Title: Top 5 Fat Loss Myths
There are so many fat loss myths out there in "exercise-land" that
I was hired by a fitness magazine to write about one myth each month.
After all, by now you've probably heard that if you don't do
60-minutes of cardio in your fat burning zone on an empty stomach
while Venus is in line with Jupiter, you'll never burn fat.
The problem with myths is that not only are they wrong and give
false hope to millions of people trying to lose weight, but they
also waste your time and mental effort.
I have also seen these myths used as justification for cheating on
a diet, watching countless men and women justify their "treats"
because they believe they are on some type of magical exercise
program or nutrition plan.
I could go on for days about fitness myths, but I cut my list from
30 down to the Top 5 Fat Loss Workout Myths today. I'll save the
other 25 for future newsletters.
Myth #1: You have to do cardio first thing in the morning on an
empty stomach.
Relax. You don't have to hop on the treadmill at 4:30am every
morning. Let's allow common sense to dictate when and how you
exercise.
If you want to work out first thing in the morning, and I know that
is the best time for many TT readers, by all means, go ahead and do
it. There's nothing magical about this time - although it is often
the only time many of day many people have to themselves.
We need to think "outside of the hour" of exercise and realize that
calorie burning and fat burning goes on for 24-hours. Forget
about the theories and look at the big picture.
It doesn't matter when you exercise - as long as you exercise
intensely and consistently. Focus on relatively high-intensity
workouts to increase your metabolism for as many hours after
exercise as possible. That is best done with interval training and
resistance training.
Myth #2: You have to do your cardio in your "fat burning zone".
Again, nonsense.
While you might burn a larger proportion of total calories as fat
when you exercise in your fat burning zone, you burn fewer calories
overall by exercising at such a low intensity.
When you increase your workout intensity and get out of your
so-called "fat burning zone", you burn more total calories, and as
a result, more fat.
In addition, the "fat burning zone" training doesn't put
"turbulence" on your muscles...so you don't burn many calories in
the post-exercise time period. But with interval training, you burn
a significant amount of calories for hours after training, and
that leads to more fat loss.
I've worked with hundreds of people that have avoided the fat
burning zone while still managing to lose dozens of pounds of fat.
The "fat burning zone" is one of the biggest fitness myths of all
time.
Click here to stop the cardio & lose fat with Turbulence Training workouts:
=> http://www.turbulencetraining.com/
Myth #3: You have to do cardio for 20 minutes before you burn fat.
When I hear this, I picture a fat-burning switch in my body that
turns on only after I've been doing "cardio" for 20 minutes. But
what if I only exercise for 19 minutes and 59 seconds? Are
you telling me that I won't have burned any fat? That's ridiculous.
What if I did it on an empty stomach in the morning and in my
target heart rate zone? (read that one sarcastically!)
I'll say it one last time. We need to be more concerned with our
24-hour metabolism, not how much fat or even how many calories are
burned during the workout.
Myth 4: Drinking ice cold water will help you burn calories and
lose fat.
Standing in line at the grocery store is a great place to pick up
the latest fat loss myths. You'll also find this one all over the
Internet.
This myth often comes along with some calculations showing that by
drinking 8 glasses of ice-cold water you can burn 70 calories per
day. I don't believe that actually holds true in real life.
Regardless, drinking cold water is not going to burn any more fat
off your body than drinking room temperature water.
Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe you should drink 12 glasses
of water per day, but the temperature of your water won't have any
effect on your overall fat loss success.
Myth #5: Adding one pound of muscle will burn 50 extra calories
each day.
Uh-oh, now I'm cutting down a myth that supports my use of strength
training in a fat loss program. But I have an obligation to set the
record straight about this extremely prevalent myth (even though I
just saw a big name fitness expert perpetuate this myth in a recent
article!).
This myth sounds so good. Add a pound of muscle, boost your
metabolism 50 calories. That doesn't seem out of line at all.
But do the math for a guy that puts on 30 pounds of muscle. Does
his metabolism really increase by 1500 calories? Absolutely not.
For an average guy, that would require his resting metabolism to
increase from 2500 calories to 4000 calories per day. How would he
be able to keep any of that muscle with a metabolism like that?
He'd have to eat like a pig forever.
So when you look at the big picture, you can see this little myth
start to fall apart.
That's not to say you should stop your strength training, but just
don't use this myth as an excuse to cheat on your diet.
Bonus Myth: Negative Calorie Foods Cause You to Lose Weight
According to the "experts", a negative calorie food requires more
energy to digest than it provides you when you eat it. And included
in the negative calorie food list are apples and bananas.
So by this logic, I would actually starve to death if I had nothing
to eat but apples (because I would have a net energy loss from
eating a so-called "negative calorie" food).
There is no such thing as a negative calorie food. It's a shame “experts”
are out there promoting this stuff, and that so many people fall for it.
Instead, let the common sense fat loss principles apply. It's going
to take consistent effort, working hard at your workouts and with
your nutrition to get the results you want.
http://www.turbulencetraining.com/
I guarantee you that Turbulence Training will successfully
guide you to the fat loss you deserve and desire.
Sincerely,
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training
P.S. Here's the truth on fat loss from TT users...
"I Coach busy women with no time to look in the mirror, let alone
adopt a whole foods lifestyle or exercise yet already! And yet,
your Turbulence strategies show almost everyone that everyone has
all of the time they'll ever need to include exercise as a fun,
performance-promotion essential to their lives. This program is
amazing and plenty challenging because it is simple. Clear but lets
no one off the hook. I'm thrilled to say this is a great addition
to any woman's arsenal of "what to do."
Ann G. Burgess, President, Pathfinders' Fitness by Design,
Arlington , MA
Get your very own copy of Turbulence Training & the Nutrition Guide here:
=> http://www.turbulencetraining.com/
"I have been in possession of TT for a several weeks now; I
absolutely enjoy the program. I can get in to the gym and rip
though the supersets work up a great sweat and pump my energy
levels up before I even get to the cardio portion of my work-out. I
I have recommended this program to both beginner and veteran alike.
Since starting TT I have dropped almost 2% of body fat and look
forward to making my goal of 10% body fat in no time. This program
is absolutely one of the best anywhere on the Web."
Alejandro B. Villalobos
