Fat myths

PDF | Print | E-mail

Wednesday, 17 March 2010 13:53

User Rating: / 3
PoorBest 

Fat or Fiction?

by Lisa Raleigh

Just a small percentage of South Africans take up a sport to win medals or beat their rivals. For most people, it’s about looking and feeling better. But how factual and scientific is some of the gym locker-room advice regarding fat?

Myth 1: Muscle turns to fat if you stop exercising
This is physically impossible. Muscle and fat are composed of two entirely different types of tissue. Here’s how a former Ironman athlete could theoretically turn into a lump of lard: When they stop or reduce their training, they lose lean muscle mass and effectively decrease their metabolic rate. If they continue to eat the same calorie intake, they begin storing the excess calories as fat because they don’t have the same muscle mass to burn them off. This increases their body fat percentage, making them look fatter than when everyone thought they were a deity!

Myth 2: You burn more fat if you exercise on an empty stomach
When you wake up in the morning you always start the day off being hypoglycaemic (low blood sugar) as you haven’t eaten for sometimes up to 10 hours. Training when you are in this state causes you to use the glycogen stored in your muscles as well as the muscles themselves as fuel. Since the purpose of training is to increase lean muscle mass to improve your metabolism, you would be counteracting the good of your workout by not eating. The best snack is a piece of fruit or a small glass of fresh fruit juice 20-30 minutes before training to elevate your blood sugar.