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February 18, 2019

This brutally honest diet- and fitness-focused Instagram account provides expert insight

The truth about wellness gets muddied on social media, but this account keeps it real

Wellness Social Media
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The world of health, nutrition and fitness is a confusing one to navigate when it seems like everyone on social media is preaching about "miracle" — or, more accurately fad — diets, workout plans and even supplements.

While some of these accounts are certainly sharing factual information about wellness, these truthful sources often get lost amidst flashier and, well, more alluring “quick-fix” suggestions that seem too good to be true. (Spoiler: they are).

The truth is, you may be following these types of accounts without even knowing it. That said, there’s an account to throw into your feed that is not only well-respected in the health and wellness world, but pokes fun at those types of accounts while promoting critical thinking when it comes to all content you consume.


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A Workout Routine (@aworkoutroutine) serves up truthful, yet satirical, meme-like posts that aim to help people improve their health. The account and corresponding website and Twitter feed is run by Jay who, according to his website, is “that dude on the internet who helps thousands of men and women lose fat, build muscle, improve their health, gain strength, set up their diet, design their workout, reach their goals, and look and feel as awesome as they possibly can.”

Jay’s years of experience in diet, fitness, and more have translated to being featured as an expert by publications like TIME and Huffington Post as well as in studies and textbooks, according to his website. Of course, Jay also shares his wisdom with more than 27,000 Instagram followers.

Check out some of @aworkoutroutine’s brutally honest memes. Yes, they seem bitterly sarcastic in the photo, but provide honest and truthful explanations, tips and food for thought in the captions.

View this post on Instagram

Literally millions of women - at vastly different weights, heights, ages and activity levels - think they need to eat 1200 calories a day to lose fat. - This, of course, is completely wrong. The actual number of healthy adult women on this planet who *TRULY* need to eat as low as 1200 calories a day in order for fat loss to occur is tiny. - How tiny? Very, very, VERY tiny. And that tiny percentage is typically made up of women who are very short (e.g. 5'2), already at a very low body weight (e.g. 110 lbs), and sedentary (e.g. desk job). - Yet, despite this fact, countless women who do not fit this description will claim to be eating 1200 calories a day (or even less) BUT YET STILL *AREN'T* LOSING FAT. - Um... no. - What's actually happening in this scenario is that the person is eating a lot more than the 1200 calories they think they are/claim to be. - Here are the 2 most common ways this happens... - 1. Some kind of mistake is being made in the tracking of calorie intake/output (underestimating, miscalculating, underreporting, etc.) that leads to eating more/burning less than they think they are. This is seen ALL THE TIME, including in a variety of studies. In fact, one study looked specifically at people who claimed to be unable to lose weight even though they were eating less than 1200 calories a day. They assumed it was due to “metabolic damage,” but the study actually found that they were eating an average of 47% MORE calories per day than they thought/claimed. - 2. Other times the person IS eating 1200 calories like they claim... but only *PART* of the time. The other part of the time they are overeating/bingeing enough to cancel out the excessive deficit they're attempting to create (due to the massive hunger caused by eating so little), therefore putting them at maintenance (or sometimes even a surplus) by the end of the week. - So, what’s the big point? First, if you’re a healthy adult woman eating 1200 calories a day to lose fat, chances are you're eating a lot less than you need to be (or ideally should be). Second, if you think you're eating 1200 calories a day but still AREN'T losing fat... you're damn near guaranteed to be wrong.

A post shared by Jay | AWorkoutRoutine (@aworkoutroutine) on

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