10 Fitness Faux Pas

This is a wake up call for all those who want to get up every morning and see themselves thinner in the mirror. Yes if it were only with the help of a magic wand that Cinderella or Harry Potter got what they wanted, but we live in reality that few want to embrace. Looking thin is not only about what the mirror tells us but also what we feel within. It is what our heart, mind , body and soul that make or break us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The combination of heart, mind, body and soul is what is called our Wellness. People always make a lot of mistakes or buy into the short cuts to gain fitness or lose weight and finally end up frustrated and having a misconception about diet , weight loss, working out and health in totality. Here are 10 fitness faux pas most of us have made unaware that its like stepping into a trap.

FITNESS FAUX PAS: FITNESS BLUNDERS

1) DIET. The very mention of the word makes people cringe. This could be easily slated as the most misused and therfore misinterpreted. Diet is nothing but what one eats in everyday life. It could be right or wrong but it does not imply or equate to starvation. Infact skipping meals big or small is the biggest blunder people make to lose weight. I’ve had people say that they want to lose weight without dieting. As a Dietitian it only meant that one wants to lose weight without eating food, how is that ever going to sustain for life? A healthy diet whether to lose or gain or maintain weight is all about a well calculated meal plan customised for an individual’s lifestyle, fat percentage, weight and height. It could be less in calories, fat and have a low glycemic index but would be high on frequency through the day. A diet could also be dense in protein, calories and carbohydrates but less in portion size of the meal. So next time when anyone asks you whether you diet, don’t hesitate to say YES !! Doesn’t matter if you are gaining your losing weight, the answer is still YES.

2) Weight Loss on Scale. If you have lost a good amount of weight in the first 2 months of your weight loss regime don’t be too excited. As the scale is not your friend but can be a cheater at times. During the first 2 months of working out our body loses water as its not used to so much energy expenditure in a day. Therefore most of the weight lost initially is water rather than fat. So when the scale doesn’t show much difference from 2nd month to 3rd month its because our body starts retaining water making it prepared for the dehydration that takes place while burning fat. Good amount of water content in the body also indicates good lean mass free of fat that is muscle, bone, and other body tissues. Rely on your outfit or inch loss that’s the real indicator of fat loss not the scale. The scale does serve as a motivator but towards the middle it plays a mind game and helps nothing but frustration.

3) LOW CARB. Yet another gimick, but how many can go on for life on a low carb diet. At what cost? Your kidney, brain, liver or heart. Your brain needs glucose as its source of energy to just help you think. How can it survive your low carb game if its defficient of glucose most of the time? Low carb also means extremely high protein so as your kidneys to go into a failure and ketoacidosis in the blood leading to high acidity in the blood. High acidity int he blood points its finger directly to the brain and heart. The goal of losing weight has lead to that of taking one’s life instead. Why open the doors to a hospital unnecessarily?

4) DIET FALLOUTS. Many people discontinue to maintain a healthy diet after losing the excess weight. They mistake the weight loss to be a vaccine which once taken prevents the disease. Obesity is a disease that one needs to keep in check consistently. Agreed that a little fun here and there is natural and should be recommended ut to continue beyond ones control is the biggest faux pas and most people do it. This only leads to gaing all the lost weight back into your kitty. The amount of hardwork taken was not at all taken into consideration. A sheer waste of time and energy which is more valuable than money.

5) EXERCISE. The next thing people ward off from their weight loss regime is a good workout. We all know that its not possible for our body to lose those extra pounds without physically doing anything about it, yet some buy into the idea that some tonic, pill, powder or belt can help lose the extra weight. Health and wealth are both connected in terms of a balance sheet. Our body stores those excess calories in the form of fat that’s one bad income. The body only shells out excess fat if one exercises and that is the kind of expenditure our body is waiting for us to do. So to balance the income one has to spend.

6) GYM WORKOUT. There have been many a squables about this one major misconception. If I could get a rupee for every person who thinks that working out in the gym leads to weight gain after one stops it then I’d be a millionairess. Well the truth is related to what has been mentioned about energy expenditure. People fail to see exercise as a part of one’s lifestyle; healthy lifestyle that is. One can be assured that after ceasing any form of exercise be it the gym, just a walk in your garden or jogging one has to gain the excess weight that he/ she could have burnt had they continued exercising. This goes to show again that if one was burning 500 Kcals everyday while working out in the gym and has come down to burning just 150 Kcals per day after stopping it, then its a visible difference of 350 Kcals that are stored instead of being burnt. Why wont one put on? Why blame the gym? After all its the physical workout that has stopped the consequence is obvious. Accept fitness as a part of your lifestyle and if its not then blame yourself not those who help people achieve it.

7) CARDIO IS THE ONLY WAY OUT. When you read of people (celebs) who’ve lost great amount of weight they usually refer to 1 hour on the treadmill. Little do they realise how many people are being misled. If you ask any fitness related professional the answer would be a strict NO NO to 1 hour on the treadmill. Those who are doing it please stop it right away as it leads to injuring your knees. Plus the point is cardio work out is meant for building up your stamina of heart and lungs, and to a certain limit burning fat. But its certainly not the only way to burn fat and good amount of excess fat is burnt by weight training combined with cardio. Research has shown that people who’ve resorted only to cardiovascular workout have had fat loss upto a limited time period after which the exercise has only helped to build the stamina of the body. Those who have taken to weight training alternatively to cardio have seen not only inch loss but also prevented bone erosion or calcium depletion from the bones thus preventing the silent killer called OSTEOPOROSIS. Effects of weight training have also shown some degree of increase in immunity of the body thus preventing from minor infections.

8) FITNESS LEVELS UNKNOWN. People do this mistake repeatedly may be due to denial or unawareness. Most of the people who want to just kip fit as they put it are unaware of the fact that they are no where close to being fit but think that by reducing their tummy inches they’d gain fitness. Abdominal inch loss does play a major role in preventing heart disease, diabetes but cannot claim to fitness on the whole. Fitness is all about strength of the body , stamina of the heart and lungs, stamina of each body part arms, legs , abdomen, back, flexibility, and above all total fat percentage.

9) LACK OF COMMITMENT. This ones about committing to your own wellness. It’s like lying to yourself. People who don’t commit themselves to a better fitness usually give reasons that have no two ways to it. Work being the world number 1 in ranking, travel or family matters, education, self admitting to lack of commitment is also a reason to not workout or control on the diet. Health is a decision one needs to take to excel in life. If not taken correctly the repercussions are visible first to everybody else but you. You’re always the last one to find out.

10) MORE WORKOUT MORE WEIGHT LOSS. Remember how you used to spend hours exercising for 7 days a week and after a while nothing good came out of it, instead you felt tired and seemed to gain more weight than ever because you couldn’t live up to it. Don’t worry your not alone you have atleast a thousand good friends around the world. People have the wrong idea that the more time they spend workingout the more weight they’d lose. Would you believe it to be other way round? The time you work out doesn’t determine the energy burnt but the intensity put in. If one works out for 30 - 45 min for 5 days a week with low to moderate intensity they would easily burn more fat out of their body compared to those who do not take a day’s rest and workout for more than an hour. Remember to take atleast one-day break in between your regime and give your body
complete rest no matter what. People have exhausted themselves into fatigue, when exercise is meant to enliven you and make you feel energized.

To all of you who have felt like going down bad memory lane while reading these 10 blunders its never too late to be fit and become healthy by shedding that excess baggage you don’t deserve to carry in the first place. So take a decision stick to it. Eat well, Workout well and your wellness will help you to live well.

Wish you wellness,

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