Debunk these assumptions about diet, exercise, and sleep!
MYTH 1:
Popular diets are everywhere so they must work
Quick weight loss is an enticing concept but more often than not it is typically a fad diet. Think keto, which emphasizes limiting nutritional intake while often banning entire food groups completely. For example, keto outlaws grains, legumes, and fruits except for a handful of berries. Cutting off important micronutrients isn't healthy and restrictive diets tend to fail in the long run.
These types of restrictions can lead to weight gain, not weight loss. It often also leads to weight cycling. Going on and off diets is called yo-yo dieting and this type of eating pattern leads to higher body fat, blood pressure, and cholesterol, all of which raise the risk of coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death in women.
Instead, consider eating a plant-based diet, watching your sugar intake, and limiting mindless snacking — all of which are great ways to add years to your life instead.
MYTH 2:
It's OK to take your smartphone to bed
Who doesn't want to take a look at their social media one last time before lights out? Research has shown that the overuse of smartphones can lead to trouble falling asleep, reduced sleep duration, and daytime moodiness. When you use your phone, you're flooding your eyes with blue light right before bedtime, which cuts off the production of melatonin — the hormone that regulates your body clock. Banning ANY LED lights an hour before bed is recommended to give your body time to wind down.
MYTH 3:
Social media can inspire you to diet and exercise
Research shows that young people believe turning to fitness and diet videos on TikTok or online will lead them to be better versions of themselves. However, what could happen is that it could lead to body dissatisfaction, social comparison, and a lot of concerns about body and weight. Those are all risk factors for eating disorder development.
Body dysphoria may have also increased during the pandemic as more young people are on social media while faced with isolation and disrupted routines.
MYTH 4:
Hitting the snooze button helps you get more sleep
Your body is naturally ending its cycle as the morning comes. If you hit that snooze button, your brain falls right back into a new dream cycle. When the alarm goes off a few minutes later, you are likely to be in the middle of that cycle and wake up feeling groggy and unbalanced.
MYTH 5:
You can lose belly fat with crunches
Exercise actually burns fat all over the body, not just the body part of your workout targets. You can do exercises to increase the strength of a muscle, but you can't spot reduce to remove the fat. Instead, consider increasing cardio to burn fat and strive for a balanced fitness routine by varying workout intensity to include high and low intensity for training.
MYTH 6:
It's best to stay in bed with your eyes closed when you can't sleep
Lying in bed for more than 20 minutes when you can't get to sleep is one of the worst things you can do because it trains your brain to associate bed with a lack of sleep — and that can actually lead to chronic insomnia. Get up and do something boring, such as folding laundry until you are sleepy. Make sure you dim the lights and don't check your smartphone or laptop!
MYTH 7: I have to work out or diet all the time to change my body type
It is believed that exercising or dieting all the time can change your basic body type. Especially among younger age groups, the feeling of "If only I just dieted better or exercised more." But the reality is that there's a large range and diversity of body types in all of us that are just normal and perfectly healthy the way we are.
MYTH 8:
Bodybuilding supplements advertised on social media really work
Social media may make you feel that you need weight training supplements after seeing them advertised everywhere. The biggest issue is that much of the 'influencer' marketing is garbage. It may claim one thing on the label, but you really don't know what's in it.
The bottom line is this: If you are healthy and have a well-balanced diet you are not likely to need any supplements!
