Wednesday, February 25, 2009

3 Weight Loss Myths That Can Put Your Life in Jeopardy

By Frances Norah Smith

Health related articles contain lots of information when it comes to weight loss. It includes useful tips that actually work and also those that don't. The weight loss industry is filled with myths, not to mention misleading and inaccurate information as some tend to change the facts for their own gains or partly due to the lack of knowledge. As a result, fad diets, weight loss supplements and pills that don't work came about. In this article I will discuss three such weight loss myths.

1. Myth#1: Spot reduction of fat is possible: Not totally true. This claim is not true to a certain extent and it has been backed up by weight loss experts. Many have been mislead that if you do workouts that focus on a certain area, you can spot reduce fat.

Here is an example. By doing crunches and leg lifts, your main focus here is to lose fat in the abdominal area. However, in reality, this is not the case. Instead of losing belly fat, you will reduce the muscle mass below the abdomen. A solution to this is to combine a healthy diet that will help you to increase your metabolism rate and help to burn fat, together with doing workouts like crunches and leg lifts.

2. Myth#2: You will lose body fat if you cut down extremely on your calorie intake: This myth has influenced many to go on a starvation diet hoping to lose their excess fat quick. Not many are aware about the consequences of such diets. These types of diets damage the body instead of helping them. The body goes into starvation mode when it senses that there is a very low or no calorie intake. This takes place usually when you are fasting or starving. The body slows down your metabolism rate when it goes into starvation mode. This results in the loss of muscles instead of fat in order to produce energy. The bigger downside to cutting down drastically on calorie intake is that you will gain extra weight once you return to your normal diet.

3. Myth#3: Cardio exercises alone will help you lose weight: While it is true that cardio exercises can help you lose fat, it is not true that this is the only type of weight loss exercises available; don't forget the aerobics. As a matter of fact, the amount of fat you will lose doing either cardio or aerobics is almost same. On the other hand, weight lifting is better than both cardio and aerobics, in that it not only helps you burn fat during the workout, but even after that!

I sincerely hope that this article has successfully brought the real weight loss truths before you! - 16004

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