You may be burning tons of calories and eating healthily, but still have layers of fat around your middle. Most people focus on losing weight, when they should be focusing on losing fat. There are a myriad of myths about losing fat that you’ll hear when you’re trying to shed that extra fat around your belly. It’s hard enough to get into shape, but the misinformation makes it even more difficult.
One popular myth is that aerobic exercise is the best for losing fat.
Aerobic exercise, like running, is exceptional for burning calories, but not necessarily good for fat burning. When you run, you do burn tons of calories, but the body takes those calories from both fat and lean muscle mass. The less muscle mass you have, the fewer calories you burn, since muscle tissue requires more calories for maintenance than fat tissue does. If fat burning is at the top of your list, do strength training workouts. They not only burn a lot of calories, but they also help build muscle mass, while burning calories from fat.
A starvation diet will help you lose fat is another myth.
Again, you’ll be using calories from lean muscle mass as well as from fat tissues. That loss of muscle mass makes weight loss more difficult. Your body also has a built in survival mechanism, where it slows the metabolism and goes into starvation mode when it isn’t receiving enough calories for an extended period. That also makes it harder to lose both weight and fat. You need both a program of regular exercise and a healthy diet that’s lower in calories, but not at starvation mode.
If you steer clear of all types of fat, you’ve fallen for another fat loss myth.
You need healthy fat for a number of reasons. Ironically, it’s necessary for burning fat! Food manufacturers look for ways to sell more product, it’s part of being in business. Some offer fat free options. You might not understand how that can be bad, but it is. Food tastes different when fat is removed. To make it more flavorful, they add sugar. Often the healthy fat the food contained was better for fat loss, than the reworked version that’s loaded with sugar and other carbs.
- You think the more hours you’re active, the more calories you burn, so you don’t get enough sleep. When you lack sleep, it creates a hormonal imbalance, reducing leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full and increasing ghrelin, the one that makes you hungry, so you eat more.
- You believe all you need is to workout regularly to lose weight. Sad, but true, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. It takes both diet and exercise.
- You don’t count what you drink into consideration. Whether it’s a sugary drink, a latte with the works or a beer with the gang, it all adds calories and can lead to slower fat loss. Even artificially sweetened drinks can put fat on around the middle.
- You may believe the myth that working out at a specific time will help burn fat. The truth is, no matter when you workout, it’s good. You should have a specified workout time that you know you’ll be able to do consistently.
For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center