Unfit to Be Tried: 7 Fitness Approaches to Avoid

Oct. 12, 2010— -- When you have precious few resources to dedicate to your health routine, you want to make sure everything you do, counts. What a bummer to find out you've been following a routine that's a waste of time or spending your hard earned cash on a practice that will never work.

Here, we give you the low down on seven diet and fitness practices you may think are beneficial but alas -- they aren't.

The first electronic cardio machines that appeared in gyms in the 1970s featured low intensity, long duration "fat burning" programs. Many still do today, even though Neal Pire, a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, says this slow-and-steady approach to working out can be a real time waster.

"You do burn a higher percentage of fat during a long, slow workout but you burn more fat and calories overall when you push the intensity," he says. Pire recommends doing interval training where you alternate periods of hard and easy cardio. According to Pire, this helps ratchet up the calorie burn while helping you avoid injury and burnout.