What's the worst diet/fitness advice you've received?

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  • FearAnLoathing
    FearAnLoathing Posts: 4,852 Member
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    someone once told me just get lipo and forgett about it lol
  • Boomerof51
    Boomerof51 Posts: 44 Member
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    My boss is encouraging the "2 day diet" and we work for the health department! Duh.
  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
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    Some random woman was talking to me months ago about the HCG mess (20 pounds ago). Talking to me about 500 calories a day. She was older than me and from the look of her it didn't seem like she was at all concerned about muscle tone or general health - just weight loss. I let the info go in one ear and out the other.
  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
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    My mother-in-law once told me "You can eat all the ice cream you want, just stop eating potatoes and bread." If only :laugh:

    Wow...just wow.
  • Oompa_Loompa
    Oompa_Loompa Posts: 1,099 Member
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    "It's okay if you eat fast food all the time..as long as your going to the gym"

    ...Oh wait..that's what I used to tell myself lol
  • jackpotclown
    jackpotclown Posts: 3,291 Member
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    that too much protein is bad for your kidneys........like they clog it up or something.....ll
  • noltes2
    noltes2 Posts: 202 Member
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    To eat egg beaters, veggie patties and other food substitutes. Sorry, I'll stick with the natural versions thanks! What do you think is better 20 ingredients in egg beaters or an egg white from an actual organic egg?!

    Another - just eat organic and you'll lose weight! And these are the people called my friends...
  • jessieinblue
    jessieinblue Posts: 287 Member
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    that too much protein is bad for your kidneys........like they clog it up or something.....ll

    Actually, there is some truth in this.
  • jessieinblue
    jessieinblue Posts: 287 Member
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    To eat egg beaters, veggie patties and other food substitutes. Sorry, I'll stick with the natural versions thanks! What do you think is better 20 ingredients in egg beaters or an egg white from an actual organic egg?!

    I couldn't agree more.
  • gdunn55
    gdunn55 Posts: 363
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    When I was younger I was going to play college football, and the coach told me over the summer he wanted me to gain 50 lbs. I asked him how, he said just eat, or better yet, drink a milkshake with every meal and snack. At night after you eat dinner eat a pint of ice cream.

    Yea, I ended up losing 20 lbs. Then my knees went out. So I decided not to play. I kept the bad eating habits.
  • spuzo
    spuzo Posts: 50
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    I'm going to use Dr. Arya Sharma's saying "nightmare on ELMM street" is always the worst advice I get.

    ELMM: Eat Less Move More.

    Not so cut and dry especially with morbidly obese people.

    I also got what I thought was really bad advice from "America's Toughest Trainer" website [wont mention names, but I'm sure people here know who that is]. 1200 calories per day and intense cardio exercise 2 hours per day - no eating back calories. Can you say "no energy" either!
  • s_hamm_08
    s_hamm_08 Posts: 117 Member
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    I once got told that to just switch everything to fat free and the weight would come off.
    Another one that I've been hearing a lot from my mother in law is that it is pointless to workout if you are just going to eat the calories you burned.
    One that I never understood was a friend told me women shouldn't lift weighs.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    that too much protein is bad for your kidneys........like they clog it up or something.....ll

    Actually, there is some truth in this.

    right. FYI, protein breaks down in the krebs cycle into useable amino acids, pyruvate, and (eventually) urea (among other things), which is processed in the kidneys. Increasing protein amounts long term will stress the kidneys. For someone with very healthy kidneys it takes a long time for anything bad to come from this (years), but it still will shorten the life of the kidneys. granted it takes a lot of protein over a long period to do this, but there is truth to it.
  • AwMyLoLo
    AwMyLoLo Posts: 1,571 Member
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    When I was like 18 my sister borrowed this book from someone called The Six Day Diet, or something along that line. You went through and figured out what "type" you were and it gave you a meal plan. It was basically a clean diet with lean proteins, limited carbs, pretty low calorie. BUT! YOU ONLY HAD TO DO IT FOR 6 DAYS WOOHOO!! :wink: On day 2 we both went La Paloma and got large Sopapillas and scarfed them DOWN!! :laugh: :laugh: I ended up finishing the 6 day diet and lost some water weight but, yeah. 6 days of clean eating doesn't do much for you in the long run.
  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
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    I once got told that to just switch everything to fat free and the weight would come off.

    Eating food that says fat free this or fat free that usually have more carbohydrates to make up for the taste. Not good.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    Tie between:

    "just workout everyday, and then you can eat anything you want to."
    ("friend" who was overweight and had never worked out)

    "seriously, just smoke and your appetite goes away."
    (overheard behind two young teenage girls at the Starbucks...so sad)

    "Whenever I get hungry, I just take a percocet and go to sleep"
    (overheard while in the restroom in the dance department at a conservatory I was working at)

    Also, I agree with the "80% of it" comment way up in the thread. These are more sad than they are funny, unfortunately.
  • pyro13g
    pyro13g Posts: 1,127 Member
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    Pretty much a tie between

    Eat High carb low fat.
    Do high volume weight training.
    Fasted Cardio
    Don't eat foods with cholesterol.
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    Oh EASILY the Lemon Detox Diet. A few girls I knew (worked with) decided that they would ignore the "detox" element and try and make it a lifestyle habit!!! Yeah OK, so 3 meals a day of ONLY lemon juice, maple syrup, pepper and whatever else goes in... No food AT ALL.

    Well yeah, they dropped about 15lbs in a week but they could barely hold their heads up, hardly got any sleep and after that week binged on anything they could get their hands on. Gained back every, single pound.

    Funnily enough I was watching re-run's of The Office yesterday and it was featured... Made me laugh because it really was portrayed as utterly ridiculous - and it is!!!

    I saw a program that included this the other day - I'd never heard of it. Essentially, two journalists went through 30 days(?) trying different extreme diets every week. Both girls were maybe 15 lbs overweight, but right on borderline for healthy/overweight BMI. They included low carb diets, the lemon thing, the plastic wrap thing, extreme cal restriction, fasting, enemas, etc. They were supervised by docs, etc. It was part of a study being done by a hospital or something.

    It was really scary to watch. While both of course lost weight, both gained most back and the effects on their systems were ridiculous.

    The plastic wrap thing (including going in a sauna and running in place - she lasted like 10 min) worked....to get out water weight. She lost like a total of 2 inches. And then drank a bottle of water...and was back to previous size.

    The interesting part was this: both girls were evaluated for mental health beforehand, to try to ensure they didn't already have body image problems or wouldn't develop them while doing the study. Both started out pretty healthy, mentally. One girl did ok (she was on some of the less-crazy diets). The other (who did the lemon thing, the extreme cal restriction, etc)... Well, they pulled her from the study early because she ended up developing the beginning symptoms of bulimia (binge/purged a couple of times and used laxatives in an unhealthy way, outside the scope of the diets.) Aside from the awful physical effects, these diets actually CAUSED an eating disorder. Yikes.

    So...worst advice? ANY diet/pill that says you can lose more than 1-2 lbs/week over the long term (unless morbidly obese). Or any crash, limited-time diet. None of them are healthy weight loss.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    I once got told that to just switch everything to fat free and the weight would come off.

    Eating food that says fat free this or fat free that usually have more carbohydrates to make up for the taste. Not good.

    I did that in the 90s when it was all the rage. I shudder to think how much sugar I ate in a day.
  • AdamATGATT
    AdamATGATT Posts: 573 Member
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    When I was like 18 my sister borrowed this book from someone called The Six Day Diet, or something along that line. You went through and figured out what "type" you were and it gave you a meal plan. It was basically a clean diet with lean proteins, limited carbs, pretty low calorie. BUT! YOU ONLY HAD TO DO IT FOR 6 DAYS WOOHOO!! :wink: On day 2 we both went La Paloma and got large Sopapillas and scarfed them DOWN!! :laugh: :laugh: I ended up finishing the 6 day diet and lost some water weight but, yeah. 6 days of clean eating doesn't do much for you in the long run.

    I'm almost wondering if they meant "Six Day Diet", as in...eat healthy for six days a week, then have a cheat day. Then you go back on the diet for six days. Not six days only.

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