**4. Common myths about resistance training and weight loss**

While greater amounts of exercise appear to increase the magnitude of weight loss and maintenance [15], it must be noted that too much exercising actually prevents body fat loss due to increases in cortisol. In fact, research suggests this raised cortisol leads to overeating, weight gain and an increase in abdominal fat [22].

Further, many individuals engaging in a weight loss programme fail to utilise RT for fear of "bulking up", "looking manly", or "becoming muscle-bound". While it is true that RT is the exercise of choice for bodybuilders, many individuals, and females in general, lack the hormonal and genetic profile to develop overly large muscles [23].

A particular problem amongst children and health professionals working with children is the erroneous belief that all RT results in damage to the epiphyseal or growth plates [24]. Despite the need for RT in supporting neural adaptation during normal physiological maturation, RT has proven effective at weight loss and body recomposition in children and adolescents [25, 26]. While literature and research indicate that some risk of injury from RT does exist, this is comparable to that of sports children are already participating in and that risk for injury in children is not dramatically elevated by RT and can be minimised by effective programme design (i.e. appropriate programme development) and education (i.e. on lifting technique) [24, 27].

While the term spot reduction or spot training (the localised loss of fat as a result of exercising a particular part of the body), is commonly practiced using RT, research in this area is still contradictory [28]. In this regard, the present body of knowledge is insufficient about the plastic heterogeneity of regional body tissues when a localised RT programme is applied [28].

A common prevailing myth is the belief that fat can be turned into muscle. However, this is not a physiological probability since skeletal muscle consists of numerous protein muscle fibres, which in turn, are comprised of a number of myofibrils containing multiple myofilaments [29]. On the contrary, body fat, which is known as adipose tissue consists of triglycerides, which consist of glycerol and three fatty acid chains. Fat is exclusively made up of numerous carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms [30]. As such, due to this differentiation in muscle and fat cell chemical composition, neither can be converted into the other [31].
