Busting the Top 5 Myths About Nutrition and Weight Loss
Do you know a person who does not complain about his or her weight? With all the conveniences available these days, it really is easy to succumb to the temptation of leading a sedentary lifestyle and just let yourself lose in the sense that you don’t care about your weight anymore.
However, there are still a lot of people who do attempt to lead a more active, healthy life. The problem is that with all the supposed rules that you need to follow on how you can shed the excess weight that you have, how do you know which ones are real and which ones are pure myths? That is exactly what we will try to find out here.
The Truth behind the Most Popular Nutrition Myths
Basically, there are a couple of ways that you can shed off the excess pounds that you have: by exercising and by dieting. You can also use a combination of these two for more positive results. Here, we will focus our attention to the nutritional aspect of weight loss.
When you go online looking for ways that you can lose weight, you will stumble upon things like the “After Six Diet” or you will get advice about how you are only supposed to eat smaller meals throughout the day. With all the existing diet advice available – some of which have opposing principles – it is good to know which ones are pure myths and which ones are really effective.
Take a look at our list of the top five nutritional and weight loss myths:
- Eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day.
According to nutritionists, the body does not immediately go into starvation mode once you go several hours without eating. In fact, you can survive for up to three days of drastic calorie restriction before your diet has some serious effects on your metabolism. Although spacing your meals out can balance your sugar levels, you do not need to obsess about having or not having snacks every couple of hours or so.
- You can eat anything you want throughout the day, but not after a certain hour of the night – a.k.a. the “After Six” or “After Eight” diet.
These after-a-certain-hour diets do not really work because the calories you consumed after 8 PM will not necessarily make you gain weight any faster than if you ate it an hour later or earlier. What matters is the total number of calories that you consumed throughout the day – so don’t feel guilty about having a late dinner if you’ve been working from afternoon until late at night in the office.
- Coffee is a no-no if you want to lose weight.
Some dieters stick to a no-coffee plan, thinking that caffeine will make them dehydrated. This is not true at all – there are even lots of health benefits from drinking a moderate amount of coffee such as stimulating the brain, the central nervous system and protecting against the development of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
- Consuming foods with high-fructose corn syrup is a mortal sin for dieters!
This type of sweetener is no less fattening than regular table sugar. No matter what type of sweetener it is that you add to your desserts, they will all lead to the same thing so it’s your general consumption of sweets that you need to reduce if you want to lose weight.
- Chicken is the only healthy meat.
Finally, most dieters stick to a white-meat-only eating plan – but there are cuts of beef and pork which are just as lean as chicken breast – and they’re a lot more flavorful, too!
By knowing what the real deal is behind the most popular nutritional and weight loss myths, you’d know which tips to live by and which advice you should steer clear of.
