Dear 90’s Girls….
Hey friend,
If you grew up in the 90's, this letter is for you.
You were handed a script about what it meant to be healthy. You probably didn't question it because every magazine at the grocery store checkout, every fitness commercial, every celebrity interview, and every "women's health" article seemed to echo the same message.
Be thinner.
Eat less.
Exercise more.
Never stop working.
Push through.
Ignore your body.
Somewhere along the way, many women stopped asking, "What does my body need?" and started asking, "How can I make my body smaller?"
Today, we're watching the consequences.
Many of the women walking into our clinic are in their late 30's, 40's, and 50's. They are exhausted. Hormones feel chaotic. Their metabolism has slowed. They have nutrient deficiencies they've carried for decades. They struggle with autoimmune conditions, digestive issues, chronic inflammation, infertility, anxiety, and burnout.
While none of these conditions have a single cause, many women spent years following advice that unintentionally worked against the physiology of the female body.
Here are some of the biggest health myths many of us grew up believing.
Myth 1: Cardio Is the Best Way to Lose Weight
Hours on the treadmill.
Endless stair climbers.
Aerobics classes every day.
Running until you earned your dinner.
For decades, women were encouraged to spend nearly all of their exercise time burning calories instead of building muscle.
What we've learned is that muscle is one of the greatest predictors of healthy aging. It supports insulin sensitivity, bone density, metabolic health, functional independence, and resting metabolic rate.
Cardio absolutely has tremendous cardiovascular benefits and belongs in a balanced exercise program. But it shouldn't come at the expense of resistance training, or be the exclusive means of movement.
Many women spent years trying to become smaller instead of stronger.
Myth 2: Fasted Cardio Burns More Fat
Many women woke up, drank black coffee, skipped breakfast, and headed straight to the treadmill because they believed they'd burn more fat.
For many women, especially those already under chronic stress, sleeping poorly, or entering perimenopause, stacking fasting, caffeine, and intense exercise first thing in the morning can increase physiologic stress and may not be the best fit for their goals.
The female body is remarkably responsive to stress. As a result, fasting adds more stress and typically can make your physiology worse.
Myth 3: Fat Makes You Fat
Everything became fat-free.
Fat-free yogurt.
Fat-free cookies.
Fat-free dressing.
Fat-free snacks loaded with sugar.
Meanwhile, women were unknowingly reducing their intake of nutrients essential for hormone production, brain health, absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K, and healthy cell membranes.
Dietary fat isn't the enemy.
Healthy fats are one of the building blocks of a healthy body.
Myth 4: Eat as Little as Possible
Many women became experts at surviving on coffee, Diet Coke, salads, rice cakes, and 1,200 calories.
Most skipped breakfast.
Others skipped lunch.
Some considered hunger a sign they were "doing well." and often we hear women brag that they don’t have hunger cues at all. 90’s girls use this as a badge of honor, we see it as a clue of dysfunction.
Unfortunately, decades of under-fueling can contribute to nutrient deficiencies, loss of lean muscle, fatigue, hormonal disruption, decreased performance, and lower quality of life.
The goal should never be eating the least amount possible, instead we want to see you nourishing your body well enough that it can thrive.
Myth 5: Period Pain is “Normal”
How many women heard:
"That's just part of being a woman."
"You'll grow out of it."
"Take some ibuprofen."
Periods became something women were expected to survive rather than something providers should investigate.
Severe pain.
Large clots.
Bleeding through pads every hour.
Pain with intercourse.
Painful bowel movements.
Missing work every month.
These deserve evaluation.
While some discomfort can occur with menstruation, debilitating pain is not something women should simply accept without looking for underlying causes.
Conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, fibroids, thyroid dysfunction, iron deficiency, and hormonal imbalances deserve thoughtful evaluation.
Myth 6: Being Busy Means You're Healthy
The women of the 90's were taught to become everything.
Build the career.
Raise the children.
Keep the house perfect.
Volunteer.
Exercise.
Cook.
Never ask for help.
Sleep less.
Keep going.
Achievement became a badge of honor.
Rest became laziness.
In fact, if you graduated in the 90’s/early 00’s do you remember the aim was to be as “well rounded” as possible? The successful athlete, theater kid, who played chess, and competed in debate while becoming valedictorian. Society was grooming students to become as busy as possible under the guise of becoming a desired college candidate. Many women became incredibly successful while quietly living with chronic exhaustion.
Our nervous systems were never designed to stay in survival mode indefinitely.
Health requires recovery.
Myth 7: Your Labs Are Normal, So You're Fine
Perhaps one of the most frustrating messages many women received was this:
"Everything looks normal."
Meanwhile, they were losing hair.
Unable to lose weight.
Exhausted.
Anxious.
Brain fogged.
Cold.
Unable to exercise.
Feeling dismissed because their experience didn't match a laboratory reference range.
Laboratory testing is incredibly valuable.
But healthcare should also include listening to the person sitting in front of you.
Objective data and subjective experience both matter.
Myth 8: Pain Is Something You Just Learn to Live With
Joint pain.
Digestive problems.
Migraines.
Bloating.
Heavy periods.
Constipation.
Insomnia.
Reflux.
Women became remarkably good at functioning while feeling unwell. They normalized symptoms that were quietly reducing their quality of life every single day.
Your body communicates through symptoms.
Rather than silencing those messages indefinitely, it's worth asking why they're happening.
Myth 9: Mental Toughness Means Ignoring Your Body
Many women learned to override hunger.
Override fatigue.
Override stress.
Override pain.
Override emotions.
The body keeps score.
Listening to your body isn't weakness.
It's wisdom.
Myth 10: Thin Equals Healthy
Perhaps the biggest myth of all.
Health cannot be determined by a clothing size. Some of the sickest patients have a normal BMI and some of the healthiest patients do not. Which is why BMI was a traitorous metric to attempt to achieve.
Health is far more complex than weight. It includes metabolic health, hormonal health, sleep, inflammation, mental health, nutrition, movement, relationships, purpose, resilience, and feeling well enough to fully participate in your life.
Myth 11: "You're Just Emotional Because You're Hormonal"
Perhaps one of the most dismissive phrases women have heard for generations is, "It's just your hormones."
Feeling emotional before your period is real. Hormonal fluctuations can absolutely influence mood, patience, motivation, sleep, and emotional resilience. But that doesn't mean every concern, frustration, or symptom should be dismissed as "just hormones."
Women have historically had their pain minimized, their concerns overlooked, and even serious medical conditions attributed to anxiety or hormones before receiving an accurate diagnosis.
Sometimes hormones are contributing to how you're feeling.
Sometimes iron deficiency is making you anxious.
Sometimes thyroid dysfunction is causing depression.
Sometimes poor sleep is amplifying your emotions.
Sometimes chronic inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, autoimmune disease, chronic infections, or simply carrying an unsustainable mental load are affecting your emotional well-being.
Hormones are one piece of the puzzle, not the entire picture.
Women deserve providers who are curious enough to ask, "What else could be contributing?"
Myth 12: If You Have a Health Condition, It's Probably Hormonal
Over the past decade, awareness of hormonal health has grown tremendously, and that's a good thing.
But somewhere along the way, we've swung to the opposite extreme.
Now, almost every symptom is blamed on hormones.
Weight gain? Hormones.
Fatigue? Hormones.
Brain fog? Hormones.
Joint pain? Hormones.
Hair loss? Hormones.
While hormones certainly can contribute to each of these symptoms, they are rarely the only possible explanation.
The body functions as an interconnected system.
The goal isn't to blame everything on hormones it’s to understand why the symptoms are happening.
Good medicine resists the temptation to look for a single culprit. Instead, it gathers the full story, looks for patterns, evaluates laboratory findings alongside a patient's lived experience, and recognizes that many systems influence one another.
Hormones matter.
But so do nutrition, sleep, movement, stress, immune health, gut function, and metabolic health.
The best care asks better questions rather than settling for the simplest answer.
Myth 13: Weight Loss Is Just Calories In, Calories Out
For decades, women were taught that losing weight was nothing more than simple math.
Eat fewer calories.
Burn more calories.
If you weren't losing weight, you simply weren't trying hard enough.
While energy balance absolutely plays a role in body weight, human metabolism is far more complex than a calculator. Your body isn't a bank account. It's a living, adaptive system. Hormones influence hunger and satiety. Sleep deprivation changes appetite hormones and increases cravings. Stress can alter eating behaviors and affect metabolic health. Muscle mass changes how much energy your body uses at rest. Insulin resistance can make weight loss more difficult for some individuals. Nutrient deficiencies can leave you too fatigued to move, recover, or build lean muscle. Certain medications can influence appetite, water retention, or metabolism.
Conditions such as hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), menopause, iron deficiency, chronic illness, and depression can all affect body weight or make weight management more challenging.
This doesn't mean the laws of physics don't apply. Energy balance still matters.
But reducing every woman's weight struggles to "just eat less and move more" ignores the incredible complexity of human physiology.
Many women have spent years blaming themselves because they believed they lacked discipline, when in reality their bodies were signaling that something deeper deserved attention.
Healthy weight management isn't about punishment.
It's about creating an internal environment where the body has what it needs to function well. That includes adequate nutrition, strength training, quality sleep, stress management, addressing underlying medical conditions when present, and working with your body's physiology instead of constantly fighting against it.
Your body is not failing because it isn't responding to a simplistic equation.
Sometimes it's asking you to look beyond the equation altogether.
Myth 14: Your Body Can and Should Respond Exactly Like a Man's
The message many women received wasn't necessarily spoken outright, but it was everywhere.
Train harder.
Push through.
Ignore your cycle.
Work the same every day of the month.
Eat the same.
Recover the same.
Perform the same.
For decades, much of exercise science, nutrition research, and even medical research was conducted primarily in men and then applied to both genders. Women were often excluded because our hormonal fluctuations were viewed as making research "too complicated."
The result was that many health recommendations were built around male physiology and then applied broadly to women.
But women are not small men.
Our hormones fluctuate throughout the month. Our metabolism changes across the menstrual cycle, during pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause. Our recovery needs can be different. Our risk for certain nutrient deficiencies, particularly iron deficiency, is significantly higher because of menstruation. Sleep disruption, stress, and hormonal changes can influence women differently than men.
This doesn't mean women are less capable.
Women are incredibly resilient. We build businesses, lead organizations, compete at elite levels, raise families, and accomplish extraordinary things. It simply means our bodies deserve to be understood on their own terms rather than measured against a male standard.
Honoring your physiology isn't lowering the bar.
It's recognizing that working with your body is often more effective than constantly trying to overpower it. One of the greatest shifts happening in women's health is this realization: we don't need to train, eat, or recover exactly like men to be strong. We need healthcare, nutrition, and fitness approaches that recognize the remarkable physiology unique to women.
Because your body was never designed to be a copy of someone else's.
It was designed to be understood.
What We're Learning Now
Women's health is finally beginning to receive the attention it has deserved all along.
We're learning more about:
• The importance of preserving muscle throughout life.
• The effects of chronic stress on hormones.
• Iron deficiency before anemia develops.
• Female-specific responses to exercise.
• The impact of sleep on metabolism.
• The role of nutrient deficiencies in fatigue, mood, and hormonal health.
• The importance of investigating painful periods rather than dismissing them.
• The influence of gut health, inflammation, and immune function on overall wellness.
• The unique physiologic changes that occur during perimenopause and menopause.
The science continues to evolve, and with it, our understanding of how to better care for women's health.
Dear Girls From the 90's...
You weren't failing.
You were following the advice that was available.
You counted calories because someone told you that was health.
You feared butter because someone convinced you fat was dangerous.
You ran for hours because someone said cardio was the answer.
You accepted painful periods because everyone around you did.
You kept pushing because slowing down felt like failure.
You did the best you could with the information you had.
Now we know better.
And when we know better, we can choose differently.
Maybe health isn't about becoming smaller.
Maybe it's about becoming stronger.
Maybe it's about building muscle instead of chasing a number on the scale.
Maybe it's about eating enough to nourish your body.
Maybe it's about sleeping more.
Maybe it's about asking questions when something doesn't feel right.
Maybe it's about partnering with providers who listen to both your story and your lab work.
Maybe it's about giving your body the compassion it deserved all along.
Because your body was never the enemy.
It has been trying to protect you this entire time.
References
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dysmenorrhea and Endometriosis in the Adolescent. Committee Opinion No. 760.
American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription.
International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stands on Nutrient Timing and Protein Intake.
North American Menopause Society Position Statements on Exercise and Midlife Women's Health.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Clinical guidance on abnormal uterine bleeding, dysmenorrhea, and endometriosis.
World Health Organization. Anaemia in Women and Girls.
National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin A, D, E, and K Fact Sheets.
American Heart Association. Physical Activity Recommendations for Adults.