Women's Fitness Myths Debunked #2

Remember these from the last post on this topic?

I'm starting a series of blog posts today out of frustration at what I'm seeing pinned on Pinterest.

"7 ways to tone your inner thighs... You won't be able to walk the day after, but your legs will look great!"

"waist trimming workout"

"7 best exercises to blast leg fat"

"4 exercises to lose your love handles"

"erase arm flab fast!"

"exercises to fix the arm pit pooch"

"3 day military diet. apparently you can lose up to 10 lbs in 3 days, with this special diet. take a four day break and do it again until you've achieved your goal... pinner checked it with her medic hub and he said its good to try."

"7 day cleanse= lose 10-17 lbs. This is an amazing 7 day meal plan/guide to lose pounds and totally cleanse your body"

"website run by 2 professional trainers and nutritionists..."

"best exercises to get rid of saddle bags"

"8 moves to perk up your boobs"

"get rid of muffin top"

"remove fat deposits from inner thigh, above the knee, and inner knee"

If any of the above pin quotes sound familiar to you, please do yourself a favor and go delete them from your boards and brain now. I'll wait...

These sound great, but all have hidden in them somewhere an exercise myth aimed at unsuspecting women. Let's kick some more exercise myth butt.

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Women's Fitness Myth #2

Super fast weight loss-- These are the ones promising outlandish weight loss in minimal time like "lose 10 lbs in seven days." Is that possible? Oh yes, with terrible illnesses, like cancer and anorexia. Is it healthy. NO! And what is probably most important to you: will it last? NO! When you're trying to lose weight, you should shoot for about 1, that's ONE pound per week. "But they lose way more than that on Biggest Loser!" Yes, I know, but they are under the supervision of multiple professionals who are specially trained in traumatic (yes, traumatic) weight loss including MDs. Unless you are under direct MD (medical doctor) supervision, shoot for the 1 lb. a week. Those fat cells are very temperamental creatures. If you try to lose more than the 1 lb. or so, they will go into starvation mode, meaning they will start storing every single bit of anything they can. This won't matter so long as you're sticking to your eating plan. However, once you've met your goal weight and you back off a little to maintain weight or heaven forbid should you have a cookie or two, you'll puff up like a blimp. Take it slow and sly to keep the fat cells unaware of what you're doing, then you'll have a better chance of staying that way once you switch from losing weight to maintaining your weight. This also allows you to splurge every now and again and not see huge changes toward the negative with the splurge. Also, losing weight that fast is dangerous and could be life threatening. All those fat cells have lots of blood vessels connected to them to feed them. All those vessels are connected to your heart. When you suddenly stop feeding those fat cells so much, you suddenly have too much blood in your system for what it requires and this strains the heart. If you're heart is already weak or you're advancing in age, it could cause a heart attack. Also, yo-yo dieting-- ie losing a ton of weight, then gaining it all back and then doing it again-- puts a similar strain on the heart. 

This pic doesn't really have much to do with the above, except it's a heart. lol

In case you're new here: Who in the world do I think I am?! My name is Bria, PT, DPT (Physical Therapist, Doctor of Physical Therapy.) Prior to the PT gig, I was one of those uncredentialed personal trainers with a science degree.