The fitness industry is flooded with a vast amount of information, whether it’s under the subject of dieting or exercise, there’s a plethora of it out there in the void we call the Internet. The information could have originated on the Internet or by word of mouth, but the fact is that most people are told, and believe, some infamous fitness myths: rumors, false information, bull. And could there be a worse topic for people to be given false information? With so many people in America constantly trying to lose weight or become healthier, it is important that they're given true information! In an attempt to stop the injustice of myths worming their way through people’s minds I’ve created a list of common myths in the fitness industry, whether it be about diet or exercise.

So pull out your paper and pen and start taking notes:

1.It’s okay to only eat 1,200 calories per day in order to lose weight.

No! It’s not! Because a typical human being’s body needs more than 1,200 calories just to keep your heart, lungs, brain, etc., functioning! Previously I've explained this in greater detail as well as instruct you on how to use online calculators to calculate how many calories you should actually be eating in order to lose weight while still being healthy.

2. You grow new muscles when you work out/lift.

Surprisingly, no. I think this is a pretty common belief when it comes to how people think muscle building works, but you don’t physically grow new muscles when you workout. You’re born with all the muscles you will ever have. If this is the case, then how do muscles visibly appear larger on a person who is fit and exercises? Muscle fibers, your muscle “cells,” grow! When you break down your muscles during a workout, the muscle fibers rebuild themselves stronger and bigger than they were before your workout. Your muscles are adapting!

3. If I begin a too-low-caloric-diet/detox/cleanse/plastic-wrapping-my-body-regimen, and I lose a few pounds in a day or less, then what I lost was all fat.

No. This one really grinds my gears because SO MANY magazines, social media accounts, websites, and ads blast us with this information constantly.

“Start this cleanse and drop inches in days!” they promise.

Yes, you may drop inches after you wrap yourself in plastic wrap for hours, and your tummy may go down an inch when you drink a horrifying juice cleanse for a week, or a frighteningly restrictive calorie diet, but do you know what you lost?

Water weight.

You lost some bloat you were holding onto. You did not lose fat, and on the off chance you lost a tiny bit, don’t hold your breath because that’s not a healthy or sustainable way to do it.

These diet “fads” are not sustainable. By unsustainable I mean that you are most likely not going to be able to drink a juice detox for the rest of your life. AND YOU SHOULDN’T, it’s dangerous. So you know what’s going to happen once you stop any of the weight loss regimens I listed in this myth? You’ll gain most, if not all, of it back.

Weight loss isn’t that simple, if it was no one would be obese. The reason those types of regimens seem to work at first is because your body is letting go of toxins or excess water, but once you start eating a regular diet again, even if it’s a healthy one, you’re going to regain some of those toxins, you’re going to hold on to some of that water. A healthy diet (and I mean diet as in your nutrition, what you eat, I don’t mean diet as in restricting your food intake in order to lose weight) and regular exercise is a super sustainable way to lose fat. Try it out!

4. Muscle turns into fat when you stop working out.

Nope. Not even a little bit. Go back up to Myth #2. If muscles grow by their cells growing, how would it make sense that when you stop working out they turn to fat? A muscle cell can’t turn into fat just like that guy incessantly hitting on you at the bar can’t turn into a puppy. What really happens when you stop working out is that your muscles simply shrink. There’s no need for them to adapt anymore, so they stop growing back fibers that are big and strong.

I also want to add in a bonus myth, call it Myth #4.5 if you will:

“Muscles disappear after you stop working out.”

Again, no. Whole muscles aren’t going to disappear just like that guy at the bar probably won’t. Your muscles just decrease their size because they aren’t being used as often and thus don’t need to be fueled as much or as effectively as they did when they were being worked out.

If you want more information regarding this topic, check out the website I used to fact check my information: http://www.livestrong.com/article/449059-do-your-muscles-turn-to-fat-when-you-stop-weight-training/.

5. Cardio is the only way to lose fat.

Turn off the treadmill, step off the elliptical and ladies all around the world rejoice in the knowledge that you DO NOT have to spend every other night in the “Cardio Canyon” (as it’s named in my university gym) to shave off whatever excess fat you think you have.

Here’s how weight loss works (and once again, this is covered in more detail in my previous article mentioned in Myth #1):

Calories are units of energy in the body. You burn calories when you use this energy your body has stored, and you eat calories in your diet. The equation for weight loss is this:

Calories eaten – calories burned = a negative number

This negative number is known as a caloric deficit, which means that you’ve eaten less calories than your body has burned, which forces your body to use up the calories your body has stored in order to fuel your body’s activities for the rest of that day. By the way, these extra calories could be from fat stores OR muscles, if you eat a significantly less number of calories than you burn, you’re body may resort to catabolism, which means it eats your muscles (which is the last thing you want). If you stick to the normal daily caloric deficit of about 500 calories, you should be using up fat stores and be okay!

Alright, we learned how weight loss works. Here’s the point of that: cardio isn’t the only way you can lose fat. You can lose fat if you workout consistently and eat at a moderate deficit (no more than 500 calories less than you burn a day). You can lift weights to get this done, you can walk your dog and chase him around to get this done, you can do yoga, swim, hike, ice skate, roller skate, snowboard, literally ANYTHING that keeps your body moving is going to be burning calories.

If you love running, girl you keep doing it. Bless your heart, I can’t do it. There are so many other ways to stay active and fit so find what you love moving your body to and do it CONSISTENTLY!

6. Eating fat is bad.

Not all fats are bad. Unsaturated fats aren’t bad for you IF you eat them in moderation! They’re actually good for you. Believe it or not HUMANS NEED TO EAT FAT. Ignore the war on fat that occurred before the scientific research came back on the benefits of eating healthy fats. In fact, the MayoClinic states that the American Heart Association advises that around 20-35% of your calories per day come from fat, read more on the website: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/fat-grams/faq-20058496.

Let me tell you about this beautiful supplement you can buy: fish oil.

It's a pill filled with oil (fat) from fish. I take it everyday. Do you want to know the glorious things this supplement can do? My personal favorites are aiding in reducing anxiety and depression, weight loss and helping with cardiovascular disease. Read the full list of 13 benefits at https://draxe.com/fish-oil-benefits-health/.

Eating a lot of fat is bad, but eating a lot of anything is bad. Everything in moderation.

7. Carbs are bad.

Just as with fat, there are good carbs. Good carbs are in fruits, sweet potatoes, and brown rice. And news flash: your body NEEDS CARBS, they give you energy to get through everything you do so eat them!

8. It is possible to spot reduce areas of your body.

It’s not possible, and it feels pretty unfair. You can’t choose what part of your body loses fat just by working out that area. Your body is going to burn fat from whatever stores it decides to based on your genetics. Everyone is different! Everyone carries fat a little differently. The general rule is that you usually lose fat in the last place you gain the fat, which means that the last place you’ll lose it is the first place you gain it, which is usually considered the area of your body that is most difficult to lose fat. For me, that’s my stomach, for you it may be different. For more information on how the body chooses where to burn fat, and how that fat fuels muscles, check out this article.

9. If I want to lose fat I can’t eat anything bad ever.

Girl, no. Please eat that pizza. Eat that chipotle bowl after a long day. There’s no reason to label certain foods as “bad” or forcing yourself to never eat them again, because do you know what that will lead to? You hating the process of losing weight and feeling bad about yourself if you do end up eating those foods. Like I said in Myth #6: everything in moderation.

Let me say it again for the people in the back:

Everything in moderation.

You can eat foods that are generally deemed unhealthy every once in awhile. Eating a donut one day is not going to make you gain all the weight you’ve lost back. Eating pizza one night isn’t going to make you lose all your progress.

However, if you consistently eat poorly, especially if you don’t get your body moving regularly, you will slowly lose some of your progress, if not all of it.

But if you live a healthy life feel free to eat something delicious every once in a while, it won't hinder your fitness.

10. Girls shouldn’t lift weights because they’ll get too muscular.

NO.

STOP.

WRONG.

Ladies, it’s 2017 and we’re still fighting for our rights. Fighting to be taken seriously, to be allowed to feel empowered.

So why the HELL would we think it’s not okay to lift weights just because it will make us stronger and more empowered?

And by the way, let me lay some information on you. Women don’t have the muscle building abilities that men have. They have a bunch of testosterone, and testosterone helps build your muscles!

Let me promise you this: if you begin consistently lifting weights you will not look like a man. And I’m sure you’re thinking of all the tanned women in bathing suits you’ve seen who are nearly as big as Schwarzenegger himself and thinking that I’m lying to you, but I’m not! Those women are professional bodybuilders, which means that every second of their life is dedicated to eating perfect nutrition to gain muscle, lifting weights MULTIPLE times per day and (usually) taking steroids to aid in the process of them getting that big!

Women cannot naturally get that muscular, so please don’t worry that you will if you look at a dumbbell.

Think about it: if those women dedicate every second of their lives to lifting, eating perfectly, and maybe take 'roids, and they look that big, do you really think if you start lifting weights once per day, maybe four days a week, that you’ll get that big? No! You won’t.

The pictures in Myth #2 and #10 are both of my little sister. She's jacked as hell and stronger than me, but she's also freaking beautiful. She doesn't look like a man, and she dedicates every morning to weight lifting.

So ladies, please don’t be afraid to lift. It hurts my heart when I hear women saying they don’t want to lift because they think men don’t like it or that they’ll get “too big.”

Do you know what happens when you build some more muscle mass on your body? You burn fat. Muscles burn fat, so if you have more muscle mass on you then you can be burning fat all day instead of just during your workout.

And for the girls out there who want a big butt (because that’s usually a big reason women get interested in fitness): have you ever seen a fit woman’s butt? Do you think that that’s fat? No! It’s muscle. Her butt looks that bomb because it’s muscle.

Don’t be afraid to lift!

As a side note, I am not a personal trainer or dietician, these tips come from my own experiences and knowledge I’ve gained through them.