10 Diet Myths May Be Stopping Your Weight Loss
Finally, All of The Diet Myths That May Be Stopping Your Weight Loss:
Myths about diets and weight loss are an important factor in the recurrent failures of many overweight people.They cause distractions and loss of focus on what really counts–the calories, carbs and protein.
Here are some of the myths that you need to see: Bread does not make one fat any more than any other food with similar calories or carbs. Eating a large meal in the evening has no effect on weight gain or loss.It’s what you eat, not when you eat it!
Over concern with these myths only makes weight loss much harder.
These myths and”stories” always start with the phrase: “They say….” But no one knows who “they” really are. Some are based on information from parents and friends and a few have been passed down from generation to generation. Some of them—like eating breakfast can help you lose weight—are true, but the vast majority are either half-truths or clearly untrue. Over concern with diet myths only makes the dieter lose focus on what really counts. More than 50% of the overweight patients I see can trace previous diet failures on misspent attention to diet myths and legends.
See how many diet myths may be impeding your weight loss:
Myth: Bread Makes You Fat
NO: Calories are calories and it does not matter where they come from. If the bread contributes to excess calories for the day, then fat accumulates just as if it was olive oil, brown rice, chocolate or apples. There is not much difference in calories or carbs between white bread and whole wheat bread. A few more grams of fiber in the latter. Whether white bread makes you fat and whole wheat does not is really not the issue. I have never seen anyone gain weight from eating a few pieces of bread a day-white or whole wheat. I see so many people taking the bread off the fatty hamburger and then gorging themselves on the cheese, sauce, and fatty meat!
It’s what between the bread, the cheese, the mayo, the fried meat that has the calories. Look at the picture of double hamburger. Only about 125 calories of the 650 calories of the burger come from the bread. Even though its white bread (and there is nothing wrong with white bread) are the carbs in the bread more important than the calories and fat in the cheese, the sauce and the meat? I think they are not.
There are millions of people who will disagree. However, the failure of the low carb diet craze that began about four years ago, suggests that the vast majority of overweight people are unable to maintain a very low carb diet for very long anyway. So why not enjoy the bread and spend time and effort on the sauces, fried foods, and fats. That’s where the excess calories really are and that is easier to change for most people than their favorite bread.
Myth: Drinking Water Makes You lose Weight
NO: Drinking 8 glasses of water a day does not make you lose weight other than the effect of temporarily filling you stomach. Dr Clive M. Brown reported in his and eleven other studies that water does not increase metabolism or actually decrease the total amount of food one eats in a day. He found no weight loss whether his subjects drank small or even large amounts of water. Water like any food or drink should be taken in moderation.
Dr Dan Negoianu, and Dr Stanley Goldfarb, from the University of Pennsylvania writing the the Journal of theAmerican Society of Nephrology say that while dehydration can be harmful, there is scant evidence that large amounts of water offer any benefits.In fact, they said, there was no evidence supporting the standard US recommendation of “8×8” – eight glasses, each containing eight ounces of water), a day.They wrote: “There is no clear evidence of benefit from drinking increased amounts of water.”Looking at other scientific papers revealed that while drinking more water did effect the rate at which various substances were cleared by the kidney, there was no suggestion that this led to any actual health benefits.
In the case of water its in response to thirst. Too many overweight individuals struggling to lose weight waste time, and effort on counting the bottles of water they are drinking and thus lose focus on their food—the real cause of their weight problems.
Myth: Artificial Sweeteners Including Diet Soda Are “Bad” for You
NO: Most low calorie foods and drinks are made with artificial substances—artificial sweeteners, fat substitutes or have food additives and and are not bad for you. In April 2006, the National Institutes of Health reported on the effects of artificial sweeteners: They Are Safe. There has been no link between artificial sweeteners, birth defects, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, epilepsy, emotional disorders or even cellulite. Drinks with artificial sweeteners, especially sucralose(Splenda) do not increase appetite and, if fact, may be beneficial in a weight loss program.
Myth: Drinking Fruit Juices are “Healthy” For You
NO: The myth that “natural” fruit juices have any place in a weight loss plan needs to be put to rest. Orange juice, whether you squeeze it or Tropicana® squeezes is not “natural.” Quarts of orange juice do not grow on trees. It’s the fruit itself that is “natural” and healthy. Squeezing and manipulating the fruit only removes the protective fibers making absorption from the stomach
even faster.
In addition, each glass of juice contains 120 calories and has 21 grams of sugar. Drinking a single glass a day, every day results in a 10 lb. weight gain in a year. A weight gain of more than a pound a month for no really good medical reason is not healthy. There are many places to obtain Vitamin C, other vitamins and other healthy minerals. Try a vitamin pill…lots of vitamins and no calories!
Myth: Sports Drinks (Gatorade® and many others) are Good For Weight Loss or Weight Maintenance
NO Gatorade and some 60 similar brands of sports drinks have now become very popular but for most of us drinking them will make us fat. Last year Americans spent one billion dollars on such products. But what do these drinks do? What is the best liquid to prevent dehydration?
If you are doing light exercise or doing nothing at all (couch-warming) – then sports drinks are a big waste of money and are full of calories and sugar. In most typical workouts water is perfectly adequate. After all, drinking a 150 calorie sports drink will take most individuals more than 15 minutes on a treadmill to “burn off.”
Myth: Eating Eggs Raises Your Cholesterol
NO: Egg yolks have a concentrated source of cholesterol but eating them does not raise your bad cholesterol. However, the type of cholesterol in an egg yolk is not the same that causes heart disease. Research at Harvard Medical School showed that it’s not the total cholesterol in the diet that leads to heart disease, but the type of cholesterol. The cholesterol in eggs is mostly of the large LDL (bad cholesterol) that does not cause heart disease. Only 20% of blood cholesterol comes from the diet in the first place, the rest is made in the liver. So eat eggs, they are a good source of protein with easy portion control. (Look at the myth of low fat diets).
Myth: Low-Fat Foods Help You Lose Weight.
NO: ‘Low-fat’ or ‘fat-free’ doesn’t necessarily mean low calorie or calorie-free. The government regulations state that foods labeled “low fat” must have less than 10% of the fat found in the original. The calories can be whatever the manufacturer puts in them. Extra sugars and thickeners are often added to boost flavor and texture, so calorie content may be only a bit less or similar to standard products. New Government guidelines now discourage the use of ‘% fat free’ claims. A “low”-fat food should contain no more than 3 grams of fat per 100 grams of food. People trying to lose weight see “low fat” and then end up eating twice as much.
Low Fat Diets are Better than Low Carb Diets
NO: This myth could easily read “low carb diets are better than low fat ones”. In fact, at the end of one year, there is no difference between dieters who chose low carb diets over low fat ones. The largest observation of the effect of low fat diets on weight loss was the 49,000 women who participated in the Woman’s Health Study It failed to find any significant weight difference in the thousands of individuals who followed a low fat diet for six years as compared to women on a “normal” diet. This is an important study since all of the participants were nurses who might better able to follow the diet plan than the average person. For many reasons, low carb dieters may have an advantage in the first few months, but that quickly changes. The key is to lower food intake and increase food expenditure such as exercise.
Myth: Eating Late In the Evening Makes You Fat
Eating the Large Meal of the Day Should be at Lunch:
NO: The common assumption is that night is the worst time to eat is wrong. The logic: metabolism is slowest at night. Makes sense, but no conclusive studies prove that eating late meals causes weight gain more than eating early meals. Calorie intake, type of foods, and hormones play the most important roles. If daily food intake is planned properly and the evening meal turns into the main meal, then eating late could be highly rewarding. It is all about the balance of calorie intake and output. The weight gain consequences of eating the one large meal a day in the evening hours, when the metabolism has already slowed down, are trivial compared with what happens when you end up eating two large meals a day.
Myth: Eating Healthy Helps You Lose Weight:
NOT ALWAYS: There is a serious misunderstanding of what “healthy” means. The oils in seeds, nuts, and salmon might be helping you prevent cancer or heart disease 20 to 30 years from today, but choosing these high-calorie foods that often have portion control problems only results in weight gain, not weight loss today. The consequences of weight gain far outweigh any potential minimal benefit from the oils in these foods for almost everyone.