There are many myths of weight loss that are widely believed. However, research and science has shown that many of these diet and exercise myths are not true. It can be difficult sometimes to separate the weight loss myths from the truth. Many of these myths sound true while others sound absurd. I once read that drinking water at night will make you gain weight, which is of course ridiculous. In this article I will discuss and debunk 15 myths of weight loss which I hope will explain why diet and exercise is important.
Weight Loss Truth: Although having an extreme exercise routine can be great, there are a few things you should consider: the first being that everyone is at a different level when it pertains to their physical fitness and how much strength they can really manage. If you have not been very physically active for a number of years, you might consider - or your body might react like it is- an intense work could be walking half a mile a day. However, for somebody who has been physically active for many years, strolling half a mile can be done without a sweat. Everybody has a different meaning of what "extreme" is.
If intense for you is working out for an hour a day, but due to life's hectic schedule you just have time for 20 minutes a day, then those 20 minutes will go a long way. It might not always be classified as "intense", according to your definition, but those little cardio minutes will have positive health modifying effects. It is better to do 20 minutes than no minutes at all.
Weight Loss Truth: This is one of those "absurd" myths. Stress can significantly affect your ability to maintain a healthy weight. It can also prevent you from losing weight. Whether it is the result of high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, unhealthy stress-induced behaviours, or a mix of the two, the link between stress and weight gain is glaringly obvious. It can be difficult to reduce stress in our modern lives, but as in the first Weight Loss Myth, those 20 minutes of exercise could help reduce some stress.
Weight Loss Truth: Sir Isaac Newton once stated “What goes up must come down.” This is true for gravity, but it may not apply to weight, well not without effort and carefully watching what you eat. This is among the most common weight loss myths out there. It is absurd to believe that your health and weight are going to remain in balance if all you eat is cake, fast food or processed food. You can burn the calories off by exercising, but many people whose diet includes mainly processed food are probably not disciplined enough to adhere to an exercise regimen. This is where a personalized diet programme can be extremely beneficial, which is why I have written a review on an excellent weight loss programme called “The Custom Keto Diet”. You can read our review here, you can also download a free Keto Diet ebook by clicking this image:
Weight Loss Truth: There are numerous research studies that show that individuals who skip breakfast and eat fewer times during the day tend to be a lot heavier than those who have a healthy breakfast and after that eat 4 to 6 small meals throughout the day. The reason for this is that those that skip meals might get hungrier later in the day. They might also have a tendency to overeat throughout other meals of the day. Breakfast literally means to break the fast from sleeping, eating breakfast kickstarts your metabolism which sets up for the rest of the day.
Weight Loss Truth: You can overindulge food during the day and not eat a single thing during the night and you will still gain weight. As is the reality that you can starve yourself throughout the day and eat all night long and you still will gain weight. The secret here is balance. If your body is telling you that it is hungry then you should listen to it. The reality is, that overeating, while not exercising, will lead to putting on weight; no matter what time of the day you eat. You need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight; the amount you eat is largely irrelevant if for the rest of the day you are sedentary. If you are craving some ice cream eat some fruit instead, or make yourself a smoothie, avoid shop bought smoothies as these contain excessive sugars.
Weight Loss Truth: The way that you think others see you is based on your view of yourself. I honestly think that one needs to end up being mentally fit prior to becoming healthy. I have gone through these self-limiting feelings before. When I realized that I was perfectly fine the way I am then I had no need to show myself to anyone or to get external recognition for my self-respect. Until you accept yourself for who you are right now and accept that you are already perfectly fine, it will be difficult for you to lose weight as your frame of mind is too negative to really help you get healthier and fitter.
Weight Loss Truth: Cutting your calories down might be a great thing, if you are massively overeating and stuffing your face with cake and sugary foods all day. However, if you are eating in proportion then cutting calories might have an aversive affect. If you are cutting calories and are starving your body, then that will reduce your metabolic process, or to put it simply slow it down, which might result in you really not losing any weight at all, even if you are "cutting calories". It is better to be balanced than try extremes.
Weight Loss Truth: Skipping meals might in fact lead you to gain weight! You will end up being too hungry and will ultimately need to eat. This will knock your metabolic process off track and will eventually slow it down. Consider a car running low on fuel (food), if you do not fill it up, it will eventually stop moving. The same goes for your body, we need to keep it nourished constantly. As I said in Myth 7, balance is better than extremes.
Weight Loss Truth: This is an excuse not a reason. I will not reject that there might be tendencies for heavy mothers and fathers to raise heavy children who will remain heavy their entire lives, but I do not believe that there is really a "fat" gene or something embedded in your DNA. What we do inherit from our family, mainly those who directly raised us, are our views and beliefs. Your views about food, money, faith, politics, education, and so on are based upon how you were raised. If you were raised in a house where the main meal was fried or heavily processed foods, then you are more likely to continue cooking and eating fried and heavily processed foods throughout your life. It is easy to blame it on those who raised you, however adults need to take responsibility for their actions. You are not a child anymore, you can eat different foods than what you had as a child. Take responsibility and start to eat better. This book really helped me break the cycle from my upbringing.
Weight Loss Truth: Eating healthy is very easy... once you have trained yourself to do it. How many times have you noted ‘losing weight’ or to ‘eat more healthily’? The first few days you are doing well, eating all kinds of healthy foods that you would not normally eat. But after a few more days you start to revert back to your old eating habits. Developing a new routine takes some time and effort to achieve. If you have experienced this before then you might benefit from a more heavily regimented routine with clear instructions and well explained goals. For women you might benefit from the Bikini Body Workout, for men you might benefit from this muscle gaining regime. Either sex can benefit from The Custom Keto Diet which takes the guess work out of what foods to buy for the week ahead with healthy foods and a wide variety of simple recipes. You can also download a free Keto Diet ebook by clicking this image:
Weight Loss Truth: What would a world without chocolate and pizza be like? This would not be a world that I would want to live in! Not being able to eat your favourite foods when on a diet is something I entirely disagree with. You are absolutely able to eat your favourite foods. Denying yourself this kind of pleasure is not fun, and will likely cause you to gain weight as you likely stop whatever diet you are trying and just revert back to your old routines. Besides, you will most likely eat it anyway, so it is best to include your favourite foods into your diet. As I have been pointed out before, the real key is moderation. If you are a steak fan, then perhaps it might not be the best things to eat steak every day, however maybe one or two times a week. In a perfect world where I would not gain any weight and my arteries were clog-less, I would love to consume chocolate several times a week, well more like every day. However, I understand that chocolate is not the healthiest of foods, so I have it about two to three times a month. I am not stopping eating my favourite foods, I am just eating it in moderation so that it does not lead to excess weight.
Weight Loss Truth: Appetite has nothing to do with you overeating; the clue is in the word ‘over’. Hunger is your body telling you that it needs fuel, hunger is not telling you to overeat. What triggers many individuals to overeat are various reasons. Among the primary ones is sensation of tension, depression, isolation, stress, boredom, anxiety, worry, and other negative emotions. Often food can be a means of satisfying your needs, for example, if you live a lonely life, and aren't very happy, then food might be a way of you feeling happier and comforted. Either way overeating is not triggered by hunger.
Weight Loss Truth: There goes that word once again 'diet'; "extreme diet plans" are only helpful for fast weight loss and rapid weight gain once you stop the diet. These extreme diets vary from the "cookie diet", all the way to "the water only diet". You can certainly lose weight on these or any diet but the weight will not stay off for very long and usually with some added weight as a reward. Diets should be a lifestyle change as well as being healthy for you. This is why I recommend The Custom Keto Diet as it is both very healthy with lots of healthy whole foods to enrich your diet, it also requires you to live a healthier lifestyle.
Weight Loss Truth: A long journey starts with a single step. It is natural to want instant outcomes and to even fear the road ahead of you; especially if you are really obese. The trick here is to make small incremental changes. It is not realistic to expect perfection because that will only ever lead you disappointment: perfection is not something that can ever realistically be attained since as soon as you reach what you considered perfection a few months you’re your opinion of perfection will change to something else, for weight loss perfection might be to lose another 30 pounds. If you want to lose weight then you need to start that weight loss journey, start small and follow a well known diet like The Custom Keto Diet, that way you are more likely to stick to the diet and consequently more likely to reach your weight loss goals.
Weight Loss Truth: Whether you think you can, or whether you think you cannot, either way you are right. Whatever you try, it is 90% mindset, and 10% actually doing something about it. If you fall down you just get up again and try something else. If you have tried to lose weight before then it is time to try again. You need the right mindset and the right guidance and plan.
