Spotting Fitness Snake-Oil
“Psst, hey good-looking! the 6-pack secret is buying and adding my urine to your morning shake, every day.”
The fitness industry has almost always been rife with people claiming to knowing the secret product/practice/diet/program that will revolutionise all of your problems: for a price. There are a few core reasons for this including:
Low regulation: Supplements, fitness personalities and nutritional advice has very little governemnt oversight, giving people the ability to make unproven, false or even dangerous advice with little repercussion.
Cloudy science and ignorance: Bodies are extremely complex and have a large amount of individual variation between age, gender, environment, and inherited traits. This makes it very complex not only scientists and health/fitness enthusiasts, but even more so inthe general public.
Fitness results requires time and effort: Creating desired chnage requires you to expose yourself to the right level of stimulus repeatedly, while avoiding negative stimulus. It’s uncomfortable, and takes a while. Secret formulas and quick results become very tantalising when things are hard and confusing.
Health anxiety: The fear of illness, age and death is a universally unpleasant feeling. These anxieties are now likely exaggerated by the tonne of media content about carcinogens, toxins and other fun chemicals that may be killing you slowly. The idea that you can live forever if you just do all the right things is a ever increasing message.
Poor body image: We are all exposed to just the absoute unrealistic peak of human beauty constantly: perfect lighting, angles, photoshop, make up and performance enhancing drugs on the absolute genetic elite. Our minds are always subconsciously comparing ourselves to our peers. Unfortunately it struggles to differentiate bwetween the fitness super model and the people actually close to you.
Factors such as these have caused a massive decrease in the trust between the general public and the fitness industry, which is a shame. A suitable exercise program and tailored diet can do wonders for everybody’s physical and mental wellbeing. In the fitness and health industry you have different groups of people: There are the good people out there, trying their best to be honest, There are those who are well-meaning but msguided or ignorant, and theres a fair share of charlatans who knowingly look to decieve you for their own gain. Here’s my guide of how to sort through the B.S. If multiple of these red flags apply to something,I’d advise looking somewhere else for help.
Fitness and Health Red Flags
Shhh, it’s a secret: If you went to a mechanic and they said they had a secret technique to fix your car, and refused to tell you what they were actually doing you’d probably go to a different mechanic. It’s the same with fitness, if they are unwilling to disclose what’s actually in the program they’re trying to avoid scrutiny.
Grandiose claims: If anybody tries to tell you that their specific diet, supplement or exercise regime cures cancer, heart failure, aging or has spectacular body transformation results, they’re wrong. If they make claims about it being incredibly easy, they’re lying. Pharmaceutical companies and government institutions spend billions of dollars each year and have the smartest people on earth working ridiculous hours attempting to cure or treat illnesses such as obesity, metabolic disease, heart disease and cancer. If there was a simple, easy to implement solution to these tragedies, we would know by now.
Demonisation: In the 90’s it was the high fat diet that was killing us, then it flipped and fat was good and sugar was bad. Then gluten was the devil transmogrified into the form of a sandwich. Now with the carnivore diet, vegetables are literal poison. Some vegans will claim that all animal products are unhealthy. For intermittent fasting fanatics, the very act of eating is toxic. If the blame is pinned entirely onto one specific nutrient, practice or food group, with no nuance or acceptance of multiple factors influencing a certain health marker, they’re oversimplifying it and preying on your need for hard and fast rules.
Non measurable terms and outcomes: How do you measure a succesful ‘detox’, or a cleanse, what are the actual toxins that you need to cleanse, and why cant your liver and kidneys do the job that they’ve been doing perfectly well for millions of years? What does wellness actually mean, how do you know if you are more ‘well’. If something can’t be measured, it cant be judged. If it cant be judged it cant be wrong. Watch out for vague or constantly changing goal posts.
Overuse of marketing buzzwords: “Buy my new thing! It’s a superfood, it’s non-GMO, high-protein, fat-burning, detoxifying, probiotic, prebiotic, wild-caught, thermogenic, plant-based, paleo, organic, traditional, synergistic, ketogenic, gluten-free, filled with anti-oxidants, sugar free, FODMAP friendly, heirloom, testosterone boosting, functional, evidence based, a hollywood secret, revolutionary, herbal, mindful, fermented, natural, immune-boosting, spiritual, pollutant-free. Sure, some of these are definitely good things to have, but when a product is obviously taking advantage of media and social hype, its good practice to take a skeptical stance towards it.
Only overly-complex language and jargon: Just because someone uses big science words it doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about. “I’m aiming to activate the mechanistic target of rapomyocin and other hypertrophic responses by creating mechanical tension across the myocytes in the posterior chain, while also avoiding thoracolumbar extension, by ensuring isometric contraction in the interior obliques and rectus abdominus“. What the hell did I just say? I want to do a deadlift, while bracing my abs, so i can get bigger ass, back and leg muscles. If someone talks like they’re always writing their Phd thesis, they are either a bad communicator, talking to their peers, or more than likely, trying to impress you and construct an image authority by talking over your head. This is especially true if they refuse to explain it in more simple terms when asked.
They dont individualise or vary suggestions: The same solution will not work for everybody in the exact same way. If someone prescribes a ketogenic diet to everybody, or that their supplement will improve everybody’s gut microbiome, no questions asked, they dont respect the complexity of physiology. There’s no unified theory program to lifting weights that everybody can do indefinitely for maximal results. This also true if theres a claim of dose dependent results. Some claim that the more of their product that you have, the better the results will be. If that’s not true for drinking water, it’s not true for anything else.
They rely solely on physical appearance: Ahhh, a tale as old as time - super jacked dude sells their program/supplement to impressionable teenage boy, claiming this is how they got so jacked. This tactic gets a double red flag when they’re lying about obvious performance enhancing drug use, or cosmetic surgery. Don’t be fooled into thinking this only happens to men either. Sorry ladies, the girl with the awesome genetics and brazillian butt-lift is probably not going to be the best expert in guiding you on a magical journey to getting the lower body of your dreams. Do these people know what they’re talking about? Sometimes.The opposite is also true. If someone doesn’t look anything like what they’re claiming to be able to help you do, that should raise an eyebrow. Remember, knowledge and coaching skill doesn’t perfectly correlate with physical appearance. Hottest doesn’t mean smartest, or most learned.
Fat-burning supplements: If it doesnt cause awful side effects and is illegal in most developed countries, it’s not going to make any noticable difference in your quest for leanness. Save your money and hopes.
Tribalism: The scurge of the social media age: tribalism and echo-chambers. If someone uses a lot of ‘us vs. them’ language, is not open to criticism or conversation, uses unprovoked personal attacks on people that claim otherwise, and gives off a bit of a cult vibe, you know they aren’t looking at all of the evidence. The cool thing about health and fitness is that there’s a fair bit of nuance to how everyone can achieve what they want, and everyone has slightly different goals. Look for people or groups who are open to voices from outside their circle and acknowledge the limitations of their own claims.
No citations or accreditations: Health and fitness are complex subjects that have been studied for a very long time. Building the foundations of knowledge about ourselves is a massive team effort. If somebody claims to have discovered something on their own, never references scientific literature or their accomplished peers, you can almost assume that they’re either a thief, an asshole, or they’re making everything up. The very best people acknowledge that they see far because they stand on the shoulders of giants. People who have truly studied their fields are usually very humble, because they know how much help they need, and they have a better idea of how much they don’t know.
