Myth 1: Walking for 30 minutes will make me lose weight.
Fact 1:
It's true that walking for 30 minutes every day will have a positive
effect on your overall health but, it will not necessarily make you lose
weight. Many recent studies have established, beyond doubt, that steady
state exercise will not stimulate the metabolism sufficiently enough to
have a marked effect on body fat reduction without introducing major
dietary changes at the same time. Sprinting and High Intensity Interval
Training (HIIT) are proven to have significant advantages over walking
if weight loss is the goal. Regardless of the type and duration of
exercise you do, if you do not control your calorie intake, reduce your
consumption of processed foods, fizzy drinks and alcohol, you will NOT
shed body fat.
Myth 2: When you are pregnant, you have to eat for two.
Fact 2: No,
being pregnant does NOT require you to eat enough food for two people.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding are both nutritionally very taxing and while
the body of a pregnant woman is making larger demands, it is more
important to be focussed on quality before quantity. During pregnancy,
gastric emptying will slow significantly, increasing the absorption rate
of the nutrients from food. A pregnant woman will need to increase her
calorie input slightly but only enough to satisfy her own Basal
Metabolic Rate (BMR) and the needs of the foetus. Eat fresh, unprocessed
foods and be guided by your Health Professional, who can monitor the
growth rate and health of the foetus.
Myth 3: My pregnancy made me fat!
Fact 3:
No, your pregnancy did NOT make you fat. It is true that all healthy
adult females will gain weight during a pregnancy and a large portion of
that weight gain is body fat however, the pregnancy is not the reason
she fails to lose the excess weight post-partum. The accepted profile of
pregnancy weight gain in Australia is:
• 44% fat stores and fluid retention
• 25% foetus
•
The remaining 31% is spread among the placenta, increased blood volume,
increased maternal tissue, i.e. uterine wall and breast tissue, and
amniotic fluid.
Failure to shed the fat stores after the birth is
usually due to continuing to maintain the pre-birth low activity levels
(remember walking won't do it!), high stress elevates cortisol
production, this promotes fat storage, and catching up on all of those
"missed treats" that you could not have while pregnant, e.g. glass of
wine, Macca's, etc.
Myth 4: Lifting weights will make me look like a man.
Fact 4:
Ever since Female Body Building became a professional sport, this myth
has gained momentum and popularity as a reason for women not to do
weight training as part of their fitness regimen. When Female Body
Building went professional, without the doping controls of other
professional sports (before the establishment of the Natural Body
Building organisations), the competitors were routinely injecting and
ingesting a whole range of natural and synthetic male hormones. These
drugs effectively turned them into men, from the inside out, and allowed
them to gain massive amounts of bulky muscle and shed unbelievable
amounts of body fat. The look was, in my view, horrendous and the health
consequences horrific. It was the Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone
that created this possibility for them, nothing else.
A healthy
female with normal hormone function, will have approximately the same
level of Testosterone in her body as a 10 year old boy. The ability to
build large volumes of muscle without adding Testosterone and/or Human
Growth Hormone is entirely a male attribute and, it is the very, very
rare case where a woman will be able to do so naturally.
When a
woman does lift weights, her muscles will get stronger and will gain a
small percentage of bulk. When the muscles do grow, they require more
energy simply to exist and this results in the metabolic rate (how many
calories you use) increasing. The net result, assuming you do not
increase your calorie intake, is weight loss. For women, this
transformation will manifest itself in reduced girth measurements (tape
measure & dress size) and a more 'toned' look. It can result in an
increase in weight on the scales due to muscle weighing more than fat
and for that reason alone, I recommend ditching the scales and relying
on the tape measure and skinfolds.
Myth 5: If I just do arm exercises, I'll get rid of my 'tuckshop lady' arms.
Fact 5: If
'spot reduction' worked, everyone would be walking around with
absolutely no belly fat whatsoever. The reality is that spot reduction,
i.e. working on one body part to get rid of the fat around that area
alone, does not work; EVER! When you put on body fat, it begins in one
area, usually around the middle, and spreads everywhere from there. In a
lot of ways, our body acts like a warehouse system, in that when we
subsequently shed the body fat, it comes off in the reverse order. For
example, if I put on body fat around the waist first, then the hips,
thighs, buttocks and so on, when I lose that fat I can expect it to go
from the buttocks first, then the thighs, hips and waist. Working out
for hours on end on your arms will build good strong muscles but will
not necessarily do anything to get rid of the 'tuckshop lady' arms. You
are better off spending your time doing a full body weights session or
HIIT session, to build good quality muscle and increase your metabolism
and then, fix your nutrition. Eat only fresh, unprocessed foods
eliminate sugar, salt, alcohol and carbonated drinks from your diet
entirely and you will become lean and healthy.
Drew Dale is a Fitness Professional with Certificate III & IV
in Fitness and an Accredited Certificate of Nutrition. He specialises
in weight loss, strength and conditioning and fitness for older adults.
Visit Drew's website at
http://www.drewdalepersonaltraining.com for more details.
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