Let's talk about 5 things that seem good for you but really aren’t.

Low Fat/Reduced Fat

In the nineties, low-fat or fat-free foods were all the rage. Brands like Snackwells were everywhere, promising to give you all of your favorite delicious treats—but now they wouldn’t make you fat.

They seemed like a no-brainer in the moment but, as time went on, we learned more about them.

Turns out that the majority of reduced-fat foods removed only the HEALTHY fats, leaving unhealthy saturated fats. So, the number of fat grams on the nutrition label would be lower, but no one realized that they were still getting the same drawbacks and none of the benefits.

Crunches

Crunches seem like the perfect exercise to get six-pack abs. When you’re doing them, you can feel them working. So, what’s the problem?

Well, they aren’t working. The pain you feel in your stomach is from the strain on your muscles, but these muscles don’t equate to a flat, washboard stomach. Other exercises, like half plank, full plank, and rollouts have much more impressive results when it comes to toning and tightening your abdominal muscles.

Plus, crunches do little to burn off the stubborn fat covering your stomach.

Not only are crunches ineffective, but they can also be harmful. The strain that it puts on your back and neck muscles can lead to pain and serious injury. Dump the crunches permanently and you’ll be better off.

Long Workouts

Long workouts seem like the ideal. The longer you’re working out, the fitter you’ll be…right?

Wrong.

The problem with long workouts is that they can really mess with your metabolism. Your body thinks something is wrong and it responds by conserving fat for the future.

Of course, nothing is wrong, but your body doesn’t know that. It has evolved to protect you in times of emergency and that’s what it’s doing. It hangs onto your fat deposits and slows down fat-burning, just in case you need that fat to survive.

The better way to do lose weight is to do short, high-intensity interval training. You’ll lose more weight without triggering your body to go into emergency mode.

Meal Bars

Meal bars promise to deliver a healthy, filling, and nutritious meal alternative that will help you lose weight. They don’t work.

Let’s call a spade a spade: they’re candy bars. They’re fattening, candy-coated, processed, sugar-filled candy bars. If you want that, fine. But you might as well eat a Snickers. These should be treated like the junk food they are.

Fruit Juice

Fruit juice is a tricky one. It seems like a good thing, like liquid fruit.

The problem is that it’s not just liquid fruit—it’s full of sugar, sugar, sugar!

When we eat fruit, the high sugar content in them is balanced by the rest of the plant matter they contain. When we drink them, often in large quantities, it’s just a big sugar rush.

Juice definitely has health benefits, but the amount of sugar in them outweighs the benefits, making most of them a net negative, nutritionally.

Even worse, many juices add sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup to their products, making them just as bad for you as a can of soda.

Eat your fruit, don’t drink it. When you do drink juice, think of it as what it is—a soft drink—rather than as a healthy food.