By Elena Voropay

Health, fitness, exercise and weight loss are hot topics nowadays. You find more and more information on these subjects in practically every magazine. And the more you find out, the more questions you have to ask. The following facts will enlighten you about all kinds of bizarre gossips you might have heard before. Find out more about grapefruit, hormones, flat stomach, the power of coconut, New Year’s resolutions, rapid weight loss, vitamin capsules, eating after a workout, and much much more.

2. If your workout clothes smell like ammonia after a workout, you're burning a lot of muscle tissue for fuel. Ammonia is a by-product of protein metabolism which takes place when your carbohydrate stores in the body are low. Most times your body will burn muscle tissue for energy before it will tap into fat you are so desperately trying to lose. This produces the sharp smell of ammonia. If you can clearly sense it – please, get some carbs in your system to speed up your metabolism and preserve the hard-earned muscles.

3. Abdominal muscles are most commonly incorrectly referred to as 6-pack. For closer match, it should be an 8-pack because your abs consists of 3 small cubes of muscle on each side above the belly button and one elongated trapezius-shaped muscle on each side below your belly. That totals to 8 shapes or packs of one stomach muscle – rectus abdominus.

4. The reason you can see well-defined abs on some extremely lean athletes has to do with their genetics, low body fat, good development of abdominal muscles, and extreme dehydration. If you have trained your abs for years, are relatively lean and can’t ‘feel’ the washboard with slight pressure, that means that your genetic mark-up does not allow for it. Even some well-defined bodybuilders with ripped muscles all over the body don’t show a 6-pack or 8-pack despite their leanness.

5. Eating after a workout is a very good thing, especially if your goal is to increase metabolism and your fitness level. Eating a combination of carbohydrates and protein within an hour after training increases Growth Hormone levels. Growth Hormone (GH) is essential in constructing new muscles and rebuilding your body from the inside out. The intestine is the single largest receptor of GH in the body.

3. Women burn more fat than men during aerobic activities, several studies confirmed. Men are slow burners and going longer at moderate intensity fits them. Women, on the other hand, benefit from high-intensity interval-type training, such as running uphill for three minutes interchanged with fast walking for one minute. That way you will force your body to go for the highest calorie burn in the shortest time period.

4. What do you think is heavier – a kilo of fat or a kilo of muscle? Neither. One kilogram of fat and one kilogram of muscle weigh the same, precisely one kilogram. But fat occupies larger space than muscle and has more volume to it. The more bodyfat you have, the bigger you will appear. Increasing muscle tone might not change your general weight, but will reduce the size of your body due to greater muscle density creating leaner figure. Two people may be the same height and show the same number on the scale, but they may wear completely different dress sizes – a person with a fit figure and a size 10 may weigh as much as anyone with a softer body who wears size 16 and has less muscle mass.

5. Countless crunches and leg lifts do nothing to create a flat tummy. These exercises work on superficial muscles potentially creating an 8-pack, but the stomach may still be pouching out. The muscle responsible for a truely flat stomach is not visible and lies beneath your 'abs'. Known as 'transverse abdominus', it is activated when you do a forced expiration (sounding like 'huh') and hold your breath. Learning to activate 'trasverse abdominus' and breathe at the same time will strengthen and flatten your stomach while protecting lower back and creating a straight confident posture.

6. Despite what you may have heard, muscle does not turn to fat if you stop exercising. Your muscles may shrink when you stop training because they're not being used, but it's impossible for them to convert to fat. These are two completely different tissues that have different cellular compositions and functions and cannot be transformed. Besides reducing your muscles, stopping exercising may decrease your metabolism and intensify your appetite which can add to fat deposits under your skin. But if you resume your training program, your muscles will remember previous exercise experience making it easy for you to regain lost strength, muscle and fitness levels.

7. If exercising after eating doesn’t settle your stomach and makes you feel nauseous, there are physiological reasons for that. Cardiovascular exercise soon after a full meal can compromise oxygen and nutrient delivery to the working muscles causing gastric discomfort. This is because stomach and muscles are competing for blood supply to perform efficiently. Eating should not prevent your from exercising and your desire to workout should not force you into a fast, but keep in mind that food may interfere with the activity. A small snack before hitting the gym is fine, especially if you are planning to lift weights. But if you eat a full-blown meal, it is better to wait at least 60-90 minutes before aerobic activity.

8. If you are losing weight very rapidly because you are not eating enough, you might be losing a lot of fluids and muscle tissue instead of burning fat deposits. Under-eating puts your body in starvation mode creating the state of 'self-defense' against future fasting. When too few calories are consumed, almost every calorie you consume and every gram of fat you have in your body is held on to. Before your body will burn the fat you are trying to lose, it will start eating the muscle tissue to provide energy and fuel daily activities. At the same time, fat deposits may increase due to your body's frantic attempt to protect internal organs from possible damage and destruction. This is why someone with anorexia has low body weight but high body fat.

9. Cellulite is not a medical term, but a word popularized in the European spas and beauty salons in the 19th century and refers to fat stored underneath your skin. It is the same kind of fat you find anywhere else on your body – whether it is under your chin, or on the back of your arm. Complete reasons for cellulite are unknown, but theories suggest a combination of contributing factors such as body composition, muscle tone, age, sex, heredity, nutrition, hormones and body toxins. Best way to minimize its appearance is to eat nutrient-rich foods, drink clean water and exercise daily.

10. Coconut oil, known as a saturated fat from vegetable source, has shown to improve your health and help with losing weight. It consists of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), fatty acids known to increase metabolism, improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, and promote weight loss. These Medium Chain Fatty Acids are digested more easily and utilized differently by the body than other fats. In short, whereas other fats can be stored in the body’s cells, the fat in coconut oil is sent directly to the liver where it is immediately converted into energy. So when you eat coconut oil, the body uses it straight away to make energy rather than store as body fat.

11. Many people are overweight because they are malnourished. Their bodies crave nutrients they are deficient in and that creates the sense of hunger. As creatures of habits, most would eat foods that don't supply the nutrients they need satisfying their cravings with poor food choices. That keeps overweight people hungry. So, they would eat more of empty calories and that eventually adds to theoverweight problem.

12. Curbing appetite now takes a whole new turn. If you crave something sweet, like a chocolate bar, try to eliminate a taste trigger by snacking on something tart, like a grapefruit or even a pickle. Eating the opposite taste of what you actually crave may trick your senses and distract your attention so you don’t end up eating a lot of empty calories. Another example would be substituting cheese with blueberries, or nuts with an apple.

13. The number of fat cells in our body is predetermined by genetics, however, prolonged overfeeding can cause fat cells to split into more cells, especially during the teen years. The more fat cells you have in your body, the more sites you have available to fill up. That increases your chances of becoming overweight. And while you cannot reduce the actual number of fat cells regardless of the diet or exercise program you follow, you can shrink these stubborn fat compartments to negligible sizes and transform your body into a trim figure. Staying this way, however, may be very difficult as your fat cells will always be looking for any possible chance to balloon to their original size.

14. Be careful what you eat grapefruit with. Naringin (an enzyme found in grapefruits - also called naringenin) may increase the power of some drugs. It deactivates enzymes in your stomach that normally break down drugs. When mixed with alcohol, test subjects ended up with four times more alcohol in the blood. Canned fruit juice contains twice the naringin of fresh grapefruit.

15. The more deficient you are in vitamins and minerals the more of an effect you will notice from supplementation. Supplement capsules are generally better than tablets as tablets can be compressed so hard as to be indigestible. Most supplements need an acidic stomach environment to be better digested and absorbed. So, it is best to take them between meals, with some lemon juice or with ascorbic acid. Be careful not to overdo your vitamins and minerals – toxicity can be as dangerous as deficiency.