The 100-Calorie Secret - Never Diet Again!

Eight Important Muscle Myths & Truths:

Don't get fooled by confusing muscles with fat.  Building muscle is desirable, but losing  fat is far more important to your health.  Losing 2 inches of fat from your waist decreases your blood pressure, chance of heart attack and cholesterol and prolongs you life by 2 years. That's important weight loss.  That's really being healthy!

What can be said of building muscles?

Muscle weighs more than fat
WRONG-one pound of muscle and one pound of fat weigh the same.  Muscle is a denser tissue and takes up less room than an equal weight of fat. That's why it's possible to lose inches but show no changes in scale weight. One pound of muscle is the size of baseball; one pound of fat is three times the size and looks like a squiggly bowl of Jell-O.

Most overweight people can build 25 or more lbs. of muscle over a year
WRONG -The average man with the best efforts can add 10-12 lbs. of muscle.  Women who have less male hormones can only add 8-10 lbs. of muscle with the best efforts.  Even body builders who spend their whole day building muscle can add no more than 20-25 lbs of muscle in a year.

Muscle burns more calories than fat?
TRUE- but is it really significant?  What’s the difference in metabolism between fat and muscle?

• Muscle burns:  6 cal per pound/ day

• Fat burns:         2 cal per pound /day

• 10 lb of muscle x 6 calorie per lb= 60 calories per day

• 10 lb. of fat x 2 calories per lb = 20 calories per day
  

• 60 calories-20 calories= + gain of 40 calories per day

Difference in calorie burning after 1 year of weight training = 40 cal. per day, which is the same as walking an extra 10 minutes a day. Dr. Poehlman from University of Vermont found no signficant difference in daily metabolism after muscle building.  Can one lose weight simply by increasing muscle mass?  Not  much.

Weight lifting turns muscle into fat.
WRONG - Fat cells and muscle cells are very different.
Fat and muscle are two completely different tissues and have different structures and functions. They react to training in different ways. The body can not turn fat into muscle.The fat must
be burned off by using it for fuel with daily metabolism and/or exercise. The the muscles
need to be enlarged and strengthened with resistance training.

Building muscles & doing hundreds of   sit ups  burns belly fat:
WRONG: Aerobic Exercise Burns Fat and Prolongs Your Life. Weight lifting builds muscle cells which  are metabolically more active than fat cells when comparing cell to cell.  However, the time building muscle mass does not burn nearly as much fat as a similar time doing aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise uses the fat stored in cells around the abdomen for fuel, which has the effect of shrinking the size of the fat cells.  When these cells shrink, they stop making dangerous toxins, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar fall, diabetes improves and the odds of a heart attack diminish by half or more.

The following graph from a European study of 14, 000 people followed for 10 years, shows that decreasing waist by only 6 inches cuts the chance of dying by 50%:

Fat Cells grow and shrink depending on calories:
TRUE: Body fat is related to the accumulation of excess calories either by eating too much, exercising too little or more commonly by a combination of the two. The excess calories whether from carbs, protein or even fat is stored as fat around the belly. The only way to eliminate fat is to force the body to use the fat for fuel. This occurs when eating less or exercising more.

Muscle cells grow and shrink depending upon exercise:
TRUE: Muscle cells can grow larger or smaller by resistance training. Muscle cells are not related to calories.  Exercise puts stress on each muscle fiber which makes it become larger. Inactivity and aging  puts no stress on the individual fiber and they tend to shrink.

Muscle is very different from fat:
TRUE: Each muscle is made up of thousands of individual cells, also called muscle fibers. While the number of muscles cells/fibers can not increase, each individual muscle fiber has the potential to increase in size, density and efficiency. These changes may occur together but not necessarily to the same degree, however, all will translate to an increase in strength and bulk.


Should I do resistance training with weights or aerobic exercise?
DEPENDS: Depends upon your goals and how much time you have. If your goal is to lose weight, increase your stamina and avoid all of the metabolic complications of weight gain, then its clear your choices should be aerobic exercise where calories are burned .

If however, if you goal is to build muscles and tone your body, then lifting weights is not a bad idea.  Weight lifting has other advantages in terms of strengthening  your bones.

Need to stop confusing the goals:
The problems occur when time is limited and goals are confused. Most people have more fun lifting weights, it’s more social and more interesting. Aerobic exercise tends to be a solitary activity and often boring for many people.

If the goal is to lose weight with all of the proven health benefits including prolonging life, decreasing diabetes and heart disease, then chose aerobic exercise over weight lifting. If you can do both, then that's even better.