In reply to some recent suggestions for my next article, I chose to focus on a few select topics that involve common misconceptions in regards to fitness and nutrition.
First, I will discuss the misconception of spot training. Spot training is the theory that you can lose body fat in one particular area by doing isolation training on it several days out of the week for a period of time. Well, adequately exercising that area throughout the week will only help increase muscular strength and endurance. Fat loss comes from creating a deficit between calories in (food) and calories out (metabolism, daily activity, exercise). By creating a healthy deficit and participating in a structured resistance training program, these problem areas will begin to show changes, but in some cases, starting too late in life may only result in small changes due to metabolic and hormonal differences.
Moving on. People seem to think that once they've started exercising, they can cram just about anything they want down their piehole. Exercise is about creating a lifetime habit that contributes to a healthier lifestyle, but if you are truly trying to live a healthy lifestyle, nutrition is a greater part of the battle. Ultimately, weight loss is always going to be a result of a caloric deficit, as mentioned earlier, but eating heavily processed foods, high saturated fats, excess sugar, cholesterol packed items, and foods with more sodium than the salt lakes can take a heavy toll on the body. I won't even list the amount of problems related to these (for the sake of you not having to read this article for an entire day), but adopting a healthy lifestyle includes fitness AND nutrition.
Lastly, I will cover the hot topic of energy drinks. Studies throughout the recent years have gone back and forth on the debate of whether or not these things are healthy and effective. To make this short, anything in excess can have great risk. With that said, energy drinks should probably not be consumed on a regular basis, but many of the ingredients, in moderation, have not been proven to have any negative effects on the body. In fact, caffeine has been shown to aid in anaerobic capacity when engaging in activities such as sprints, weight lifting, or any other non-aerobic activity. Although it's just a temporary aid, it can help one get through an intense training session, if needed; however, due to lack of research, I'd still recommend using them in great moderation.
