If you’re feeling a little confused about the best ways to lose weight and increase your fitness, you are not alone. It seems like there are a thousand different ways to exercise and every source has a differing opinion on what is best for your wellness and wellbeing. The good news is, most types of activity are good for your health, but the devil really is in the detail. With so many fitness and dieting myths out there, it’s easy to fall victim to an illogical or irrelevant way of thinking and find that you are not doing your long term health as much good as you would like.
A common myth is that if you lose weights you will get bulky. People worry about lifting weights as they think that they will end up looking like a bodybuilder, but the truth is, muscle is much, much smaller than fat. If you have more muscle on your body and less fat, you will be smaller, not bigger. It takes a huge amount of discipline, food and time to properly bulk up from weights – it’s virtually a full time job (and can be enhanced by illegal substances). Weight training is a great way to lose weight, increase your metabolism and make you look leaner.
People also think that as long as they are moving, they will be burning fat. Whilst this does contain a small measure of truth, if you are going out for a slow walk, you are really not going to burn fat. A good starting point is around 40 minutes of cardio workout around five times a week, making sure that it blasts your heart rate up and makes your body warm.
You should also let go of the notion that morning is the only worthwhile time to work out – unless you are a professional athlete, it really doesn’t matter what time you work out, as long as you do.