by Sean Croxton

I had no idea what I was talking about.

It was the first video I’d ever made on YouTube, way back in 2007 — all about the mathematic model of fat loss. Burn more calories than you take in and you’ll lose fat. Take in more calories than you burn and you’ll pack on the pounds.

I even brought props. To drive home my point, I held up a rubbery, yellowish model of a pound of fat. Then for comparison, I held up a pound of muscle. If my memory serves me, I went on to explain how adding a pound of muscle will help you burn an extra 50 calories per day.

Be sure to hit the weights, oh YouTube people. Those calories really do add up!

I clicked the “upload” button and a few hours later returned to my account to find hundreds of comments and “thumbs up” from people around the world who seemed to enjoy the way I explained things.

That was the day that my life completely changed. As a rather shy, socially-anxious personal trainer at the time, I was instantly hooked on my newfound ability to connect with people all the way on the other side of the globe through video.

At the same time, I had no idea that the information I was so righteously espousing to my subscribers was totally and completely wrong.

The mathematical model of fat loss was a myth. And there was absolutely no scientific evidence proving that a pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day. None.

I wasn’t teaching, I was repeating — literally parroting what some “authority” (most likely one of my college professors) had so confidently parroted to me.