With Swimwear season slowly and surely approaching, we decided to get to the bottom of some common fitness myths.

Cut the crabs
Myths: Taking carbohydrates out of your diet is a healthy way to low weight.
Verdict: FALSE

Carbohydrates provide about 50-60 percent of the body's energy calories, so a drastic reduction in carbohydrate intake means the thyroid slows down, decreasing metabolism and the body's ability to break down fats and carbohydrates. Certified Personal Trainer, Irving Henson notes this can be detrimental to attempts to lose weight.

In fact, some carbohydrates are good for you. Complex carbohydrates (such as whole grains, nuts, seeds, oats, brown pastas and brown rice) break down gradually, providing short bursts of energy throughout the day, meaning they take longer to add themselves to your beer gut. Henson says: "Complex carbohydrates are the body's preferred source of energy and consuming enough of them is necessary to ensure the proper digestion of protein to later provide muscle-nourishing nitrogen."

In comparison, simple carbohydrates (such as anything made from refined white flour, including white pastas and white rice) just add to your weight because they don't need to be broken down.

But it all depends on just how you eat carbohydrates and how many you eat. Nutrition Consultant Tan Wei Ling explains: "All basic foods are generally good. For example, rice, white or brown, is good. But when we fry it with a lot of oil or butter and add it to fatty meat, we make it bad. Similarly, potatoes are good. But when we turn them into potato chips, we make them bad."

Intake is also important. Both Henson and Tan agree that the optimal carbohydrate intake is five to six servings per day, throughout the day. Each serving size should be no bigger than a clenched first. This doesn't mean you can use your meathead friend's fist to justify a big bowl of mashed spud. "It's different for different people because everyone has different sized fists, "says Henson.

And don't forget: If you cut out crabs, you'll have to put something else in, and fatty foods are often the unfortunate alternative.

Walking It Off
Myth: Running burns more fat than walking.
Verdicts: FALSE

The most productive form of fat burning exercise is that which keeps your heart rate in the fat burning zone for the longest. According to health experts this means that is it not necessarily the intensity of the exercise that's important, but the amount of time we can keep our heart at the ideal fat-burning heart rate. So if you' re unfit, then running around the block twice for 10 minutes might knock the hell out of you, but a less intense 20-minute walk might maintain your heart rate for longer, bringing about better results. It all depends on the individual and how much work you need to do to give your heart a good cardio workout.

Stretching Out
Myth: Flexibility indicates fitness.
Verdict: TRUE

If you've had joint pain after a long flight, you'll know that moving your joints is important. Yoga Instructor, Jeanne Chung, argues that flexibility is an indication of health and fitness because it's a demonstration of the health of the parts of your body that move your joints: Your muscles, tendons, ligaments and connective tissues. Exercising the joints gets the blood pumping, another important consideration. "Blood flow brings nutrients, oxygen, and carries off toxins," Chung advises.

Hide From the Hawker
Myth: All hawker food is unhealthy and fattening.
Verdict: FALSE

When eating hawker food, be discriminating. "Go for less oily, less salty, less sweet and less flour-coated foods," warms Nutrition Consultant, Tan Wei Ling. So, while not all hawker food is bad, that doesn't' mean you should grab the next plate of carrot cake you see. Tan spoon-fed us some tips on how to handle that tempting hawker fare:
            Fried noodles should be eaten less often. But if you really can't help yourself, at least buy a smaller portion.
           Curries are another one to avoid, but if you've ordered some, then leave the gravy behind rather than polishing off the whole bowl.
           Eat less rice with your snacks or ask for plain rice. On top of that, don't eat any chicken skin and add vegetables to your dishes when you can.
           When ordering dry noodles, ask for no oil.

Overall, the best way to make hawker food healthier is to encourage hawkers to modify their recipes by choosing healthier options.

Do You Measure Up
Myths: BMI indicates ideal weight and fitness.
Verdict: The jurys out.

BMI (Body Mass Index) is simply a formula that tells you if you are over-or under-weight according to your height. It is calculated by dividing your body weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters. Don't get it? Try: Body weight (kg) / [Height (m) x Height (m)]. The healthy range for Asians is 18.5-23.

So if your BMI is higher than average, does that mean you're unfit and fat? Our experts were unable to agree on this. Nutrition Consultant, Tan Wei Ling, acknowledges that there is no ideal weight, but sees BMI as "a good measure of healthy weight range. It does not necessarily indicate fitness, but it indicates health and or disease risks."

Certified Personal Trainer, Irving Henson, disagrees, "I find it [BMI] highly inaccurate," he says. "Take a 90kg athlete with a fat percentage of eight percent and a height of 1.73 m BMI of 30.1. According to this formula, he would be considered obese." Henson suggests a different formula: The waist-to-hip ratio test. "Simple. The waist should be smaller than the hips. If not, you are overweight."

Source from Aimee Chan and Diya Singh, HK Magazine (Friday, March 10, 2006)