The Truth about Fitness (And Why You’ve Been Doing it Wrong)

For most Americans, physical fitness is not just a fad. Research shows that we’re more interested in getting fit than ever before [1]. And that’s awesome! But despite the growing interest in fitness, getting fit remains a challenge for most of us. In fact, The number of unhealthy and unfit Americans is on the rise [2]. Even though we have access to more information on health and fitness than ever before, why is getting fit so hard? 

As fitness continues to trend, a gap is growing between what we think fitness means (losing weight) and what it really means (building habits for whole-body health). Luckily, it doesn’t take long to bridge that gap and start on a fitness path that promotes holistic health for the rest of your life. Even better, real fitness is a blend of food, rest and exercise, so you don’t need to break more of a sweat to get fitness right. In fact, you might be able to eat more of the foods you love! Below, we’ll tell you what fitness really means and give you some science-backed tips on how to get fit the right way. 

As it turns out, apps, ads and social media posts are not the best places to learn about real physical fitness habits. To do fitness right—and change your life in the process—you need to learn the science-backed habits that deliver real, consistent results.   

Defining Fitness

What does physical fitness really mean? Spending every morning on a treadmill? Force-feeding yourself kale and quinoa? Let’s break fitness down into the basics.

• Cardiovascular Fitness: Cardio exercise is the type of exercise that gets your heart pumping. It keeps your heart in shape, so it’s the body equivalent of maintaining your car’s engine. Keeping your heart healthy can prevent some of the most life-threatening chronic diseases, including heart disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Science says you need about 150 minutes of moderate cardio exercise per week (a power walk or brisk jog) [3]. 
• Muscular Strength: Building your muscles increases strength and drastically boosts metabolic power, helping you burn fat fast. You can build muscle by doing body-weight exercises, yoga, pilates or weight training. According to research, adults should exercise all major muscle groups by engaging in strength training at least two days a week [3]. But even one hour a week can decrease your risk of all-cause mortality, reduce your risk of falls and even support mental well-being [4,5]. 
• Flexibility: Boosting your flexibility is good for your joints, muscles, balance, range of motion and circulation. It reduces the likelihood of injury and keeps you limber as you age, making it easier to do all of your daily activities [6]. The most common form of flexibility training is stretching. Yoga and pilates are also fantastic for flexibility. Try to practice a stretching routine 3-4 times a week [7].    
• Body Composition: A measure of body composition tells you how much muscle, fat, and bone you have. To get fit, you want to boost muscle and lose fat—which may not be the same as losing weight. Maintaining a healthy ratio of fat to muscle is critical to supporting a healthy weight and metabolism. Most gyms can perform a body composition assessment for you.
• Nutrition: Your body needs various micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) to carry out its daily functions as well as macronutrients (carbs and protein) to give you the fuel you need to achieve your fitness goals. These needs change as you age, so it’s important to reassess your diet every so often. Focus on building a base of foundational nutrition by consuming more micronutrients (do it easily by taking supplements) and adjust your macronutrient intake according to your goals.

What it Truly Means to Be Fit

The definition of fitness is much more complex than the numbers on a scale or the way you look in a swimsuit. The true meaning of being physically fit isn’t indicated by a single metric or the achievement of a single goal. That’s because fitness is not an action—it’s a state. It’s true, the word fitness is often used as a synonym for exercise, but being fit is something different. It’s about achieving a state of good physical health and maintaining it over time. That last part is important: maintaining it over time. Following a strict diet and losing 20 lbs—only to quit those habits once your goal is achieved—is not an example of getting fit. Replacing bad habits with healthy ones and losing weight in the long term—that’s fitness.

Let’s break fitness down into four key components that will help you transition to a state of being fit: 

1. Form healthy habits: Being fit isn’t a part-time activity. In order to get fit, you need to build healthy habits and stick to them. Americans have notoriously bad eating and exercise habits. If you can change even a few of yours (with a few habit-forming hacks), you’ll be fitter for the rest of your days. Good habits to focus on include regular exercise, setting a sleep schedule, staying hydrated and eating veggies with meals.  
2. Listen to your Body: This doesn’t mean giving your body whatever it craves at the moment. It’s about being mindful of the way your body feels and using that info to guide your fitness goals. Do you often feel tired, hungry, achy or moody? If you’re always hungry, your body may need more whole-food nutrition. If you’re moody, you might need more brain-boosting micronutrients. If you’re tired or achy, try doing some morning stretches or taking a daily walk. 
3. Build healthy relationships with exercise: Americans have skewed views of what it means to exercise, and this leads to inconsistent habits [6]. You don’t have to kill yourself at the gym to feel good about a workout. Simply walking for 30 minutes a day is enough to reduce all-cause mortality by up to 70% [7]. Start slow, find an activity you enjoy and stick with it.  
4. Understanding your dietary needs: The right diet for your body is determined by your age, gender ,genetics and fitness goals—there’s no one-size-fits-all diet. A nutritionist or trainer can help you build a diet plan that gets you fit. If you don’t have that option, the best place to start is by replacing processed food with whole foods (fresh produce, whole grains, meat from the butcher, etc.) and taking a comprehensive multivitamin to ensure you meet your micronutrient needs. 

How to Track Your Fitness Progress

Are you aiming for some fitness targets? Here are some tips on how to track them.

Ditch the scale

We place a lot of importance on weight. But standing on a scale can’t tell you much about your health or fitness. A scale doesn’t measure your body composition, your flexibility, your nutrition or your strength. In fact, it can even hurt your progress. For example, it’s common to put on weight when you start working out because muscle weighs a lot more than fat [8]. However, this is a good thing! If you put too much focus on the scale, you may stop eating enough protein to fuel muscle growth and end up hindering your progress. 

Take progress photos

As you get fit, your body will change—sometimes much more than your weight. Because these changes happen over time, you probably won’t notice them. That’s why it’s good to take progress photos every month or so. To do this, take full head-to-toe photos in tight clothing (so you can see your curves). Take one photo from the front and one from the side. When you look back after 6 months, you may be shocked at how your body has changed, even if you’ve only lost a few pounds. 

Pay attention to how your clothes fit

You may change, but your clothes won’t. Are your jeans feeling a bit loose? Maybe your shirt isn’t showing a belly bump anymore. Clothes give you an accurate assessment of long-term weight loss. If old clothes that were once too small fit you again, it means you’ve achieved real weight loss—which is different from the daily weight fluctuations measured by a scale. This can give you a confidence-boosting snapshot of your fitness progress.

Gauge Your Flexibility 

How low can you go? One easy way to tell if you’re getting fit is if you’re able to achieve a fuller stretch. This indicates that you’ve increased your range of motion, which likely also means you’ve improved your cardiovascular health. Try to be mindful of how far (or how long) you can stretch when you bend over, reach for your toes or stand on your tip-toes. 

Accept your genetics and don’t look at “Influencers”

A short paragraph on how we are all built differently and acceptance of our genetics is vitally important.  Also, don’t let social media taint your perception of what’s fit because most of the pics are extremely misleading.  Be the best YOU that you can be.  

Birds of a Feather

Is your circle of friends a healthy group or not so much?  We are heavily influenced by the company that we keep, so if your friends have a healthy lifestyle, you’re more apt to do so as well.  We’re not saying to ditch your party friends (who usually are the most fun to be around), but maybe you can be the one who is the role model for healthy living and it’ll rub off on your friends.  

Fitness is Forever

As Americans, we’re very task oriented. We’re all about setting goals, hustling to meet them, celebrating a job well done—and then moving on to the next thing. It’s also human nature to want things right now. But fitness doesn’t work like that, which may be why we’re doing it wrong (and getting sicker and fatter by the year). Fitness isn’t a task or a sprint you can assign. And it doesn’t have a deadline at the end of the quarter. Fitness is forever. It’s the day-to-day maintenance you need to do to keep your body from going bankrupt. There’s a good feeling that comes with a job well done that doesn’t fade away.The celebration lasts forever too!