A Lot Of People Believe In These 30 Fitness And Health Facts That Are Not Accurate At All

You’ve probably come across all these health tips at least once in your life. The issue with them is that they’re very easy to believe. The real health facts are often considered boring or require too much effort. That’s why Bored Panda reached out to the author of this post, u/MaxEhrlich, to see if he had any useful fitness tips to share.

To put it very simply, his advice was, “Probably don’t drink stuff beyond water (sodas, alcohol, energy drinks, sports drinks, etc). Play a ton of basketball, and the weight tends to stay off.” Although these tips seem too simple, they’re backed by a whole body of evidence, especially the point about drinks. Science has shown that increased consumption of sugary beverages can increase weight gain and lead to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and some cancers.

It’s interesting to note that hormones play a big role in exercise and the way we approach fitness. For women, their menstrual cycle and changing hormonal levels can impact the amount and type of exercise they can do. According to Healthline: “given that each life stage may present unique hormonal side effects and challenges, exercise must be adapted appropriately to enhance quality of life and provide a sense of symbiosis with one’s anatomy.”

To dive even deeper into the world of health and fitness, Bored Panda interviewed Vinod Channa, a celebrity trainer and fitness consultant. Vinod had this to share about the effect of hormones on exercise: “Male hormones and female hormones are both different. Women produce estrogen, which is why they have more adipose tissue that stores fat. That’s why they’re soft, so they are prone to injuries. Women must do more strength training to build up their muscles and their joints.”

People also love to complicate the process of working out. But Vinod states that “it depends on a lot of things. If you’re doing weight training, it depends on the body parts, which are the same for males and females. Just the intensity will go lower and higher depending upon the person’s fitness level, lifestyle, age, injuries, and a lot of other things.” 

Research has also shown that tracking your diet and exercise can help with weight loss because it leads to positive behavior changes and increases motivation. “The other thing is the person’s target. If somebody’s looking for running, powerlifting, flexibility, according to that, the changes happen in the workout routine, how many calories they eat, and the reaction of the body,” Vinod shared.

Another fitness myth that many people subscribe to is spot training. This is the process of only working out or training one body part to try and lose weight in that particular area. Unfortunately, spot training isn’t really effective. It’s actually important to exercise your whole body instead of just focusing on one part. 

According to Vinod Channa, “[people] can create different patterns of workouts, which work on the body parts as a whole. Otherwise, what will happen is you’re doing only arms or upper chest, and the back and legs will get weaker. Before starting, you always have to work on basic mobility and flexibility that will help you to perform better and move faster without any muscle wear and tear, dislocations and injuries.”

In modern times, people are exercising less and less. The BMJ found that around 1.4 billion people are at risk of developing diseases from not doing enough physical activity. Vinod also shared his own experience with the people he trains, saying: “[exercise] is very important nowadays because everybody is doing 13-14 hours working on their laptop. Their ankle, knee joints, hip joints, shoulders, neck, everything is weak.”

But a lot of people turn to these fake fitness hacks because they’re looking to make progress fast or lose weight quickly. Weight loss plateaus are quite common, and it’s nothing to be discouraged by. That’s why Vinod Channa shared a useful tip to combat this dreaded problem. He said, “let’s say you’re a beginner doing 10 repetitions of squats and burning 100 calories on the first day. Because you’re a beginner, the calories are burnt faster, but after a year to three years in that time, you’re not even burning as much.”

“It’s because your body is used to that and you need to keep progressing. That is also very important. If you don't keep progressing, you won’t get results. So you have to [go] back two steps. Whatever you’re doing, do less. Like if you’re doing five days workout, go only three days and let your body put on two to three kilos. After that, you have to add one day extra workout and decrease one meal and see how your body reacts,” he added.