The 7 Big Health and Fitness Lies About Optimal Health and Weight Loss (Part 1)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 by: Kevin Gianni
Tags: medical myths, physical fitness, health news

(NewsTarget) In a perfect world, 98% of people who lose weight would not gain it back.  But the reality is that they do.  Losing weight and reaching optimum health has become more of a challenge than it needs to be due to certain factors I've researched and outlined in this three part series.  This is an excerpt from my book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution" which can be found at www.TheBusyPersonsFitnessSolution.com

Big Health and Fitness Lie #1: The Health and Fitness Magazines, Diet Books, Super-Bars, Protein Shakes, Gadgets and other Assorted Gizmos Are Here To Help You

False.

These products are here to confuse you.  If you - and the millions of other consumers like you - figure out how easy it is to get into shape, the billions of dollars spent each year on gadgets, systems, trainers, and workout and diet plans becomes a trickle of pennies.

How many times have you wondered if the low carb diet is for you?  How about the low fat diet? Do you know which one is better?  The heath and fitness marketers have made it so difficult to make any sense of what we should eat and how we should move that we're completely lost.

It's not really in the interest of the fitness and diet product marketers - the ones that sell you books, magazines, products, and videos - to give you what you need to get into shape because then they'll have nothing to sell and nothing to promote.

Imagine if you were in the key and lock business and suddenly crime was eradicated. No one would need locks any more because their fear of burglary would be gone.

Same deal with the health and fitness marketers. If no one is afraid that they'll gain weight because they know all the right things to do to keep it off, those marketers are no better than the locksmith in the example above - out of a job.

Now let's put this into perspective. I'm talking about the marketers as a whole.

Does this make all health professionals bad, evil people? Absolutely NOT!

There are thousands of professionals out there fighting against the misinformation we've been fed.

But it does make you wonder how many people out there are playing with your needs when they promote their "New," "Radical," "Secret" or "Guaranteed" products, doesn't it?

Big Health and Fitness Lie #2: The Model on the Cover of Vogue is a Perfect Picture of Health.

We cannot believe everything we see.

Models, fitness and beyond, are not the picture of perfect health.  Supermodel Carol Alt - when she was in the prime of her modeling career lived on coffee and bagels. Arnold Schwarzenegger? Steroids, note: They were legal then.

What about the others? What about the guys you see on the fitness magazines? Do you really believe that they look like that under their clothes all the time?

They don't.

It is common knowledge in the training industry what some of these guys do to look like that for their photo shoots.

They bulk up and put on weight and muscle first by eating an exorbitant amount of food everyday—straining their digestive, circulatory, muscular and skeletal systems. Then they practically go on a starvation diet that gives them a minimal amount of nutrients. This is just a more intense version of binge and purge—over do it and then severely under do it.

Worse, in the last few days leading up to the shoot or body building competition, they drink barely any water (you might hold on to it) and stop eating anything with minerals that might cause the body to retain water.

And this is just if they do it naturally without steroids, HGH or any other muscle building, performance enhancing drugs.

Many of the fitness and diet programs you've done or read about are variations of this technique.

You throw your body out of its natural balance for limited periods of time to achieve short term results through subtle deprivation or extreme overexertion. Is this what you want to put yourself through, only to briefly resemble a false ideal?

I know I don't.

You want fantastic health and fitness. The way of the cover model and centerfolds is all about smoke and mirrors. These images we're bombarded with are NOT real. The people are, but the message they are passing along to you is a lie.

Look at what's happening in our sports leagues. The players are getting caught using banned substances over and over again. Baseball is a mess, so is sprinting, and so is cycling. What other sports are passing along this lie?

Are our athletes and cover models the people that we should want to look like? Probably not. Some of them are caricatures. They're larger than life comic book figures. You wouldn't set a goal to physically look like the Hulk, because he's a fantasy figure. Just as fantastic are the images we see everyday on our TV's, magazines, and the internet.

Don't buy into this and you'll be happier, healthier, and more successful than you'll ever imagine!

Big Health and Fitness Lie #3: Scientific Research Shows…

Buy into the back and forth of the "flavor-of-the-month" scientific studies and you'll crash and burn.

I've done it. So have you.

If you really want to rely on science, You have to look at who's doing the study, who's funding the study, how many people participated in the study, how controlled the study was, and if they did a follow up study to verify results.

This is a daunting task and if you actually take the time to do so, you'll find that many of the studies are much more inconclusive than the media reports.  There is one scientific fact about exercise and health that you need to know. The fact is this: if you start to take control of your own health and fitness you WILL succeed.

You might think that's not exactly science, but it really is. I remember reading Newton's laws in the 7th grade: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Translated to fitness: For every action you take there will be a reaction that will give you feedback and tell you if it works or if it doesn't.

You can't listen to all the studies that say working out at a certain time of day is better than another, or doing this type of exercise is the ONLY way to get the results you want. There is no "only" way. There are ineffective ways, there are better ways, and for each individual there may be a best way.

For an "only" to exist, it must be an "absolute," and if an "absolute" keeps changing, it's absolutely wrong!

You don't need doctors and physiologists and trainers telling you what is right and what is wrong, or what has been scientifically proven and what hasn't.

There's a 10,000 year history of exercise that we've completely ignored over the past 30 or so years that has all the answers you'll ever need.

The lessons from all these years are based on common sense. Move, move and, yes, move—and do so sensibly. It's so simple it pains me to tell you.

About the author

Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.


His book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution," is a step-by-step guide to optimum health for the time and energy-strapped. To find out more about abundance, optimum health and self motivation click here... or you're interested in the vegan and raw food diet and cutting edge holistic nutrition click here. For access to free interviews, downloads and a complete bodyweight exercise archive visit www.LiveAwesome.com.