat on their arms or on their stomachs asking me, “how do a get rid of this?”

And when I tell them that it’s impossible to remove fat from a targeted body part, they look at me with complete disbelief.

Think gold fish blinking..

While you can target specific muscle groups- that will only make the muscle stronger. Unfortunately, fat does not turn into muscle.
The muscles will be stronger but the muscles will reside under a layer of fat.
The goal ought to be to reduce your overall body fat percentage through a proper combination of exercise and diet.