Do you want to start a new diet or workout routine but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Many of us find ourselves searching on Google, Pinterest, or even turning to a friend to figure out the next steps in our health journey.
When we take this route to pursue health goals, we often fail. Most new workout plans and diet plans start in the New Year, and if not the New Year, they always start on a Monday. Unfortunately, nearly thirty percent of people fail to accomplish the fitness goals they set in the New Year. So, why do we fail so often, even if we have good intentions?
The problem lies in our path to building our new workout and diet plans. We often get sucked into a trend or a fad that is not science-backed. Fads are literally defined as something that has a widespread and intense following without the basis of the object. This means that we often follow plans that don’t give us the results or the health outcomes we want.
In this article, we’ll cover why fad workouts are so popular, the right way to meet your fitness goals this year, and why it’s so essential to avoid fads when looking to get fit. So let’s get started!
What Are Fad Fitness And Diet Plans, And How Do They Get So Popular?
In our culture, we’re constantly looking for the next best thing. We always want to achieve something in the least amount of time with minimal effort. For example, have you ever Googled “how to lose weight fast? or “the best way to lose weight fast?”
Who doesn’t want to lose weight quickly without putting in much effort? Unfortunately, this often results in an unbridled internet search that might last hours into the night. As a result, many will be pinning recipes and workouts well past midnight. The problem with this is that the newest workout and diet pins and posts might differ from what is best for you.
If you are having some trouble defining what a fad workout is, let me refresh your memory with this list of fad fitness and diets from the past:
- Jane Fonda’s Aerobics
- 8-Minute Abs
- P90X
- Jazzercise
- Buns of Steel
- Sweating to the Oldies with Richard Simmons
- Tae Bo with Billy Blanks
- Suzanne Somer’s Thigh Master
Last but not least, we have to mention the Shake Weight. The Shake Weight was supposed to build extra muscle because you’re shaking the weight. Instead, it turns out that shaking weights makes you look like you’re making sexual gestures with a weight in your hand. The craziest part? The Shake Weight was reported to have 40 million dollars in sales in 2010 by CNBC. That is one profitable fad!
How Do I Find The Right Workout Solution For Me?
Finding the right workout solution for you is a personal journey. Think customization. Our bodies are different, our goals are different, and our abilities are different. This means that our workouts, diets, and vitamins (take our Bump personalized vitamin assessment here) should be different too.
If you’re new to fitness and nutrition, consult with a fitness and nutrition professional to design a workout and diet specifically for you. However, if you don’t have time or resources or flat out don’t want to consult with a professional, I have some tips that might help you:
- Eat Healthy, Not A Diet: Calling it a diet is not the best way to think about the food you eat. We all should eat healthily. Always. Unlike diets, eating healthy should not be for a certain amount of time.
- Avoid The SAD Diet: Most Americans eat what Joel Furhman refers to as the SAD. The SAD or Standard American Diet consists of meat, cheese, simple carbohydrates, and little fiber. Let’s look at some popular American meals; cheeseburgers and fries, steak and potatoes, hot dogs, chips, chicken fried steak, and casseroles. All of those are pretty sad when you think about the small nutrient content and the large carbohydrate, fat, and sodium content.
- Focus On Eating Less Processed Foods: Your daily foods should consist mainly of vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, lean meats, and little to zero processed foods. Eating minimally processed foods is the best way to obtain optimal health. With this way of eating, one can dial up the protein intake or dial it down based on fitness goals, age, preference, and availability.
What Fad Fitness And Diet Plans Work?
Let’s break down the latest diet trends, why they do or don’t work, and how healthy they are. Spoiler alert: None of them actually work!
Low-Carb Diet
Everyone has heard of it or tried the low-carb diet by now. It started with Dr. Atkins in the 1970s and gained widespread popularity in the 2000s. Dr. Atkins preached that a low-carb diet would allow the eater to consume high calories in the form of protein and saturated fat, and the eater will maintain a healthy lean weight because they aren’t eating any carbohydrates.
This is a fad fitness diet. Some people will lose weight when they stop eating carbohydrates like bread, pasta, sugar, and cereals just based on removing the excess empty calories from the diet and not filling them with other calories. Still, science is sure of one thing regarding the Atkins diet; we need carbohydrates to live. When you starve the body of carbohydrates, you are starving your brain of the energy required to function. Your entire body runs off of glucose, and glucose starts out as a carbohydrate.
Keto Diet
The keto diet is very similar to the Atkins diet and is not healthy. The idea behind this fad fitness diet is to eat all the meat and fat you want while ignoring vegetables or fruits because they have carbs in them and carbs are bad.
Well, keto followers, the only bad thing here is the amount of meat and fat you are eating. Think heart disease, high blood pressure, and poor overall health. The diet is named after the metabolic process called ketosis, which is what your body goes into when it is starved of carbs.
Ketosis typically happens to most active individuals when our bodies have burned through all of our glucose for energy. For instance, let’s say you wake up in the morning, eat nothing, and head out on a morning jog. Your body will first use glycogen stores in your muscles and liver before burning fat for energy. This is a normal process, and it is achieved through exercise. However, in the keto diet, ketosis is forced, and your glycogen is depleted and not restored through healthy foods. Meanwhile, you are eating steak and cheesy eggs. Both of which provide minimal micronutrients and a lot of saturated fat.
Paleo Diet
We are getting closer to a healthy way of eating with this one. Paleo dieters will not eat processed carbs, grains, beans, or dairy products. And worst of all, they don’t eat peanut butter! Monsters. They will eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, and meat.
The Paleo way of eating tends to be more healthful based on the fact that the diet solely relies on vegetables for carbs and puts an emphasis on eliminating processed foods. The Paleo diet, or caveman diet, as the name implies, asks the dieter to eat like you only have caveman food available.
This diet diet gets its name from the Paleozoic era, which took place 300 million years ago, so yeah, they are off in the name. Humans only appeared 6 million years ago during the period of time known as the Miocene Epoch. Unfortunately, the Miocene Epoch doesn’t have a cool name that a diet can be named after.
Plant-Based Diet
We are getting a little warmer with this one. Plants are so good for us. They are packed with micronutrients like vitamins and minerals and have these awesome things called phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are only found in plants and are capable of things like healing damaged cells. Think cancer and inflammation. Inflammation is found any time there is an illness in the body. Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, to name a few.
Not all inflammation is bad. It is part of our body’s natural immune defenses. It can promote healing, but when we are chronically inflamed, and it is being caused by the food we eat, fried foods, meats, sodium, and refined sugars, we enter into a state of chronic illness.
The part where plant-based goes wrong is protein is vital to our well-being. Think muscle growth, healing, skin health, hair health, and life’s building blocks. Think amino acids which make up protein. The plant-based market is trying to take care of this conundrum by creating plant-based meat, which is very unnatural and very processed.
What Does A Health Diet Look Like?
A healthy diet should be filled with plants, both vegetables, and fruits, especially berries, as they pack a lot of nutrients. Whole grains, beans, lean meats, healthy oils, nuts, seeds, and minimal dairy should also be included. Dairy products like kefir and yogurt are best. Food should be something you find joy in eating that is good for you. Healthy eating shouldn’t be a short-term solution or something you do to fit into that little black dress. Instead, it should be a lifelong commitment.
What Kind Of Workouts Are Recommended?
Stay away from fad fitness workouts like the ones we listed above. Be cautious when engaging in trend workouts. Some mainstream trend workouts such as CrossFit, Barre, yoga, and spin class have planted some serious roots, and for a good reason. These workouts work. However, the catch is that they don’t work for everyone.
If you are in your 20s and enjoy competition, then join a CrossFit gym, but if you are 40 and looking to stay healthy for your kids and not interested in breaking an RX workout record, centralize your workouts on activities that you like to do. Workouts that fit in with family life and your goals are workouts that will last.
Start With A Goal
The goal of any workout plan, whether you’re a seasoned gym rat or just getting into fitness, is to define why you’re working out and find workouts that support the reason and that you enjoy doing. Adding a variety of workouts will benefit your body by providing muscle diversity.
Especially as we age, we need to be mindful of working large and small muscle groups as well as stretching to keep our muscles strong and joints well lubricated. And while we all should switch up our workouts throughout the years based on our goals, availability, and ability, they should be repeatable, bring you joy, and be completed on a daily basis.
Wrapping It Up
Regardless of when and how you work out, you’ll want to ensure you choose something you enjoy doing that is safe for your body. Don’t get lost in fad fitness, diet plans, or what your favorite celebrity is doing.
Your workout routine should be based on what you enjoy, what you are training for, what you are capable of, and what you have available. Additionally, eating healthy food that helps keep the weight off should be a way of life rather than a quick fix to lose weight before a big event.
So, do your research, find something you enjoy, work with a nutritionist or trainer, and rely on Bump Vitamins for your customized vitamins. So often, we plateau in our physical fitness and weight loss quest. Changing up our exercise plan can be a great way to keep progressing and keep you interested in being active.
