Fitness Myth #2 – As you age you gain fat.
There’s a common myth that as you age gaining fat becomes unavoidable. This simply isnt true – the reason you gain fat is because your metabolism has slowed down due to a lack of exercise and bad diet choices.

Fitness Myth #3 – Steady state cardio is best for fat loss
The problem with steady state cardio for fat loss is;
• It doesn’t burn many calories whilst performing the exercise and burns very little if any after.
• It causes the body to reduce its release of the fat burning hormones and enzymes.
• The body adapts by becoming more energy efficient, meaning your body has to work less to perform the same workout.

Interval training is far better for losing weight because you will burn far more calories and will keep your metabolism revving for up to 24hrs after you finish training. Interval training is short bouts(10-60 seconds) of high intensity exercise broken up with periods of low intense exercise. The good thing with this is that you can burn more calories in a shorter amount of time, so there’s no need to spend 45-60 mins pounding away on a treadmill, you can be done in 20-25 mins and that’s including your warm up and cool down.

Fitness Myth #4 – Stop exercising & your muscles turn to fat.
I’m not sure where this one comes from – it’s one of those myths that gets past around but when you really think about it it’s ridiculous. Muscle is working tissue which is designed to move your body around, fat is stored energy – it’s as simple as that. The reason people put on fat when they stop training is because the loss of muscle tissue will cause a drop in metabolism, and if your still consuming the same amount of calories where else are the calories meant to go?

Fitness Myth #5 – Spot reducing.
Spot reducing means targeting a specific body part or muscle with an exercise to reduce fat in those areas. I’m always getting asked which ab exercise is best for losing that bit of extra weight around the mid-section. Unfortunately the body doesn’t work this way, when you begin losing weight you are unable to determine which area your body will lose fat. For example doing lots of sit-ups will not reduce fat around the mid-section, it will only strengthen and tone the abs.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2 of… The 10 Biggest Fitness Myths!

Train Hard!

Dan Clay
Personal Trainer Sydney
Boot Camp Sydney