SCIENCE WEEK IRELAND: There is no such thing as a pill that makes you lose weight. Nor can you choose to lose fat from one place while keeping it at another. Most people, however, could achieve a perfectly flat stomach with the right kind of exercise and diet, according to two physiologists from the Institute of Technology Sligo.
Ms Emer Donlon and Ms Joanne Regan, both physiology lecturers involved in Sligo Institute of Technology's National Diploma in Health Science and Physiology, last night demolished some of the most popular and persistent myths about weight control and fat.
Their joint talk, "Fighting fat - fact and fiction", is part of Sligo's substantial contribution to the ongoing Science Week Ireland activities.
At the top of their list of myths is the notion that taking pills or eating certain foods will "burn fat" and make you lose weight. "There is no magic pill or fat-burning foods," Ms Donlon stated. Nor does "fat reduction" work, the notion that you can sculpt areas of the body by removing fat from here but not there.
Dieting and exercise can cause a reduction in fat but the loss is as often from chin or wrists as from the midriff. "There is no such thing as fat reduction."
Another common misconception, one that stops many people, particularly women, from using weights for exercising, is the notion that when you stop the workouts, the muscle will immediately convert to fat. This doesn't happen, Ms Donlon said; the muscle may lose its tone and become soft but it doesn't go away or change to fat.
Fat is part of what we are, she said. Between 18 per cent and 22 per cent of the average male's body weight is made up of fat and women are typically between 25 per cent and 28 per cent fat, she said.
"Most people jump on the weighing scales as a way to measure how fat they are or measure weight loss." This ignores many other factors, however, including fitness, muscularity and sex.
Ms Donlon warned against "quick-fix solutions" as a way to lose weight. Crash-dieting, causing a sudden drop in calorie intake, was "dangerous and doesn't work", she said. "It is not a long-term solution. It actually tricks the brain into believing there is a famine coming and so it slows your metabolism down."
Nor is "liquid dieting" recommended, something that usually only causes liquid loss rather than fat loss.
She recommended general aerobic exercise as a way to burn more energy. If you can burn off more calories than you take in, you will lose weight."
Although it "is achievable" for most people to acquire a "six-pack" set of stomach muscles, it would take aerobic exercise, extra workouts for specific muscle groups and sensible eating, she said.