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Fitness and diet myths that just won't go away
ninerbuff
Posts: 49,027 Member
in Debate Club
There is a lot of misinformation passed on decade by decade in the Fitness and diet industry. Hoping we can just squash some of them out of existence, but that's gonna take a lot of time based on how it's used to promote sales income.
I'll start though:
Drink a gallon of water a day: Does it help with weight loss? Well yes and no. It will help drop "water" weight more. But that's not the weight people really want to lose. It CAN help with weight loss if it keeps you from overeating by staying more full with water. But drinking a gallon of water will also have you going to the bathroom more and possibly increasing sweating.
Does it hurt to do it? Not really (unless your electrolytes aren't being replenished). But the myth of it being essential to do to lose weight is very overhyped and is a staple amongst many gym rats for some reason.
Throw in your myth and let's discuss
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I'll start though:
Drink a gallon of water a day: Does it help with weight loss? Well yes and no. It will help drop "water" weight more. But that's not the weight people really want to lose. It CAN help with weight loss if it keeps you from overeating by staying more full with water. But drinking a gallon of water will also have you going to the bathroom more and possibly increasing sweating.
Does it hurt to do it? Not really (unless your electrolytes aren't being replenished). But the myth of it being essential to do to lose weight is very overhyped and is a staple amongst many gym rats for some reason.
Throw in your myth and let's discuss
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
30
Replies
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Two of my favorites:
You have to "confuse" your body (either with diet or exercise) to lose weight.
Your body doesn't know what to do with processed foods and this somehow results in MORE of them being stored as energy than non-processed foods.
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You have to exercise to lose weight.46
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SnifterPug wrote: »You have to exercise to lose weight.
I forgot which thread I clicked on for a minute and I was about to write a rebuttal!
18 -
"Go hard or go home"...the notion that exercise has to be some kind of sufferfest to be beneficial and if you're not ready to puke when you're done, you might as well have done nothing at all.
I do think that having some more vigorous efforts thrown into the mix is beneficial from a health and fitness standpoint...but IMO, unless you're specifically training for something, an overall active lifestyle is where it's at. And if you are training specifically for something, I would also think one would know how to train and would know that every training bout shouldn't be some crazy workout.
Most of the very fit and healthy people I know do "workout" some...but by and large, they are just active and enjoy being out on their bikes or hiking or rock climbing, kayaking, walking, going for a jog, etc.54 -
I think the rise in popularity of Keto has done a lot to quash the myth that dietary fat -> body fat (and therefore the way to stop being fat is to stop eating fat), but there are still some people clinging to that mistaken belief.
Low-fat and fat-free versions of foods may have fewer calories per serving than their full-fat cousins, but (1) fat is flavor, so to make those foods palatable, manufacturers often add sugar; and (2) you'll gain weight eating anything if you eat more calories than you burn, so just because the cookie or ice cream or whatever is "low fat" doesn't mean you can eat as much of it as you want. You also need some dietary fat to properly absorb certain micronutrients (vitamins A, D, E, and K) - eating too little fat can lead to vitamin deficiencies that cause other health problems.29 -
Skinny people just have faster metabolisms.43
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Yeah, they aren't around skinny people enough to see HOW MUCH they actually eat. There was a documentary on BBC once where 2 roomates (one lean the other obese) were asked to participate in a study and both took a pill that could read how much they ate in a day. The obese one kept saying that the lean one at so much and all the time and was consigned to the fact that her roomate had a higher metabolism. When the test was done, the obese on had a higher metabolic rate, and she came to find out her lean friend ate only about a 1/3 of what she thought she was eating calorie wise. Goes to show that people make errors all the time when estimating.Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »Skinny people just have faster metabolisms.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition 35 -
Yeah, they aren't around skinny people enough to see HOW MUCH they actually eat. There was a documentary on BBC once where 2 roomates (one lean the other obese) were asked to participate in a study and both took a pill that could read how much they ate in a day. The obese one kept saying that the lean one at so much and all the time and was consigned to the fact that her roomate had a higher metabolism. When the test was done, the obese on had a higher metabolic rate, and she came to find out her lean friend ate only about a 1/3 of what she thought she was eating calorie wise. Goes to show that people make errors all the time when estimating.Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »Skinny people just have faster metabolisms.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I so wish that calorie counting pill was available to us all! I hate counting!24 -
"You have to do cardio to burn off fat".
Myth for sure: Cardio burns calories. If you're in deficit, with or without cardio, you'll burn fat. Cardio helps to create a calorie deficit and/or allows you to eat more if your calorie restriction to lose weight is low (say 1200 a day).
You see so many instructors, trainers, Youtubers, etc. telling people that if they aren't doing cardio, they aren't going to lose weight. Or that doing their cardio program will be how they will lose stubborn fat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition 25 -
The ones that annoy me the most are "rules" that make no sense...
-Don't eat any ingredients that you can't pronounce.
-Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, not the middle.
-Don't eat after 7pm.
-Don't eat white foods.
So much wrong...42 -
Eating whole foods will make you lose weight. One of the earliest I saw of this was from the South Beach Diet which claimed that no one would sit down and eat a whole loaf of whole grain bread, the way people do white bread. Wanna bet? If you told me I had to eat a whole loaf of bread, I would chose the whole grain, although a nice sourdough would be a close second.
I am a proponent of South Beach/ Med style eating as a way to build a healthful diet, but that doesn't mean you will necessarily lose weight if it doesn't help you control how many calories you are consuming.18 -
Yep. A lot of mentors/coaches echo this from nutritional sales companies including pre prepped meals like Nutrisystem. The whole "good carbs" things crack me up.SuzySunshine99 wrote: »The ones that annoy me the most are "rules" that make no sense...
-Don't eat any ingredients that you can't pronounce.
-Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, not the middle.
-Don't eat after 7pm.
-Don't eat white foods.
So much wrong...
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
13 -
concordancia wrote: »Eating whole foods will make you lose weight. One of the earliest I saw of this was from the South Beach Diet which claimed that no one would sit down and eat a whole loaf of whole grain bread, the way people do white bread. Wanna bet? If you told me I had to eat a whole loaf of bread, I would chose the whole grain, although a nice sourdough would be a close second.
I am a proponent of South Beach/ Med style eating as a way to build a healthful diet, but that doesn't mean you will necessarily lose weight if it doesn't help you control how many calories you are consuming.
Yeah, what? Whole grain bread is often delicious. If it's fresh I could absolutely polish off a loaf.15 -
Lol, I had someone tell me one time it's better to eat nuts than fruit. I could eat one whole mango, or a whole can of cashews. You can guess which one kills my calorie count the most.janejellyroll wrote: »concordancia wrote: »Eating whole foods will make you lose weight. One of the earliest I saw of this was from the South Beach Diet which claimed that no one would sit down and eat a whole loaf of whole grain bread, the way people do white bread. Wanna bet? If you told me I had to eat a whole loaf of bread, I would chose the whole grain, although a nice sourdough would be a close second.
I am a proponent of South Beach/ Med style eating as a way to build a healthful diet, but that doesn't mean you will necessarily lose weight if it doesn't help you control how many calories you are consuming.
Yeah, what? Whole grain bread is often delicious. If it's fresh I could absolutely polish off a loaf.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
17 -
Being in the "fat burning zone" is the only way to burn fat.
The common belief that HRmax is a heart rate that you *shouldn't* exceed, rather than one that you don't/can't exceed (absent a scary health condition, anyway).
So, so may things about HIIT: That you should do it daily, that it inevitably burns more calories in total, that the EPOC is extra-super glorious, that useful research findings about actual traditional CV HIIT apply to anything any trainer happens to want to call "HIIT", that everyone should do it every day . . . .
Veganism (purposely misusing the term here to mean diet only) or vegetarianism will inherently and inevitably cause fat loss, or are "healthier" than any form of omnivorous eating.
That the ubiquity of highly so-called hyperpalatable processed foods is a nefarious plot, and not a direct outcome of how large numbers of people vote with their buying dollars.
If we can broaden it out to health more generally, the idea there's a cure for cancer all the oncologists know about, but won't tell us, because they're cynical money-grubbers.
The way that too many gym trainers teach people how to use the rowing machine.
. . . and so, so much more.
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Or that people wanting to claim they do Tabata when in essence it's nothing more than actual interval training. And they get pissed off when you say they really aren't doing Tabata. Lol, Tabata protocol for 30 minutes as some claim.
So, so may things about HIIT: That you should do it daily, that it inevitably burns more calories in total, that the EPOC is extra-super glorious, that useful research findings about actual traditional CV HIIT apply to anything any trainer happens to want to call "HIIT", that everyone should do it every day . . . .
But yeah, so many uniformed trainers just following the lead of another uniformed trainer.
There's a guy on YOUTUBE right how who advertises like hell and has so much broscience on all his videos. And people are eating it up. Vince Sant is his name and he host V Shred. Avoid.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition 12 -
"You have to do cardio to burn off fat".
Myth for sure: Cardio burns calories. If you're in deficit, with or without cardio, you'll burn fat. Cardio helps to create a calorie deficit and/or allows you to eat more if your calorie restriction to lose weight is low (say 1200 a day).
You see so many instructors, trainers, Youtubers, etc. telling people that if they aren't doing cardio, they aren't going to lose weight. Or that doing their cardio program will be how they will lose stubborn fat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Also, the converse of this: that not doing exercise to lose weight because you are focused on "getting healthy" or some such thing first is something to brag about from a health perspective. Worse yet, that you shouldn't do exercise until you have lost the weight
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SuzySunshine99 wrote: »The ones that annoy me the most are "rules" that make no sense...
-Don't eat any ingredients that you can't pronounce.
-Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, not the middle.
-Don't eat after 7pm.
-Don't eat white foods.
So much wrong...
In the case of the bolded "rule" - the way most grocery stores are laid out, you'll find most of the whole foods around the perimeter of the store and most of the packaged foods in the aisles. I think it's a useful guideline for someone learning or re-learning how to shop for nutritious food, but yeah, there's nothing magic about it otherwise.
Also re: not eating after 7 PM, they call that intermittent fasting now and it's trendy.
I do agree with you on the "nothing you can't pronounce" and "nothing white" rules, though. If you just blindly apply the rule without trying to learn anything about what you're doing and why it works (or doesn't), that's the kind of anti-intellectual BS that got all your high school friends hitting you up to join their pyramid scheme and we could do with less of it, as a species.11 -
Set point theory
Starvation mode24 -
"I'm on a diet so I can't eat x, y, z"...usually said in a kind of virtuous or self-pity manner
You must "earn" your treats through exercise. I actually saw on a "celebrity" personal trainer' IG account--along with his other celebrity trainer friends--wearing shirts that said "Earn Your Booze." I mean, just all of it was weird, if not in poor taste.
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SuzySunshine99 wrote: »The ones that annoy me the most are "rules" that make no sense...
-Don't eat any ingredients that you can't pronounce.
-Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, not the middle.
-Don't eat after 7pm.
-Don't eat white foods.
So much wrong...
Didn't you see Gremlins??!?22 -
Only eat whole foods. Or eat clean.
I eat clean. I clean my food before I eat it. And I prefer my food in bite sized chunks, not whole thanks.25 -
goal06082021 wrote: »SuzySunshine99 wrote: »The ones that annoy me the most are "rules" that make no sense...
-Don't eat any ingredients that you can't pronounce.
-Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, not the middle.
-Don't eat after 7pm.
-Don't eat white foods.
So much wrong...
In the case of the bolded "rule" - the way most grocery stores are laid out, you'll find most of the whole foods around the perimeter of the store and most of the packaged foods in the aisles. I think it's a useful guideline for someone learning or re-learning how to shop for nutritious food, but yeah, there's nothing magic about it otherwise.
Also re: not eating after 7 PM, they call that intermittent fasting now and it's trendy.
I do agree with you on the "nothing you can't pronounce" and "nothing white" rules, though. If you just blindly apply the rule without trying to learn anything about what you're doing and why it works (or doesn't), that's the kind of anti-intellectual BS that got all your high school friends hitting you up to join their pyramid scheme and we could do with less of it, as a species.
I don't know if this is really true though. Yes, at many stores you'll find fresh fruits and vegetables and dairy products around the edge, but you'll also frequently find the bakeries, deli, alcohol (in places that sell it), and ice cream. And you'll most often find things like legumes, oats, and dried herbs and spices in the middle aisles. I think it's more accurate to say that you'll often find temperature controlled items along the edges and shelf stable stuff in the middle. There is a good amount of overlap between temperature controlled and nutrient-dense, but I honestly think the average person would be better served by just learning how to identify foods that meet their nutritional goals ANYWHERE in the store instead of just avoiding certain aisles or assuming something is okay because it's along the edges. If I'm personally planning dinner, I'd rather have a bag of lentils or some canned tomatoes over some Go-Gurt.32 -
Was gonna say that too. On one side of the store I shop is all the fruits and vegetables. On the opposite side is the bakery, deli and alcohol.janejellyroll wrote: »goal06082021 wrote: »SuzySunshine99 wrote: »The ones that annoy me the most are "rules" that make no sense...
-Don't eat any ingredients that you can't pronounce.
-Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, not the middle.
-Don't eat after 7pm.
-Don't eat white foods.
So much wrong...
In the case of the bolded "rule" - the way most grocery stores are laid out, you'll find most of the whole foods around the perimeter of the store and most of the packaged foods in the aisles. I think it's a useful guideline for someone learning or re-learning how to shop for nutritious food, but yeah, there's nothing magic about it otherwise.
Also re: not eating after 7 PM, they call that intermittent fasting now and it's trendy.
I do agree with you on the "nothing you can't pronounce" and "nothing white" rules, though. If you just blindly apply the rule without trying to learn anything about what you're doing and why it works (or doesn't), that's the kind of anti-intellectual BS that got all your high school friends hitting you up to join their pyramid scheme and we could do with less of it, as a species.
I don't know if this is really true though. Yes, at many stores you'll find fresh fruits and vegetables and dairy products around the edge, but you'll also frequently find the bakeries, deli, alcohol (in places that sell it), and ice cream. And you'll most often find things like legumes, oats, and dried herbs and spices in the middle aisles. I think it's more accurate to say that you'll often find temperature controlled items along the edges and shelf stable stuff in the middle. There is a good amount of overlap between temperature controlled and nutrient-dense, but I honestly think the average person would be better served by just learning how to identify foods that meet their nutritional goals ANYWHERE in the store instead of just avoiding certain aisles or assuming something is okay because it's along the edges. If I'm personally planning dinner, I'd rather have a bag of lentils or some canned tomatoes over some Go-Gurt.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
6 -
Staying hydrated assists in balancing the calorie deficit. It’s essential, not a myth, backed by science and any M.D. you can find.0
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NorthCascades wrote: »SuzySunshine99 wrote: »The ones that annoy me the most are "rules" that make no sense...
-Don't eat any ingredients that you can't pronounce.
-Only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, not the middle.
-Don't eat after 7pm.
-Don't eat white foods.
So much wrong...
Didn't you see Gremlins??!?
Yes, that's why I'm careful about hydration, too
7 -
I feel like I have to add: If women lift heavy weights, they'll get soooo bulky.
I thought we had busted that myth, but I've seen it pop up again lately.24 -
Water is essential for life. But you DON'T need a gallon of water a day unless you're sweating out that much. And the majority of people don't. Total broscience.Staying hydrated assists in balancing the calorie deficit. It’s essential, not a myth, backed by science and any M.D. you can find.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
19 -
It's why the industry made up "toning". It's still frickin lifing weights..............just in a feminine way.quiksylver296 wrote: »I feel like I have to add: If women lift heavy weights, they'll get soooo bulky.
I thought we had busted that myth, but I've seen it pop up again lately.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
19
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