It’s hard for anyone who is just starting along a pathway to better health and fitness to be entirely realistic. There are a lot of distortions out there, to begin with: glossy diet ads, people hawking fake diet pills, and a whole lot more in our media world seems to promise results that are not actually completely accurate for the “regular joe”. Then there are also “myths” that we make for ourselves; not traditional kinds of myths that circulate in a community, but assumptions that we make about fitness that aren’t entirely moored in reality.

I Can Make Myself Thin in X Days

One of the first and most common myths that we make for ourselves is in attaching a concrete number to a visualized result. Weight loss is NOT an equation. You can’t always lose X pounds in X days. That’s not to stop you from trying – it’s just that the X should remain what it is – a variable. Some people with higher math or computer programming experience may be able to appreciate this. In the computer world, different variables impact each other so that a “constant” is almost a bad word, something that really needs to be avoided. It’s a lot like that with fitness. Don’t use constants to plan your fitness goals: use variables, and keep watch on how outside factors like diet, social situations, and even the weather can intrude into a carefully planned set of goals and routines.

My Body is a Machine

This is actually a myth that DOES get circulated sometimes. Thinking of your body as a machine isn’t totally wrong – but oversimplifying can hurt. For instance, the GIGO (Garbage in, garbage out) mantra is great for controlling junk food or binging. But thinking of weight loss as something with just a few simple premises is a mistake. Seasoned professional trainers and others can tell you that day to day results are often obscured by such intrusive factors as water intake, scales differences, wardrobe changes, or even “environmental conditions”. So, don’t fall into the trap of over-predicting what weight loss or muscle tone should look like.

I Can Control My Diet Without a Plan

Some other beginners can also fall from the path with over-confidence in how they monitor their diet. A great activities roster won’t do the job without controlling what you eat. But some individuals just don’t see the point in details, and this can sink a fitness program. The reality is that for many of us, note-taking and careful caloric or point monitoring is the only way to really control diet.

There are a lot more of these “myths” that can stump those working on a comprehensive set of fitness goals. A general “motivation” can help these ambitious people get past some of the stumbling blocks in their way and stay true to developing the goals that they originally intended.