The pandemic has led to people spending even more time on social media and TikTok has become the most popular platform in the past year. It has opened a wave of fitness influencers and is the hotspot for fitness and nutrition trends. Let’s look at the hottest Viral TikTok Trends on Fitness and Nutrition.
What is a Nutrition and Fitness Trend?
A trend is very simple, it’s a popular direction. And TikTok has led that direction surrounding weird trends to lose weight, get fit, and be “healthy”. But we are going to debunk those.
TikTok Nutrition Trend to Put Garlic in Your Nose
The first TikTok health trend we are looking at is putting garlic into your nose. The reasoning is that this will clean out your sinuses. I can’t say that is completely false because garlic is strong, but there’s no science to back this. In fact, it can badly irritate your skin and you run the risk of it lodging your nostril.
There is information that putting a piece of raw garlic into your mouth can boost your immune system and ward off illness. This comes from the Asian culture but has legitimate proof and benefits.
TikTok Fitness 75 Hard challenge – #75hardchallenge has 127.9M views on TikTok
This one really kills my nerves. Personal trainer Andy Frisella came up with this nonsense. Basically, you follow these principles for 75 days, now what happens afterward, I have not a clue.
No alcohol or “cheat meals”
Work out twice a day for at least 45 minutes
Drink 4 liters of water per day
Read 10 pages of nonfiction a day
Take a 5-minute cold shower
I want to look at each of these. From my nutrition experience and disordered eating, I will immediately disagree with the first bullet. I do not define “cheat meals” but have designated “fun foods” that are certainly less nutritious but highly enjoyable. I think this first bullet can lead to restrictive eating and disordered eating.
The second bullet is not feasible for many people and can result in exercise obsession. I would advise starting small, maybe a workout and an evening stroll. Do not stress yourself out to do two workouts a day.
The remaining three I think are good, I highly encourage daily reading and feel that cold showers increase blood flow and lead to better sleep.
Dipping Cucumbers in Suger = Watermelon
The TikTok trend is to take cucumbers and dip them into sugar to taste like watermelon. My question is why not just eat watermelon?
The issue with this is simply the fact that you are ingesting pure sugar and could simply eat watermelon. I think this comes from people fearing fruit. Yes, fruit has sugar and carbohydrates, but it’s different properties versus white sugar. STOP fearing fruit. Fruit is not bad.
Drinking proffee (protein powder + coffee) post-workout
I will say, I used to drink Click Coffee all the time which is a protein coffee. However, studies prove that exercise puts stress on the body. Caffeine can act similarly and put stress on the body. Moving from exercise into coffee adds unnecessary stress and I am not a fan of utilizing supplements to replace real food. Just eat eggs after your workout or a piece of barbecue chicken!
Lettuce Water
This trend is just super weird if I am being honest. The idea came from a TikTok influencer (of course) and basically if you steep lettuce leaves in water like you do tea leaves. The lettuce-infused water will improve your sleep. It’s not true friends, there is no science to back this claim.
In conclusion, please do your research and stop following fitness influencers.