7 Fitness Myths That Need to Be Busted ASAP
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It is long overdue for us to take some super common fitness myths. That’s why in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I outline 7 of the most common fitness myths I see AND I give you the TRUTH for every single one. I’m super curious to know how many of these myths you believe!
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Episode 54: 5 Reasons Why I Don’t Believe in “Cheat Meals” + 5 Things to Do Instead
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, there beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real, let's get in, let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. It is long overdue for us to take some super common fitness myths and bust them so that's why in this episode, I'm going to be outlining seven of the most common fitness myths that I see, and I'm going to give you truth behind every single one of them. I am super curious, as you tune into this episode I would love for you to take some notes, whether it be on your phone or in your mind, or on a piece of paper. And I would love to know how many of these myths you maybe previous believed, or maybe you currently believe, and this really opened your eyes. Be sure to screenshot this once you finish listening to this episode, post it up on your story and tag me, Julie Ledbetter tag Embrace Your Real account, and I would personally love to know how this episode helped you and also be sure to spread this message outs so tag some friends that you feel like this episode would really benefit from.
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Okay, let's dive into the seven fitness myths that need to be busted ASAP. Myth number one, you can target your weight loss. The truth is you cannot target a specific part of your body to work out and specifically lose weight there, aka spot reducing. For example, doing only ab workouts, doing thousands and thousands of ab workouts will not help you lose abdominal fat if that is not a place that you tend to lose it first, if that makes sense? Yes, of course, it's going to make your core stronger, but everyone loses weight and fat in different places. For some fat loss happens first in their upper body, for others fat loss happens first in their lower body, for others in their midsection, regardless of what part of their body they're focusing on most. My encouragement to you, and the best way to lose fat is to be in a caloric deficit, focus on full body compound movements and nourishing your body with what it needs. Also remember that nutrition plays a larger part than most people realize in their ability to lose body fat.
Myth number two, lifting heavy weights bulk women up. Here's the truth on this though. You have to be super intentional in order to bulk up. This requires that you're eating in a very large caloric surplus and the women who you see who are weightlifting and are bulky and have a ton of muscle, they're doing this on purpose, this is their goal. Which means that if you nourish your body with what it needs, if you're lifting weights, it's actually going to make you look leaner, not bulkier. Yeah, that's what I said. It's actually going to make you look leaner. The scale could be going up due to gaining muscle, but your body actually becomes more compact the more muscle you put on, and this is a myth that I believed for so many years of my life, you guys, and it hindered me from reaching my goals.
I will forever be an advocate of weightlifting resistance training just because the have been so many studies done to show that it is one of the most effective ways to build the body that you want. Trust me, when I say that you are not going to bulk up if you are intentionally nourishing your body and you're lifting regularly.
Myth number three, building the body that you want requires a lot of time. Here's the truth, you can actually build the body that you want with 30 minutes of working out three to five times per week. You seriously don't need more than that, but this is only if you're consistently nourishing your body with what it needs. Remember, I just talked about how nutrition plays a bigger role in our fitness than many of us realize, this means that if you're in a season of your life where there is not much extra time for workouts that you can put towards that daily or weekly. I recommend, and I always say this, to prioritize your nutrition first. And even if you are able to give an hour, four to five times a week for your workouts, prioritizing your nutrition first, that's going to be most important anyways, because it's so important that you first focus on the foundation of how you're properly fueling your body.
You've probably seen that saying where it's 90% of your results are in the kitchen, 10% is in the gym. That's actually pretty accurate. Yes. The working out is beneficial in so many different ways, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and just for the longevity of your life. But if you can focus on your nutrition, this truly means that you don't need to spend more than 30 to 45 minutes, three-ish times per week, and still be able to see results. Because as you stay consistent with your nutrition, even though your workouts are not your main focus, you still will be able to see results because you're nourishing your body with what it needs and that's ultimately what prompts change.
Myth number four, doing more cardio means you'll lose more fat. Here's the truth, doing cardio is not the key to fat loss. The key to fat loss is building muscle and eating in a caloric deficit, plain and simple. You can actually lose all of the weight without doing a second of cardio if you don't want to, because resistance training is actually much more effective in changing your body composition. If you use cardio for weights, that's fine, but cardio will only help with weight loss and it's not going to help you reshape your body through fat loss for a lack of a better term. In other words, it won't make you more toned so keep that in mind when you choose cardio as your primary source of working out.
Myth number five, more workouts equal better results. Here's the truth more is not always better. You know, what is better? Effective workouts. Again, if you're following an effective workout plan, you seriously don't need more than 30 to 45 minutes, three to five times per week. You don't need to stretch yourself too thin to build the body that you want. It's truly not as complicated as you think. If you nourish your body correctly and incorporate movement into your daily life outside of your workouts, working out doesn't have to rule you your life.
Myth number six, eating less makes you lose more weight. Oh, dear one, please listen up. Here is the truth. If you eat too little, you actually will struggle to lose weight. If you do lose weight from this tactic, most likely you'll gain it all back plus more, extremely easily. In short, doing this you're actually ruining your metabolism and you're forcing your body to become extremely metabolically inflexible. Meaning when you eat more, your body won't be able to handle it and you'll store much more fat easily.
I actually talk about this in episode 18, What Happens When You Don't Eat Enough? In this episode, I break down why overly restricting your calories is not in effective or healthy way to create a lasting sustainable lifestyle. And I dive deep into why you should never live permanently in a caloric deficit and how it can damage your metabolism as well as the entire functioning of your body. And I also talk about signs of if you're not eating enough, what that looks like. I will go ahead and link episode 18, What Happens When You Don't Eat Enough, in the show notes so that you can easily go listen to that after this episode.
Myth number seven, having cheat days is the best way to control your cravings. Here is the truth. Cheat days can actually take away your control when it comes to food, it can actually heighten your cravings and it can cause you to develop a poor relationship with food because you're constantly telling yourself no to foods during the week and trying to hold on until your next cheat day. Plus, if you're having cheat days, it's likely that you're not allowing yourself to learn what moderation actually looks like. If you're currently on the cheat day bandwagon, I highly suggest tuning into episode 54, 5 Reasons Why I Don't Believe in Cheat Meals and Five Things To Do Instead. Instead, I have linked that in the show notes as well, so that you can easily go listen.
There you have it, those are the seven fitness myths that need to be busted ASAP, whether it's one or all of them, I encourage you to go through each one on and ask yourself, okay, why do I believe this? What's the truth? You can look up studies, go to examine.com. That's examine.com and on that website, there are so many amazing studies for free that you can just research about any specific topic and that's going to give you scientific evidence instead of just trusting your Instagrammer that you go to for everything. Please, please, please take it upon yourself to do research yourself and you'll feel so much more educated and empowered around why you believe the things that you believe.
Let me quickly recap those seven myths. Myth number one, you can target your fat burn, aka spot reducing. Myth number two, lifting heavy weights bulks up women. Myth number three, building the body that you want requires a lot of time. Myth number four, doing more cardio means you'll lose more fat. Myth number five, more workouts equal better results. Myth number six, eating less makes you lose more weight and myth number seven, having cheat days is the best way to control your cravings.
If you are ready to quit believing these myths and start nourishing your body with what it needs, stop spending hours working out and instead do efficient and time effective workouts I have the tools that you need. First, you can go to www.juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook to learn what your body needs to be nourished properly. In this ebook I'm going to outline what macros are, why they're important, benefits of macro counting and how you can get started, including how to calculate your macros today. All of that is completely free. All you have to do again is go to www.juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook, type in your name, your email address, and that will get sent directly it to your email.
On the flip side, if you're struggling with moving your body and following an effective and time efficient program, I've got you covered. Head over to movementwithjulie.com to learn more and join now to gain instant access to five brand new workouts every single week that are effective, time efficient and require very minimal equipment. Every single day, you have two workouts. You can pick one of those two workouts. One will take you anywhere from 45 to 55 minutes, the other one is a short quick 20 to 30 minute variation so that you can at least get some movement in. Again, you can go to movementwithjulie.com to learn more about that. I will link both of those in the show notes so that you can take advantage of both of those amazing tools today so that you can start building the body that you want.
And again, be sure to check out the two episodes that I talked about in today's episode, episode 54, 5 Reasons Why I Don't Believe in Cheat Meals and Five Things To Do Instead. In episode 18, What Happens When You Don't Eat Enough? I will go ahead and link those in the show notes as well so that you can easily go listen now.
Thank you so much for tuning in. If you have a friend or a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this episode, I just asked that you share it out with them. Like I said, previously, you can screenshot this, post it up on your story and tag them, or you can copy the link and send it to them in a text message. Either way works, but I appreciate you guys tuning in. Thank you so much and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the Gram, be sure to do so, juliealedbetter, yes, it's with an a in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcast to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me it means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought, the most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface so go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.