Fitness myths could be keeping you from losing weight and getting fit. I’ve lost 50 pounds twice in my life, so I know a lot about losing weight and how ridiculous some of these fitness myths are. I’ll be talking about some of the most common fitness myths today

Losing fat can be hard enough by itself, with a bunch of misinformation on the internet, it can be even harder. Having lost weight many times throughout my life as I previously said and someone who exercises daily, I’ve learned a lot.

Losing fat can be a lot easier than you think, you just need the right information and guidance. I don’t know why people like to spew nonsense and guide people in the wrong direction.

I’ll go through some of the biggest and common fitness myths that I fell for and wish I would have avoided. We will make sure that these these fitness myths are debunked.

This post is all you need to know about why some of the top fitness myths are stopping you from losing fat and getting fit.

Biggest Fitness Myths

Fitness Myth 1: You Need To Eliminate Carbohydrates (carbs) To Lose Fat

Alright my beautiful Nutella kit-kat crepe lovers, lets kick it off with the first myth, you need to eliminate carbs to lose fat. This is absurd, you’re body does NOT know the difference between protein, fat and carbohydrates. You should eat them to fuel your workouts. Carbs a a great source of energy for your body and brain.

The difference that comes in is the amount of calories your body uses to digest the different macronutrients. In this case, proteins are tougher to digest; for that reason, it takes more calories to digest them as opposed to carbs and fats. So you can keep your diet higher in proteins, but you don’t need to eliminate any macronutrient.

Also, carbs will cause you to store more water which can make it look like you weigh more than you do. That’s not actual fat, so who cares unless you are trying to weigh in super low for your UFC fight or step on stage for your bodybuilding career.

The biggest thing to lose fat is being in a CALORIE DEFICIT. Read that a few times. I have the BEST article on how to calculate calories so give that a read!

You can have pizza, cake and all those delicious treats! YOU DON’T NEED TO ELIMINATE CARBS TO LOSE FAT.

Fitness Myth 2: If You Eat After 8 p.m It Will Turn Into Fat

I just smothered a protein pancake in Nutella and just ate it and it was fantastic! I love food. Anyways, the second fitness myth, if you eat after a certain time in the day, it will turn into fat! This is ridiculous, your body doesn’t know what time of day it is!

You can eat at any time of the day and you’ll be fine. What matters once again is calories in and calories out. If you are eating more than your maintenance, you’ll gain weight. If you are eating less than you maintenance, you’ll lose weight!

Yes, it may not be ideal for some people to eat too late in the day due to things such as heartburn or other medical conditions, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Just because you eat after 6 pm or 8 pm or any other time, that food won’t magically turn into fat!

Fitness Myth 3: You Have To Eat Chicken, Rice, Broccoli and Salads All Day To Lose Fat

Was just watching the one piece live action series, got to say, it’s pretty good! It’s not following the anime exactly, but it’s good!

Anyways, the third fitness myth, you have to eat chicken, rice, broccoli and salads, or only some specific foods to lose fat. This is absolutely false. Just as with the past two myths, it’s all about calories in and calories out. If you are consuming more than your maintenance calories, you gain weight and if less than, you’ll lose weight. Simple as that.

You can eat whatever you want, pizza, burgers and all the other fun things. You just have to fit them into your calories. Obviously, that doesn’t mean eat junk all day. There are plenty of ways you can make your most favorite food into healthier versions at home.

An example is, you can make pizza at home using fat free cheese, this will make your pizza higher in protein and lower in calories! That’s not to say you can’t have dominos or whatever your favorite pizza is every now and then, but you can find ways to fit into your calories. There was a week where I was eating half a cheesecake crumbl cookies every day for a week. Not saying this is healthy or encouraging this stupidity, but I fit it into my calories for the week!

There are no certain best fitness foods that are applicable to everyone.

Fitness Myth 4: You Can Spot Reduce Fat

Doing certain exercises can help you build more muscle in areas, so you might have to lose less fat in that area for it to seem more defined. You can’t spot reduce fat though, this a pretty big misconception about exercise and weight loss.

Everyone is genetically different and store fat in different areas. You’ll have to be in a caloric deficit (are you seeing a theme here, CALORIE DEFICIT) to lose fat. Your body will lose fat from wherever it wants to. Doing a million crunches a day might help you build better abs, but you need to lose the fat over them to see them. The crunches themselves won’t burn the fat. You’ll have to diet and exercise to lose the fat. There are also better ab exercises as a side note.

Fitness Myth 5: The Longer You Workout The Better

“HeY bRo I jUsT w0rKeD oUt FoR 27 hOurZ t0dAY” lol shut up. Depending how intensely you train, you could get a great workout in, in about 45 minutes to an hour. I usually workout for about 1 to 1.5 hours a day when I lift (this includes 10 minutes of warm up cardiovascular exercises (cardio)). I am currently lifting 5 days a week.

As long as you get in roughly 10-20 sets of a body part per week of which you are doing maybe 10-15 reps in each set, you’ll be fine. Focus on your form and time under tension when you weight lift. Check my article on everything about weight lifting for more about that!

Fitness Myth 6: You Should Do Static Stretches Prior To Working Out

This is actually a dangerous fitness myth and could lead to possible injury.

First and foremost, I love pizza. Lol just kidding (I do actually love pizza). First and foremost, it can tire your muscles out prior to even working out. Static stretches are where you hold a certain stretch for a while to “loosen out the muscle”. Remember the stretches from gym class? Like going down and touching your toes and holding that position for 30 seconds? Yeah that, don’t do that prior to working out.

It’s better to do these after you’ve worked out and there is more blood circulating through your muscles.

You can do dynamic stretches such as lunges or leg swings prior to working out. I prefer to just walk on a treadmill or do the elliptical 10 minutes prior to my workout. This gets the flood flowing throughout my body and lessens the chance of injury.

Fitness Myth 7: Lifting Weights Will Make Women Look Like Men

This is for all the princesses out there. YOU WILL NOT LOOK LIKE A MAN FROM LIFTING WEIGHTS ALONE. If you are going to make weight lifting your life AND abuse performing enhancing drugs such a testosterone, sure.

You can’t build as much muscle as men, you don’t have the testosterone. Even many men are terrible a building muscle. You will gain muscle over time (months or even years in fact) and look much more fit.

Building muscle will also increase your metabolism so you can eat a bit more. Fat burns approximately 2 to 3 calories a day where as muscle can burn around 6. I found some sources on Dr. Google that said muscle can even burn up to 10 calories a day. So if you put on 20 pounds of muscle after years of weight lifting (keep your expectations real), you can at an extra 200 calories a day possibly.

This post was all about the biggest fitness myths that you should avoid if you are serious about losing fat and getting fit

Other Posts You May Like

1. EVERYTHING  You Need To Know About Protein 
2. The BEST Article on Cardio
3. 7 Insane Reasons You Are Losing Fat But Gaining Weight That Everyone NEEDS to Know

Disclaimer: I’m not your doctor. Please consult your doctor, nutritionist or any health care professional before making any changes in your own lifestyle. These blogs are just me sharing my knowledge for you reading entertainment purpose only. None of this is medical advice.

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