Advice from TikTok and Reels promising quick fixes for belly fat, puffiness, or shedding pounds in days often falls short. Fitness trainer Lera Logunova has broken down three popular trends and explained why they don't deliver the promised results, reports infohub.kz.
"People love easy solutions. Videos promising to 'lose belly fat with one exercise' get millions of views, while the basics of balanced nutrition and regular workouts just exist," the trainer notes.
Logunova decided to tackle three common myths that keep popping up on social media.
Myth 1: 'Special' exercises for belly and love handles. "We're told to do vacuum exercises, five-minute planks, or 100 crunches a day to burn fat specifically from the belly. But spot reduction doesn't exist," she emphasizes. According to the trainer, abdominal muscles will indeed strengthen with exercise, but they'll remain under a layer of fat until you create a calorie deficit. The body burns fat stores systemically from all over, and working a specific muscle doesn't make the fat above it melt faster.
Myth 2: Cutting out dairy to 'reduce bloating and cellulite.' Here, the advice is to completely eliminate cottage cheese, cheese, and milk because they supposedly 'retain water' and hinder muscle definition. "But avoiding dairy is only justified if you have a confirmed lactose intolerance or allergy. Cottage cheese and cheese are affordable sources of quality protein and calcium. In healthy people, they don't cause fluid retention. What's often mistaken for 'puffiness' is simply lack of sleep, excess salt, insufficient water intake, or lymph stagnation from a sedentary lifestyle," she says.
Myth 3: 'Cleanses' and detox juices for quick weight loss. This involves drinking only green juices, smoothies, or detox teas for 3–5 days to 'flush out toxins' and drop 5 kg. However, Logunova stresses that our main detox organs are the liver and kidneys, which work 24/7 without any juices. "The rapid drop on the scale during such 'cleanses' is just water loss and an emptied colon, not fat tissue. Plus, juice diets deliver a massive dose of simple sugars, deprive the body of protein, and inevitably lead to a rebound," she explains.
Long-term results come from the basics: a comfortable diet with adequate protein; a moderate calorie deficit (if weight loss is the goal); strength training for muscle firmness and tone; adequate sleep; and stress reduction.
Earlier, Logunova shared tips on how not to quit workouts in the first two weeks.