 Top 20 dieting myths and false beliefs for
weight loss
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Diet myths and dieting mistakes |
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In recent years there has been a volley of new drugs and diet pills, some over the counter other by prescription. The first warning is clear: Never buy prescription drugs and weight loss pills that are prescription strength without a prescription and without your doctors approval. Compounds such as Ephedrine and many others have been taken off the counters due to very serious health risks, including severe heart attacks, nutrient depletion, vomiting, stroke, heart failure, dizziness and many more. Always get medical advice before
taking diet pills. Especially prescription pills for obesity |
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| 3.Diet Myth: Since cholesterol is bad for you |
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You should follow a low or zero-fat diet. There is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. We need good cholesterol to build cells and make vital
hormones. Bad cholesterol causes plaque in the arteries. Rather than have a fat-free diet (because 33% of your daily calories should be comingfrom fat), you should cut down on saturated fats. Also, low-fat foods don’t necessarily mean lower calories. You have to check the calorie content on low-fat foods because sometimes extra sugar is added to make the flavour better.
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| 4.Myth: You get fatter from eating food late at night |
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Diet myths hold that you should not eat past a certain hour at night because the fat won’t be burned by any activity. This diet myth is just
that: a myth. Studies found that a large evening meal eaten late at night did not cause the body to store more fat. The study showed that
body fat is controlled by the amount eaten in a 24-hour period, rather than at the time of day. Calories are not as much of an issue as the
nutrition in what you eat. Body fat should be appropriate for your age and build, but you need body fat.
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| 5.Diet Myth: Counting calories is the only way to lose or maintain weight |
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Since the body processes various nutrients differently, it is really the proportion of the various nutrients that is important; not just the
amount of food eaten or the total calories. Calorie counting is not a science but a simple approximation of your metabolic rate. Calorie
counting is but an indication of the calorie you use up daily. It does not take into consideration such things as your resting metabolic rate,your total muscle mass, whether you are an athlete or a smoker. All these factors impact your daily calorie consumption and effects your calorie count. The single most important objective is the balance of burnt calories with calories consumed. You know you have that balance whenyou deviate up or down from your ideal weight.
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| 6.Diet Myth: The Food Pyramid is a good guideline to maintain a healthy weight |
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This diet myth is perpetuated by economically driven agricultural promotion. The Food Pyramid recommends plenty of breads, cereals, rice, pasta, vegetables, and fruits. The breads, cereals, rice, and pasta can cause weight gain if not eaten proportionally. Food pyramids are a visual representation of diet and does not necessarily respect the nutrition ratios a person needs. |
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| 7.Diet Myth: Initial weight loss from a diet comes from water weight |
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Water is not stored in a gland that empties out water from our bodies, Depending on body composing, your diet and nutrition intake water can be lost. Generally it is not. Selecting the appropriate diet and setting nutrition and weight goal will help you focus your weight loss objectives. While at the same time, implementing a precise physical fitness program will target your weigh loss needs to those areas containing the highest concentrations of fat. Exercise and precise diet is ideal for the best possible fat burn results.
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| 8.Diet Myth: Exercising a long time is better |
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This diet myth says that the longer you exercise the better it is for you. That is not necessarily true. If you exercise too much you will prevent the results you want. You should have brief, intense workout periods and then the muscle must recover. it is essential advice to focus on the 5 areas of physical fitness and use a separate routine when focusing on building muscle strength, muscle endurance or cardio endurance and stamina.
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| 9.Diet Myth: You have to eat three “square meals” per day in order to eat right |
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Diet myths have evolved and been around for years. Three heavy meals are not good for the body’s metabolism. You would be better to
eat six smaller nutritious meals throughout the day. That way you will not be starving and at risk for binging later and this will help you with weight loss. Most importantly, it is essential to ensure that the nutrition intake of the various smaller meals or snacking periods does not exceed the total amount of calories you would have consumed in the 3 meals.
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| 10.Diet Myth: Certain food groups should be eliminated in your diet |
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Many fad diets for losing weight promote the elimination of whole food
groups or eating primarily only one or two food groups. In order to maintain weight or achieve weight loss, your body needs a balanced diet that delivers diverse nutrients in the
proper proportion to the body. In some diets certain food groups are limited or
restrained for a selected period, nut generally
good diets will reinstate all food
groups in varying proportions back into daily nutrition. Banning entire food groups
is in fact dangerous as you risk
creating vitamin deficiencies that can cause serious health problems. |
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| 11.Diet Myth: To get enough protein, you must eat meat |
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Your body should have 30 grams of protein each day, whether you get them from meat, dairy products, whole grains, nuts, or legumes.
Various sources of protein are available. Protein should represent on average 15% of you diet, protein comes from many sources and not
just meat, use variety in your diet to have the adequate protein requirements.
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| 12.Diet Myth: Losing weight means you have to go hungry |
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Eating less and going hungry are two different matters. Eating natural foods means you don’t have to go hungry. Try to eat them in the
most natural condition without processing or additives. The reality is that if your body goes hungry it will feel like it is under stress. The
bodies metabolism will go into a protective state slowing down and even shutting down peripheral functions then essential function to lower your metabolic rate and conserve energy thus preserving your fat if you will. Consequently, because you body is in an auto protective state the next meal you have the body will try to store as much fat and calories in the tissue as possible. Going hungry, starving yourself for weight loss
will most certainly result in weight gain.
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| 13.Diet Myth: You don’t have to exercise while dieting |
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This diet myth goes back to counting calories as the only diet necessity. You must also exercise while eating less and more nutritionally
in order to boost your metabolism. Remember that the greater the muscle mass , the greater your calorie burn engine is. Muscle burns
calories, the more muscle you have the easier it is to burn calories and lose weight.
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| 14.Diet Myth: You can’t build muscle if you are a vegetarian |
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Vegetarians get their protein from sources other than meat. They eat nuts, whole grains, legumes, and some dairy products.
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| 15.Diet Myth: If you have a slow metabolism, you won’t lose weight |
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Many overweight people blame their obesity on a slow metabolism. As people become fatter, the metabolism actually increases, which
means you need more calories to keep your body going. You gain weight only if you consume more calories than your body uses.
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| 16.Diet Myth: You will gain weight rapidly if you eat fattening foods |
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If you want long term weight control, you have to balance high-fat foods with healthy, nutritious foods. Weight gain is a relatively slow process. Weight can come from fat as well as from muscle mass. You need to privilege a muscle mass building diet and fitness regime in order to gain weight in a healthy manner.
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| 17.Diet Myth: Full-fat milk has more calcium than low-fat milk |
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Low-fat milk is not only lower in fat, but it has more calcium than full-fat milk. Milk follows a process where buy the cream, containing most
of the fat is removed from the milk. This cream will in turn be used by manufactures to make butter. Low fat milk has a lower concentration of buttermilk, this cream used for making butter.
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| 18.Diet Myth: When you stop smoking, you gain weight |
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Some people replace cigarettes with comfort food and they will gain weight, while others lose weight or stay the same. The reason is that nicotine increases metabolic rate. At rest a smokers metabolic rate and heart beat rates are higher on average than that of a non smoker. If you have been a regular smoker for years, then your body rate is used to consuming a greater amount of calories than if you had not been smoking. When you quite smoking the body wants the same amount of calories only your metabolic rate lowers and slows down. You this
ingest an excess of calories which gets stored as fat. It is for this reason that when you quit smoking you gain weight. You need to compensate this hunger feeling with greater amounts of physical exercise and control you calorie intake.
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| 19.Diet Myth: Don’t eat bananas because they are fattening |
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Bananas are really low in fat and they are full of potassium, have their own wrapper, and taste good as a snack as well as bring many trace elements and antioxidants to your diet.
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| 20.Diet Myth: Just reducing carbohydrates will cause weight loss |
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You need some carbohydrates in your diet: complex carbohydrates are good for your body. You also need to be aware of the nutrition in the
foods you eat and the amount you eat. Complex carbohydrates represent almost 65% of your source of caloric fuel for your body. So do your
really think you need to cut them out? Remember many fruits and vegetables have complex carbs, it is the bad carbs that need to be cut out. |
