With all of the information being thrown at us through televisions, magazines, billboards, movies, books, and websites it's hard to figure out what is myth and what is fact. This page is designed to set straight a few of the common myths surrounding exercise and nutrition.

MYTH: If I am a girl and I lift weights I’ll get too bulky.

FACT: This is NOT true! You don't have to look like this woman to the right if you decide to lift.

If you decided to start a resistance training program, you should consult the "Beginners Workout Guide" for more information. It is important that if your goal is to "tone" and not to build a lot of bulk, that an individual should start with lighter weights, and focus on doing longer repetitions (12 or more) and two to three sets.

The benefits of strength training are also important for leading a healthy lifestyle. The follow excerpt on the benefits of exercise to women's health is from The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology:

"Exercise can strengthen your heart and promote the health of your blood vessels. It helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure levels, which can reduce your risk of heart disease.

Exercise can help build and maintain strong bones. It helps slow the bone loss that occurs as women age and begin to develop osteoporosis.

Exercise is good for your mind as well as your body. Staying active promotes mental well-being, relieves stress, helps you sleep better, and can help ease depression and anxiety."

So don't worry about the woman to the right. Pick up those weights and start building some strong, sexy muscles!

Myth: If I cut my calories down to 1,200 or less a day I will drop weight.

Fact: This is NOT true! Although you will initially drop weight, this will not help maintain a long term goal of weightless.

Depending on your gender, age, weight, height, and activity level, you need a certain amount of calories a day simply for your body to function properly. Click here to find how many calories you burn daily.

When you do not supply your body with enough calories to perform basic functions, your metabolism starts to slow down. When your metabolism slows it becomes harder to lose weight, and in fact when you start eating higher calorie amounts a day, you can begin to gain weight. In fact, in a study conducted by the Center for Obesity Research it was found that "greater weight loss was achieved by subjects prescribed a 600-kcal deficit diet, compared with a conventional low-calorie (1200 kcal/d) diet."

So, if your goal is to lose weight figure out how many calories you burn just through your activities of daily living, and then subtract 500-600 kcals from that number. This is about how many calories you should be consuming a day if your goal is healthy and long term weight loss.

So don't worry so much about restricting your caloric intake, but remember to follow the principles of the new food pyramid!

Myth: If I'm not drenched in sweat, I didn't have a good workout.

Fact: This is NOT true! The amount of sweat you produce during physical activity does not directly correlate to the intensity of your workout!

Humans can tolerate an extremely wide range of environmental temperatures, from negative sixty degrees Fahrenheit to two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. But the body or core temperature can only tolerate a fourteen degree drop or a nine degree increase. This is where sweating comes in.

Sweating is a heat transfer mechanism. Basically, sweating causes heat loss through evaporation. This means, that when you sweat, you are helping your body to cool through the evaporation of your sweat into the air. This heat transfer mechanism is less effective in higher humidity. When you are exercising in higher humidity, the ambient temperature is higher, meaning you have to sweat more to cool your body. Conversely, when you are exercising in a dry climate you tend to sweat less.

So what all this science mumbo-jumbo means is that the amount of sweat you produce is in relation to the humidity of the environment in which you are exercising. So don't worry if you are sweating less on those runs outside during those dry days, you are still getting a great workout.

Myth: I don't need to work out if I look skinny.

Fact: This is NOT true! Just because the scale says you are a healthy weight doesn't mean you don't have to exercise and eat right!

Even if you are in your healthy weight range, it is very important to get regular exercise, and to eat healthily. Even if you look skinny outwardly, you could have an unhealthy lean muscle to fat ratio. What that means is, you might have more fat than muscle in your body which is bad for your health. Having a higher fat content is associated with a higher risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and stroke. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), physical activity helps to reduce all of these health risks. Click here to learn more about the benefits of physical activity from the CDC. Consult the Exercise and Fitness 101 tab to learn more about the American College of Sports Medicine's physical activity recommendations.

So remember, that exercise will help you look healthy not only on the surface, but from the inside out!

Myth: I can't eat any carbs or else I'll get fat.

Fact: This is NOT true! Actually, carbohydrates are an essential part of a healthy human diet. Based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet, approximately 60% of the diet should be in carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates are used as fuel for the body. When carbs are deprived from the body, you can begin to feel tired, irritable, constipated, and be at a higher risk for heart disease, ketoacidosis, and colon cancer in the long term.

Also, the scientific literature is not very conclusive on how cutting carbs can help you lose weight, and keep it off in the long term.In a recent trial of a low-carb, high-protein, high-fat diet compared with a low-calorie, high-carb, low-fat diet, initial weight loss was greater on the low-carb diet, but by 1 year, there were no differences in weight loss between the two diet groups. Click here to learn more about this study.

Although it is healthy to consume carbs, it is important to choose the "right" kind of carbohydrates. Try and stay away from refined sugars like white bread, candy, and soda. Try instead to focus on consuming complex carbohydrates like whole grains, and more fruits and vegetables.

So go ahead and have your sandwich on some bread, just try and make it whole wheat toast!

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