The exercise business attracts a lot of shady people, and it’s not just the late night infomercial people. It’s also the people who write fitness and diet books. Every couple of months another new exercise book comes out with the same old myths. This article will expose 4 common fat loss myths and why they are myths.
Myth #1
Do a cardio workout in the early morning before eating breakfast. Okay, it’s true that early morning is a good time to exercise. You have the most energy then and you give yourself energy for the rest of the day.
But there’s nothing special about 5:00 AM, especially in the winter. Your body burns calories and fat just as well at 9:00 PM. If you oversleep and miss your morning workout, don’t think, well, I missed the most optimum time to exercise. In reality, it doesn’t matter when you exercise, as long as you exercise with intensity.
Myth #2
Make sure you’re in your fat burning zone when you do cardio. Fat burning zone equals low intensity. You’ll burn more calories from fat, but less calories overall if you stay in your fat burning zone.
Also, fat burning zone training doesn’t cause your body to burn calories after exercising. But with interval training, for example, you burn calories for hours after training, which leads to greater fat loss.
Myth #3
Fat burning kicks in only after 20 minutes of cardio. Come on people, there’s no “fat burning” on / off switch in your body. What if you do 19 minutes and 46 seconds on a stationary bike…no fat burned? Enough said.
How much fat you burn during a workout is just not that important. What’s your metabolism doing the other 23 hours of the day? Is it still burning fat?
Myth #4
You’ll lose weight by eating negative calorie foods. A negative calorie requires more energy to eat it than it provides you. Spinach is a negative calorie food. If you ate nothing but spinach, I guess you would starve to death.
But wait…Popeye only eats spinach. And he isn’t dead; I just watched him this morning. Actually, there’s no such thing as a negative calorie food, it’s some diet guru’s catchphrase. Popeye should kick his butt.
Have you been buying into any of these myths? Hope not. When it comes to exercise, let common sense guide you. As mentioned above, one the most important things is exercising intensely. This causes “turbulence” in your muscles. With Turbulence Training, you keep your metabolism elevated 24 hours a day.
By: Z.D. Zimmerman