Health and fitness trends come & go all the time, mostly thanks to social media. Every other day there’s a new miracle trend promising to give you the best body of your life. Of course, it’s great that so many people are excited to get healthy—but not all these trends are as great as they seem. Here are eleven health & fitness fads that really shouldn’t have gone viral and why they’re so harmful. You can follow them if you want but be aware of the dangers.
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Cleanses and Detoxes
Juice cleanses and detox diets promise to purge your body of toxins & help you drop weight fast. However, these diets mess with your body’s natural detox systems and often leave you feeling worse off because of nutrient deficiencies. Plus, any weight you lose is usually just water weight. It’ll come right back once you’ve finished!
Extreme Fasting
Intermittent fasting is usually okay but some people took it to the extreme. Skipping meals for way too long will backfire because it slows down your metabolism—making it harder to maintain a healthy weight. If that wasn’t bad enough, fasting also messes with your blood sugar levels and makes you more irritable. It’s also rather miserable feeling hangry all the time.
Waist Trainers
Squeezing yourself into a corset-like device to whittle your waist sounds like a quick fix but it’s not without its risks. Waist trainers squish your organs and mess with your breathing while also weakening your core muscles. It’s certainly not worth the hassle or the health risks. You can’t even take a deep breath as you enjoy your meals so, really, what’s the point?
Charcoal Detoxes
Activated charcoal was popular because it supposedly detoxed your body. While doctors will use it in medical emergencies to deal with certain poisons, slugging back charcoal in your smoothie is a bad idea. It prevents your body from absorbing necessary nutrients while also creating digestive issues. And let’s not forget how it ruins your teeth & tongue—coal leaves them black.
Bulletproof Coffee
One trend suggested replacing your breakfast with coffee loaded with butter & oil because it allegedly helped you lose weight. Unfortunately, skipping real food for a fatty coffee will make you miss out on essential nutrients—not to mention, mess with your cholesterol levels. Crashing by mid-morning because you didn’t actually eat anything substantial is not a great trade-off.
Essential Oils for Weight Loss
The idea that sniffing or rubbing oils on your skin helps you drop pounds is optimistic at best. There’s no credible evidence they do anything for weight loss, despite what the salespeople might tell you. If losing weight was as easy as sniffing peppermint oil, don’t you think everyone would be doing it? By all means, enjoy your essential oils for smells but don’t expect them to help you lose calories.
Vibration Plates for Effortless Exercise
Anyone thinking about using a vibration plate to lose weight shouldn’t cancel their gym membership just yet. It involves standing on a machine that shakes you all over—that’s all. While it has some benefits, it’s no substitute for actual exercise when you’re trying to get fit and healthy. Vibration plates should be an addition to your workout routine and not a replacement.
Sunscreen Pills
The idea that you could pop a pill instead of slathering on sunscreen is understandably appealing. However, the FDA has made it clear that these pills can’t protect you from UV rays—in fact, relying on them could put you at risk of serious sun damage. You should stick with the lotion because even though it’s less convenient, it’s far more effective.
Sirtfood Diet
As part of the Sirtfood Diet, proponents claimed you could eat chocolate & drink wine yet still lose weight. The diet focuses on sirtuins—proteins in the body that regulate metabolism, inflammation and the aging process. However, the diet relies on a very short list of foods and extremely low-calorie intake in its initial phases. This is rather unsustainable and actually causes nutrient deficiencies.
Teatoxes
Teatoxes were all the rage because they claimed they’d help you detoxify and lose weight—all while drinking tea! These teas contain herbs & ingredients like senna which has a laxative effect. But relying on laxatives for weight loss disrupts your body’s natural digestion and absorption processes. It’ll also leave you dehydrated. Plus, who wants to live their life running to the bathroom?
Fish Pedicures
Fish pedicures were supposed to be an easy way to get smooth feet—you just let tiny fish nibble away dead skin. And while it does work, there are numerous health risks from doing so, like infections from cuts on your feet or bacteria in the water. Using a pumice stone might not be as exotic but it’s a lot safer.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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