Rewind the way back machine 15 years or so ago, most people got their fitness advice from a personal trainer, a magazine, a book or perhaps a know-it-all pal who claims to know everything about protein.
Today, we carry an endless stream of health and fitness information around in our pockets.
Open Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or YouTube and within minutes you can find someone telling you that carbohydrates are making you fat, breakfast is essential, breakfast is terrible, running damages your knees, running protects your knees, fasting solves everything, lifting heavy is dangerous and lifting heavy is the only exercise worth doing. Even the ridiculous idea of tapping your face with a hammer to “Looks-Maxx” is gaining traction (Note: DO NOT TRY THIS).
No wonder people get confused and led astray.
Social media has made useful health information more accessible than ever. There are excellent coaches, physiotherapists, doctors, dietitians and researchers sharing genuinely helpful content online.
The problem is that good advice appears alongside misinformation, exaggerated promises, heavily edited transformations and advertising that does not always look like advertising.
For the average person simply trying to become fitter, stronger and healthier, this muddies the water.
More information has not necessarily led to more informed people
At DMC Fitness, we regularly meet people who have spent months, or even years, collecting fitness information without ever feeling confident enough to begin.
They have saved hundreds of workouts. They know the names of countless diets. They have watched videos about fasting windows, glucose spikes, hormone balancing, gut health, fat-burning zones and the supposed dangers of ordinary foods.
Yet they still do not know what they should actually do on Monday morning.
That is the strange thing about modern fitness advice. We have access to more information than any previous generation, but many people feel less certain about the basics because what they are presented is designed to generate clicks instead of correctly inform.
The World Health Organization has warned that health misinformation can influence people’s behaviour and create mental and social distress. It also recognises that inaccurate information can spread rapidly online, particularly when it is dramatic, emotional or easy to share.
In other words, the most visible advice is not necessarily the most accurate or useful.
The algorithm does not know what your body needs
Social-media platforms are designed to hold our attention.
Unfortunately, sensible fitness advice is not always particularly sexy.
“Walk regularly, perform strength training a few times per week, eat a balanced diet, sleep as well as you can and remain consistent for the months and years ahead” is sound advice.
It is unlikely to go viral.
Compare that with:
“This one food is destroying your metabolism.”
“Never do this exercise after 40.”
“Lose your belly in seven days.”
“The fitness industry has been lying to you.”
These statements create curiosity and tickle your fight-or-flight animal brain. They are purposely phrased to make us stop scrolling and pay attention.
Once you watch one of these videos, the platform may show you more of the same. Before long, your feed can make a fringe opinion look like a universally accepted fact because you have been conditioned to form your own bias.
This does not mean every creator is deliberately misleading people. Some may genuinely believe what they are saying and are simply not correctly informed. They may be repeating information they have heard elsewhere without fact checking.
However, confidence and popularity are not the same as expertise.
Someone can have an impressive physique, thousands of followers and excellent video-editing skills without being qualified to give personalised advice about injury, nutrition, hormones or medical conditions.
Why extreme advice performs so well
Most good fitness advice depends on context.
Is a particular exercise appropriate? That depends on the person, their ability, experience, medical history, goals and how the exercise is performed.
Is a particular diet effective? That depends on whether it provides suitable nutrition, creates an appropriate energy balance and can be maintained.
Should you exercise when you are tired? That depends on why you are tired, how severe it is and what type of training you plan to do.
Context takes time to explain. Social-media videos are often short.
As a result, complicated subjects are reduced to simple sound bites:
- Never eat this.
- Always do that.
- This exercise is bad.
- This ingredient will make you sick.
- Everyone over 40 should train this way.
These statements sound decisive, but the human body is rarely that straightforward.
Your personal experience is not universal evidence
One of the most common forms of online fitness content begins with:
“This worked for me.”
Personal experiences can be inspiring. Seeing someone improve their health, lose weight, gain strength or overcome a difficult period can give others hope.
One person’s result does not prove that the same approach will work for everyone.
Someone may believe they lost weight because they cut carbohydrates, stopped eating after 6pm or started drinking a particular shake.
In reality, the change may have helped them consume fewer calories, prepare more meals at home, reduce alcohol or follow a consistent routine for the first time.
The result may be genuine while their explanation for it is incomplete. Correlation does not always equal causation.
This matters because followers can copy the most extreme part of someone’s routine without understanding the wider circumstances behind their success.
When health advice is really a sales pitch
There is nothing inherently wrong with a fitness professional selling a service or a business promoting a useful product.
DMC Fitness is a business. We offer coaching because we believe professional support, structure and accountability can help people improve their health.
The issue arises when marketing is disguised as independent advice.
A creator may spend several videos convincing you that you have a problem before presenting their powder, programme, test, wearable device or coaching package as the only solution.
The Advertising Standards Authority requires social-media advertising to be clearly recognisable as advertising. Health, slimming and supplement claims must also be supported appropriately and comply with advertising rules.
Before accepting a recommendation, it is worth asking whether the person giving the advice will profit from making you believe it.
That does not automatically make the advice wrong, but it is important context.
Social media can make normal bodies feel inadequate
Fitness content does not only influence what we do. It can affect how we feel about ourselves.
We are often comparing our everyday bodies with carefully selected photographs, flattering lighting, edited videos and people whose job may involve training, dieting and creating fitness content.
We do not see the dozens of unused photographs, the temporary pump after a workout or the years of training behind a short transformation video.
For someone already lacking confidence, this can create the impression that ordinary progress is not good enough.
Losing some weight, becoming stronger, experiencing less pain and having more energy may be life-changing improvements. Online, however, they can seem unimpressive beside dramatic before-and-after photographs.
Fitness should improve your relationship with your body, not make you feel permanently disappointed by it.
Confusion can lead to doing nothing
The greatest danger may not be that everyone follows bad advice.
It is that people become so overwhelmed that they stop taking action altogether.
When one person tells you to perform cardio and another says cardio will cause muscle loss, it can feel safer to do neither.
When every food is described as inflammatory, toxic or responsible for weight gain, eating well begins to seem impossibly complicated.
If every exercise is presented as dangerous unless performed perfectly, people become frightened to move.
This is particularly unhelpful for older adults returning to exercise after a long break. They do not need more reasons to doubt themselves. They need a realistic starting point and the confidence to progress gradually.
Warning signs to look out for
No single warning sign proves that someone is unreliable, but you should be cautious when content repeatedly:
- promises dramatic results in a very short time;
- claims one exercise, food or supplement will transform your health;
- uses fear to stop you eating ordinary foods or performing normal movements;
- presents personal experience as proof that something works for everyone;
- tells you that all doctors, dietitians or fitness professionals are wrong;
- offers advice about medical conditions without appropriate qualifications;
- suggests there is one perfect way for everybody to train;
- relies on transformations without explaining the full programme;
- makes you feel that you must immediately buy something to protect your health.
Reliable professionals are usually willing to admit that individual circumstances matter.
They understand the limits of their knowledge and know when someone should be referred to a doctor, physiotherapist, dietitian or another suitably qualified professional.
Questions to ask before following fitness advice
Before changing your diet, stopping an exercise or buying a product, pause and ask:
Who is giving me this advice?
Look beyond follower numbers. Do they have relevant education, qualifications and experience?
Are they discussing evidence or only their own story?
A personal result can be inspiring, but it is not the same as research or professional assessment.
Are they allowing for individual differences?
Advice that claims to work for absolutely everyone should be treated with scepticism.
Are they trying to frighten me?
Fear is a powerful marketing tool. Good health advice should help you make informed decisions, not leave you terrified of food or movement.
Are they selling the solution?
Commercial interests do not automatically invalidate advice, but they should be clear and transparent.
The WHO’s principles for identifying credible online health information emphasise science-based information, transparency and accountability.
Fitness does not need to be this complicated
For most people, the foundations remain fairly simple:
- Move regularly throughout the day.
- Perform strength-based exercise consistently.
- Do some activity that challenges your heart and lungs.
- Eat a varied diet containing enough protein, fibre, fruit and vegetables.
- Prioritise sleep and recovery where possible.
- Adjust your training around your ability, health and circumstances.
- Progress gradually.
You do not need to follow every new fitness trend. You do not need a cupboard full of supplements, a perfect morning routine or an expensive tracking device.
You certainly do not need to change your programme every time an influencer announces that a common exercise is “killing your gains.”
A simple plan followed consistently will usually be more valuable than a supposedly perfect plan that changes every week.
Use social media as a tool, not as your coach
Social media can be useful for discovering exercises, learning new ideas and finding encouragement.
However, it cannot properly assess how you move, understand your health history, notice when your technique changes or adjust your training based on how you feel that day.
A video created for thousands of strangers is not personalised advice.
This becomes especially important when you are exercising with pain, recovering from surgery, managing a long-term health condition or returning after years of inactivity.
Professional coaching provides something an algorithm cannot: context.
A good coach can help you decide what is suitable for you, simplify the process and make adjustments as your body and circumstances change.
Focus on what improves your life
A useful fitness programme should help you live better.
You may notice that you can climb stairs without becoming breathless, carry shopping more comfortably, move with less stiffness or keep up with your children and grandchildren.
You might sleep better, feel more confident and have more energy during the working day.
These improvements may not create a dramatic social-media transformation.
They still matter.
In fact, they are often the changes that matter most.
The next time your phone tells you that you need a completely new diet, workout, supplement or lifestyle routine, take a moment before reacting.
Ask who benefits from the claim, what evidence supports it and whether it is genuinely relevant to your life.
Health and fitness should make you feel more capable, not less.
Keep the fundamentals simple, seek advice from people you trust and give yourself enough time to experience real progress.
Strength for Life
Davie
Davie McConnachie
Davie McConnachie is an award-winning coach, entrepreneur, speaker and founder of DMC Fitness. Since 2015, he has helped thousands of people transform their health, build strength, improve performance and develop a lifelong relationship with fitness.
Through his own experiences of adversity, recovery and personal growth, Davie has developed a coaching philosophy centred on resilience, self-mastery and sustainable progress. His mission is simple: to help people become stronger, healthier and more capable in every area of life while falling in love with fitness along the way.
Strength for Life.
