Are you exercising or eating healthy but don’t have much to show for it? You might be in love with some common myths about exercising or making some mistakes. Take a look at this guide to avoid these weight loss myths and mistakes.
Avoid Temptation
We live in a world of temptations, and food is no exception. Sometimes we also get pressured from friends, colleagues and even family members to have that ghulab jaman or go out to eat a huge processed burger. However, we have to avoid these temptations.
Here are a few ways you can stay away from temptation:
- Eat a high fat/high protein breakfast before you go to work. If you have a full belly, that samosa isn’t going to look as appetizing
- Pack your lunch (healthily of course)
- Keep a bag of nuts such as almonds, walnuts, or cashews with you at all times. It’s a much better snack option than what you’ll find in the canteen
You’ll have to explain to your friends or family why you are eating more health conscious, and if they don’t understand or except it, then just ignore them.
Stop Buying Product X or Going through Diet Y
What counts for building muscle includes determination, intensity, consistency and safety. If you think buying the most expensive formula, training uniform or machine is necessary for reaching your potential, you’re making a mistake. The supplements industry makes a lot of money. Despite this, research shows that most supplements literally do nothing to improve your health or well-being. In actuality, there are only a small number of supplements that are useful. Fish oil, vitamin D, and whey protein are the only three supplements that are recommend. If you have followed a fitness plan successfully for at least a month, consider those three options.
In addition, machines often compromise the intensity required for the body you desire. Instead, perform non-isolated functional dumbbell moves or barbell exercises like squats, bench presses and deadlifts. Also, diets added to training programs, especially when trying to build muscle, can be damaging. For example, the trending Paleo diet is a low-insulin diet, and insulin is required for building muscle.
Avoid Constant Treadmill Use
For all you chronic dieters and cardio enthusiasts that are trying to shed the fat, the right strength training program can boost your metabolism and help burn off more fat. Cardio does have benefits, including stress reduction, relief from depression, and increased life expectancy, but if you spend all your time on a treadmill or elliptical, you won’t be achieving anything. Lift weights at least twice per week, because resistance training increases your metabolic burn for much longer after a workout. In other words, weight lifting will help you burn calories for many hours after exercise, while cardio only burns calories during the act of exercise. By increasing lean muscle mass through lifting weights, you will increase your Basal metabolic rate, BMR. Activated contracting muscles are the body’s furnace. Excessive cardio and dieting can eat muscle tissue away.
Avoid Constant Exercise
Everyone wants more muscle and less fat, and conventional wisdom says that hours and hours of exercise will achieve those results. However, that can be far from the truth. Overkill is not only unnecessary, it can be counter-productive. You’ll get the best results with a strength training regimen, tailored to meet your needs which can be accomplished in three to four hours per week and only 20 minutes of cardio a day, especially if you use high intensity interval training. You can also choose to incorporate yoga for alternate exercise and variety.
For the Ladies Out There
Lift weights. Females who lift weights won’t look like men because they do not have the hormonal support to pile on a significant amount of muscle mass. Female lifters will however assume a shapelier figure. So ladies should incorporate light weight training into their regimen as well.
Don’t Get Impatient with the Process
Fat loss doesn’t happen at the rate your mind demands, but rather at the rate your body allows. Practice patience, because your success counts on it.
