Busting the 15 Most Common Weight Loss Myths

When you start a weight loss program, you’ll find friends, family, weight loss experts and a host of others will start giving you tips. How do you know how many of these tips are real and how many are just myths? Read our article to know the top 15 weight loss myths. Now, if anyone comes to you with one of these myths as a tip, you’ll know what to believe!

1 MYTH: AVOID FATS COMPLETELY

Some people believe that fats must be completely avoided in order to lose weight. The truth is that only saturated fats must be avoided. Monounsaturated fats help lower bad cholesterol while boosting good cholesterol levels. Polyunsaturated do the same, but are considered less stable than monosaturated fats. So do consume some fats, but only the right kind.

2 MYTH: CUT OFF CARBOHYDRATES ALTOGETHER

Your body needs carbohydrates for daily operational energy. Deprive yourself of carbohydrates and your body won’t be able to burn fats. You will be burning muscle instead and lose out on your muscle tone. Eat healthy and complex carbohydrates along with proteins and other essential nutrients with every meal.

3 DOING CONTINUOUS ABS WORKOUT RESULTS IN FLAT TUMMY

Focusing only on doing sit-ups, crunches and Abs workouts constantly will only cause your stomach muscles to cramp, apart from causing an upset posture. You need to work your entire body to burn fat everywhere. This results in fat loss on your tummy also. Once you’ve lost all spare fat on your belly, you can do targeted Abs workouts to firm up your belly muscles.

4 FASTING IS A GOOD WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT

All that fasting does is starve your body of carbohydrates and essential nutrients, leaving you weak and unable to function. When a body fasts, it tries to save energy by shutting down as many faculties as possible, which is why you suffer organ dysfunction, breakdown of muscle, balance, coordination and mental clarity.

5 YOUR EXERCISE ROUTINE SHOULD BE AS HEAVY AS YOUR WEIGHT

Many people suffer from the misconception that one’s exercise routine must be as heavy as the weight they want to lose. People are different in how much intensity they can handle in a workout. If your body is unused to exercise, even small bursts of exercise will bring in good results.

6 STRESS DOES NOT CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN

Stress causes production of adrenalin and cortisol, which directly contribute to weight gain. Even after the stress is reduced, cortisol levels remain high in the body. Cortisol stimulates fat and carbohydrate metabolism and stimulates insulin to maintain blood sugar levels. As a result, the person’s appetite increases, which gives way to overeating and weight gain.

7 YOU SHOULD SKIP MEALS TO LOSE WEIGHT

If you skip meals or eat fewer meals during the day, you may actually gain weight and not lose it. When you skip meals, your metabolism slows down, burning fewer calories per day. Secondly, when you skip meals, you might be tempted to eat more in the next meal to compensate, which helps you gain weight.

8 DON’T EAT AT NIGHT IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT

You will put on weight based on what you eat and how much you eat and not when you eat. As a rule of thumb, what you eat during the earlier part of the day can be used up in your day’s activities. Since you only sleep at night, food you consume at night tends to be accumulated as fat and not burned immediately. So eat light meals at night such as fresh salads.

9 PEOPLE WON’T LIKE ME UNLESS I AM THIN

If you feel that you wont’ be acceptable since you’re fat, it’s because you don’t feel acceptable to yourself. Work on your self-esteem and learn to love your body and yourself. The way that you think others view you is based on your view of yourself.

10 YOU NEED TO CUT CALORIES DRASTICALLY TO LOSE WEIGHT FASTER

You might feel great initially when you cut calories, especially if you’re overeating drastically. However, if you are eating proportionally, then cutting back on calories might have an aversive affect. You will only be starving your body and that will bring down your metabolism and actually hurt your health in the longer term.

11. YOUR WEIGHT GAIN IS GENETIC

Scientific research says that where you store weight on your body is determined to a large extent on your genetic makeup. Some of us store our weight on our hips, or thighs, or tummies or even the upper back and arms. However, genetics cannot take responsibility for how heavy you are. Your lifestyle and eating habits are to be blamed for that one.

12 IT’S TOO HARD TO EAT HEALTHY

Once you’ve trained yourself to do it, eating healthy is actually the easiest thing to do. Creating a new habit takes time because our brains are accustomed to old habits. Change takes time but it is possible to train your mind to adapt to a new diet. Start by replacing an unhealthy food item with a healthy one and continue to do that with the rest of your diet.

13 YOU NEED TO GIVE UP YOUR FAVORITE FOODS TO LOSE WEIGHT

This is not true. If you eat in moderation, you can continue to include your favorite foods into your diet. There’s no rule that you cannot have pizza as long as you stick to a single slice of it without the cheese. You can have chocolate too, as long as it’s just a piece. The more you deprive yourself of your favorite foods, the more your discontented you’ll be and the greater the chance of you cheating on your diet. So indulge in favorites now and then, moderately.

14 IT’S HUNGER THAT CAUSES YOU TO OVEREAT

Hunger doesn’t have much to do with overeating. People tend to overeat when they feel stressed, depressed, lonely, anxious, afraid and otherwise feel down. Food takes on the role of the comfort that people seek. Food tends to satisfy lonely and unhappy people at a deeper level, and hunger has very little to do with this.

15 YOU CAN LOSE WEIGHT ONLY BY DIETING DRASTICALLY

No, you can lose weight by following a clearly outlined weight loss plan that works for you. Cutting calories drastically initially might shock the body into responding by dropping pounds, but the body can revert by slowing down metabolism as well. You won’t win in the long run by starving your body.

About the author: John owns an online scrubs store NursingUniforms.net where you can shop for branded scrub tops for women and men, lab coats and all kinds of medical uniforms.

• weight scale image (in Featured Image) by peter_w
• Capsicum (Paprika) image by Robby Michie
• weights image by Nathanial Dodson