What is the WORST fitness advice....

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  • cairee
    cairee Posts: 95 Member
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    My overweight husband always likes to tell me 'I don't need to diet - exercise is all anyone needs to do' OK champ *rolls eyes*

    uh, did we marry the same guy?
    my husband seems to think he can eat all the fat and sugar he wants so long as he does 5 minutes of crunches. Im gonna be ready for swimsuit season, dont think he will be.
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
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    "All you have to do to lose weight is give up soda and stop eating after 6 pm."

    If it were that easy, wouldn't we all be so stoked!

    well if you're drinking a LOT of soda it can make a huge difference. A friend of mine lost 80 pounds and all she did was change out Pepsi for water. She was drinking a ton of the stuff though.

    I think stopping eating at a certain time is BS though.
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
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    That people weighing double what I did can do jumping jacks so man up and get on with it. I'm now waiting for knee surgery as I popped the cartilage!

    Damn you Jillian Michaels!!!! (If that's who you got it from, I have horrific flashbacks of her shouting random words in 30DS still, so I remember it well)

    I couldn't do those damned Jillian Michaels jumping jacks. I opted for jogging in place, instead. Jillian seems to think everyone has joints of steel.
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
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    The advertising and the media has women (and men) thinking some pretty stupid ill informed things that don't make any sense at all. If I wasn't surrounded by that I probably would have started lifting things or doing body weight exercises a lot sooner. It's fun being able to leap over fences and balance on balls because you can carry yourself easily.


    I don't think the fitness/diet industry wants us to know how to do it properly. If we ALL know proper fitness, they can't gouge us for dieting/fitness products.
  • speedgraphic19
    speedgraphic19 Posts: 36
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    Eat less fat (vitamins are fat soluble)
    Eat more then 400g in carbs (um but then I need to eat less of the essential nutrients?
    Eat less protein (protein preserves muscle mass, I want to get ridd of fat, not what little muscle I have)
    Exercise less so you don't gain girth (exercisse depletes glycogen, so yes, when you stop, it comes back, that's a good thing)
    strength training makes you bulk up (then why have I lost inches everywhere? On a calorie deficit, you're not going to gain all over mass...that doesn't make sense? Muscle is denser then fat, how can shrinking things make you bulkier?)

    Would you even be able to eat anything else if you aimed for 400g of carbs a day? That seems like an incredibly high number to me.
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
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    The advertising and the media has women (and men) thinking some pretty stupid ill informed things that don't make any sense at all. If I wasn't surrounded by that I probably would have started lifting things or doing body weight exercises a lot sooner. It's fun being able to leap over fences and balance on balls because you can carry yourself easily.


    I don't think the fitness/diet industry wants us to know how to do it properly. If we ALL know proper fitness, they can't gouge us for dieting/fitness products.
    But you'd think someone would benefit by telling the truth...I mean how many boxed 1-5lb weight sets have been bought and thrown away and bashed publicly and sold for cheap? They get bad media, the second person who picked up the weights doesn't benefit the company...If they were like *here do this and it will work* and it works...wouldn't everyone want those things and they'd benefit more? I wish the Olympic Weights people were better at advertising...I'd be able to find more then one oly bar in the whole city :P It's slim pickings at the fitness center here...you'd figure they'd be able to sell more of something that works...
  • algebravoodoo
    algebravoodoo Posts: 776 Member
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    Our school nurse set up a SPECIAL DEAL with Weight Watchers so several have joined. I have not. I did get a good inside chuckle when the talk at the lunch table turned to points and "don't eat this" or "do eat that." Inevitably, eyes turned to see what is on my plate, which is likely over any point limit WW would set for me.

    "How do you eat like that and keep losing weight?"
    "I run."
    "Hmmmm..."

    Last I saw, several were walking at a rather fast pace down at the track :smile:
    I am happy for them!
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
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    Eat less fat (vitamins are fat soluble)
    Eat more then 400g in carbs (um but then I need to eat less of the essential nutrients?
    Eat less protein (protein preserves muscle mass, I want to get ridd of fat, not what little muscle I have)
    Exercise less so you don't gain girth (exercisse depletes glycogen, so yes, when you stop, it comes back, that's a good thing)
    strength training makes you bulk up (then why have I lost inches everywhere? On a calorie deficit, you're not going to gain all over mass...that doesn't make sense? Muscle is denser then fat, how can shrinking things make you bulkier?)

    Would you even be able to eat anything else if you aimed for 400g of carbs a day? That seems like an incredibly high number to me.
    Exactly I don't get the low protein low fat diets some people sputter on about. I was on another forum earlier and a girl didn't want to eat. She gave no info on her diet other then she hardly eats and they told her to eat less fat and more carbs for her hormones...that are regulated by actually absorbing nutrients via fat I would imagine... I was like wut?
  • Sunny_fit4life
    Sunny_fit4life Posts: 157 Member
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    "All you have to do to lose weight is give up soda and stop eating after 6 pm."

    If it were that easy, wouldn't we all be so stoked!

    well if you're drinking a LOT of soda it can make a huge difference. A friend of mine lost 80 pounds and all she did was change out Pepsi for water. She was drinking a ton of the stuff though.

    I think stopping eating at a certain time is BS though.

    That's awesome for your friend!
    It was funny to me because I don't drink soda ;)
    I get annoyed by any advice that makes assumptions about what I currently eat.

    Another piece of bad advice:
    "It doesn't matter what you eat as long as you burn more calories than you eat!"
  • joyzeejay
    joyzeejay Posts: 95 Member
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    Don't lift heavy weights, only do cardio...so I took that advice and could NEVER get my big thighs, butt, and hips down for 43 years of my life. Finally, did heavy, especially legs and made it from a size 16 into a size 6 (within 4 months). Never had thighs, butt, and hips this small and tight!!! Yes, to heavy weights!!!!
  • ButMeeerrrmmm
    ButMeeerrrmmm Posts: 3
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    "You're a mom now, so no one expects you to be thin."
    Excuse me?! One, I don't care if anyone thinks I'm thin, but I'm not using parenthood as an excuse to be lazy and continue in an unhealthy lifestyle.

    "Don't eat fruit because it contains sugar"
    Well, duh fruit contains sugar, but 15g of sugar from a pear is not the same 15g of sugar from candy! (Well, even if it is, you get my drift.)

    "Walking won't burn any fat."
    Yeah RIGHT!! I lost all my weight (initially) walking. Either a few miles at a moderate pace, or 3.0 on the treadmill--almost never running or even jogging!
  • exile40
    exile40 Posts: 161 Member
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    Personal trainer insisting he can cure my wife's type 1 diabetes through diet and exercise. (really happened)



    You have to do X reps to 'insert muscle goal here'
    You have to exclude/include 'insert food here' to lose weight


    D'oh
    homer-doh.png
  • marz42
    marz42 Posts: 223 Member
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    Gads yes, this. I saw an interview with Jillian where she was saying she had 400lb people doing jumping jacks. Well good for you, but no, not gonna do them. I tried a few a bit ago just to see and holy ouch. Not sore ouch, but body saying oh hells no. So if I come across them I'll modify or do some light jogging (which somehow doesn't bother anything nearly as much).
    That people weighing double what I did can do jumping jacks so man up and get on with it. I'm now waiting for knee surgery as I popped the cartilage!
  • SJ46
    SJ46 Posts: 407 Member
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    "Won't weight lifting make you too muscle-y? Besides it is pretty dangerous for a woman to lift heavy weights."

    I was expecting to be told that weight lifting would make my uterus fall out! The person saying it meant well so I don't hold any grudges, just makes me laugh a little. :)
  • Momm22boys
    Momm22boys Posts: 48
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    I was told "You didn't gain weight until your quit smoking, so if you start smoking again you'll lose the weight quicker."
    I was like "really?! " It wasn't quitting smoking that made me gain weight anyway. It was the constant snacking that I replaced it with.

    Another one is abdominal exercises can cause women's vaginal muscles to become weaker.

    Both of these came from the same person... Obviously very intelligent.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
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    To about kill myself lifting weights and cardio until I dropped on a <1000 Cal low fat diet, as a growing teenager that didn't need to lose weight, just wanted to get fit for high level horseback riding competitions. No wonder I was exhausted and sore all the time. Wrecked my digestive system, too - took me years before I could eat normal levels of fats without unpleasant side effects.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    "fruit is bad for you"

    errr.... you want to call your local zoo and warn them not to give any fruit to all the other primates then..?

    "don't lift anything heavier than 5lb" and it's cousin "women must not do men's push-ups" with explanations that relate to implications that it will damage the uterus.

    Quick! Jump in this time machine! We have to go back to the lower palaeolithic era to warn all the female Homo erectuses not to do anything strenuous otherwise their uteruses will fall out and Homo sapiens will never evolve!!!!

    "lifting weights makes you get bulky"

    I could rant for hours on this one.... really I could....
  • fShaw86
    fShaw86 Posts: 878 Member
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    *Watch every morsel that enters your mouth and count every single calorie. (I like the IIFYM thing to be honest!)
    *Women don't need to lift that much. You really don't. (No, we really do. How else does a wounded 40lb 5 year old get transported from floor to couch?)
    *Work around your BMI alone, and you're good to go. (factoring in body fat %, measurements, and stamina is what actually counts.)
    *You aren't losing weight? You're doing something wrong. (My body fat % has gone down, and I've lost a kabillion inches lol)

    You really can't track progress off of numbers alone, I've learned. I wish someone told me that early on.
  • mareeee1234
    mareeee1234 Posts: 674 Member
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    3. If you stop lifting weights, all your muscles will turn to fat.
    4. If you lift weights, you'll need surgery.
    5. You only need to exercise for 10 minutes a day.

    All of these pearls of wisdom were prescribed to me by very obese individuals. :huh:

    STOP IT
    AHAHAHA DYING OF LAUGHTER
    those are great... :laugh:
  • Ophidion
    Ophidion Posts: 2,065 Member
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    I get a never ending mud slide of unsolicited advice from people in terrible shape. The hard bodies don't say a word. Too busy training. LOL

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
    Soooo true!

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