From nothing but shakes to nothing but protein, I have heard it all. There are tons of “fat loss/weightloss” ideas out there but are any of them real? Here are my top Four Fat Loss myths and why they are not true.
Doing tons of sit ups will help me get abs!
This is probably the most popular of all fat loss theories. The fact is that doing tons of crunches and situps or any variation of them is not going to help you burn fat. It will help you build a strong core and help you with your exercise but the in order to make those abs show through you are going to have to clean up your diet. Cut out sugar, fast food and bread. Moderate your alcohol and adopt a high intensity exercise program ;-).
Don’t Eat anything past 6:00pm.
This is something I hear pretty often at my gym. When I’m helping someone outline a meal plan I constantly hear, “I don’t eat after I exercise because it’s too late at night.”
Eating the PROPER foods at night, especially post workout, will help your body recover from the day and keep your body from entering the “storage” mode.
Now if your evening meal consists of chickfila, chips, burgers, fries, baked potatoes, tacos, etc. You are probably in for some weight gain. Plan your evenings out and make sure you have a nice healthy dinner and maybe a healthy bedtime snack if needed!
Lifting Weights will make you Bulky.
A common thought amongst many people when really most weightlifting will do the opposite. There are certain programs that are designed to build muscle like a bodybuilder but weights lifted in a functional method at high intensity, like our CrossFit WODs, will actually help build lean muscle and burn fat. Lifting weights in this manner we don’t worry about how much you are lifting but more about how efficiently you are moving.
All I need is a Good Diet and a Good Exercise Program.
Probably the number one thing people are missing from their daily routine is a good night’s sleep. People come to me all the time with a consistent workout schedule and a good diet but no results. My first question to them is, “how much sleep do you get?” Usually the answer is less than 6 hours.
If you do not get over 7 hours of sleep EVERY night your body cannot regulate properly. Sleep is your body’s time to recover. It release hormones and repairs your muscle that got worked that day.
So the keys to losing weight and burning fat are simple:
- Spend the time cleaning up your diet rather than putting in extra ab work at the gym.
- Eat a healthy dinner post workout no matter what time it is.
- Lift weights often but keep them functional and keep them intense.
- Sleep is what ties it all together. Without sleep it’s an uphill battle.
If you are intersted in learning more about high intenstiy exercise and how it can help you sign up for a free class now!
Richard Andrews
CF-L2