Just because someone swears they lost all their weight doing it or you read about it online doesn’t mean its true. There are many factors that play into successful weight loss program, including metabolism, genetics, diet, lifestyle, exercise. There is no “one size fits all” when approaching weight loss and the most important thing to remember is ‘everything in moderation’.
Here are some of the common myths about weight loss that are blatantly untrue:
1 . You Should Stay Away From All Fat
-All fat is not bad and eating fatty foods doesn’t always make you fat. Seemingly, it is the colloquial word ‘fat’ that has caused this confusion.
-Fat in food or ‘triglycerides’ are essential for the body and help burn fat, maintain cell membranes, protects our organs and provides energy.
-Eating unsaturated fats found in nuts and oils is actually good for the body’s metabolism and aids weight loss.
-Do not confuse fats with fatty foods like pizza, hamburgers and french fries, these and are quite different.
2 . Drinking Water Causes Weight Loss
-It is often recommended to drink 7-8 glasses of water everyday. This helps in improving the overall health.
-However, it is important to note that water directly does not make you lose weight. Instead it makes you feel full and therefore holds you back from snacking too often.
3 . Once You Start Losing Weight, The Trend Continues
–Weight loss is not a linear process. Every individual has a unique metabolism rate and eating in a way that speeds up the metabolism is what really works.
-Weight loss doesn’t happen all at once and it doesn’t happen every day and you certainly can’t expect to loose the same amount of weight everyday or every week or month.
-Some days you may have more water in your body, other days your body will burn more calories or carry more food in the digestive system.
-The important thing to notice is that the overall your weight is reducing, but do expect fluctuation.
4 . “Diet” Foods Help With Weight Loss
-Diet food isn’t always best for your diet! Junk food is sold as “baked”, “grilled”, “fat free”, the truth is a lot of the products on the market have more oil, saturated fat and sugar than what their manufacturers are willing to admit.
-The ingredients section will often be disguised for example Vitamin water is another way of selling you sugar syrup.
-Bottom line, be aware of what you buy, specially if it says its ‘diet’ or ‘healthy’ or ‘low-fat’.
5 . Restricting Calories Helps With Weight Loss
-This is not that simple, not all calories are the same, which means you will not lose weight just by counting your calories.
-While a calorie is a unit of energy, all sources of calories have different impacts on your body. A calorie of protein goes through different digestive and metabolic processes in the body as compared to a calorie of carbohydrate or fat.
-By substituting carbohydrates and fat sources of calories with protein sources you are likely to boost metabolism and aid your weight gain efforts, all the while keeping your calorie count the same.
-It is not about the number of calories, but where those calories come from.
So, lose weight the right way, by following an exercise regimen, eating healthy and nutritious food in the right portions and staying active throughout the day. Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy!