I created this hub because their is a lot of misinformation in the world of weight loss. I hear things all the time that make me cringe. I cringe not simply because the advice is ridiculous, but because most people have been conditioned to believe this advice to be true. While I now know the difference between fact and fiction in the area of weight loss and fat loss, this was not always the case. Therefore, I would like to shed some light on some common misconceptions in the hopes that someone will learn something and change their approach.

Starting off with a bang. This is the big one. Almost every day that I am training clients in the gym, I hear someone say that they want to lose weight so they are going to stick to cardio and do lots of it. I see people, who clearly are attempting to lose weight, spend their entire workouts on the treadmill or elliptical every single time they enter the gym. I also see these people going at a fairly steady pace for 30-60 minutes.

This does not surprise me. Most people don't know that traditional aerobic cardio does very little for weight loss and almost nothing for fat loss. Sure, you may be burning a ton of calories, but you also may end up slowing down your metabolism. If all you do is cardio, you will certainly lose some muscle mass and this in turn will lead to a slower resting metabolism. Losing just a few pounds of muscle can end up cutting those calories you burn in half or even more.

At this point, you may want to check out my hub on Fat Loss vs. Weight Loss to see the difference between losing muscle and fat.

A further problem with aerobic cardio is that your body gets used to it. While it is true that your body gets used to all types of exercise when done for a while, it is very difficult to make aerobic cardio harder for you. In order to make it harder, you would have to go longer or faster (or add more resistance if applicable). Most people cannot go longer since they already go 30-60 minutes. That leaves speed or resistance. Increasing speed and resistance will eventually get you out of the aerobic zone and into the anaerobic zone. This means you will end up working at a higher intensity in shorter bursts. That is what we call interval training and is a far superior form of cardio than long-duration steady-state aerobic training for fat loss (and weight loss) purposes.

Stick to intervals and challenge yourself. And don't forget that resistance training is even more important for you.

Note also that I agree that there may be a place for some aerobic cardio in a fat loss program. Anything that gets you moving and burning a few more calories can generally be beneficial, however this is only to be done when your body needs some more time to recover from high intensity exercise. It is not to be overdone.

Those things drive me crazy. When I am between clients at the gym, people are always asking me how to use this button or that button. I tell them "just don't push them and you'll be using them properly."

By those buttons, I mean the ones labled "weight loss" or "personal trainer" or "random" or even "interval". Anything like that is generally useless. Whenever I use the cardio equipment, either for myself or my clients, I always just press the start button and make adjustments manually. I know this requires some effort and attention, but you are working out for crying out loud. If your main goal is to lose weight then you should not be concerned about missing part of your TV show or getting lost in your music. You should be focused on your results.

Avoid the button because they are pre-programmed. They know nothing about you. They don't know how to challenge you. They don't know when to back off. They don't know what you did last workout or what you are going to do next workout. All they know is what their programmer programmed them to know. That's it.

Don't touch those buttons and you'll be fine. Stick to the "start", "speed", "incline", and resistance buttons. They are your friends and listen to your fingers which are controlled by your brain.

This one hurts a bit. Most people who go on weight loss diets end up cutting calories. This is due to the concept that you will lose weight if you burn more calories than you consume. While this may be true, there are several flaws with this kind of thinking.

First of all, no one really knows how many calories they are burning throughout the course of a day. Those calorie trackers on the cardio equipment at the gym are even less valuable than the buttons I talked about above. They are estimates and know nothing about you. Most people do not have any idea how many calories their bodies burn just to stay alive. This is a much bigger number than how much you burn in the gym. Then there's your everyday movement, your fidgeting, your climbing starts, walking to your car, eating, digesting food, etc.

If you eat too few calories, your body will go into starvation mode and end up conserving energy. This means your metabolism will slow down. The result may be that your body ends up eating away at your muscles for fuel and storing more bodyfat. This is the opposite of what you want. You want to build muscle and burn fat. The only way to do that is to eat what and when your body wants you to eat.

Eat every 3 hours or so and don't starve yourself. Obviously, you don't want to overeat either so listen to your body.

Heck no! I've been lifing weights for about 10 years and I'm still not bulky (and I'm a man!). I may have a decent amount of muscle mass on my body, more than most women would care to sport, but I'm not bulky. And remember, I'm a man. I have a lot more testosterone in my body than the ladies that always tell me they do not want to lift heavy weights because they will get bulky.

In order for women to get big and bulky, they would have to lift in incredibly high volumes and eat a large amount of calories each day. There are certain substances that may contribute to some females' freakish muscularity, but I will let you watch TLC to learn more about that.

Ladies, you are not going to get bulky with resistance training. You may build some muscle mass, but that is a great thing. Not only do women look better with a little muscle, it also helps you burn that fat. So fear not lifting weights, they are your friends on the road to weight loss.

I cringe and wince at the same time on this one (if that's even possible). There are so many lies out there about abdominal training that it makes Pinocchio look like Honest Abe. All these gadgets and gizmos that promise to flatten your stomach are a waste of plastic.

What does abdominal training do? I builds the muscle beneath the fat. That's all. It works the muscle. There's nothing wrong with working your abdominal muscles, but this is not going to help you burn the fat around your waist any more than working your biceps. In fact, using big movements like squats, rows, and chest presses are even better at burning this fat than sit-ups or crunches.

1,000 crunches a day? What is the point? All that will do is make your crunch endurance really good. Do you really care about your crunch endurance?

Forget what the celebrities say they do. They are not fitness experts and most of them were never fat to begin with. Most of them are also very unhealthy. Some of them even have trainers who are no more qualified to give fitness advice than Michael Moore.

Stick to the big movements and mix in a few crunches with resistance here and there. Burn fat all over and eventually it will come off from around your waist.