If you are just starting a new health and fitness journey, here are 3 Most Common Misconceptions to be aware of!

1. You Have to Spend Hours Doing Cardio to Lose Weight

This is one of be biggest common misconceptions in the fitness community. Actually, studies have shown that the perfect combination of resistance training and cardio will be the most effective when losing weight.

Believe it or not, you actually burn more calories with resistance training than you do with steady state cardio. Resistance training sends your body out of homeostasis (our normal state) and takes longer to recover. Therefore, you end up burning calories for up to 24 hours after you perform resistance training, where with steady state cardio, you just burn calories while you’re on the machine. Examples of resistance training: weight lifting, yoga, pilates, calisthenics.

I recommend  a combination of both resistance training and cardio to lose weight in the most efficient way.

2. You Have to Go to the Gym Everyday to Make it Effective

If you’re just starting out, you most likely don’t have a current gym routine. So, imagine how difficult it would be to get into the gym every single day after not going at all. That is setting yourself up for failure in my opinion.

Set smart, achievable goals. I know setting the goal of only going twice a week for 30 minutes seems like you’ll never achieve your goal that way. But trust me, you will be much more likely to make these habits last and become sustainable!

You can get a lot done in just 20 minutes. Maximize your time! If you’re interested in learning more about 20 minute workouts, contact me and we can chat about this!

Ultimately, we don’t want to just go for 3 weeks and then quit. We want to make this a life long habit! Setting small goals and increasing them overtime will be much more successful in the long run. Trust me.

3. Protein Is the Most Important Macronutrient

The average person who doesn’t workout at all only needs 10% of their daily caloric intake to come from protein. If you start working out, yes you will need more protein to help recover those muscles, but you don’t need anything like 40% or 2g per kg of body weight  (I see this all the time and it is frightening). Especially, if you’re only working out 2-3 times a week. You only really need 15-20% of your daily caloric intake to come from protein. Too much protein can make you dehydrated, it can cause kidney damage. Moreover, it can cause heart disease or a greater risk for cancer if it is coming from animal proteins.

Carbs are not the bad guy. Complex carbohydrates that are high in fiber like vegetables, brown rice, whole grain sprouted bread, and fruits give you energy. They are so important and should not be completely removed from your diet. They also help after you workout with protein synthesis and help your muscles recover!

If you’re still concerned about this, consult a nutritionist.

Those are my 3 most common misconceptions when just starting out at the gym. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.