7 Lies About Women’s Health, Fitness and Diet

Corporations and the people that market them, make a habit of preying on women. They have created a world in which women feel profound insecurities and then attempt to sell these women bogus solutions to these insecurities. Here are some of the most common lies pushed on women when it comes to their health, fitness and diet. Read on and don’t be fooled again — skip the scams and get the results you desire!

Lie #1: Yoga Makes You Fit, Strong And Shapely

Yoga doesn’t make you fit. Nor will it change the shape of your body. What yoga does do is increase your flexibility and strengthen your core. It can help you move more fluidly and feel better but it doesn’t do much for your fitness levels. One study had yoga practitioners practice their favourite type of yoga for one hour in a metabolic chamber that measured heart rate and calorie usage. They also had these people sit quietly for an hour in the same chamber, walk for an hour at 2 mph or walk for an hour at 3 mph. Once all the data was complied, they found that the hour of yoga was metabolically the same as walking for an hour at 2 mph. This means that yoga is way too gentle to be your go-to exercise when it comes to strength building or getting that shapely look.

 

Lie #2: Juicing Is Healthy

Drinking tons of juice is not healthy. Juices are loaded with calories and lack fiber and nutrients. All of this can lead to weight gain.

Juicing will not improve your skin, or your hair. It will not make you glow or restore your alkaline balance or many of the other claims they make. Sure, juicing can lead to weight loss but it is mostly just water weight. And any real weight loss that may occur comes back in the form of fat. When you grind up your fruits and vegetables you are breaking down, they can normally become difficult to digest carbs and allowing them to pass right through your system. This creates a huge insulin release. This excess insulin shuttles some sugar to your muscles but most of it will head to the liver where it gets turned into fat which gets stored wherever it is you tend to carry fat — your thighs, hips, stomach. Portions are an issue with juicing as well. Consuming a ridiculously large amount of fruit is easy when it is juiced. Whole fruit takes up more place in the stomach and allows your brain to register it is full. And remember, more fruit means more calories which means more sugar. If you’re going to juice, moderation is key.

Lie #3: The “Female Viagra” Will Cure Libido Problems

Don’t fall for this sham. It is is barely more effective than a placebo and carries a host of side effects. The real libido booster for women is testosterone according to dozens of studies. As women age testosterone levels drop but there are also a host of medications that can impact testosterone levels. Things like blood pressure meds, antibiotics, anti-depressants, recreational drugs, too much alcohol, and the birth control pill can all mess with testosterone. Testosterone replacement therapy may be the answer. Although the drugs aren’t approved for use in women, it can be prescribed ‘off label.’ There are many forms available from implanted pellets to gels. It is rather effective and when monitored properly, has very few side effects.

Lie #4: You Need To Detox

You don’t need to detox, your liver and kidneys are already doing it. The idea behind detoxing is that you need to flush and cleanse your body of toxins. Toxins are real but they are usually linked to alcohol overdoses, drug overdoses, exposure and/or ingestion of heavy metals, and poisoning. So this marketed notion that we are full of toxins and will feel, and look much better if we just rid ourselves of them is blatantly wrong. The reality is that our skin, lymphatic system, liver, and kidneys do a wonderful job of detoxing our bodies all on their own.

Lie #5: Jogging Will Make You Fit And Hot

Jogging isn’t really the best exercise for your fitness goals. What tends to happen is that the pace doesn’t change. Women get used to running a set pace and distance and never deviate. The body becomes comfortable and stays the same. The body must be challenged. If you want to build that fit, hot, curvy body, you’ve got to lift weights. If you are looking to improve your fitness levels, sprinting is a much better way to run than jogging. High intensity interval training is probably the best choice as it often provides a more overall body workout that keeps you burning calories for the rest of the day. Doing HIIT training — AND lifting, can lead to that fitness model physique.

Lie #6: The HCG Diet Is A Sound, Science Based Diet

This diet is insane. Basically this diet involves going on a very restrictive 500 calories a day and receiving doses of  the drug Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, or HCG. HCG is normally used as a fertility treatment in women and has proven to be a completely useless part of this diet. The initial results of this diet, found in testing during the 1930s, saw dramatic weight loss results. When more studies were done, it was discovered that the weight loss had nothing to do with the HCG and everything to do with being on a 500 calories a day diet. Despite the fact that the evidence that this diet doesn’t work (and evidence that HCG is just as effective as a placebo in making people ‘feel’ better on this diet) women are still jumping on board. It can cost between $30 to $600 a month! The problem with this diet is that the weight loss largely consists of muscle, water weight and fat — results that can be replicated by simply following the diet portion alone. Actually, the real problem with this diet is that it is 500 calories a day!

Lie #7: Vitamin Enhanced Waters Are Good For You

Vitamin water is useless. They are loaded with sugar and contain too much of the wrong vitamins and not enough of the right ones! Most waters are enhanced with vitamins B and C but the catch is, most of us are not lacking in those nutrients. Consuming them in excess does nothing as the extra is just flushed out of the system (to say nothing of the role excess Vitamin C may play in the formation of harmful free radicals) . Some drinks contain small amounts of vitamins A and E and minerals like potassium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and chromium. But you need to be careful with over ingesting some of these nutrients. When you consider that some are already coming to us through our diet, and that excess consumption of fat soluble vitamins like A and E has been linked to premature death, you might want to take a pass on the vitamin water. All this nutrient content stuff aside, these waters are full of sugar! One of the more popular brands contains 31 grams of sugar — that’s only 4 grams less than a 355ml can of Coke. Drink straight water or green tea instead.

Have you fallen victim to any of these marketing lies? Share with us.

Source: T-Nation

 

1. Prev:15 Reasons Why You Are Not Losing Weight
2. Next:Want to Lose Weight? Research Shows It Might Be Time to Cut Out Alcohol