Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

Fitness and diet myths that just won't go away

1121315171839

Replies

  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,366 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    That you can "lengthen" your muscles making you look leaner. Yoga and pilates state this a lot.

    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

    9285851.png

    Even if you could, you really wouldn't want to.

    I managed to lengthen some of the tendons in my rotator cuff (I have hyperextensive joints, it wasn't on purpose!)... you know, the ones that stabilize your shoulder. I now have subluxation in that joint. In other words, a very very unstable shoulder.
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,158 Member
    ythannah wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    That you can "lengthen" your muscles making you look leaner. Yoga and pilates state this a lot.

    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

    9285851.png

    Even if you could, you really wouldn't want to.

    I managed to lengthen some of the tendons in my rotator cuff (I have hyperextensive joints, it wasn't on purpose!)... you know, the ones that stabilize your shoulder. I now have subluxation in that joint. In other words, a very very unstable shoulder.

    All of my kids have been late walkers, likely because they have hyperextensive joints - I never really considered it until one was so late he qualified for early intervention services, and the therapist tested his ankles and then on a hunch checked my other kids too.

    Surprisingly, we haven't had much in the way of major injuries (kind of amazing because they are constantly engaging in wild and dangerous activities, as children should).

    I dug out a workout video recently that I remembered I owned and their whole shtick is "long, lean, sexy muscles." Now that I know that's all marketing, I don't think I can do the video anymore with a straight face. Though I do often put them on mute, so maybe that would be fine.

  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,366 Member
    ythannah wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    That you can "lengthen" your muscles making you look leaner. Yoga and pilates state this a lot.

    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

    9285851.png

    Even if you could, you really wouldn't want to.

    I managed to lengthen some of the tendons in my rotator cuff (I have hyperextensive joints, it wasn't on purpose!)... you know, the ones that stabilize your shoulder. I now have subluxation in that joint. In other words, a very very unstable shoulder.

    All of my kids have been late walkers, likely because they have hyperextensive joints - I never really considered it until one was so late he qualified for early intervention services, and the therapist tested his ankles and then on a hunch checked my other kids too.

    Surprisingly, we haven't had much in the way of major injuries (kind of amazing because they are constantly engaging in wild and dangerous activities, as children should).

    I wasn't wild or athletic so mine wasn't diagnosed until my late 40s. Although I've always been able to dislocate (and re-locate) one of my thumbs, I just thought that was one of my weird "things". I had gone to physiotherapy for that shoulder and the PT was putting me through a very thorough assessment. She asked me to put my arm behind my back as high as possible and when I did she screamed (and said, "No, don't do that".) Then she immediately started testing all my joints and finally informed me they were hyperextensive.

    The worst thing is repeatedly overextending the joint's range of motion, which I was doing without realizing that my shoulder really shouldn't move like that.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,454 Member
    TX375 wrote: »
    "Supplements work".

    No. They don't. I wish I'd known that in my 20's when ironically, some of them did work because they were spiked with anabolic steroids...
    Yeah, the prohormones back in the 2000's were pretty potent.


    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

    9285851.png
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,454 Member
    I've kinda wondered if "hard gainer" is a legit thing, wondered if some of us who have tried adding muscle mass are just impatient.
    Well most of the time I hear of hard gainers, I come to find out that they just don't eat enough to support adding muscle. When you tell a kid he has to eat 4000 calories a day due to his activity, they BELIEVE they do when in reality they may just eat 2500.
    So are their hard gainers? Well I believe based on genetics and in some cases people flat out not being able to handle overload well, there are hard gainers. I know lots of guys who would like arms like mine and train like I do and don't get them. For me, it's hamstrings. I spend over 2 years trying to get them to match my quads and still to no avail.



    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

    9285851.png
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,572 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    What's this whole keto thing about "keep carbs/sugar low because it'll spike insulin level which makes it harder for your body to burn fat, etc etc, baloney baloney".... or something to that effect

    Doesn't a person lose weight (aka burn off fat) regardless of what kinda diet they're on, given they are in a calory deficit?
    People who spout that really have no idea how stored body fat is actually burned. They've been brainwashed to think that carbs are evil.
    What's really STUPID is that countries that have normal weights for their WHOLE population eat a lot of rice (Asians). How do they explain that one?

    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

    9285851.png

    Wait a sec. If Asians eat lots rice.. and keto hates on carbs.. then..

    keto = rice discrimination = keto is essentially racist against asians?

    Finally! Algebra comes in handy.
  • Bella_Figura
    Bella_Figura Posts: 3,583 Member
    I've read through the whole thread and I don't think anyone's mentioned the assertion that a history of yo-yo dieting means that you've royally screwed up your metabolism and will henceforth lose at a snail's pace (or not at all).

    IME this is a myth.

    Because I'm a nerd I have the records of all my previous major weight loss attempts, dating back to 1993 when I was 28.

    In 1993 (age 28) I lost 74lbs to reach a BMI of 29.8. It took me 44 weeks (loss rate of 1.6lbs a week). I fueled myself badly and did tons of unsustainable high intensity exercise to achieve this loss rate.

    In 2006 (age 41) I lost 54lbs to reach a BMI of 31.3. It took me 35 weeks (loss rate of 1.54lbs a week). Again, I fueled myself badly and exercised like a loon to achieve the loss rate.

    In 2013 (age 48) I lost 88lbs to reach a BMI of 25. It took me 52 weeks to lose the first 78lbs (a loss rate of 1.5lbs per week) and a further 15 weeks to lose the last 10lbs (a loss rate of 0.67lbs a week). This time I was using MFP so I fueled myself better and didn't get quite so obsessive about exercise. I thought I'd finally 'cracked it' and that I'd learned the lessons of how to maintain a healthy weight. I was mistaken.

    In 2016 (age 51) I lost 44lbs to reach a BMI of 28.6. It took me 40 weeks ( a loss rate of 1.067 a week). Again I was using MFP so I fueled myself well and did sustainable amounts of exercise.

    This brings me to the current day. I'm at the beginning of the journey, but I started in March 2021 (age 55). Twelve weeks later, I've lost 26.2lbs ( a loss rate of a little over 2lbs a week.) I'm eating really well, paying attention to both calories and macros, and focusing on sustainable exercise (dog walking, gardening, the odd cycle ride) and increasing my NEAT.

    Clearly, despite four previous lengthy and successful weight loss programmes (followed by frighteningly rapid regains) I haven't screwed up my metabolism for seeing results when I run a calorie deficit. I'm now 56, post menopausal, exercising moderately, eating well, and yet losing at a faster rate than ever before.

    Where I think yo-you dieting MAY have screwed me up metabolically/neurologically etc. is in terms of MAINTAINING the weight loss. I've always regained quickly, meaning most of my adult life (and most of my childhood and adolescence) was spent either overweight or obese. I'm under no illusions about the challenges of maintenance for someone in my situation with my weight loss/regain history.

    But yo-yo dieting and past failures rendering weight loss per se difficult or impossible - no, I'm living proof that that link isn't proven.