OK, a quick recap of confusion in the fitness world. What’s true, what’s not, what’s grey, what’s black, what’s white?

1. Coffee is bad for you.
2. Coffee is good for you.
3. You need cardio to lose weight.
4. You don’t need cardio to lose weight.
5. Reduce calories to lose weight.
6. Reducing calories won’t make you lose weight.
7. Lifting light weights at high volume will not bulk you up.
8. High volume & light weights add muscle mass.
9. Lifting heavy makes you big.
10. Lifting heavy helps you lose weight.
11. Reduce fat intake.
12. Fat doesn’t make you fat.
13. Paleo works.
14. Paleo doesn’t work.
15. The whole wheat-free, gluten-free thing is wrong.
16. Eat wheat-free, gluten-free.
17. Barefoot running is bad for you.
18. Barefoot running is the best way to run.
19. Crossfit is bad and causes injuries.
20. The injury rate in Crossfit is not an higher than any other fitness movement.
21. Vegans cannot add quality muscle mass.
22. Vegans can add quality muscle mass.
23. Eating too much protein is bad for you.
24. You can’t truly eat too much protein before it’s bad for you, you’ll only add muscle.
25. P90X and Insanity are bad programs that only few people actually finish.
26. P90X and Insanity are great programs that deliver results.

Please add to the list, as I am sure this can go on in the most unregulated, fastest growing industry that every single person thinks of every day, positively or negatively, at some point, whether it’s buttoning your pants, huffing up the stairs because the elevator’s out, looking at a billboard for Equinox, see an ad for Greek yogurt etc.

Know that for every one of these points, there is data to back it up, and a lot of theories also (be they straw men arguments or not).