Busted!!! Badge Busts Fitness Myths...

I hear a lot of crazy stuff out there in the fitness world, and some of it always makes me laugh. I thought I would do my best in this post to dispel some of the craziness out there. I swear I did not make this up!

MYTH: Muscle turns into fat when you stop working out.
REALITY: NO, what??? NO! Muscle and fat are two totally different types of tissue. It's physiologically impossible. If you stop working out the muscle you do have will begin to atrophy and if you eat more fat and calories than you burn you will then gain "fat weight".

MYTH: Lifting weights will make women bulk up.
REALITY: Nope. Women do not posses enough of the hormone testosterone to get bulky, even using heavy weights. The truth is some people will gain muscle faster than they lose fat, so they may look bigger until they shed some flab and reveal the slim, toned muscles underneath. Did he really say flab? YES I DID!

MYTH: Overweight people have sluggish metabolisms.
REALITY: Though some people do have actual metabolic disorders, fewer than 10 percent of overweight people suffer from them. The truth is, the more you weigh, the more calories you will burn during exercise at the the same relative workload as a slimmer person. That excuse is just not gonna fly anymore...

There are many, many more myths to debunk but alas my eyes are getting heavy, just like the excuses I hear... Train hard people.
Badge out...

Soooooo hungry, must...workout....sooo hungry...

Lets set the record straight here and now. Yes right now! Do not workout on an empty stomach. Do NOT workout on an empty stomach. Besides the fact that you will probably get a headache from low blood sugar, if you workout on an empty stomach you may be undoing what you are trying to do in the first place.

Exercise is the catalyst for change, not the change itself. During a high intensity workout your body burns carbohydrates and creatine instead of fat. But, and this is a big but, it stimulates your metabolism, which in turn attacks your fat stores between workouts. It's not the fat burned during the exercise that matters, it's what happens in between that really adds up. Worrying about how much fat you burn during a workout is as pointless as wondering how much muscle your building while working out. (you don't actually build muscle while lifting, you break it down to trigger growth.) So go ahead and have a small snack before a workout, you will need the fuel to make it a worthwhile session.