What is going to actually work for women? What is it about the different body types that can make things so hard to actually shift the weight? And why do some women look like monstrosities after training to enter into body-building competitions?
WARNING: You are about to hear some plain, simple truth about women and exercise. If you do not want to know how to exercise to effectively lose weight, please close this page now.
Myth #1 – There is a “perfect” woman – There is a huge misconception in our society that women have to look a certain way in order to be attractive. This does happen in various different cultures with many different ways of measuring a woman’s beauty. The sad fact about our culture is that the image which is portrayed to be the ‘ideal’ woman is simply unachievable for the large majority. The upside to this though, is that every woman can be
Myth #2 – Strength training makes you bulky – Strength is an important part of everyone’s life (if you don’t want to be weak and flabby). Strength training for women means that they will begin to be more toned and less flabby with a tighter body. The genetics of your body are what decides on the natural shape to which your body will grow. Very few women grow bulky muscle simply due to the large amounts of testosterone that are required. Unless you are taking human growth hormones or other drugs, you will find that it is extremely difficult for women to build bulky muscles beyond being more toned and less flabby.
Myth #3 – Eating less food means you’ll lose more weight – Loads of women believe in the ‘starvation’ myth. The truth is, this is absolutely barbaric and not a very effective way of dropping fat. When you starve yourself by not eating enough, regularly enough, your body begins to enter “starvation mode” and starts storing as much fat as possible for what your body thinks is a famine. Your body will quickly use up muscle mass and store fat in preference as a way to preserve your life. Eating more good foods is actually highly complimentary to weight loss.
Myth #4 – Swimming is a good way to lose weight – Many people believe that swimming is a great way to exercise. The truth is that while swimming is a very low-impact way to exercise, your body’s natural stability and resistance to gravity is virtually non-existent in the water. You will get a much more beneficial, more functional workout on land.
Myth #5 – Drinking coffee makes it harder to lose weight – Drinking coffee is often given a bad name. Being a stimulant, however, coffee actually increases metabolism. If you don’t have loads of sugar and milk in your coffee, it may actually assist you to lose wait… taken in moderation.
Myth #6 – Eating fat makes you fat – Fat is a macronutrient which is essential for sustaining human life. When you eat fat your body is getting the nourishment it requires. A healthy amount of fat to eat per day for fat loss is between 30g – 40g.
Myth #7 – Smoking is a good way to keep weight off – Although it is true that smoking can in fact increase your metabolic rate significantly, there are a few things to keep in mind. Firstly, smoking cigarettes is highly detrimental to your health and works against a healthy, sustainably life. Secondly, it is known that overall, smokers are actually FATTER than non-smokers.
Myth #8 – Skipping breakfast helps you lose weight – Skipping breakfast is a great way to stop weight loss in it’s tracks and enter the body into starvation mode first thing in the morning, effectively slowing down your metabolism. This is simply due to the fact that your body needs regular food in order to know that it is not starving. This gives your body the priority of losing weight, feeling good and looking great as apposed to… SURVIVING!!
Myth #9 – Margarine is less fattening than butter – Margarine has very similar amounts of fat as butter does, however, since margarine is simply a form of highly processed oil (usually genetically modified canola oil), it is loaded with trans-fatty acids and has been linked to various forms of cancer.
There are plenty of myths about exercise floating around, especially to do with the benefits of exercise for women. You have read about the 9 myths of women’s exercise… Now is the time to act and start benefiting from a new, healthy you.