Top 5 Biggest Lies in Fitness
The Fitness industry has done amazing things for our country. It has helped establish the importance of health and wellness. It is however still a business! That means that it will do whatever it can in order to sell its products to the masses, even if that means lying. Let's face facts. This is America people! Can you really expect anyone not to bend the truth a little if it means they could make a little bit of money out of it. So with that in mind, your personal trainer, Christopher Toscano (that's me), is here to erase the myths, clear up the misconceptions, and eradicate 5 of the biggest lies that the fitness industry doesn't want you to know. Now aren't you glad you know me.
5) Fat Burners Work
Sorry Kardashian girls! Fat burners rely completely on hype rather than scientific evidence. The Quicktrim products that are endorsed by the Kardashian sisters are composed of mostly fillers, diuretics(which just make you pee a lot), and their Celluslim formula doesn't actually list any ingredients at all. Many of their formulas have fruits. Ok cool, but fruits don't necessarily promote weight loss. Especially not in pill form. Fat burning pills and formulas only really sell because of celebrity endorsements and the fact that we really desperately want them to work. I'm not going to lie, if there really was a magic pill that we could take that would give us all celebrity bodies, I would take it. Unfortunately something like that doesn't exist, no matter how much Kim and Khloe tell us they do. I know, it's sad, but your just going to have to burn fat the old fashion way, diet and exercise.
A lot of fat burners use caffeine as an appetite suppressant. In the past fat burning pills have even added dangerous ingredients such as ephedrine in order to get results.
4) Online Steroid Stores
Alright guys this one's for you. Old uncle Chris is going to go ahead and save you a little bit of money right here. So you've had it! You have been working out for months and you haven't put on a pound! You might feel fed up. You might feel like you're never going to have the physique that you want! So a crazy thought pops in to your head. What if you took steroids? Sure why not? All your favorite athletes do it (cough cough Lance Armstrong)! Your favorite singers too (cough cough 50 Cent)! So do your favorite tv actors (cough cough Bea Arthur)! Why not give it a try. If you could only bulk up like 25 pounds you'd be rock solid!
So you decide to google "buy steroids" and lo and behold you see hundreds of different sites offering to ship steroids to your door for the low, low, price of $99.95! Sounds like a great way to get juiced right? WRONG!!! Steroids are illegal in the United States of America. If it were this easy to get steroids online don't you think the US government would step in and do something about it. The reason sites like this haven't been shut down is because they don't sell steroids. I know that may have been a shock to your system so I will type it again in caps. ONLINE STEROID SITES DON'T GET SHUT DOWN BECAUSE THEY DON'T SELL STEROIDS!!! The stuff isn't for real. It doesn't really work. I don't know how else I could say it, but just like the fat burners, it's based completely off of hype and not scientific facts.
Look, taking steroids is already a really, really, stupid idea and you are already not too bright for purchasing them, but thinking you can just buy them on any old website and ship them to your house with out the feds noticing is just plain asinine.
Oh and by the way, I know she's passed away recently, but you can't deny the fact that Bea Arthur's legacy has definitely been tainted by performance enhancing drugs. Didn't anybody notice the 35 pounds of muscle she put on between season 2 and 3 of The Golden Girls! All I'm saying is how can you expect shows like the New Adventures of Beans and Baxter and Tour of Duty to even compete against such a roid-powered show? And it didn't stop with the Arthur. Betty White, Rue McClanahan you're all a bunch of needle Juice Apes. There should be a big Asterisk next to this show when we look back at the great Saturday night TV ratings war in the 80's and early 90's. The sad part is how these Roid-Monkeys have destroyed the legacy of Estelle Getty.
Sweet Sophia, you'll always be my favorite Golden Girl.
Of course, when you are performing on such a high level, almost everyone is trying to get an edge.
Remember when Alf bulked up for sweeps week?
3) Gatorade Is Good For You
Ok so this one depends a little bit on what your activity level is. If you are Kevin Garnett playing in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals dunking over anyone in your path Gatorade may be good for you. If you are running the Boston Marathon, a little bit of gatorade is good for you. If you are Adrian Peterson and you just got finished running through a pile of 350 pound NFL lineman for a 75 yard touchdown and you need a drink on the sidelines Gatorade is good for you. If you are Joe Schmoe and you just got off the treadmill at the gym because you're trying to drop ten pounds before summer, Gatorade is NOT good for you.
For the average person with average health and fitness goals gatorade will end up being more of a hinderance than a help to your workout program. Don't believe me? You've been watching too much TV. All you've got to do is read a nutrition label. And lucky for you, I just happened to have one right here!
Ok so 50 calories ain't that bad. Look closer. 4 servings per bottle. That means in one bottle of Gatorade there is 200 calories, 56g of carbs and 56g of sugar. This isn't some super athlete drink. This is fruit juice. And yes I know the label says no fruit juice, but there is a hell of a lot of sugar in this. Most people work out to lose fat. In order to lose fat, you must be at a calorie deficit. If you burn 300 calories after 30 min on the treadmill, and you drank an entire gatorade while you did it, then surprise, surprise, you only lost 100 calories in thirty minutes of exercise. You did in thirty min what you could have done in ten. Good job!
Gatorade. It will make you dunk like Jordan.
Not only that, but take a look at the absurd amount of sodium in one of these. We're talking about 440mg. Sodium (salt or as Gatorade would prefer to call it, electrolytes) causes the cells in your body to retain water, keeping you hydrated if you are partaking in a rigorous exercise activity (i.e. The Super Bowl, NCAA Basketball tournament). While it is important to stay hydrated, too much sodium in your diet can lead to hypertension, which can lead to heart disease. You don't need Gatorade if you are going to the gym to lift weights for an hour. Otherwise, you are just adding calories and an unnecessary amount of sodium to your diet.
Gatorade has benefited over the years from amazing advertising campaigns, but unless your an athlete, it's really no better for you than Hawaiian Punch.
Watch out Morgan Freeman, Lil Wayne might be the new voice over King!
Nice commercial, but the Jabbawockeez kind of kill it at the end though.
Want to drink something healthier try this:
It's Water!
2) Sweat Out the Fat
This is a good one. As a personal trainer I see this all the time. People working out all the time in these giant plastic bags. Once again the this is an example of the fitness industry praying on our lack of knowledge of diet and exercise and our desire for an easier way to burn fat.
I am going to restate something I said earlier in this blog: The only way to lose weight is to be at a calorie deficit. You must burn more calories than you consume on a daily basis. The weight you lose when wearing one of these stupid suits is from water not weight. In short all these things do is dehydrate you and make you sweat out tons of water.
Plus it makes you look like a jackass!
1) Spot Reducing
This is a great one. I see this advertised on basically weight loss commercial and in every add. There is this myth going around that you can lose fat in just your belly, or butt, or just your arms. In actuality no pill you can take, no piece of exercise equipment you can buy, no amount of crunches you can do will ever, E-E-EVVVEEERRR make you lose fat in just your one part of your body.
When you burn fat you actually burn it all over your body at the same time. If you want to lose fat you (get ready for this) have to be at a calorie deficit every single day until you reach your weight loss goals.
