BlueSkies Fitness Ltd

It’s said that kids say the funniest things, well sometimes adults too! In the fitness industry, you hear a lot of ‘facts’ that people firmly believe but unfortunately they’re not actually true! Here are some of the most common ones and the truth behind them.

‘No pain, no gain’! This is commonly heard in the same sentence as ‘feel the burn’’! Both of these out-dated opinions are actually dangerous! Pain is a signal that tells you that what you’re doing is harming your body! If you’re in pain, you’re likely to be on the verge of injuring yourself and you’ll soon be needing a physio or doctor! Yes, you need to challenge your body in order to train effectively but pain is just one step too far. 

‘Want to get rid of the middle-age spread?  Do lots of crunches!’ If only this were true – you’d be able to target your beer belly or love handles by just working specific muscles! Unfortunately, it’s impossible to ‘spot-reduce’ fat. Exercise cannot ‘burn’ fat from just one area, it ‘burns’ fat from all areas, not just the ones that are working. The only way to ‘spot-reduce’ fat is to undergo surgery but even that’s not permanent!

 ‘Going to the gym means you can eat what you want!’ Just because you go to the gym, don’t expect to be able to eat anything you like and not put weight on! The average person uses approximately 100 calories to run a mile, a Mars bar contains around 300 calories – you can do the math yourself!

‘More sweat = more weight loss!’ We’ve all seen people wearing waterproofs in the gym and yes, it’s true – when you sweat you lose weight. However, this 'weight' is simply water loss and it will all magically re-appear as soon as you rehydrate. Increasing the rate at which you sweat simply makes training harder and increases your risk of the potentially fatal effects of dehydration!

 ‘Muscle turns to fat when you stop training!’ Muscle can’t become fat and fat can’t become muscle! Stop training and your muscles will gradually return to their pre-trained size and this can make you appear ‘fatter’. Also, many people stop training without re-assessing their calorie needs and carry on eating the same number of calories.  The combination of maintenance of calorie intake and reduced calorie expenditure results in a gain in fat mass. These two factors generally combine to create the illusion of muscle turning to fat. 

It may come to a surprise to a lot of people but fats aren't all bad!  There are actually different types of fats in our diets and, yes, some are 'bad' but others are actually very 'good' for us, in fact they're essential for good health. 

The benefits of fats....Eating fat enables us to gain the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E & K.  In addition to this, we need fat to help insulate us and our vital organs - the fat under our skin helps to keep us warm whereas the fat around our organs helps to protect them.  However, the type of fats that we eat can affect our health.   

To clarify....There are two main types of fats in the diet - saturated and unsaturated.  Saturated fats generally come from animal sources and are found in foods such as meat, butter, cheese, processed products, cakes, biscuits, pies, pastries and sausages.  Unsaturated fats generally come from plant sources and these can be split into the mono-unsaturated fats found in olive oils, nuts and avocados and the poly-unsaturated fats found in oily fish, nuts, seeds, sunflower oil and olive oil. 

The good, the bad....Saturated fats are known as the 'bad' fats because high intakes of these can lead to raised cholesterol levels which can lead to heart disease, strokes and high blood pressure amongst other things.  Unsaturated fats are known as 'good' or 'healthy' fats and these are able to reduce levels of cholesterol and are therefore protective against the aforementioned conditions. 

What about Omega 3?  Omega 3 is part of the poly-unsaturated group of fats and it is essential that we obtain it from our diets as our bodies cannot manufacture it.  The best source of Omega 3 is oily fish as this is long-chained - the type that our bodies can use more quickly.  Other sources of Omega 3 include flaxseed and rapeseed oils but these are short-chained and have to be converted into long-chained Omega 3's before they can be used by the body.  Omega 3 is thought to protect against cardiovascular disease, improve brain functioning & development and enhance joint health. 

The healthy way....We cannot cut fats out of our diets for the reasons previously stated but we can make our fat intake healthier.  To do this we can:

• Swap the saturated fats we cook with for unsaturated ones i.e. fry food in olive oil instead of butter
• Cut the fat off meat and remove the skin from poultry
• Grill, steam, microwave, poach or casserole foods instead of roasting or frying them in saturated fat
• Reduce our intake of foods that are high in saturated fats such as cheese, butter, cakes, biscuits and pre-prepared or processed meats and foods
• Choose lower fat versions of dairy products such as milk, yoghurt and cheese
• Eat up to 4 portions of oily fish per week (pregnant women or those trying to become pregnant should limit their intake to 2 portions per week)
• Snack on healthy-fat-containing foods such as seeds and nuts instead of chocolate and biscuits

If you are interested in how healthy your diet is, why not get it analysed?  BlueSkies can analyse your diet to discover whether you are achieving a healthy, balanced dietary intake.  We will provide you with a written report highlighting any improvements that you could make and follow this up with a phone consultation to help you create your own personalised action plan.  For more information, e-mail us or click here to go to our Dietary Analysis page. 

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