“Strength training does not make you slimmer” and “exercising every day makes you fit”. It seems logical, but is it? Check quickly whether you are also falling for one of these sports fables.
It seems useful to read off a treadmill exactly how many calories you burn. Unfortunately, most cardio machines show numbers based on the wrong data. The devices only calculate your activity. While there are more factors that are important in determining fat burning. Your gender, age, height and body fat percentage are also a factor. Researchers at the University of California investigated how many fitness machines were wrong on average. They discovered that the treadmill is on average 13% too high, the bicycle on average 7% and the crosstrainer is no less than 42% off.
Read also :'5 tips to maintain exercise at home'
You don't necessarily have to drink during an hour-long workout. Are you thirsty while exercising? Then this could be a sign of dehydration. Replenishing your moisture level takes a long time and you cannot supplement that with a bottle of water. Namely:if your body is structurally provided with sufficient fluids and you drink a large glass of water, you will pee it out again on average an hour later. If you are short of moisture, it will take much longer. Therefore, try to drink half a liter of water daily, so that your moisture level is always at the right level. Also before and after training. Does your workout last longer than two hours? Then it is advisable to drink.
On the contrary! Strength training actually makes you slimmer. It's not that you turn fat into muscle, which is often claimed. Muscles and fat are made of a completely different substance and cannot replace each other. What happens through strength training is that the percentage of muscle tissue is increased and the percentage of fat shrinks. To build more muscle, you need to follow a good training schedule and eat a healthy and balanced diet. Take enough protein-rich food daily to repair and nourish your muscles. If you do strength training, you may weigh more, but you will soon notice that your pants are looser, your upper arms sway less and your buttocks are tighter.
As long as you don't train as hard as a bodybuilder and spend hours lifting weights, you really don't need extra protein. At least not if you get enough protein from your daily diet. Do you eat vegetables, chicken, fish or eggs every day? Then the protein powder can stay in the cupboard! Are you vegetarian or vegan and do you miss proteins from animal products? Then a protein shake can still be sensible. Proteins are indispensable to keep your muscles, organs, nervous system and blood healthy. During exercise, a small amount of muscle damage occurs, which is repaired by eating proteins. Does 20% of your daily diet contain protein? Then you're in the right place.
More exercise is not always better. Elite athletes can lift weights every day and do cardio training without getting injured. As a regular athlete you are asking too much of yourself if you train every day because you are not giving your body enough time to recover. A high heart rate every day can also cause restlessness and poor sleep. Too much endurance training even causes an increased cortisol in your blood. Cortisol is a stress hormone that releases doses of sugar into your body. The sugars in your blood prevent body fat from being burned, because fat is only burned when the sugars are gone. And if cortisol keeps releasing new sugars, you are actually exercising for nothing.
Also read:more sports myths
Source:Santé March 2017 Text:Loes van de Mosselaar
