We are constantly surrounded by social media, TV, magazines, friends, family, actors, influencers—you name it—telling us the next best thing we should be hopping on the bandwagon for, promising results. But which trending diets, foods and supplements are the real deal?

Well, the truth is, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Luckily, we know a few people who can help us get to the bottom of this. Our trainers are experts in their field—each one is certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, after all. Needless to say, they have been around the block a few times and have tried a lot of these fitness trends themselves. So, who better to ask about which trends are worth the hype and which ones you should steer clear of? We asked our trainers what they think, here’s the inside scoop!

Let’s start with the diets that are better left on the trending page. Most of the nearly 600 trainers we asked agree that these top health trends are not worth the hype.

1. FAD DIETS

Keto, paleo, low-carb, Mediterranean, juice cleanses—they all have one thing in common: They are fad diets. Trainer Megan Vinyard of Burn Boot Camp Kennesaw, Georgia puts it best: “Burn focuses on long-term results. I always say that your relationship with food should be a long-term relationship as well. Keto and other fad diets, most of the time, will show results—but never long term. I always ask, ‘So you are never going to have pizza again?’ or ‘What do you do for Thanksgiving?’ or ‘Why deprive yourself when you can learn balance?’ And usually they end up losing all their progress when they come off these fads and go straight back to bad habits. Learning healthy habits and [having a] healthy relationship with food is so important. You should never single out carbs, fats or proteins but instead have a balance of all. Food is energy—especially carbs—so learning those healthy relationships is key. We focus on a 80/20 lifestyle and it works! You can be human and realistic without hurting your progress toward your goals.” 

2. FAT BURNERS

A product is claiming to be a “magic pill” that will do all the work for you without you lifting a finger—really? Yeah, we laughed too! Trainer of the Year Cody Burns of Burn Boot Camp Verona, Wisconsin has seen people looking for a “quick fix” time and time again. He says, “Most believe that if they take this magic pill or drink, they will instantly shed the unwanted fat off their body. That’s not exactly how your body works. The best way to lose body fat and gain lean muscle is by eating clean and training. A better approach is to save your money and invest in healthy whole foods and a clean pre-workout, like Ignite, to get you energized for your next workout.” 

3. SWEAT GELS

Don’t sweat it! This fitness trend goes right along with the quick-fix schemes that just don’t add up. Burn Boot Camp HQ Training Manager Jamal Gibson compares using a topical sweat gel to buying a car and car insurance—and then expecting the same car to go faster because you have insurance. The truth is, sweat gels don’t burn calories like you may think. Jamal explains the science behind the myth like this: “Sweating burns calories but doesn’t require rebuilding and repair, which continues to utilize energy for days after the incident for a workout. It feels great to sweat, but sweating is an accessory result of working out. There are many people who sweat in atypical patterns naturally. My wife doesn’t sweat nearly as much as I do when we work out together. The reason I burn more calories is because she weighs 100 pounds less than me. Stick to what you know to be true: Consistency is only beneficial with intensity. Work hard enough to get the results you desire and avoid the gimmicks.” 

4. WAIST TRAINERS

Another glamorized trend in the fitness world is waist trainers. We’ve seen the Kardashians promoting them on social media, swearing by their results. Red flags start popping up for us with the guarantee of a smaller waist just from wrapping a band around your abdomen, and our trainers are on the same page. Although waist trainers can help with posture and may make you eat less frequently due to the compression of your organs, many fitness trainers believe you’re better off keeping those bands and belts off your waists. There haven’t been enough studies about waist trainers to conclude any long-term results. What does deliver long-term results: consistently eating right, getting rest, staying hydrated and exercising.

Got all that? Great! Know that you know which fitness trends aren’t worth your time or money, here are four that you should consider.

1. SUPPLEMENTS

A whole foods approach is a great place to start to make sure you are getting all the essential vitamins and minerals from natural sources. But you may need to supplement your diet to keep your body functioning in top condition, especially with an active lifestyle. Here are two our trainers love to include in their own diets and encourage clients to try for themselves: 

COLLAGEN POWDER— Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body. Think of it as one of the major building blocks of bones, skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments. We know that what we put in our bodies has external effects, so adding collagen is a great start to glowing from the inside out. Trainer Jessi Drayer of Burn Boot Camp Bethel Park, Pennsylvania says, “Ever since I started taking a quality collagen protein on a regular basis, I have noticed that my complexion is much clearer, and my skin feels like it glows! On top of that, my hair, skin and nails are much healthier, and my joint pain is gone! It’s such an easy way to take care of your skin when you have limited time for skincare products.”

PROTEIN POWDER— Adequate protein consumption is truly a key to building and sustaining muscle mass. Don’t think of this as being “bulky.” Maintaining muscle takes work and is beneficial to any fitness journey. Lean muscle mass allows you to burn more calories at rest, so hitting your protein goal daily is incredibly important. Having a quality protein powder at hand allows you to ensure you hit that daily. This will also help with muscle soreness and a faster recovery time.

2. VITAMINS

Like Trainer Danielle Miller of Burn Boot Camp Gilbert, Arizona says, “Even if you eat balanced, it’s so difficult to get all of the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) your body needs. We often stick to the same fruits and veggies we enjoy, which can allow for a gap in important vitamins.” Before we dive into some different supplements, it is important to remember that quality is key here, so be sure to check your supplements for high-quality, clean ingredients before buying! 

MULTIVITAMIN— Taking a daily multivitamin along with eating a variety of fruits and veggies will set you up for success to give your body everything it needs!

VITAMIN D— We get it—you are stuck at a desk, have errands to run and can’t just sit outside and soak up the sun. Neither can we! The truth is, we don’t get enough sun in our modern-day lifestyle. So, it only makes sense that we are missing out on some good old-fashioned vitamin D. But that doesn’t mean we should forget about it! We need it to absorb calcium and promote bone growth. Too little vitamin D can result fragile, misshapen bones in adults and other health problems like breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, depression and weight gain. Trainer David Rhodus of Burn Boot Camp Evanston, Illinois adds, “There have been multiple meta-analyses that have concluded supplementing with vitamin D can reduce the chances of catching the flu, improve bone health (and reduce the incidence of fractures) and decrease overall mortality rate in adults.”

MAGNESIUM — Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body. You’d be shocked to know that it is involved with over 600 cellular reactions, including regulating muscle and nerve function, blood sugar levels and blood pressure, strengthening bones and creating protein and DNA. Yet up to 68% of American adults don’t meet the recommended daily intake! Low levels of magnesium have been linked to many negative health outcomes, including overall weakness, depression, high blood pressure and heart disease. Trainer Yonit Arthur of Burn Boot Camp Apopka, Florida  adds, “It’s incredible for helping people who have sleep issues and for people who are prone to constipation.”

3. APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

This is the product of adding yeast to apple juice, which turns the fruit sugars into alcohol—otherwise known as fermentation. Although highly acidic in this state, vinegar has chemicals known as polyphenols, which are antioxidants that can curb cell damage that can lead to other diseases. More studies are needed to determine its effectiveness, but Trainer Christen Jackson of Burn Boot Camp Mt. Juliet, Tennessee says that taking a tablespoon of ACV every morning “helps aid in digestion and promotes a healthy complexion, amongst other health benefits.” This definitely isn’t something you want to drink copious amounts of. In fact, drinking more than a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar can damage your teeth, hurt your throat and upset your stomach. Our trainers like to cut the acidity by taking it with a bit of honey and a dash of lemon juice right out of a shot glass, or adding it to a tall glass of ice water and using a straw so the acidity doesn’t harm your teeth. Trainer Jordan Riding of Burn Boot Camp Exton, Pennsylvania says, “I make mine as a tea with warm water, blue agave and apple cider vinegar. I also add some cayenne pepper to help with dehydration and throat sorene­­ss.” As with anything you are putting into your body, it is important to consult your doctor to make sure adding ACV to your diet is right for you, as it could interact with certain medications or medical issues.

4. SLEEP

You can eat clean, train hard and supplement your diet with the nutrients your body needs, but without sleep you are basically a walking (healthy) zombie. But really—our trainers agree that you aren’t doing all that hard work justice without giving your body the rest it needs to recover. Sleep is the prime time for the body to get its hormones back to a healthy level. Need proof?

Sore muscles? Sleep! Your brain releases the hormones that encourage tissue growth to repair blood vessels, which restores sore or damaged muscles.

Feeling under the weather? Sleep! Your immune system relies on sleep to produce more white blood cells that can attack viruses and bacteria that protect the body from infection.

Inflammation? Sleep! Your heart rate naturally slows when you are asleep, letting it take a well-deserved break so that hormones can be used to relax other muscles in the body, which leads to reduced inflammation.

Cravings? Sleep! Poor sleep patterns can impact the level of the hormones that make you feel hungry or full. If you don’t get enough sleep, your “hunger hormone” (ghrelin) levels go up and your “full hormone” (leptin) levels go down. So you may experience cravings for sugar or salt instead of the nutrients your body needs. 

Feeling down? Sleep! After a good night of sleep, hormone, energy and stress levels are all back on track. Your body has the amazing capability to adjust and restore all of these while you’re in dreamland so that you can start your day on the right foot! A healthy amount of sleep (the National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours a night for adults) helps your body feel refreshed and more prepared to face the challenges of a new day instead of feeling defeated and stressed. (Warning: A positive mood has been associated with boosted recovery outcomes and better overall well-being!)

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You’re working out regularly, eating healthy and still not seeing results or losing weight. Or maybe you were seeing amazing results and now you seem to be stuck at a standstill. Either way, you’re frustrated because you are putting in so much effort and can’t figure out why you aren’t getting where you want to be. Check out these 11 reasons you might not be seeing results or losing weight.

1. Do you overeat healthy foods?

We know how delicious almond butter is, and yes, it is healthy for you—but spoonful after spoonful is not! Regardless of the quality of the foods you are eating, portion size remains essential. One serving size of almond butter is two tablespoons, not two heaping scoops. This easily doubles or even triples your fat and calorie intake, and when that’s done with each food at every meal, you’ll end up overeating! Just because a food is considered healthy, it does not give you an excuse to eat too much of it. At the end of the day, a calorie is a calorie and consuming more calories than you expend could be the reason you are not seeing results and losing weight.

2. Do you overeat “healthy” processed foods?

Beware of packaged foods with labels that say vegan, gluten-free, low-carb, low-calorie, low-fat, high-fiber, high-protein, keto-friendly, paleo-friendly, whole-grain, organic or natural. This does not automatically mean these foods are healthy. Many of these products are filled with processed ingredients and could be a reason you aren’t seeing results and losing weight. In most cases, protein pancakes, keto donuts, gluten-free pizza and vegan ice cream are not any healthier than the real deal. Always read the list of ingredients to determine whether the product is actually healthy before falling for its nutritional claims.

3. Are you too unrestricted on the weekends?

You work out hard and eat healthy during the week and deserve to treat yourself, right? So you allow yourself to loosen up on the weekends, unrestrict yourself and indulge in your favorite foods and drinks. Let’s say you start enjoying yourself Friday after work and indulge throughout the entire weekend—that ends up being roughly 35% of your diet. No matter how much you work out or how active you are during the week, for most of us, it’s extremely difficult to outtrain a bad diet. Don’t allow your weekends to be the reason why you are not seeing results and losing weight! Pick one day or a couple meals a week—not the entire weekend—to eat whatever you want in moderation.

4. Do you not eat enough carbs?

Did you know for every one gram of carbohydrates you eat, your body retains three grams of water? So when you drop your carbohydrate intake, the weight loss you experience is primarily from losing water weight. Cutting carbs temporarily may be beneficial for weight loss, but long term it can cause serious problems, especially if you work out regularly.

Many women are sensitive to carbohydrate restriction, causing hormone imbalances that ultimately lead to weight gain. Long-term low-carb diets can decrease thyroid function. As proper thyroid function is directly related to a healthy metabolism, when your thyroid function goes down, your metabolism follows. A low-carb diet also increases stress hormone levels, which can lead to a slower metabolism and increase your appetite and food cravings. It also causes a drop in your muscle-building hormone levels, placing your body in a catabolic state, breaking down muscle rather than building it.

5. Do you over-exercise and not take time to recover?

You may believe that during your workouts you are building muscle and losing excess body fat. What you are actually doing is tearing your muscle fibers and breaking them down. Muscle growth occurs when your body is at rest. Training every single day or hitting the gym twice a day causes you to be in a perpetual state of muscle breakdown, meaning you are continuously losing muscle and never building it.

Overtraining also leaves your body in a chronic state of stress, which negatively affects your hormone levels. These hormone imbalances can elevate your blood sugar, increase your food cravings, heighten your appetite, alter your digestion and slow your metabolism. If you are not seeing results and losing weight, try giving your muscles time to rest, recover and rebuild between workout sessions.

6. Are you not working out hard enough?

Working out every day is amazing for your health, but picking up the same set of dumbells week in and week out or simply going through the motions of each exercise may be the reason you are not seeing results and losing weight. Your body is smart and learns to adapt to the stress it is regularly put under. This is referred to as the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands).

Let’s say you did lunges holding 15-pound dumbbells for the first time. Doing so shocked your body and forced it to figure out how to adapt to this new stress by recruiting more muscle fibers and building more muscle. As you continue to use 15-pound dumbbells, your body no longer becomes shocked and doesn’t need to adapt.

If you want your body to change, you have to encourage it by picking up the 20-pound dumbbells. Ensure you are pushing yourself hard enough in your workouts by recording the weight you used, the number of breaks you took and the amount of reps and sets you performed. Work toward beating those numbers to see results and lose weight.

7. Do you track calories burned?

Do you use a fitness tracker to count the number of calories you burn in your workouts? It is a fun stat to follow, but it might not be accurate. Studies have shown that fitness trackers have a large margin of error when it comes to estimating calories burned, somewhere between 20% and 93%! Use these devices to keep you motivated and to gain a general idea of how many calories you burn, but do not rely on them completely. Especially do not add the given total calories burned to your daily caloric intake. With such a potentially large margin of error, doing so can lead to consuming way more calories than you actually burn and may be the reason you are not seeing results and losing weight.

8. Do you use too many condiments?

In many cases, when people add more vegetables, complex carbohydrates and clean sources of protein to their diet, they smother them with condiments to add taste. Most dressings and sauces are packed with processed sugars and oils. Processed sugar spikes your blood sugar, triggering your fat-storing hormone, leading to excess fat storage.

Processed oils are unrecognizable in your body and unable to be broken down into a usable form of energy, also leading them to be stored as body fat. These effects greatly outweigh the benefits of eating more whole foods and may be the reason why you are not seeing results and losing weight. You’re better off making your own condiments from organic, high-quality olive oil, coconut oil, nuts and seeds, tahini, avocados, hummus or tofu to ensure you are fueling weight loss, not weight gain.

9. Do you eat too few calories?

In order to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. But if you cut your calories too low, you will experience the reverse effect. When you eat fewer calories, your body catches on and begins burning fewer calories as well. Your body is unsure as to when it will get more food, so it slows down the metabolism to store body fat rather than burn it. This can cause long-term damage to your metabolism and should be avoided. Signs you are not consuming enough food include lack of energy, hair loss, constant hunger, loss of menstrual cycle, feeling cold, irritability, constipation and anxiety. The average adult woman requires approximately 1,400 calories a day to fuel basic bodily functions, which means you should consume roughly 1,400 calories a day if you are not engaging in any physical activity. The more intense your workouts, the more calories your body will begin to require.

10. Do you not sleep enough?

Depriving yourself of sleep may be the reason you are not seeing results and losing weight. When you’re sleeping, your body releases growth hormones that boost muscle recovery and muscle growth. When you deprive yourself of sleep, you slow down your recovery process, leading you to see results more slowly.

Lack of sleep also plays a huge role in altering your hormones levels. It causes a greater release of your hunger hormone, leptin, and less of your fullness hormone, ghrelin. This causes you to experience persistent hunger throughout your entire day and also heightens your food cravings, especially for processed, starchy, fatty foods. People who are sleep-deprived have been shown to eat 300 more calories than those who get enough sleep. Lack of sleep also spikes your insulin levels, your fat-storing hormone, stopping you from burning fat as fuel.

11. Are you retaining water?

Water retention can be caused from a multitude of things and may be the reason you are not seeing results and losing weight. The most well-known cause is consuming too much salt. ou may also be retaining water from not drinking enough water, eating too many carbohydrates, exercising too much, not sleeping enough, high levels of stress or too low of a calorie deficit. Due to water retention, the scale may not be showing you lost weight, but you might still be losing fat. Try staying hydrated, reducing your sodium intake, getting enough sleep and monitoring your carbohydrate intake to help you stop retaining water. Giving your body more electrolytes has also shown to be beneficial.

Chelsea Morrow is a certified personal trainer and yoga instructor. After a six-year career as a professional figure skater, she now works at Burn Boot Camp HQ on the Marketing team and is passionate about educating all of Burn Nation about fitness, nutrition, and a positive mindset. Chelsea is also the author and mastermind behind The Blueprint, Burn Boot Camp’s weekly newsletter. She loves doing yoga, meditating, rock climbing, her dog Yogi, and eating Mexican food.

Haley Twist

At Burn, we know that your days spent balancing a family, work and other responsibilities, healthy eating, and exercise can feel overwhelming, crazy, and downright chaotic! You might even have such busy days that when your head finally hits that pillow at night, you’re out like a light.

However, sometimes all the craze has the opposite effect on your sleep and can lead to restless nights that leave you feeling exhausted before your day even begins. Your sleeping habits can have an enormous effect on your performance at camps, energy levels, and your overall wellness, so we’re bringing you ten tips to ensure that you’re well-rested, energized, and ready to take on every new day!

1. Stick to a sleep schedule. Try your best to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, even on the weekends. (And stop pressing snooze!)

2. Avoid caffeine 4-6 hours before bed. Caffeine tends to hide in unexpected places, like teas and chocolate. These can interfere with your sleep cycle if consumed too closely to the time you go to bed!

3. Eat lighter meals in the evening, and similarly to your caffeine intake, avoid food 2-3 hours before you go to sleep.

If you find your mind racing about the day you’ve had, you may not have had enough time to process it.

4. Exercise consistently! Working out helps to promote restful sleep, so experiment with what time of the day works best for your exercise. Whether in the early morning or late evening, determine a time that fits your schedule and stick to it!

5. Unplug at least an hour before bed. Bright lights that illuminate from our laptops, tablets, and phones can have the opposite effect on our brains that we want before sleep.

6. Think about your day (and the day ahead) before getting into bed. If you find your mind racing about the day you’ve had, you may not have had enough time to process it. Take some time before bed to think about your day and make notes about what you need to do tomorrow—but don’t get into bed until you’re done!

7. Take deep breaths. Breathing can be just as important outside of camps as it is inside! Deep breathing mimics how your body feels when it’s truly relaxed, so try inhaling and exhaling deeply for a few rounds once in bed, and see if it helps to calm you.

Ensuring that your body has the proper fuel it needs to feel optimally healthy and energized is key to a healthy sleep cycle.

8. Get the essential vitamins and minerals you need every day. Ensuring that your body has the proper fuel it needs to feel optimally healthy and energized is key to a healthy sleep cycle. Try a supplement like Shaklee’s Vitalizer to make sure that you have the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, and probiotics you need to feel your best. Talk to your Head Trainer at your local Burn to learn more about it.

9. Get some sunlight first thing in the morning. Bright lights help trigger your brain to stay alert and wide awake, so exposing yourself to some natural sunlight in the morning can help you to feel significantly more energized.

10. Boost energy in the morning by drinking lemon water upon waking. We swear by this trick Burn Nation, and our Founder, Devan Kline urges absolutely everyone to try it. Adding lemon slices to your water not only gives you a natural energy booster, especially when consumed first thing in the morning, but it also helps you build alkalinity, speed up your metabolism, and combat high body fat.

We all know that the metabolism is the process of breaking down proteins, carbohydrates, and fats to yield the energy your body needs to maintain your activity capacity. Ever hear someone say that their “metabolism is getting slower” or “I have a slow metabolism”? While it is true that some people genetically have a slower metabolism than others, there is always a way to maximize your bodies ability to burn fat as fast speeds. Our metabolism is like the “dealer” of the macro nutrients when they are being broken down by the body. Put it this way, you butt, thighs, and hips will store all the pizza and wine while all the chicken breast and spinach go to your muscles! Put simply, the only REAL significant way to increase your metabolism is to build muscle. These tips below will give you a little insight on how to efficiently flush your body of toxins and prime your body to build muscle!

1. Eat Breakfast, Everyday! Never skip out on your first meal of the day. It is crucial to eat a healthy breakfast 30 minutes upon waking, breaking the fast from the night. Feeling rushed in the morning? Prep those breakfast meals the night before so it’s no hassle in the morning. Some great breakfast recipes to prep the night before are egg white muffins, overnight oats, or a protein shake!

2. Spice Up Your Life– Adding spice to your foods have proven to help rev the metabolism by kicking up your body temperature. Add cayenne pepper to your protein or start your day with a glass of hot water, cayenne pepper, and lemon.

3. Enjoy 6 small meals a day- Eating smaller meals throughout the day prevents your from binging out on one big meal,  it keeps your blood sugar in check (preventing spikes in blood sugar).

4. Pack on the Protein- Your body digest protein slower than carbs and fat, keeping you full longer. In a process called thermogenesis, your body uses 10% of your caloric intake by digestion. Protein takes longer to burn than carbs and fat, so your body expands more energy absorbing the nutrients. Another benefit of protein is that it helps retain lean muscle mass, which is the best fat burning tool you can have!

5. Don’t cut calories TOO low- Cutting you calories too low can be damaging to your metabolism. You may be tricking your body into thinking it needs to hold on to everything you eat by storing as fat.

6. Burst Training- This type of intense interval training elevated the  growth hormone and have been shown to decrease body fat and increase protein synthesis after exercise. Interval training burns more calories and fat not only during the workout but throughout the rest of the day.

7. Strength Training- Don’t be afraid of the weights! Building muscle is the most efficient way to boost your metabolism. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. This should be a given!

8. Sleep- Studies have shown that women who sleep five hours or fewer per night are 32 percent more likely to experience major weight gain. When you lack sleep, your metabolism can’t function properly, and instead your metabolism slows down. Poor sleep also causes an increase in the hormone ghrelin, which signals the body to eat more.

9. Drink MORE Water- This is a simple way to speed up metabolism and burn calories. Our body needs to stay hydrated to maintain regular body functions.

10. Don’t take Shortcuts- Take the stairs, find a parking spot that allows you to walk a little further, ride you bike to a friends instead of driving, take a brisk walk everyday for at least 15 minutes. This small changes will help you burn extra calories throughout the day that sure do add up at the end of the week!