1.. Eating one big meal a day to lose weight.

Eating once a day in the short term will cause weight loss for the simple reason of you have cut calories from your previous calorie intake. Now your body goes into a starvation mode and will actually hold on to calories. This happens for your protection because the body has no idea when you will feed it again. To get your body working for you, and in a fat burning mode. Eat small meals throughout the day. The body will then start to burn excess calories and your metabolism will now start to kick into gear and you will start to drop that unwanted bodyfat.

2. All fat is bad
This statement could not be any further from the truth. There are bad fats, which are saturated fats, and trans fats. These are the fats that raise blood cholesterol. Trans fats are unsaturated, but they can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol and lower HDL (good) cholesterol. Trans fats result from adding hydrogen to vegetable oils used in commercial baked goods and for cooking in most restaurants, and fast food chains. Saturated fats are found in whole milk, cream, ice cream, cheeses, butter, lard and meats.

Omega-3 fatty acids are not just good fats they affect heart health in positive ways, says Penny Kris- Etherton, PHD,RD lead author of a report written in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Benefits of omega 3- fatty acids

1. Decreased risk of sudden death and arrhythmia

2. Decreased thrombosis(blood clots)

3. Decreased triglycerides levels

4. Decreased growth of alherosclerotic plaque

5. Improved arterial health

6. Lower blood pressure

3. The scale is the only measure of progress
The scale is but one tool to measure progress. Often times when people start exercise and nutrition programs the scale is not the best indicator of progress. This is because with exercise you are putting on muscle at the same time you are dropping body fat. So the scale may not change but your body composition is changing dramatically. After all, the main goal is to change how the body looks, how you feel, and overall health.

4. Walking is a long term solution to fat loss.
I know some will say, isn’t some activity better than none?

Well yes, in that if you have been sedentary, any form of exercise will burn bodyfat, and help get you get leaner. The losses you experience in bodyfat will be short lived because the body will soon adapt to walking. This is because walking is a very low intensity activity and the body will soon need a higher intensity level to continues fat loss. You can only walk so fast or walk so far before you will need other alternatives to lose fat. Your first choice should be resistance training. Getting in touch with a fitness professional in your area would go along way in your fat loss endeavors.

5. Spot reducing will shrink problem areas.
I know we have all seen the info-mercials touting the latest crunching fat loss apparatus guaranteed to shed all the fat in the mid- section. Well, unfortunately I have some news for you. They fail miserably at fat loss. If you do in fact use the apparatus you could strengthen your abs, but that does not mean you will get your body fat low enough to see the abs.

Your body is genetically predispositioned to burn fat from certain areas on your body. For example, some people lose weight in the face initially some in the arms, and some in the hips. If you stick with your exercise program your body will take fat stores from your problem areas.