Some Common Myths About Diet and Exercise

There seems to be an endless stream of them on television: those annoying commercials for weight loss products and exercise machines. Some of them are downright funny. "Take this marvelous pill and we guarantee that you will lose weight!" If you're quick enough try to read the disclaimer that flashes at the bottom of the screen for about 60 milliseconds. It'll say something like: "this product has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease, or even work at all for that matter." The other thing they like to tell you is that the pill should be part of a healthy lifestyle with diet and exercise. Well, if you eat a healthy diet and exercise, then you will probably lose weight anyway without the pill.

Years ago I joined a gym. I was a few pounds overweight at the time and generally out of shape. It was also the time when racquetball was becoming a craze. All my friends were playing it. I had played some tennis before when I was in school, and took to the game pretty well. I played three or four times a week for about three years and joined a league. I wasn't the best around, but I made it to the intermediate level. I also lost the weight. After my racquetball play, I usually spent about thirty minutes or so working out in the gym. I never really got into the whole circuit-training thing and I wasn't trying to work on any specific muscle groups. I just got on a few of the machines that I liked and did some reps until I felt a slight bit of discomfort and then quit. It felt good and it was fun, period. But it seemed that every time I was in there some over-muscled workout Nazi would tell me that I wasn't doing the reps quite right, or wasn't doing enough of them, or using enough weight. When I basically told them thanks but no thanks for the advice, I would always hear: "no pain no gain!" Well, Mr. Muscle Guy, turns out that you were wrong. The latest research suggests that while some soreness after a workout is expected, anything more than that means that you are overdoing it or may even have some inflammation. Seems that there is some other fitness myths out there too. Here are a few more: