- Exercising at a low intensity will burn more calories from fat. This may be true, but only from a percentage standpoint. The harder you workout, the more calories you will burn and ultimately more weight you will lose. Low intensity exercise has its place, especially with beginners or special populations such as the elderly or those with joint issues.
- By concentrating on one part of your body, you can spot tone that area. This is false, no matter how much volume of training (sets and reps) you do on a body part to build muscle, fat is still fat and you have to get rid of it for that muscle to appear. No matter how many crunches you do, that 6 pack won’t show up until you make changes in the kitchen.
- Lifting heavy weight will make women “bulky”. This is false due to the fact that women have very little testosterone levels compared to men, making it almost impossible to become a hulk. In fact, when women want to “tone up”, they need to lift heavier weight in order to build a little more lean mass, as well as do cardio to lose fat mass. If all you ever do it lift light weight and do hours of cardio, you will only increase your muscular endurance. To build muscle and “tone up”, you need to provide your muscles with a stimulus (exercise) that they are not used to. This is the overload principal, if you don’t progress your workout, you will hit a plateau so you need to keep increasing the stimulus to keep getting results.
- If you workout, you can get away with more in your diet. Working out is typically only an hour per bout and most people don’t exercise everyday. In general, most of us aren’t that active the rest of the day, so we don’t burn that many extra calories. Depending on your weight, gender, body composition, and intensity of exercise, the amount of calories you burn will vary. If you don’t eat a balanced diet with low calorie, nutrient dense foods, you will still negate all the work you did from exercise. If you burned 500 calories from exercise, I guarantee your lunch at your favorite restaurant has more calories than that.
Fitness & Nutrition Coach 