Vitality Perspective So much health information and advice online lacks nuance. When you feed into the propaganda, you lose sight of what feels good to you and your body. Don’t let common health myths cause damage.
Popular Health Advice & Misinformation
If you’re at all like me, you too have fallen into the trap of diet culture. Since downloading social media at a young age, I know I’ve definitely fallen victim to a bombardment of “eat this, not that”, and easy and fast results “workout” regime content. Since then, I’ve made my fair share of health and fitness mistakes that I want to debunk and save you from doing so!
It can feel so frustrating when you feel like you’re following all of the right steps and doing all of the “correct” things, but not seeing the health or fitness results you’d like to. With a surplus of information at our fingertips, I often find it hard myself to refrain from just throwing my hands up in the air and giving up on finding what’s “healthy”. I once heard an idea that, as a civilization in relation to information and knowledge, we have gone full circle from being in the dark and helpless with a lack of information, to having the right amount, to back to completely in the dark with too much information and nobody knows what’s correct. In a world where you can find evidence to back up pretty much any claim, it’s imperative that you don’t believe everything you hear or read.
Unfortunately, the rise of social media has meant the rise of much health propaganda. Promises of quick fixes and fear mongering swarm every corner of instagram, tiktok, and others, and it can be hard to ignore it and know what’s truly helpful.
When searching for the next best thing in health and fitness, what many people often forget is that we are all different, and one thing that works great for one individual does not always guarantee a result for another. What’s important and will ultimately determine your own health is remembering the BASICS – sleep, exercise, hydration, nourishment, and connection – and staying consistent with those.
Do what feels best for your body.
My Favorite Health Myths and Propaganda
To be clear – when I call these my “favorite health myths”, I say so in a sarcastic and overcoming manner. The issues lie not only in these claims themselves, but in the fact that it sets the tone of a problem to be solved and gives the impression that one simple fix will solve it (based on one individual’s account). Don’t sweat the small stuff in believing you’re doing anything wrong in your health journey based on claims like these.
#1. “Low-Fat or Low-Carb Are Great for Weight Loss”
This likely stems from the basic science of weight loss of “calories in < calories out”. This puts your body into the deficit necessary for weight to be lost. Oftentimes, struggles with weight do result from overconsumption of both carbohydrates and fats, as opposed to “too much” protein or veggies, but this doesn’t mean these things need to be limited as much as you may be led to believe they do.
Both of these nutrients are misunderstood.
Humans need a balanced, ample amount of all macronutrients, carbs, fats, and proteins, to fuel every body system. Restricting even just one major macronutrient to a high degree can have negative consequences.
Carbs and fats also regulate leptin, your satiety hormone. Too few of either? Your hunger increases, not decreases.
#2. “Cardio is the Best or Only Way to Lose Weight”
Yes, cardio is still great for weight loss. No, you don’t need to quit all forms of cardio after what I’m about to tell you, either. Yes, too much of it can sometimes halt progress.
Cardio can be an excellent tool when incorporated correctly into a weight loss or fat loss regime. However, it should come alongside a routine incorporating all four forms of exercise. Beside cardio, these are strength/resistance training, flexibility, and balance.
Cardio may make your heart pump extra and cause you to sweat more, but sweating is not equal to fat loss. Hours of cardio can contribute to increased cortisol, the stress hormone, which can result in negative effects on your health and water/weight retention.
Weight and fat loss depends largely on muscle mass. More muscle mass increases metabolic activity, making strength training for muscle 2-3 days a week a great pair to your cardio regime.
#3. “You Have to Eat Your Bodyweight in Grams of Protein to Build Muscle”
Protein is of course critical for muscle growth. It’s a big part of the puzzle, but not the only piece. While it’s great to be mindful of your consumption, it certainly shouldn’t be the only focus in your life.
General guidelines for muscle building suggest aiming for ~0.7-1 g/lb of body weight daily. Thus, the “g/lb” statement does fall within the recommendation and some research, but is not proven to be necessary. For a heavier individual, this metric may seem unnecessarily unattainable.
Our bodies need 0.8 g/lb of lean mass (not bodyweight) for muscle retention, so 1 g/lb can sometimes be overkill. Equally important parts of muscle building include training intensity and a balanced diet of all macronutrients. Rest and recovery should be prioritized as well to see the best results.
Aim for balanced meals containing around 30-45g of protein each depending on your size and goals and some high protein snacks and you’re set!
#4. “You Should Avoid Eating After 8 P.M.”
What goes along with this one is an idea that eating past your body’s natural rhythm can impact metabolic health and lead to weight gain, usually as a result of the fact that people sometimes opt for higher-calorie junk food in later hours of the night. While some parts of this may be true, it is not always going to be inherently bad or a setback to eat later at night.
I think another part of this is that by restricting your eating window during the day, it may result in restricting overall daily calorie intake. However, if you are disciplined with your overall caloric intake throughout the day and the snack you choose to consume later, this isn’t an issue.
If you can find research claiming that eating later at night will lead to adverse effects on your health, you can probably also find some demonstrating how a light snack before bed is beneficial for serotonin production and helps you sleep better, fuels your muscles while you sleep, and other things. Remember the basics and focus on proper nourishment throughout the day and an overall stable routine and you’ll see and feel results. The most important thing is to listen to your body, if that means having that snack if you are truly hungry (not bored).
So, do you know what’s going to be worse for your health than eating after 8 p.m.? Stressing about the food you ate after 8 p.m.
#5. You Can “Get a Six-Pack in 8 Days”. Or 10. Or 14. (Hell no)
And any at-home workout clickbait you see claiming you can is BS. I’ll give it to you straight and hold your hand for this.
Visible “ab” muscles come purely down to genetics.
And 8, 10, 14 days just isn’t enough to build the foundation and growth you need in this area to see them.
BUT, just because it may take longer to get the result you desire, please do not neglect training your core. Building a six-pack just requires consistent and intense training of the muscles over a decent period of time, just like any muscle group. It’s a combined effort of this, diet, and recovery that contribute to this process. Following building a solid ab muscle foundation, it comes down to the body fat on your stomach, and whether it enables you to see the visible definition. Any influencer posting a side-by-side of their before and after pictures of doing their ab routine and the difference after x amount of days is not telling the whole story.
The Takeaway
Sometimes I think people get too far consumed into doing everything “correctly”. There is no right way to your own unique journey and what your body needs and responds to. Maybe there’s solace in realizing that we can’t always optimize everything, and perfect health is just an illusion anyway – so do what makes you feel good to your core.
