There are a lot of rumors and nonsense in the fitness and health industry. However, these are by far the most common concerns and beliefs among women that are beyond not true! And most often this is also what’s holding them back from getting the results and changes that they want!!!
1.) “If I want to lose weight I need to eat less.”
I addressed this already in my previous blog
regarding my top 3 rules for weight loss and maintenance, so I won’t stay on
this topic very long. Below is an illustration showing that it’s NOT about how
much you eat, but about WHAT YOU EAT! When you eat clean healthy food, you will
be AMAZED of how much more food you will be able to fit into your diet. A woman
should NEVER eat less than 1,200 calories in a day, and an active woman should
never have less than 1,600 calories. Anything less than that amount of calories and your body will
start to preserve fat and your metabolism will be sloooooow way down! (This
includes fad diets that require a diet of 500 calories a day! These diets are
terrible for your organs, your intestines and your future metabolism… TERRIBLE!)
2.) “I don’t want to lift weights because I don’t want to get bulky.”
If I had a dollar for every time I
heard this nonsense, I’d own my own island by now! Let me make this very
clear…women DO NOT have the testosterone to produce muscle in bulk!!! Women
have less than 1/10 the amount of testosterone in our bodies than men to and
women produce far more estrogen, which produces more fat and less muscle
(terrible news, I know, I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you….). Now,
that being said, when you do see extremely muscular women, they are most likely
using some type of enhancement or illegal means to get that physique. Exceptions
to that will most likely be a woman who is an athlete… she trains hard to look
that way, she maintains a low body fat in order to see more muscle tone, she
eats to maintain that physique. IT DOES NOT happen by accident or by lifting
weights just a little. A woman with any amount of muscle at all busts her ass
for it!!! Know that. And a woman with a lot of muscle eats, sleeps, and breathes
her training and diet. Therefore, you WILL NOT get big or bulky unless you are
trying to.
3.) “If I want to get skinny I should just do a lot of cardio.”
When you get on a treadmill or cardio
equipment, there are a few things you should know…
First of all, the “Calories
Burned” reading is crap! It’s based on an average sized person, male or female,
which falls in the range of about 170 lbs. If you weigh less than that, then
you are burning significantly LESS calories than it reads. The best way to know
your precise calories burned is by using a heart rate monitor. I use one made
by Polar and most cardio machines in gyms these days will synch to your monitor
and show you an accurate reading based on your body specifically.
Second, when you do steady cardio,
as soon as you step off the machine, you stop burning calories. That’s it. Your
body is done. The exception to this is if you do interval training (also known
as HIIT or tabata style training). This style of cardio is very intense! But it
is also very short and your body will continue burning calories long after the workout
is finished. An example of this would be to sprint as fast as you can (for me a
good pace is around 10-11 mph) for 20 seconds and then jump off to the sides of
the treadmill for 10-20 seconds to rest. Do this for even 5 minutes and you’ll
be gasping for air!
Third, and this is the biggest thing
to understand… and I’m gonna talk physiology on this one so getchur big girl britches
on! The single best way to burn fat is to have more muscle on your body.
Period. When it comes to metabolism, these are the factors that determine how
many calories you burn in a day:
- · Physical activity and exercise = 15-30 % of daily calories burned
- Energy required to metabolize and digest food = 10 % of daily calories burned
- Resting metabolic rate = 60-75% of daily calories burned!
4.) “I need to use the scale to see if my body is changing.”
This picture illustrates that the
scale is not accurate in many cases. Muscle is denser than fat. So even though
a pound of fat and a pound of muscle weight the same on a scale, they will look
different on your body. One way to avoid this confusion is to have your body
fat measured. This can be done either at home with a body fat monitor or at a
gym using body fat calipers. Just keep in mind, these readings are often high
and can fluctuate a lot depending on how hydrated your body is at the time. Another
method is to take body measurements. This one I like a lot, as it is cheap and
can be done at home using a simple cloth tape measure. This can let you see
inches lost from fat or even inches gained from muscle. Another thing I like to
do is take progress pictures. We see ourselves every day and can often not see
changes in our body from day to day. Every Friday, I like to check my body’s
progress. I will take some pictures,
weigh myself and assess my body fat, just to see where my body is at. I’m not
even trying to lose weight, but I’m a firm believer that you MUST STAY AWARE of
your body!!! Weight gain doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a slooooow gradual process
that sneaks up on people because they are not being AWARE! They are not
weighing themselves and they are not being PROACTIVE in maintaining a healthy
weight.
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