Physical Fitness - The Truth That You Need to Know

Everyone has their beliefs and behaviors on fitness, health, food, eating, exercise, and balancing for themselves. But not all things that we hear and read are true, the same goes for fitness beliefs. Our beliefs play a major role in how we view the world including our health and fitness. By asking the top experts in nutrition, exercise and weight loss, it will set the record straight.

Maintaining a good level of physical fitness is something that we should all aspire to do, but people have their own definition and version of physical fitness without knowing its real meaning. The real meaning of physical fitness is the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy leisure-time pursuits and respond to emergencies. To complete all different tasks, one must consistently address their fitness levels that require proper conditioning through both structured exercise and leisurely activities. There are various components of fitness like cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, muscular power, flexibility, balance, speed, and body composition. In most cases, the components that are used to assess fitness is endurance and strength. But making use of the other components gives a better picture of overall fitness along with health athleticism.

New exercise and fitness myths seem to pop up in just a snap. Some die off quickly, others don’t. What comes after diet, there is nothing more rampant with myths and half-truths than exercise, especially its effect on weight loss. If you happen to follow any inaccurate advice, you will end up wasting your time, energy, money and may even cause you injury.

Here are some misunderstood notions about physical fitness that will finally give clarity to your fitness awareness.

1. Myth: Muscle weighs more than fat

Truth: No substance weighs more than another one unless it actually weighs more, meaning one pound of fat weighs the same as one pound of muscle. Fat is bulkier than muscle tissue and takes up more space under the skin.

Both also have different functions, muscle serves a different function compared to fat. Fat helps insulate the body and trap in body heat while muscles boost your metabolism which means the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn when you rest.

2. Myth: Weight training converts fat to muscle

Truth: Fat and muscle are two different substances. The strength training exercise will help you build muscle that encourages fat loss by increasing your resting metabolism resulting in more burned calories. Getting a lean look, one needs to build muscle through weight training while simultaneously losing fat.

3. Myth: Lifting heavy weights would cause women to be bulky

Truth: Women don’t produce much testosterone compared to men that spurs muscle growth that causes men to look bulky. Lifting weights sometimes held responsible for adding bulk because the extra body fat has not yet shed off, as a result, it gives the illusion that you are getting bigger.

4. Myth: You can walk off extra pounds

Truth: If you are aiming for a noticeable weight loss, one should consider other forms of exercise than walking because it has a low intensity and doesn’t burn many calories during or afterward. To substantially decrease your belly fat, an integrated approach of strength training, cardio and calorie-controlled diet should be practiced.

5. Myth: You will burn more fat on an empty stomach

Truth: Our body burns the same amount of fat whether you skip your meal or not. But our body needs fuel to function properly, build muscle, and burn calories. Food is our body’s fuel, eating something light before a workout like a protein shake, yogurt or a piece of wheat bread will keep us get going.

6. Myth: You should do cardio and strength on separate days

Truth: By doing separate days for specific exercises will only lessen your chances of hitting your goals, it could be for your health, strength, endurance or weight loss

7. Myth: Doing long and slow training burns the most fat

Truth: If you are aiming for fat loss, you can focus on your burned calories during and after your exercise and do a more intense and interval training for half or even quarter of the time, as it burns more calories at a faster rate and keeps your metabolism revved post-gym workout.

8. Myth: Thin = Healthy

Truth: This is a very common misconception among our society that being thin is being healthy or fit, neither being fat is being not fit or not healthy. Being thin means that you don’t have much excess body fat but you can still have poor health for being thin.

9. Myth: Supplements will help you reach your goals

Truth: Supplements are packed with filler, sugar, fake sugar and chemical concoctions that will do more bad than good. The supplement industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and its mission is to trick consumers to think that supplements are beneficial.

10. Myth: Carbohydrates are evil

Carbs are good for the body and our body needs it. It is necessary because it gives us the energy to make our bodies function properly. You can eliminate carbs and lose weight but this is a short-term result and is not sustainable.

11. Myth: There’s a one size fits all answer

Truth: Each body is different. What works for one person may not work for another one. What works for the other body may hurt the other one. One’s fitness journey may be different from yours and it should be taken into consideration, to find what works for you. And something that works for you now might have not worked for you years ago.

12. Myth: Abs are made in the kitchen

Truth: Each one of us has abs, it exists regardless of your diet and ab muscles are the same as every other muscle in your body. They are made by working your core muscles in the same way that you work with all other muscles.

13. Myth: Cleanses and detoxes are beneficial

Truth: Your body does the cleansing and detoxing on its own. It’s not uncommon for cleanses and detoxes to confuse your body into thinking that something is not right, giving your body health issues as a result. Most of those products are just sugary drinks and a waste of your hard-earned money.