As promised the series of posts about common misbeliefs around fitness continues. In today’s post I want to break few more myths that many people and possibly some of you that will read this still believe.
So, let’s get started and hopefully shed some more light on current misinformation.
X I eat X number of meals to lose weight.
X I eat X number of meals to gain weight.
\/ Number of meals we consume each day is not as important as total daily calorie and macronutrients intake.
There is no secret number of meals that you should consume during the day to either gain or lose weight. When it comes to weight management what matters most is calories in vs calories out, total daily intake of macro and micronutrients. Of course, there are other important aspects to a healthy eating, but people try to complicate things just because it is trendy. So, remember: caloric deficit = weight loss, caloric surplus = weight gain.
X I drink herb teas because I want to lose weight.
\/ We have year 2020. And we still lose weight from calorie deficit…not magic!
Like I mentioned above, there is no magic for the weight loss. We still lose weight from being in caloric deficit (consume less calories than you “burn”). Too many people in today’s world still try to cut some corners and look for quick fix when it comes to weight management. But as with many other subjects in life, you need to be persistent, keep learning and don’t give up. If this is about you, I hope you will find the strength in you to keep going no matter what. Trust me, it will be worth it.
X Strength/resistance training doesn’t “burn” fat.
\/ Any activity will “burn” some amounts of energy, but to lose fat you need to be in a calorie deficit! (Burn more kcal than you consume)
Those who think that only by doing loads of cardio training you can “burn” fat are simply wrong. Any activity will help you do that. But to be fair as long as you not training for some extra endurance sport like marathons or triathlons you probably are “burning” a lot more calories through your normal daily routine. I tried different smartwatches while training and guess what? Most of the time, with quite exhausting training I could burn around 500-700kcals per workout. Compare it to my total daily expenditure of about 2600kcal that is only around 20%. So where is the rest coming from you might ask? Our bodies need a lot of total daily kcals just for surviving (for tasks like breathing, sleeping, eating etc.). Then we’ve got NEAT which is Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, in simpler words those are calories used for majority of daily tasks such as walking to work or with the dog, doing chores at home, doing shopping etc. So, as you can see, most of us “burn” only a portion of calories during the day while working out.
X More intensive and longer workout the better.
\/ Time and intensity not always = more gains. More often than not it is the opposite.
It will depend on many factors but for majority of us if we are coming out of gym too tired this usually will mean that instead of making progress, we actually can stall it. Unless of course, we are preparing for some endurance event that will require us to be able to keep going for prolonged time. But if we train for the reason of weight loss, building muscle mass or simply to be healthier, trust me, we don’t need to be feeling exhausted after each work out. If we overtrain one day and then don’t have good recovery, next training within too short period from last can make our progress stall. The best rest time between workout for the same muscle groups would be at least 48hrs but sometimes can be even 72hrs. So let’s say someone did chest on Monday, doing every set till failure that at the end of workout could barely raise arm to chest, and then another bit of chest workout on Wednesday there is very big chance that muscles didn’t recovered properly which means less strength and stamina for workout. Sometimes doing a bit less is better. What is most important is a common sense.
If this post brought some light and changed your mind about something, then please let me know whether in comments or DM me and please share it with friends.
If you have an opinion about this post or have some ideas for another post from this series, please don’t hesitate and contact me!
Michal