Lets face it every regime has its own supply of useless folklore and half-truths that get passed on down the line from person to person. But I’d put weight loss up against any of them for what has to be the most time wasting and even the most dangerous myths out there.

There is a ton of free advice seen in the media these days and if it is taken seriously, can really set you back on your weight loss endeavours. This can lead to the kind of frustration that makes people think they are “destined to remain fat for the rest of their life”.

This in not true, Have a look at the Weight loss myths below and draw your own conclusions.

Exercise on an empty stomach and burn more fat.

Effective weight loss is the total amount of calories burned during the day, not how or why they were burned. It doesn’t matter if it is night or morning, so exercise early in the day has no advantage to exercise later in the day.

Studies show that increased metabolism induced by anaerobic exercise is actually less after a large meal. Which probably means that more energy is being used for digestion than what is being used to repair muscle.

More exercise is better.

Every exercise session is beneficial to each individual, however more is not always better. It depends on what is trying to be achieved. There is a level and frequency
required to achieve results.

After this level is reached, additional exercise can have the opposite effect, not allowing the body to recuperate and adapt to the stress induced by the exercise, which can be detrimental to your results.

After stopping exercise muscle will turn to fat.

This in not possible, Muscle and fat are two different types of tissues in the body and you cannot convert one into the other. This is like trying to turn water into oil.

If you stop training, the muscles will shrink in size but they will not disappear. The more calories taken in that are not burned off will be deposited as fat.

If you’re not sweating, you’re not working hard enough.

Sweating is the body’s way of cooling itself down. Many factors contribute to body temperature, including room temperature, types of exercise done, body-fat levels, clothing, and exercise intensity.

The intensity for exercise can’t be judged by the amount you sweat. A well-trained person will often sweat a lot because their body can more efficiently regulate heat.

Taking sugar before exercise raises energy levels.

Ingestion of sugar will lead to a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. This rapid rise stimulates a release of insulin, which quickly removes the excess sugar from the blood system, often causing your blood sugar levels to drop, sometimes below the level that it started at, leading to faster exhaustion.

Gaining weight is just a part of getting older.

Getting older is not an excuse for gaining weight! As we age and begin a more sedentary lifestyle we start to lose muscle mass.

The efficiency of your metabolism is directly linked to how much muscle you have on your body. The most efficient way of maintaining your body’s muscle mass and keeping your metabolism from dropping is by doing a high intensity strength-training workout once a week.

If it’s fat free I can have as much as I want.

Unfortunately fat free doesn’t mean calorie free. The word fat free is misleading because if you overeat on anything, even fat free foods and you don’t burn off those calories; your body will store the excess as fat.

Don’t drink water when you exercise or you will get cramps.

By drinking litres of icy cold water in one go while exercising you will probably suffer from cramps. This is why it is important to drink water continuously before, during and after exercising to replace the fluid you’ve lost and avoid any discomfort.

By not having a personal trainer I wont make gains.

Hiring a personal trainer is one way you can use to reach your goals, but you are an adult capable of making decisions and setting your own goals once you have the knowledge of how to go about it.

Following a good exercise program and eating
plan does not require someone standing over you and telling you how to do it.

By exercising my abs I will lose my potbelly.

Exercising your abdominals will help to tone and firm the abdominal region, but it will not reduce fat deposits that are responsible for a potbelly. Fat reduction comes from burning more calories than you take in. Fat is reduced uniformly throughout the body there is no such thing as spot reduction.

Your next step? To take what you have just learned and the next time you hear a weight loss myth evaluate it scientifically.

Gary Matthews is the author of the popular fitness eBooks Maximum Weight Loss and Maximum Weight Gain. Please visit http://www.maximumfitness.com right now for your ‘free’ weight loss e-course.

Angela Moyer was unhappy with her life and how she looked. Below is an interview I had the honor of conducting with Angela. Read her amazing story.

1. Angela, what was it that finally motivated you to get in the gym and start eating properly? Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are like most people, you had been unhappy with how you look for some time.

If this is accurate, how long were you unhappy before you decided to take action? What do you think kept you from taking action all that time?

After being diagnosed with toximia and advanced gestational diebetes, I spent the duration of my pregnancy on mandatory bedrest. I gained 90 lbs and delivered at 240 lbs. My husband was away serving in the middle east.

I battled with postpartum depression teamed with lonliness and disgust for my appearance. I longed intensely to return to the body I had when my husband and I were first married and I wanted to build that body before he returned home.

2. How did you get started with your new liftestyle? In other words, what changes did you make, or planning did you do, to give yourself the best chance at success?

I was a size 18 with a goal of size 9 and I had given myself three months to meet it. I joined a local gym and signed up for my first Body for Life challenge.

I planned my workouts and entered each one into my newly created workout log book. I noted each improvement I made no matter how small. I took photos of myself regularly and taped them to the cover of the book as a motivational tool.

I made significant changes to my diet. I excluded fast foods and regular sodas as well as ate more protien and less carbohydrates.

I stopped allowing myself to go hungry by eating meal replacement bars between meals. If I wasn't so hungry when it came time to eat I ate less at the actual meal. I made working out six days a week a mandatory step toward reaching my goal. I did resistance training four days a week and cardio two. In three months I reached my goal of 150lbs, wearing size 9 pants!

3. What problems did you have to overcome in order to stay on track with your new fitness program? Some of the popular excuses I've heard from people I've trained include "not enough time"(both for exercising and eating right), "eating healthy is too expensive", "don't see results fast enough", "weights will make me big and bulky", "have trouble sticking with an exercise routine". What were the obstacles you had to overcome?

Some of the obstacles I encountered along the way were: Where do I go from here? Now that I've reached my goal, what's next? How do I maintain the same level of commitment when my husband returns home? How do I maintain a clean diet for myself and still prepare meals that my husband (who wasn't dieting) would also enjoy?

4. How did you overcome those problems? What specific techniques did you use to make your dreams a reality?

Upon his return my husband was very proud of my achievement. He was very supportive and encouraging. Fortunately, this made it easier to overcome what I once thought to be obstacles. He brought with him lots of wonderful foreign chocolates and beers, which I had to enjoy in moderation but other than that, healthy meal planning was not as difficult as I imagined it to be.

I just changed the ways I prepared the food we normally ate. I broiled, grilled, and baked meats instead of frying them.

I used virgin olive oil and spices to season in place of butter. I also switched from canned to frozen vegetables to control portion sizes so that we wouldn't be encouraged to eat the left over amounts of prepared food just because it was there.

I continued to set goals for myself and completed a second challenge, finishing at 127lbs wearing size 1 pants. Balancing schedules with my husband, I managed to make it to the gym at least 4 days a week if not the 6 that I wanted.

I allowed myself breaks from my routine spanning anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks to enjoy time as a family, but kept the staying power to return to the gym when my break was up.

The most significant advancement I made along the way was encouraging and convincing my husbant to join me. It was an advancement for me because I found it to be very motivating working with him and my weights lifted have increased tremendously with him there.

We are currently working on what is my third challenge and his first. We are now competing as a couple! Instead of leaving him at home every day, he joined the gym and we now go together six days a week! Teaming up with my husband has made yet another one of my dreams come true.

I have finally found a balance between the two main things competing for my time, the two things I love the most, working out and spending time with my family. The two hours I spend at the gym, my husband and I now enjoy that time together, and when we are finished we take the kids to the park on the way home. Uniting the family through fitness has been a dream come true in and of itself.

5. Moving forward and knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?

Knowing what I know now about fitness and the way the body responds to the things you eat and do, I wouldn't have allowed myself to get to the point I was durning and in between my pregnancies. I see now that a lot of my health issues were a result of my own unhealthy living and could have been avoided if I just applied myself earlier.

6. What would you have done the same way, and will continue to do, going forward?

If I had to do it all over again I would continue to hit each workout with the same burning desire to change and the same commitment to intensity. I would especially have included my husband. Doing it over I would have included him sooner.

There are so many positive changes popping up in our life as a result of including the family in fitness. I will continue to keep that part of my life open to my husband and children as they grow older. It certainly benefits us all.

7. Do you feel that ongoing feedback and motivational tools would help in maintaining a fitness program?

I feel ongoing feedback and motivational tools are a critical part of maintaining a fitness program. If you're not much of a people person journals and pictures can give the feedback needed to keep going.

I used the timer on my camera and took most of my pictures myself. Pictures can be very inspiring because they are the closest honest description we can get of what others see of us. I found that mirrors don't quite capture a person the way that a picture does.

Another great source of inspirational feedback is to team up with someone. Allow yourself to be pushed by them and them by you.

A support system is very motivational. If you can, bring it into the family. A fit parent is setting an excellent example for children and pushing yourself that hard next to your spouce will introduce to them a new respect for you.

It can also open up the lines of communication and trust a little more as well. Working out with your partner can definitely bring you closer.

8. If you were to advise a close friend or family member hot to follow in your fitness footsteps, what would you tell them?

If I was to advise someone of how to follow in my fitness footsteps I would tell them to above all stay in touch with how they truly feel about themselves and their desire to grow and improve.

Hit every workout like it is the only thing they have to do, the only thing standing in the way of them and their dreams, because in reality it is.

I would tell them not to sell themselves short by setting a goal of what they think they can achieve. They need to cling to their actual dream because they have no idea yet just how much they CAN achieve. And please give the same level of commitment to excellence that they would to perhaps a best friend or their job, to themselves.

Be that committed to yourself, and give yourself enough time to see the results. Don't give up! After you see those results but are not quite to your goal yet, don't settle. Don't give up.

And once you reach that goal, to keep those results, don't give up. I tell people all the time that they don't have to be who they have become, they can become who they want to be. If you are not happy with who you are, become someone else, it's that easy. And above all else, don't give up!

Thanks, Angela and congratulations on your success. Check out Angela's before and after pictures below.

Please, don't just read the interviews like Angela. Think about them. Angela, and other success stories have invaluable information that you can use to become a success story yourself. She is not different than you and her success can be yours.

To paraphrase a wonderful blurb in her interview, "You don't have to be who you've become, you can become who you want to be."

Please go to http://www.buildleanmuscle.com/success-stories3.html to see Angela's amazing before and after pictures.

Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com His articles have appeared in Ironman Magazine and he is a regular contributor to Body Talk Magazine. He has written two books, available at his site. He publishes a free newsletter, available at http://www.buildleanmuscle.com/ezine.html

ATTENTION ALL BIRDS
Official Department of Homeland Insecurity Memo

Due to a heightened state of alert concerning the bird flu virus, the Department of Homeland Insecurity has determined that birds will no longer be offered unrestricted access to United States airspace.

As of January 1, 2006, all migratory birds will be required to arrive at international airports where Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) personnel will check for proper travel documentation and clear the birds for entry into the United States, provided they are not carrying undeclared fruit, which is even more dangerous than bird flu (see related ebook on bird flu).

All birds wishing to enter this country will be required to carry passports, proof of immunizations, and entry visas. Birds who do not have visas will be charged (ducks will be billed) a flat $250 entry fee which must be paid three separate times, at three different government offices, after standing in three different lines as per standard INS regulations.

All undocumented birds shall here forth be deemed “terrorists.”

Birds entering U.S. airspace without proper authorization will be escorted by military aircraft to the nearest landing facility. Birds (”terrorists”) that approach the Pentagon or White House will be fired upon with bird-seeking air-to-air missiles. All such violence will be televised by Fox News in a glitzy special entitled “Terror from above!”

The Department of Homeland Insecurity is requesting that all hunters and N.R.A. members assemble on the U.S. / Mexico border and shoot anything that appears to be flying. This includes UFOs, which are required to be videotaped with low-resolution video cameras held by people experiencing epileptic seizures.

Birds attempting to illegally cross the U.S. / Canada border in order to gain entry will be rounded up by volunteer bird watchers armed with high-powered binoculars and delivered to Tyson Foods’ Guantanamo Bay Division for interrogation at the hands of experienced bird torturers. (Torture photos will be posted online by Dick Cheney.)

Parrots that unquestioningly repeat everything they hear may be offered jobs as reporters covering the White House beat.

Birds who attempt to impersonate chickens will be eaten by Morgan Spurlock.

Birds whose migratory patterns are disrupted by this Homeland Insecurity action will be offered assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA), which is standing by with five thousand tons of ice that was never delivered to hurricane Katrina victims and still hasn’t completely melted.

All bird houses owned by U.S. citizens must be registered with federal officials under Chapter IV, Section 8 of the Patriot Act. Citizens caught harboring undocumented birds in undeclared bird houses will be deemed “enemy combatants” and subjected to the whims of Tyson Foods foul interrogators.

All birds made of white meat are hereby requested to report to their nearest INS facility for processing into Chicken McNuggets.

Questions about these policies should be directed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food pyramid website, which has the same answer for everyone: “Drink more milk.”

The Department of Homeland Insecurity, Multiplication Division

Authored by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger.
Mike Adams at Mike Adams