Losing Fat | Myths and Facts

Thursday, May 21, 2009

With so many facts and fiction about fat loss, it is not surpising that people get confused which advice to follow. Although this article is not intended as an exhaustive source of information about what is true and what is false about fat loss, we hope that it will help you to distinguish myths from facts.

Myth: Don't drink much water, you will get fat.

Facts: Natural water has absolutely no calories, so it can't be converted to fat. Actually, water dissolves fat. Besides, water is vital for the proper functioning of your body. If there is a relation between drinking much water and weight, it is a very indirect one and water can't be blamed for that. When you drink water and it stays in your body, it's absolutely logical that your weight will be higher but after a couple of hours, when water normally leaves your body, you will not have more fat because you have drunk water.

Myth: Exercise makes you eat more.

Facts: Sure, when you exercise, you lose energy but that does not mean that right after going out of the gym you must head to the restaurant. Experts often recommend that you neither eat, nor drink galons of water at least 2 hours after physical activity. So if you don't eat after you have been exercising, you will not gain weight.

Myth: Diet only is enough to lose fat.

Facts: Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. After you have been on a diet for some time, even if there had been positive results, there is always one point when even if you don't eat at all (which is absolutely not recommended), your body refuses to use more of its fat reserved and you can't lose a gram more. At this point, or even better from the very beginning, you must include exercise, because diets alone can't burn enough fat.

Myth: There are magic diets and pills.

Facts: Too good to be true. Magic diets like „eat this and this and 10 a.m. sharp, don't eat this and this and you will have the body of a god“ are really naive and besides keeping your mind busy through the day, other positive results are unlikely. The same applies to pills. Unless you have a serious metabolism disorder, which is a medical condition and needs to be treated by doctors, not by you, pills are not the lazy way to great body.

Myth: Herbal products are safe.

Facts: Although herbal products are not synthetic pills, they are still a medicine that probably has a lot of undesired side-effects. Herbal products can be dangerous and the fact that they are sold on the market is not a guarantee that they will not damage your health.

Myth: When you exercise hard, you can eat whatever you like.

Facts: This is the opposite to the dieting myth but the grain of truth is the same. Even when you exercise hard (2 or more hours a day) you still need to take into account what you eat and when you eat it. 2 hours of active exercising might burn enough fat but if you have a giant pizza and a huge bottle of Coke after that, forget about the positive effects of the stay in the gym – you will still have fat (though presumably more muscles as well).

Myth: You can lose fat only in a particular region of your body.

Facts: If you have seen many people with thin legs and a fat belly, or the opposite, more likely it is so not because they want it but because this is their body structure (which they probably don't like at all). When you lose fat, this happens in a pre-defined order. First, fat disappears from the face and the breasts. The belly and the hips come next. The thighs and the upper-arm usually are the last ones affected and for many women these areas never become fat-free.

Myth: Diets and exercise are universal.

Facts: People are different and diets and exercise are not an exception. While there are universally true facts about dieting and exercise, more often than not, successful and sustainable fat loss is achieved when you are hard-working and diets and exercise are tailored to your needs.

Myth: You can lose fat once and forever.

Facts: This hardly ever happens, though there are cases when one has been fat during puberty and as an adult his or her weight is in the norm. But for adults, losing fat means a constant struggle to maintain the achievements, so you can't rely on the fact that you will make some efforts, drop your excessive weight and then there will be no need to do anything.

Source: http://www.lose-fat-fast.info/truth-about-losing-fat.php