Because it is the New Year...

...Many of us, myself included, will feel the need to drop some pounds that have crept on over the last few weeks...or months...or years. We'll pull out (and dust off) our scales, clean out our fridges, strap on our pedometers and gear up to get lean. I have been searching for a battery of PCOS friendly recipes to help control my insulin levels. While I was researching, I stumbled across an article on the Fitness Examiner. I thought it might be a helpful tool for all of us health conscious people as we endeavor to become even healthier :0)

The following article was written by Fred Hahn, and in no way should be considered my own genius.


Lies your trainer Might tell you

Fib #1:

Spot reduction of fat is possible

Why are there still ab classes and hip and thigh classes? Makes me nuts. You cannot burn fat off a particular body part. No my friends, it can't be done. There is not a single scientific paper that supports this notion. It's nonsense and thousands of people waste their time and energy on these sorts of classes, tapes, exercises, etc. More reps doesn't = less fat on a body part. What is possible is 'spot production' of a muscle best achieved through strength training. The photo below shows what eating less calories specifically from carbohydrate can do, not exercise.

Fib #2:

Do aerobics to burn extra calories

Sorry sports fans. While the little LED readout on that $25,000 treadmill or elliptical machine says you burned 300 calories after an hour running on it, you have to subtract the amount of calories you would have burned anyway doing something else from that number! DOH! As and you get fitter you burn even less. Tip: Don't eat the extra calories in the first place and you won't have to worry about burning them off.

Fib #3:

Eat less fat and more complex carbs to get lean

Carbohydrate, complex or not, is sugar once it's digested. Sugar raises the hormone insulin and insulin's primary function is to store body fat. The more carbs you eat the fatter you will stay - or become. Fat on the other hand does not raise insulin a jot. Fat can be considered the 'best friend of protein' because without fat, protein cannot be synthesized thus utilized. It is essential for the health of every cell in your body. If dietary intake of fat is too low, health suffers. Nails can become brittle, hair thinning or loss can occur. But most importantly, cellular regeneration is slowed. Bottom line: Eating fat does not make you fat. eating sugar makes you fat and complex carbs while better than simple carbs, they are all insulin raising and fat producing.

Fib #4:

Work up a good sweat for health

This fib has been around for ages. Here is the deal with sweating. Sweating is your body's way of cooling itself. In other words you sweat in response to overheating. When we overheat, we sweat. Overheating your body is not a way to improve it nor is it a way you enhance performance. Think of your car - would you race it around and overheat it to make it run better? When you exercise strive to stay as cool as you can. At my studios in NY we keep the temperature between 62 degrees and 65 degrees. We have fans blowing and oscillating to keep the air moving keeping you from sweating. This way you can train more intensely and reap greater physiological rewards.

Fib #5:

Pilates will develop a lean, lithe dancer-like body

Sorry ladies. This is simply not true. The only way to have a long, lean dancer like body is to be born that way. If you Warren't, you can't. So what can Pilates do for you? Not a heck of a lot. Pilates is a form of resistance training using either your body as the source of resistance or the spring-loaded reformer. But all in all it is resistance training and if the resistance is correct, stronger muscles will be the outcome. But that is not the focus of Pilates. The focus is on lengthening the muscles which cannot be accomplished. Almost any form of resistance training will create stronger muscles - up to a point. Pilates is a low-level system of such training. Like Yoga, Pilates has achieved a cult-like culture where it's practitioners behave in certain ways and say certain things that have little to no truth to them. That is not to say you shouldn't do it. By all means do what makes you happy. But if you believe that you will look like the picture below by doing Pilates, it just ain't so.

"The truth is easy to kill. But a lie well told is immortal." Mark Twain

So there you have it folks. Feel free to do whatever makes you happy this New Year. Just remember that when you're tossing out the junk food to toss out the thigh master and lies along with it!!!