In this article, we explore the top ten weight loss myths and provide you with in-depth information on diet, health, and weight loss.
Myth #1: If you want to lose weight, you have to follow a low-fat diet.
Sorry Weight Watchers fans, this is completely false. Low-fat diets are high-carb diets that can actually make you gain weight, since carbs are much more fattening than fat. In fact, eating the right kinds of fats (for example, coconut oil) can help you lose weight.
Myth #2: If you want to lose weight, you need to be on a low-carb diet like Atkins.
While it’s true that cutting carbs is helpful for those who overeat, one of the biggest problems with Atkins is that it has a high long-term failure rate. Some people find the diet too restrictive and boring and may experience negative side effects. The best diet is a whole food, all natural diet with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, something that is prohibited on the Atkins carnivore plan.
Myth #3: Diets high in saturated fat like Atkins will cause you to have heart attacks, gain weight, and have high cholesterol. You should keep saturated fats to a minimum and replace them with “heart-healthy” polyunsaturated oils, such as margarine, vegetable and corn oils.
No. This is just a myth perpetrated by the vegetable oil industry and bad science.
1. There Is No Proof That Saturated Fat Causes High Cholesterol Or Heart Disease
2. There is no proof that “high” cholesterol causes heart disease; in fact, in women, it appears to be cardioprotective.
3. Foods high in fat and cholesterol do not increase blood cholesterol.
4. Polyunsaturated oils may increase the risk of cancer.
Myth #4: Vegetarianism is the key to good health and a slim figure.
It may be for some people, but we have seen some patients get sick and weak on a vegetarian diet and when we encouraged them to try eating some animal protein as an experiment, they had miraculous recoveries. We have also seen many vegetarians become overweight due to their high carbohydrate intake. We are not saying that you are not a vegetarian, we are saying that you have to experiment with what is suitable for your metabolic needs.
Myth #5: Pharmaceutical drugs are a great help in losing weight.
Anna Nicole Smith took many different prescription drugs to lose weight. They killed her. There are a plethora of pharmaceutical drugs out there, from appetite suppressants (Phentermine, Phen-fen) to fat blockers (Alli, Orlistat), to antidepressants (Wellbutrin, Zoloft) and all of these drugs have serious negative side effects that will only serve to spoil your physiology and cause you to gain more weight when you leave them. She used to work in a clinic with a bariatric doctor who prescribed medication and watched the yo-yo cycle over and over again.
Myth #6: The best way to exercise on a weight loss program is to do cardio for 45 minutes a day or walk 10,000 steps a day.
Don’t get us wrong, cardio has many great benefits, BUT if you want to get the most bang for your buck and don’t have a lot of time, then you’ll want to learn how to do 20 minute workouts. high intensity interval training workouts. You’ll burn fat seven times faster than walking or other forms of cardio, and unlike cardio, you’ll build muscle mass, which is the key to increasing your metabolic rate.
Myth #7: Reducing your caloric intake with low-calorie diets, meal replacement bars, shakes, and liquid diets will help you lose weight quickly and easily.
The World Health Organization has declared that any diet under 2,200 calories for an adult is starvation. We have seen clients who follow popular weight loss programs like Jenny Craig or The Zone on 1,200 calorie per day diets and fail to lose a pound. So we told them to increase their food intake to at least 2200 calories a day and to make sure their diet was 100% REAL FOOD, not the processed crap they had been eating and guess what? THEY LOST WEIGHT! It’s funny what the body is willing to do when it doesn’t feel like it has to store every calorie you eat because it’s STARVING!
Myth #8: Sugar is high in calories, so you’ll lose pounds if you replace it with diet sodas and artificial sweeteners.
Ha! This one kills me because I sacrificed two years of my life doing nothing but reading the research on artificial sweeteners for my book Sweet Deception, and research shows in both animals and humans that artificial sweeteners can cause you to GAIN WEIGHT. Yes, that is correct. Splenda, Nutrasweet, and all the other toxic chemicals you’ve been told are the golden keys to a trim figure actually increase your hunger and cause your body to secrete more insulin, which is a fat-generating hormone.
But don’t take my word for it, read the book for yourself. If you ever drink another diet food sweetened with artificial sweeteners after reading this, return the book to me and I’ll refund you 100%. (Be warned, these books have been selling like hot cakes and we’ve never had a single return, which makes me very happy to show diet coke addicts the light.)
Myth #9: You have a high chance of permanent weight loss success with any of the popular diet programs: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, LA Weight Loss, South Beach Diet, EDiets, Curves, Nutrisystem, etc.
You have chances to lose weight, but it’s pretty low. You need to address all of the many factors that can prevent you from losing weight in a holistic way that involves mind, body, and spirit.
Myth #10: Weight loss is all about calories in and calories out, eating less and exercising more Oh how I wish it were that simple! I could have skipped ten grueling years of pre-med and med school and had people write down their caloric intake and then tell them how to cut calories with LA Lites (bars and shakes) and Nutrisystem astronaut food.
But it has been my experience that there are so many other factors that can cause weight gain such as: food allergies, hormone deficiencies, food addictions, compulsive eating, anxiety, depression, codependency and other relationship issues, metabolic imbalances, processed foods. , low caloric intake, slow metabolism, lack of goals, life purpose or spiritual foundation, social conditioning, EFA deficiencies, neurotransmitter imbalances, incorrect exercise, and the list goes on and on.
If you have some of these factors working against you, you may always struggle with your weight until you can properly address them.
