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5 Gargantuan Fitness Lies We’re Sold On The Daily

The fitness industry spends millions to keep you unaware of these


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Neeramitra Reddy

2 years ago | 3 min read

The fitness industry spends millions to keep you unaware of these.

Built with the bricks of misinformation and pseudoscience, the fitness industry is a 100 billion dollar pyramid.

Thanks to this, I messed up years of my early fitness journey. Only since I awakened (2 or 3 years ago) have I been making insane progress.

Unfortunately, most remain swathed in this cloak of lies until they get disillusioned and quit fitness — or worse, turn into haters and discourage others.

To help you avoid such a fate, I’ll share 5 truths that the fitness industry spends millions of dollars to keep hidden from you.

Slimming Belts and The Rest of The B.S. “Belly Fat” Cohort

If I ate a calorie for every time I was asked, “How to lose belly fat”, I’d be morbidly obese by now.

So universal is this need that the fitness industry has neatly capitalized on it. Behold the cohort of “How to lose belly fat” products.

Slimming belts, fat-burner pills, non-surgical “safe” procedures, “secret” diet plans, “detox” juices — it’s quite a vast family and their grand-daddy is “Crunches and side-bends”.

From infomercials to your favorite influencer’s shorts, advertisements for these are everywhere — given they sell like hotcakes, why wouldn’t there be such ads?

But the brutal truth? Since spot reduction is a myth, the only way to lose belly fat is by lowering your overall body fat — which research shows the only way is by being in a calorie deficit.

Glamorous? No. But true? Yes. If you don’t want to get too sciency, follow this comprehensive fat-loss guide.

Gimmicky Ineffective Exercises

There isn’t a dearth of fancy “designer” exercises on TikTok and Instagram. As Scott Herman analyzes in his INSTA-GAHHBAGE series, it’s all worthless gimmicky b.s.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Compound exercises. Progressive overload. Calories-in-Calories-out. Protein intake. 8+ hours of sleep. Being consistent.

The fundamentals are boring but effective — they’ve withstood the tests of time and advancing research.

But thanks to our Shiny object syndromewe’re drawn to novelty and search for the magical holy grail — when there is none. Knowingly (or unknowingly), your fitness “idols” take advantage of this for clout.

The best exercises are simple and the most effective workout plans are free.

Leverage both.

Photo by henri meilhac on Unsplash

Unreal 8-Week Transformations

As a natural, gaining muscle is an excruciatingly slow process. Add losing fat into the mix? Things slow down even more.

But the fitness transformations rampant on the internet make this seem like a cakewalk. Chris Hemsworth’s stunt double is one infamous example.

No matter how “hard” you work out, what “secret superfoods” you eat, or “premium” supplements you pop, you can’t override the physical limitations of the human body.

Those transformations either took way longer than proclaimed or were achieved with the help of PEDs.

Set real expectations — it’ll save you a ton of disappointment and self-hate.

Want to get a taste of what a real transformation looks like? Check out Nick’s Strength And Power’s 10-year bodybuilding journey or Alpha Destiny’s latest fat-loss journey.

(Mostly) Worthless Supplements

Your favorite fitness influencers don’t look the way they do because of the supplements they endorse.

It’s thanks to (years of) adhering to stringent workout, diet, and sleep routines. Not to mention a copious amount of steroids and Photoshop.

Supplements are NOT magical, they’re far from it. Heck! It’s there in the name — they’re only meant to supplement your actual fitness routine.

Your sleep, workouts, and nutrition determine 99% of your results. Supplements can help with only that rest 1%.

Even then, most supplements are utter trash.

The only 3 with solid research backing them are — creatinecaffeine, and whey protein. While the first two boost your workout performance, the last help you meet your protein goals.

If you have trouble sleeping, you can also consider ZMA and Melatonin — I’ve used and can vouch for both.

Grossly False Expectations for Naturals

The most infuriating question I have to deal with daily is “How many months will it take for me to get jacked and get a six-pack.”

That the question has the word “months” is enough to depict the sad state fitness has been brought to.

It will take years—and even then, you’ll look nowhere close to what your favorite fitness influencer does.

They look the way they do because of a combination of lighting, angles, pump, Photoshop, and steroids.

Another statement that gets my mercury boiling is, “I don’t want to build too much muscle, though. I prefer the lean ripped look.”

My dear brother or sister, if you could build muscle by accident, we wouldn’t be living in a world of dad and twig bods.

The harsh truth is — fitness is a lifelong marathon, not a seasonal sprint.

And that’s exactly what makes it so rewarding.

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Created by

Neeramitra Reddy

11x Top Writer | Thinker | Bookworm | Gymrat | Personal Growth Addict | Open to gigs: neeramitra.writes@gmail.com | Join my newsletter: abetterlife.substack.com


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