We live in a world where access to information is sickeningly fast and easy. I love that more than I hate it, but it has left us overthinking more than ever before.

We are stuffed with information and starving for simplicity.

Before we get into this list, hear me clearly: if you swear by something on here and you happily spend your money on it, carry on. This list is not the Bible.

This is a compilation of things you do not need to worry about if you are not already doing them. If you never owned a single item on this list, you can still get in the best shape of your life. You can still look and perform 10x better than the friend who spends thousands of dollars a year on this stuff.

So set the offense down and let’s go.

1. Pilates without strength training

Pilates is a great thing to add to your training week, but if you go to Pilates chasing “long, lean muscles,” you will probably still be going a year from now with that same goal and the same body.

Let’s clear up that phrase, because it has a chokehold on the internet. Muscles do not get longer. The shape you see comes from your muscle belly, and the length of your muscle bellies was decided before you were born. That’s genetics. You can grow muscle, keep it, or lose it, but you cannot stretch it into a different shape.

When someone says Pilates gave them long lean muscles, what they mean is they reduced the body fat sitting on top of the muscle they already had. The “lean” came from a calorie deficit. The “toned” came from having muscle there in the first place.

Strength training is the foundation. Lifting heavy-ish weights and adding to that over time is what tells your body to hold onto muscle.

Pilates is an excellent add-on for core control, breathing, hip and shoulder mobility, and single-leg stability. It’s low impact and low fatigue, so it stacks into your week without tanking your recovery. It can also sharpen your mind-muscle connection, which carries over into lifting.

A great approach: 3 to 4 strength sessions a week, Pilates 1 to 2x a week, and hit your steps, protein, and calories.

Pilates plus strength is a great combo. Pilates instead of strength will leave you spinning your wheels while paying for a very expensive membership.

2. Vibration plates

What a vibration plate can do: activate muscles, create some mechanical stimulation, increase peripheral blood flow, and possibly help with balance and function.

What it will not do: replace resistance training, replace walking, produce meaningful fat loss, or detox your body.

If you have $300 to $500 to spend, a walking pad will give you a far better return.

And if you’re leaning on the lymphatic drainage argument, try explaining lymphatic drainage out loud first. If you can explain it, you’re smart enough to know you don’t need a machine for it. Go for a walk instead.

3. Greens supplements

The reason you saw everyone promoting AG1 a few years ago is that the affiliate commission is good. You don’t need them. Powders are a convenience tool, so they do not contain nutrients you can only get from a supplement.

AG1 runs roughly $80 – $100 a month for a daily serving. I would rather put that money into my grocery budget and buy the foods that check the same box: berries, leafy greens, vegetables, Greek yogurt, beans, nuts, eggs, and quality protein.

4. Debloat supplements

Debloat products are marketed beautifully. What they do is temporarily reduce the feeling and appearance of bloating, but they do not detox you and they do NOT cause fat loss.

If you’re getting fiber from fruits, vegetables, beans, and oats, you’re already covering the fundamentals. Add adequate hydration, potassium-rich foods, walking, regular bowel movements, and eating more slowly, and you’ve covered the rest.

One popular option comes out to about $2.30 a day after shipping. That’s roughly $70 a month for something you can handle with fiber and a few habits.

5. The 12-3-30 method

Walking at a 12 incline, 3 mph, for 30 min. It blew up on TikTok and I still see it constantly, with women crediting it for fat loss and a snatched waist.

The fat loss part can be true, but only because those women were also in a calorie deficit. No amount of cardio, at any intensity, reduces body fat on its own…a calorie deficit does.

If you add 12-3-30 to what you’re already doing and keep your calories where they were, you may slowly lose body fat over time. That’s because you added movement while keeping calories controlled, and for no other reason.

6. Thinking running will get you the body you want

Running has surged in popularity and hybrid training is everywhere right now.

If I were only in the game of fitness to LOOK a certain way, I would cut running out entirely. I would just lift weights and walk if all I cared about was physique.

Cardio does not give your body shape. It can help you lose weight, but only because it adds activity to your day. Running only has the potential to make you a smaller version of what you already look like.

So why do I run?

I fell in love with the challenge.

My cardiovascular health is better and I perform better across the board.

It decompresses me.

I love the competition of it – whether that’s me against me or racing HYROX and the half marathon I did in April.

If someone came to me wanting to change their body shape and asked about running, I would tell them to add it only if they truly want to do it. Lifting weights is the number one way to change your body composition.

7. Thinking Peloton will get you the body you want

Peloton skyrocketed during Covid, and plenty of women still ride regularly. I used to ride a few times a week before HYROX took over my training.

Shape comes from two things: how much muscle you have, and how much fat is sitting on top of it. Cardio only addresses the fat. Strength training addresses both.

If someone loses 20 lb through Peloton rides alone, they end up as a smaller copy of the same shape. Nothing underneath changed. They wanted the curve at the glute, the taper at the waist, the shoulder line…but all of that is muscle tissue. Take muscle out of the equation and fat loss has nothing to reveal.

Cycling still has a place: cardiovascular health, conditioning, more calories burned across the day, and stress relief. If you love it, you’ll stay consistent with it. It simply isn’t the tool that changes what your body looks like.

8. Caring about calories burned on your watch

If the calorie burn on your watch has any impact on you, I want you to stop looking at it for 30 straight days. Track your calories, hit your protein, strength train, and hit your step goal instead.

That number is often wildly inaccurate, and the people most fixated on it are usually not training in a way that changes their body shape.

Do 45 min of cardio and 45 min of lifting, and the cardio burns more. That does not make it more effective. You don’t burn a ton of calories in a strength session when you’re resting long enough to go hard on your next set.

Six months of calories, protein, lifting, and steps will get you far closer to the body you want than six months of high-burn classes.

9. The seed oil scare

Some of the loudest voices in this space have built entire personal brands on fear. It’s clickbait, and it’s worth noticing when the same people cycle through vegan, then carnivore, then back to carbs.

Seed oils are not what we should be worried about. Overall calories are. And calories climb into a surplus fast when most of what you’re eating is processed food and fast food.

10. Cutting out sugar

Ask yourself three questions any time you want to cut something out completely:

1. How hard will this be to stick with on weekends, holidays, vacations, and stressful weeks?
2. Will cutting this out make me feel miserable?
3. Can I explain how cutting this out is good for me?

Should you eat hundreds of grams of sugar a day? No. But when you focus on adding things in, more protein and more fiber from vegetables, fruit, and whole grains, keeping sugar in a reasonable spot gets much easier.

If you’re hitting your protein, eating plenty of fiber, and staying in the calories that match your goal, and you want a brownie and ice cream before bed, who cares. You’ll be happier because you’re not white-knuckling your way through constant no’s. You can enjoy nights out, birthday parties, and holidays like a normal person.

11. Intermittent fasting

It’s a window that squeezes your calories into a condensed amount of time in hopes you’ll get full and eat less. That’s the whole thing.

If you start doing it, you very well may lose weight. But ask yourself:

• Does this make me miserable?
• Am I under-fueled and leaving effort on the table in my workouts?
• Will this hold up on a lake weekend, a holiday, a vacation, or a girls trip?

If the answer is no, don’t dip your toe in. There is nothing magical about it.

12. Avoiding creatine because you heard it makes you bloated

Creatine does not create the puffy look you’re picturing. It does close to the opposite. Creatine pulls water into your muscle cells, so that water sits inside your muscle tissue rather than under your skin. The result is fuller, more defined muscle.

In the first few weeks you may see the scale tick up 1 to 3 lb from that water shift. It levels off and does not keep climbing.

Better-hydrated muscle cells mean more force in your sets, better recovery between sets, and more total work over time. You get stronger and perform better. There’s also research on creatine and cognitive function, including studies in Alzheimer’s patients.

It’s one of the most researched supplements available and has a strong safety record in healthy adults.

Take 3 to 8 g a day. Creatine monohydrate is both the cheapest form and the best performer in studies.

Make sure your brand passes third-party testing. Some products contain significantly less than what’s on the label, which means you’re paying for a dose too small to do anything. I buy Bulk Supplements creatine monohydrate on Amazon for the quality-to-price ratio.

13. Any form of detox

Detox teas. All-liquid diets. All of it.

Your body already has detoxification systems. Your liver breaks things down so they can be safely removed. Your kidneys filter everything out when you pee. Your GI tract eliminates the rest.

The creator of the universe who formed your very being already installed the system.

On top of that, a detox means very low calories, which almost always ends in a swing in the other direction once your hunger catches up. You end up right back where you started.

---

If you’re currently doing something on this list and it’s working for you, keep going…but if you’ve been waiting to feel ready, or waiting for the right supplement, or waiting to find the trend that finally works, you can stop. Track your calories, hit your protein, strength train 3 to 4 times a week, and get your steps in.

It’s not exciting, but it works every single time.