MYTHS OF AEROBIC EXERCISE AND WEIGHT CONTROL
MYTH: Aerobic exercise is all the exercise you need to effectively control your weight.
FACT: A review of the available data strongly indicates that, in general, combining a conventional aerobic exercise program with a calorically restricted diet does little to help you preserve lean body mass during your weight reduction efforts. It is important to keep in mind that the lower your lean body mass is, the lower your resting metabolic rate (i.e., the calories expended by the body to maintain life and normal bodily functions such as respiration and circulation) will be.
As a result, it is more likely that you will regain some or all of the weight you lost.
On the other hand, if you engage in an exercise program that is designed to improve your level of muscular fitness and weight loss, you enhance the likelihood that you will be able to maintain your level of lean body mass. Accordingly, the optimal exercise prescription for sound weight management is one that combines aerobic conditioning and strength training. Such a prescription will allow you to expend a relatively large number of calories, while simultaneously preserving or increasing your level of lean body mass.
MYTH: You can burn fat from specific regions of the body by exercising those areas.
FACT: Contrary to what anyone may want you to believe, the “phenomenon” of spot reduction has absolutely no factual basis. When you exercise, you utilize energy produced by metabolizing fat from all the regions of your body – not just the specific muscles involved in the exercise. Performing sit-ups, for example, will not trim the fat off your abdominal region any more rapidly than off your buttocks or thighs. The exercise may firm up the area but will not make it disappear.
MYTH: Losing weight is extremely difficult.
FACT: Statistics indicate that during any given time period, approximately one quarter of all men and one half of all women in the United States are dieting to lose weight. For the majority of these individuals, losing weight is not the problem. Losing weight, for most people, is relatively easy – keeping it off is their ever present challenge. Estimates indicate 75% to 90% of all dieters who lose weight can expect to regain all of the weight they lost within one to three years of “completing” the diet. The tendency for weight regain among dieters is not only demoralizing, it also can be very hazardous to your health (weight cycling has been associated with increased risk of heart and gallbladder disease). Your weight control efforts should therefore include not only a sensible plan for getting those pounds off, but for keeping them off.
MYTH: Muscles will turn to fat when you stop exercising regularly.
FACT: Muscles cannot turn to fat. Muscle and fat are two separate and distinct tissues. They simply do not have the physical capability to change from one type of tissue to another. In reality, muscles have the unique property of “use it or lose it”. If you don’t use a muscle, it will literally waste away (atrophy).
This process is perhaps best illustrated when someone has to wear a cast on a broken leg. When the cast is eventually removed, the relatively unused leg muscles are considerably smaller than they were prior to the injury. If muscle could turn into fat, you should see a veritable “fat ball” when you take the cast off an injured limb, not a significantly atrophied set of leg muscles.
