FEMALE MUSCLE

Tons of tips and tricks out there suggest the best ways to lose fat. Separating fact from fiction is often the most confusing part, and no one wants to waste their time on something that doesn’t work. So here are three common fat-loss myths debunked so you can continue to see the results you’re after.

Fat-Loss Myth 1: You Can Spot Reduce
I’ve been asked this one so many times that I’ve lost count. Spot reduction is a total fallacy, and many products and pieces of exercise equipment have built their businesses on pushing this myth. Fat loss is a total-body process. Fats need to be broken down from their storage form (triglycerides) into their usable forms (fatty acids) so they can be burned off as a fuel source. They can be burned from any part of your body and not just an area you may be trying to work on. The hard truth is that staying power in training and nutrition is required to create an environment conducive to using more fat for fuel. One must also be patient and stay consistent in the process long enough that the body can sufficiently exhaust even the areas of the body where fat stores are more abundant. A healthy metabolic and hormonal environment is also required to achieve this.

Fat-Loss Myth 1:  Very Low-Calorie Diets Are Best for Fat Loss
Extremely low-calorie diets always backfire for several reasons:

• The body requires an average amount of calories just to maintain basic functions at rest in a 24-hour period. This is known as RMR or BMR with slight criteria variation. If you aren’t meeting those basic calorie needs, your metabolism will adapt to be more efficient and conserve energy.
• Extreme calorie restriction will inevitably sacrifice your muscle. You will burn fewer and fewer calories with less muscle. You also become less insulin-sensitive, which will make it harder to lose body fat.
• Extreme diets can put stress on the adrenal glands. This is even worse when combined with excessive exercise and life stress. This can disrupt the whole endocrine system and lead to further difficulty with fat loss.
• Not having enough fuel will reduce your exercise capacity. You can’t expect great fat-loss progress if you don’t even have the energy to put in a decent workout.

Fat-Loss Myth 1:  The Ccale Is An Accurate Marker of Progress
We really do have a scale-obsessed society. When the scale doesn’t drop, people feel depressed and often throw in the towel. The truth is that the scale really isn’t a good marker of progress. Many things can influence weight over the course of a day—the food you eat, hydration levels, stress, sodium intake, hormones, certain medication, lack of sleep, and more. Also, remember that muscle is more dense than fat and will affect how much the scale can shift downwards. It might even increase. This is especially true if you’ve started weight training and feeding your body nutritionally dense foods instead of empty processed calories. Focus on reliable body fat testing methods such as hydrostatic weighing, the Bod Pod, and the caliper to measure progress. Look at how your clothes are fitting. Use the mirror and pictures over a span of weeks instead of obsessing over your weight during a single day or week.