Some people are rushing the phase of definition of face to the summer and others start now, without a doubt a good date to be able to be fit the summer of the next year. However, it never hurts to give a review to some of the most widespread myths about exercise when it comes to losing fat.

There are myths and myths, many of them based on pseudoscience and others simply disseminated among generations or groups of people who do not bother to check them through reliable bibliographical sources, such as those that are discussed below.

We started burning fat after forty minutes of exercise

I myself even came across this myth and believe it when I started to exercise, and the reality is that our body oxidizes fat constantly throughout the day from minute one.

There are several ways to obtain energy from our organism, in fact, we made a fairly complete article explaining what types of systems existed and when each was activated.

However, to summarize this myth, to comment that the activities involving a lower intensity, are precisely those that use the fat oxidation system to obtain energy, in activities such as: walking slowly, sitting on the sofa (fats are used To perform the functions of our organism), etc.

So sitting on the couch or just standing up we burn fats? Yes, but this does not mean that we are burning the fat that we have left in our body, for it we will have to be generating a caloric deficit through the diet , otherwise, we will not be able to lose fat.

In more intense activities, we make more use of carbohydrates stored as muscle glycogen in our body, so for example when performing a sprint, we use more glycogen than fat. However, the impact of several sprints followed with little rest between them at the metabolic level after their completion is greater. Hence, HIIT helps us burn fat more efficiently than LISS sessions.

Performing cardiovascular exercise will cause loss of muscle mass

Another one of the false beliefs extended is that the cardiovascular exercise will cause loss of muscular mass, affirmation that is totally erroneous. While it is true that excessive cardiovascular exercise, accompanied by a too restrictive hypocaloric diet and a lower protein intake than recommended, can lead to loss of muscle mass.

But this does not mean that jogging between 20 and 30 minutes a day or performing HIIT will lose muscle mass. In fact, HIIT is the most interesting activity in the search for the least loss of muscle mass and greater fat loss.

We talk about loss of muscle mass when there is more catabolism than anabolism. Catabolism is breaking down muscle structures to get energy, that is, the time when our body uses proteins as energy, something quite uncommon.

In addition to this, there is another series of myths about muscle catabolism and loss of muscle mass, such as the fact that while we sleep there is a lot of muscle catabolism, when precisely at rest is where more anabolism we achieve through muscle recovery.

Perform series of high repetitions with little weight

Another series of interesting myths surround directly the workings with loads, one of the most ears is to perform series of high repetitions with less weight to define or to tone the musculature.

When we want to lose fat and maintain the greatest muscle mass possible, what we have to try is to lose the minimum possible force in the way, and that is achieved by scheduling a routine that allows us to increase or maintain our strength.

We talk to you in detail about how to maintain or increase strength while losing fat in an article. Even so, the keys are very basic: train multi-articular exercises in ranges of strength, add auxiliary exercises and add cardiovascular exercise or metabolic workouts to create a greater calorie deficit.

If we perform series of high repetitions with low weight, we will lose strength, and with it, have a higher risk of losing muscle mass in the process, just the opposite effect of what we were initially looking for.