Introduction
When it comes to determining ways and causes of losing weight, we find ourselves learning either from our peer’s experience or advice from the internet. But if you dig deeper into the idea of losing weight, you find yourself seeing various contradicting opinions regarding the ways how weights are loss. Truth is told the results of each weight losing methods vary mainly from our daily meal intake and our body metabolism. So let’s jump into the top 10 myths about losing weight that people believe it to work and what doesn’t.
1. MYTH: Skipping meals helps you to reduce weight
FACT: If a person is not gaining the appropriate amount of protein, carbohydrate and fat, the person will have severe changes to their metabolic rate in their body.
Who skips their meals?
To this day people still believe or even consider skipping meals would help them lose weight. Moreover working adults are also prone to skipping meals due to their tight working life. But for those who have taken the steps to skip meals believe that it would help increases their metabolic rates. Generally people who tend to skip meals especially their breakfast or lunch would take a bigger meal intake for their dinner instead and they are disregarding the consequences to their health.
Feeling Hungry? Just go ahead and eat a healthy breakfast to kick-start your day. Image generated from memegenerator.net
The mind-set of skipping meals
A person who desires to lose weight is a long term struggle not only physically but mentally as well. Generally people around us are now focusing on a healthy lifestyle, while the process to physically lose weight requires immense effort and time, but the mental ability to push people to takes the steps is the only aspect that drives them to take measures to lose weight. When it come to people who opted to skip meals are people who are not into understanding the basic needs of nutrition and they are more than willing to go through the risk of skipping meals. Moreover they are in a state of not having the confidence of losing weight through physical effort and instead taking the easier way by not having proper daily meal intake.
Is skipping meals scientifically proven to work?
Based on the medicals research studies from the US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health, the impacts of reducing meal frequency without caloric restriction on glucose regulation in health will risk changing their metabolic rate. If skipping meals is practiced in a long term basis it could lead to diabetes. With all the negative implications from practicing skipping meals, apparently there were studies showing that skipping meals daily would improve a person’s health. Studies indicated that overweight adults with mild
asthma ate average meals daily for 2 months lost an average of 8 percent of their body weight and asthma conditions have gotten better.
Still complicating whether to eat or not to eat? Image from twitter:@alexisleetay
Generally skipping meals have varied results based on who are practicing it, be it from an average working adult or an obese person with asthma related symptoms. Additionally, skipping meals will deprive your body of essential nutrients, minerals and vitamins. Moreover it will also results in lean muscle loss and causes your boy into starvation state which in turn will slow down your metabolism, and once you stop skipping meals, your body would effectively gain weight twice as fast than the usual person. But when it comes to people who skip meals during the day and having a higher meal intake during the evening would cause harmful effects to the metabolic changes in the body.
Just eat in moderation rather than skipping meals. Image from quotehd.com
2. MYTH: Eating Fatty Food Makes You Fat
FACT: Consuming fatty foods does not make you fat but there consuming it
in moderation is suffice to maintain a healthy diet.
Fatty Foods…Yay or Nay?
It would seem sensible to believe that consuming fattening foods makes us fat, but is it really the truth? Honestly because fat enters into our body does not meant it would be absorbed into our body, however long persisting myth does not make much sense. According to nutritionist experts, consuming fatty foods does not actually make you fat. Consuming fatty foods in moderation is essential part of any healthy and balanced diet. Gaining on more weight in the form of fat is a result of energy imbalance development. A person will gain more weight if he/she consumes more calories than he/she burns. Fat is a concentrated source of calories, but it is not essential to remove fat from your diet entirely.
You can still eat your favorite junk/fast foods as long as it is not part of your daily meal though. Image from designcloud.com
Which is healthy fatty foods and which is not?
Whole-food fats such as nuts, seeds, and avocado are satiating which helps you feel fuller for a longer period of time. Even though consuming fatty foods will make you fat, but carbohydrates and proteins will make you fat to a certain extent too. Moreover fatty foods such as coconut oil and fish oil provides variability in weight gain, but weight will increase when consume too much. Fat-laden products such as fast foods and snacks contain calories but a modest amount of consumption may help you feel full and consuming it with healthy foods, such as vegetables would even taste better. Additionally fats also helps with the absorption of certain vitamins and phytonutrients, which are compounds that are commonly found in plants that can help to improve our health.
The more you know. Something that we all could consider when deciding to eat healthy or not healthy. Image from themeapicture.com
Moderation in consuming fatty foods
Overall fatty foods will not cause you to be fat unless you consume too much of it. Products which are fat free usually contain fats and higher sugar levels are something you need to keep an eye out too. Choose monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, found in liquid oils such as canola, safflower, and olive; most nuts; and fish. Most of these fatty foods do not increase blood cholesterol levels and instead reduces the risk cardiovascular diseases. Generally the fats that you need to avoid are saturated fats which can be found mainly in beef and dairy products. Fried fast foods and margarine are
fatty products that you should keep away as well as they will severely increase the risk of heart disease.
I guess eating when it comes to eating our favourite food we just have to keep an eye out. Image from static.quoteswave.com
3. MYTH: Eating Carbohydrates Makes You Fat
FACT: Carbohydrates do not make you fat. Generally any meals you consume excessively that your body needs will result to gaining fat. Low-carbohydrates diets such as protein and fat as well as healthy vegetables are very efficient in helping with losing weight. Refined carbohydrates such as processed sugars from syrup and processed grains would lead to high blood sugar and insulin levels due to fact they have empty calories in it. So for those rice eaters out there, rejoice!
So how do I still end up fat?
Since consuming fatty foods does not technically make you fat, we would think that carbohydrates are root cause of it right? Bottom line is you would get fat if you do not have a conscious calorie restriction. Well if you have kept a low intake of carbohydrates and high protein intake you may just end up losing weight as you have so desired it. According to dietary experts, for carbohydrates to make a person fat, a poor diet plan mix in with the lack of exercise is what it takes it to change a person’s weight. All that said, a person will only gain weight if he/she consume more calories than they could burn.
Eat them at your own activity level and your sensitivity with the types of food. In simplest term don’t simply eat at will. Image from richardvancamp.org
What carbohydrates should I eat?
Now you must be asking yourself so how many carbohydrates should I eat then? Well carbohydrates sources can always be reserved for fruits and vegetables only. You could still opt for consuming other carbohydrate sources but you might be missing out on other nutritional benefits. But the key point is do not practice it in a long term basis and you will be doing fine. If you are gym elitist or a daily gym player, high carbohydrate intakes are the recommended source. People who regularly exercise, their body will be under the state of cyclical depletion and repletion of muscle glycogen stores. Due to that, starch carbohydrates are their main source of obtaining high-powered glucose molecules as they conduct hard training primarily weight lifting and muscle building.
The Good and the Bad Carbohydrates
There are various types of carbohydrates that could be beneficial but generally speaking, the benefits are varied depending on your diet intake plan. For instance people that exercise frequently will benefit from incorporating various
types of carbohydrates into their diet plan. So what are the types of carbohydrates that you should limit your consumption? Corn syrup and refined sugar is one of the types of carbohydrate that you need severely limit yourself from consuming it as it could lead to insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity. Gluten-based starches such as wheat, rye and barley are carbohydrate based that could cause bloating, water retention, stubborn fat and lethargy, which you need to severely limit your consumption too. Due to the fact that gluten is a protein that can cause food sensitivity, it could cause bloating, water retention, stubborn fat and lethargy. Moreover your common typical cereal grains that contain “anti-nutrient” phytic acid could cause similar problems as well.
Still wishing both of them is in good terms? Image from anoseforfood.com
4. MYTH: Drinking diet soda will help you lose weight
FACT: Diet Soda will severely affect your body and yes it does not help you out with losing weight but instead cause more harm than good. Instead of losing weight you gain more weight due to the side effects of insulin secretion. Moreover, you may find yourself diagnose with type 2 diabetes and various chronic diseases.
Benefits (Drawbacks) of Drinking Diet Soda
You may already know that in general drinking diet soda is as bad as drinking a regular soda, but there are still people out there that believe that drinking diet soda would help them shed some weight. Mainly young adults and working adults still believe the idea of drinking diet soda will still benefit them but the only real benefit that a person can gain from drinking diet soda is it helps cutting down a person’s daily calorie intake.
So what does diet soda have to offer then? Let’s look into some of the benefits (drawbacks) of diet soda that the soda drink industry wants us to believe. Diet soda contains artificial sweetening substances that are used in place of sweeteners with sugar. Compared to sugar they only provide sweetness to foods and drinks without adding extra calories where the idea of losing weight by drinking diet soda is conceive. Due to the fact diet soda have zero calories, people would think that it would be alright to consume food at ease while allowing them to lose weight. Unfortunately, artificial sweetening substances would lead to sparking an insulin secretion. What happens is that the fat storage in the body may not be able to cope up with the insulin secretion side effects resulting people to gain more weight instead.
Drinking Diet Soda = Severe Chronic Diseases
What could be worse than drinking diet soda is that regular drinkers will end up increasing their blood sugar levels which would lead to Type 2 Diabetes. It gets even better, heart diseases, strokes and various chronic diseases will come into play as well. Moreover carbonated drinks when taken regularly in excess can lead to severe gastro intestinal problems like ulcers, gastroenteritis, indigestion and corrosion of the lining of the stomach. Not even your oral
health is spared from drinking excessive diet soda. Regular drinkers will find them self losing their teeth due to the corrosion on the layer of their teeth.
There will be serious health hazards heading towards your health. Image from iStock.com
How to Ditch Yourself from Diet Soda?
Artificial sweeteners in diet soda could you to crave for more calories due to the fact your body system did not receive zero satisfaction on a cellular level. This could potentially lead to overeating and gaining weight, plus addiction to artificial sweeteners. The least a person could do to remove him/her self from the addiction to eliminate the sweet cravings. It could be fix by consuming caffeine, tea or even energy drink that contains essential nutrients and vitamins.
Quitting soda isn’t easy but it is necessary! Image from gettyimages.com
5. MYTH: Supplements can help you lose weight
FACT: Weight loss supplements do help with cutting down weight but they are not the best options and there are side effects with supplement intakes. It is best to lose weight by taking in daily exercises as well as proper daily diet intake.
The mechanics of weight loss supplements
There are all sorts and variants of supplements in the market that it is not easy to determine which is a weight loss supplement compared to the others. Generally all weight loss supplements are sorted into pills, drugs and natural supplements. Moreover these supplements have been claimed to help people lose weight or at the very least helping people to lose weight easier through combining different methods such as diet plan and exercise. So how do these supplements work to reduce weight? They either reduces your appetite which by producing the feeling of being full so that you can consume lower calorie intake, reducing your nutrients mainly your fat so that you could feel the need to consume lower calorie intake or the supplement consumption helps to increase fat burning.
There is no right or wrong with taking supplements, but one could wonder if our life would be way better with consuming a proper diet meal. Image from cdn-img.health.com
Types of well-known weight loss supplements
Yes they do to a certain extent and the results vary from a person to a different person. Hydroxycut is one the mainstay weight loss product that has been around for a decade and it is one of the most popular weight loss supplements in the world. It contains ingredients that are claimed to help with losing weight, including caffeine and a few plant extracts. Anyone that is sensitive to caffeine should generally avoid consuming this supplement. Your daily common product such as coffee, green teas well as most processed foods and beverages that contain caffeine could also work to reduce weight. As caffeine is a metabolism booster it increases the percentage of fat burning in your body but it is best to avoid consuming any of the particular products before you sleep, not to mention caffeine is an addictive agent. Good quality coffee and green tea are the best options to consume caffeine as they contain antioxidants and other health benefits that is good for your body.
Another known product is Alli, an Orlistat pharmaceutical drug that helps with weight loss by breaking down fats in your body, resulting you to take fewer calories in your fat. Additionally Orlistat helps to reduce blood pressure slightly while reducing the risk of diagnosed to type 2 Diabetes. Just like any other weight loss supplements there are side effects that you can expect mainly digestive problems and deficiency in vitamins. Moreover, another widely known supplement is the Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) which contains chemicals that are found in a fatty acid called linoleic acid. They can be naturally found in fatty animal foods such as cheese and butter. Basically CLA works to reduce appetite and increase metabolism while stimulating the breakdown of body fat. Not to forget, the side effects of CLA are that it causes various digestive side effects and could be potentially be harmful in the long term.
Generally most of the weight loss supplements are viable but the side effects on your body are its biggest drawback. Not to mention there is no weight loss supplement would work 100% to curb weight loss, the most you could benefit from it is just losing a couple pounds. The least you could do is putting in more effort in your daily exercises and plan out your daily diet intake appropriately.
Nuff said! Image from pinterest.com
6. MYTH: Drinking water leads to losing weight
FACT: As simple as it sounds. Water does not cause you to lose weight but instead it keeps you hydrated and helps curb your appetite. Nonetheless water is essential for our body and pretty much to quench our thirst.
Losing weight with drinking water or just keeping you hydrated
Who would have thought that a simple and essential as a drinking water could withhold myths and misconceptions about the possible benefits to our health? Nonetheless the idea of drinking water could help you lose weight, does it sound possible? In a certain way, drinking water does help with aiding you with your weight loss effort instead of directly helping you lose weight. Well imagine the wonders of just simply drinking water could help you lose weight. Instead of taking in calorie-laden beverages into your diet plan, opt for drinking water and it will help you to reduce your overall number of calories.
Benefits of Drinking Water
The significant aspect of drinking water generally is that it makes you feel fuller which affects your desire to eat more. According to researchers, there is a lot of energy in drinking water relates to heating up that water inside your body system. As water touches far below the body’s temperature, the effort to heat it is needed to expand the energy and covert in metabolism. Basically drinking water helps your body to expend energy, which is a significant part of the equation when you want to drop some weight.
If you’re keen on making a diet plan with the inclusion of drinking water, always keep a bottle of water with you, especially putting it on sight as it may encourage you to take sips throughout the day. Keeping your body hydrated will keep you away from various health problems which could affect your metabolism by a parched throat.
7. MYTH: Eating at night leads to gaining weight
FACT: It’s how much you eat that affects your weight gain not the factors of when you eat. It is still okay to eat at night especially dinner time as it could curb your desire for late night snack which generally is not a good practice to eat late at night.
Night meals are a No-Go?
We always wonder and believe that eating late at night could lead to gaining weight. Due to the fact that our body burns fewer calories later in the night, it would sound reasonable to take in fewer calories compared to morning or afternoon. So do we have to say goodbye to late night eating? Fortunately this is not entirely true to the point you have to avoid dinner, according to researchers, when you have your meal does not affect your weight gain at all contrary to popular belief. What the message is trying to convey is that eating in moderation throughout the day will not even give you extra weight.
The everlasting myth gaining weight through eating at night
So why do people still believe the idea of eating at night leads to gaining weight? Well there is only 2 ways that could lead a person to gain weight. You either did not eat in moderation or you did not spend time on physical activity throughout the day. Moreover people who ate more at night would be probably be less prone to hunger during the next day for breakfast which could help with calorie intake control. Behaviour and emotions do play a role in determining a person calorie intake throughout the day as well. You could put it that there are people out there who would skip breakfast at times and take in a big meal at night while putting in effort to physical exercises and they would not gain weight.
Still pondering whether to eat a hefty meal at night? Image from bornfitness.com
It’s all about lifestyle control and meal intake that determines your weight
What you could do if you intend to eat at night is that you need to be fully aware of your lifestyle preferences and behaviour. When it comes to consuming a meal full carbohydrates or determining the amount of calorie intake, just take in to the appropriate amount and not pushing it over the boundaries.
Now that eating at night does not entirely affect your weight gain, just satisfy your craving if you need to. Image from whatareyoucraven.org
8. MYTH: Being Vegetarian helps you to lose weight
FACT: Yes having a vegetarian diet plan would work, but there is so much effort you need to maintain it just to cut down some weight. Plus you need to put in physical activities and put in proper nutrients into their diet plan for it to work if not you might still ended up gaining weight even if you are practicing a vegetarian diet plan.
Is being a vegetarian a viable plan to lose weight?
Generally people who practice to being a vegetarian may tell you it works to cut off weight. In truth it works and not to mention it makes you healthy too, but the thing is if you are not keen on being a vegetarian to shed some weight there are still other diet plans that could work things out. A vegetarian diet is not easy as it seems where eating plants would not simply guarantee you to lose weight. While at it they still they need nutrients that any people would need such as vitamins B12 and D, protein, omega-3 fatty acids, iron and calcium.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to becoming a vegetarian.
Vegetarians will still gain weight!
Yes it is possible to gain weight as a vegetarian if they turn to high calorie foods such as bread, cereal, pasta and any carbohydrate-heavy foods to satisfy their needs. If they are not consuming protein along with carbohydrate, that is pretty much a one way ticket to gaining weight, So to avoid that, vegetarians would likely opt for soy products such as tofu, tempeh, seitan and many more to gain protein for their vegetarian diet plan.
The path to becoming a vegetarian
Taking the vegetarian path to losing weight is not a fast solution to shedding weight. Furthermore the lifestyle of not consuming any meals that derived from animals is very difficult to maintain. Let’s not forget physical exercise plays a significant role along with a vegetarian diet to lose weight. So for those who are considering taking a vegetarian diet to shed some weight, think twice before you act.
Being a vegetarian is not shortcut to losing weight. Image from draggarwal.files.wordpress.com
9. MYTH: Drinking milk leads to losing weight
FACT: Calcium in milk will help the body to break down fat more efficiently which leads to weight loss. Low-fat milk, Full- fat milk and skim milk will help out with weight loss depending on the amount of consumption as well as your daily meal intake.
The dilemma of drinking milk
Another common losing weight myth is that drinking milk can help you lose weight but there is a contradictory point of view from people stating that oppose to losing weight you would gain weight instead. You could put it that Low-fat and fat-free milk are dairy product could help with losing weight due to the fact that they contain various nutrients such as vitamin D, protein and calcium with the lack of excessive saturated fat or calories.
How about full-fat milk?
There are implications that drinking full-fat milk would contribute to losing weight. You might be wondering but how? If you have read through the myth regarding eating fatty foods will make you fat, you would understand by now
that consuming fatty foods does not contribute to gaining weight but it was excessive consumption of carbohydrates that is the root cause of it plus with no physical activities involved. Consuming full-fat milk will helps increases satiety, which is the feeling of drinking full-fat milk which will lead people to avoid eating more for the rest of the day. This leads to less calorie consumption from sugars and carbohydrates. Compared to drinking non- fat milk which contain ingredients such as sugar and carbohydrates, they would do more harm than good to your health.
Skim milk is an alternative to help you lose weight as it contains fewer calories and more nutrients compared to drinking diet soda and energy drinks. Matter of fact, skim milk contains calcium which is slightly higher than full-fat milk. In general if you are looking to cut down some weight, low-fat milk is the go to option but if you could arrange your meal intake appropriately, any milk product would work into your favour towards losing weight.
10. MYTH: Could sleeping lead to losing weight
FACT: Unfortunately sleeping does not help you lose weight but in contrary, if you are lacking on sleep you may find yourself gaining weight instead with varied results depending on your body metabolism and meal intake.
Sleep deprivation leads to weight gain
One could wonder if lack of sleep could lead to gain weight. According to researchers lack of sleep could be related to higher level of the hormone Ghrelin. Basically a higher Ghrelin levels will reduce energy expenditure, stimulates your appetite which would lead to higher food intake than usual and leading to retention of fat. Take for instance you are constantly busy with your working life, you ended up staying up late at night while you still need to wake up early to get to work. You find yourself taking in coffee just to stay up awake during work and you may even skip your physical activities due to exhaustion. Due to that you got yourself into sleep deprivation which affects your waistline as well as your health. Moreover lack of sleep could severely affect your metabolism to function properly.
Sleep deprivation can lead you to a bigger craving for foods.
Factors that lead to weight gain
So how does lack of sleep affect our ability to lose weight? There are 2 hormones that play a role in this which is Ghrelin and Leptin. Ghrelin is the hormone that drives your appetite whereas Leptin is the one that determine if you are feeling satisfied with your meal intake. When you are deprived from sleep, you will find yourself having more ghrelin instead of leptin which would lead to higher appetite and that means you eat more resulting to gaining weight. Not to mention your body metabolism is slower due to the fact you are lacking on sleep.
Sometimes we just have to force our self to be fully functioning during work even when we are exhausted due to lack of sleep. Image from karagiannisathanasios.com
The best approach to combat sleep deprivation
There are various reasons that people would fall into the category of sleep deprivation. The least you could to avoid having any severe changes to your hormones and your body metabolism is to take this few measures into your unusual “lack of sleep” life. Try to avoid any caffeine especially in the afternoon so that you can rest at ease after work. Most important aspect is to keep an eye out on what you are eating before you sleep. Generally a heavy meal is not recommended especially when you metabolism is running slow. A light meal would suffice and you can finally jump into bed to get some proper sleep.
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