Fitness Industry BS

The fitness industry is huge. It's filled with trainers, good and bad. It's filled with diet trends, practical and down right stupid. It's strongest characteristic, you ask? Lies.

I have an understanding of the science behind training and nutrition, so when I see new trends popping up I can have a giggle at the sheer audacity to publish and profit off something so stupid. What happens if you take away my qualification, study and experience? Well, I'm just like most other people who in the world who can be convinced that this "new weight loss hack" or "miracle juice" is going to be THE ONE. I don't blame people for not understanding, I blame fitness professionals for taking advantage of unsuspecting consumers. I blame the Personal Trainers who tell their clients not to eat Carbohydrates after 6pm, and I blame the influencers for profiting of BS weight loss tea.

I'm going to pause my rant there before I fall into a dark hole of rage, and instead give you some advice so that you can hopefully start to differentiate between science and garbage in the fitness industry. I'm going to start with nutrition, and then we'll move into the training side of things.

Diet BS:

Weight loss, maintenance and gain are all surrounded by fad diets, and have all become extremely difficult to navigate for those without a background in fitness. The simplicity (in theory) of weight loss is clouded by cleanses and ketosis, while muscle gain is buried under miracle supplements. How can you differentiate between the science and the lies?

A good start to this is understanding calorie intake, and when I discuss this, I'm talking about the general population who don't have to manage medical conditions that may hinder their ability to change their physique. Calorie intake for weight loss or gain can be determined by taking into account an individuals height, weight, activity levels and gender - obviously it's much more complex than this and should be calculated by a professional but that is the bottom line. This calorie intake will be in conjunction with your level of calorie burning, and when we combine these two we are able to alter our weight. Weight loss is extremely simple when we strip it back to the basics, and is done by entering a calorie deficit - expending more energy than we consume. The same principle is applied to a calorie surplus, which is the way in which we gain weight - consuming more energy than we expend. This is the science of weight loss and gain at a very simple level, and makes a lot of sense, don't you think? If we eat less than we need to maintain our weight, we get smaller. If we eat more than we need to maintain our weight, we get bigger.

How does this relate to diet trends we see on social media, or even best selling books? Well... if an influencer is trying to sell you a miracle tea to help you drop 5kg in 2 weeks, consider how this might work. Sure, drinking only tea would be effective for weight loss, but is that because of the tea, or because of the calorie deficit we would inevitably be entering?

So how can we use this very basic knowledge to keep us safe from trends? Here are my rules:

1. Don't give anyone money for a weight loss supplement.

2. Only pay qualified professionals if need be, and only pay for dietary guidance or planning. To be clearer, this should be a Dietitian.

3. If you can checkout on the spot with a product, don't do it. Dietary assistance can't be given unless YOUR individual circumstances are understood. If you can pay at a checkout for a weight loss miracle, it's best to leave it there.

Training BS:

Ahh the world of exercise. The world of seeing exercises on Instagram and trying them yourself. The world of choosing exercises without knowing what they are for.

Exercising is hard enough as it is, but it's made even harder when trainers are selling "Weight Loss Programs" and posting videos of them doing Kettlebell Swings to "grow your booty". It can be hard to find a method of training that suits you, and it can be difficult to differentiate between effective exercises and ones that look good on the gram. To start, you should understand how to know if an exercise is effective or not.

When we want to grow our muscles, we need to place them under a sufficient amount of tension. In other words, we need to make them fatigue so they can repair and grow in size. For example, when using a leg press machine, we should be exercising full range of motion with a weight that a) forces us to slow down because it's reasonably heavy b) is heavy enough to make us use our whole rest period c) heavy enough to make the last few reps of the set a struggle to pump out. What does this tell us? Kettlebell Swings with our bum sticking out isn't the answer to "finally getting a beach bum", tension is. Whether you squat with a dumbbell or barbell, your results will depend on how adequate the tension is, your range of motion, and the frequency of your training... not the colour of your leggings or a set of repetitions that doesn't even change your breathing.

Are there exercises that are BETTER for growing your muscles? Absolutely. To say that all exercises are effective if you use a heavy weight would be stupid. We need to remember that of course there are going to be exercises that use the range of a certain muscle, better than others. For example, performing a Romanian Deadlift will target and load our hamstrings a lot more effectively than a Kettlebell swing, and squats will load our glutes a lot better than banded crabwalks. Here are a few of my rules when it comes to exercise selection:

1. If the program says "Exercises for Weight Loss", stay right away.

2. If the exercises seems complicated, choose one you can understand and perform correctly.

3. If it has a booty band, forget it.

4. Is the person demonstrating the exercise qualified? If the answer is no, keep scrolling.

5. Can you find an exercise that would help you target that specific muscle more effectively? If yes, keep scrolling.

6. Can you picture yourself performing the exercise frequently? If no, keep scrolling.

If the exercise moves away from a basic movement pattern, please just leave it in the Instagram algorithm. Let it turn to dust, and find a program provided by a qualified professional. The worst thing you could do is finally get into the habit of training frequently, only to never see results because an influencer sold you on an insufficient exercise for your goals.

I hope this helps you navigate this crazy industry that little bit better. Like any other industry, there are going to be people who you can trust, and those who you really can't. So do your best to find trainers are who credible and use scientific methods to justify their programming and advice. Also do your best to move away from the influencers on Instagram who are constantly trying to sell you something.

Your coach & friend,

Maddy