Common Diet Myths

If you want to lose weight, it’s actually simple: eat less and exercise more! Unfortunately, with all the fad and crash diets everywhere information is often conflicted and confusing. At the end of the day, it is all lost in the fray. If you want to lose weight, it’s actually simple: eat less and exercise more! Unfortunately, with all the fad and crash diets everywhere information is often conflicted and confusing. At the end of the day, it is all lost in the fray.

With so many diets available it is often difficult to chose which is best for you: Atkins, South Seas, Weight Watchers, low fat, low carb, High GI – the list is endless. Learning to eat healthier and smarter is what will ultimately improve your life and your waistline. Here are some common food and diet myths which can be laid to rest:

MYTH: Diets don’t work.

If you eat less calories you will lose weight. It is not normally the diet that does not work but the restrictions a diet creates. If you chose a diet that introduces a healthier lifestyle but still allows you some treats you are more likely to succeed in losing weight. A diet that you hate is a diet that is destined to fail. Pick something with food you like and management systems that are not tedious to use.

MYTH: The heavier you are, the less calories you need to lose weight.

Actually it is the reverse. You can have more calories and lose weight as your body has to work extra hard to move the excess weight around, so you actually burn more calories. But as you lose weight so you will have to drop your calorie intake accordingly. A good way to adjust your calories allotments is to weigh yourself weekly and make the appropriate changes to your diet.

MYTH: Being overweight is in my genes.

Scientists have been hard at work trying to identify if there is a ‘fat’ gene and have seen that there is – but only in a very few of us. There is actually more than one single gene that affects the way your body processes food and responds to exercise. More than just genes, those who are overweight may have inherited the eating and exercise habits of their parents which can also lead to weight gain.

MYTH: Eating after 6 o’clock will make you gain weight as you don’t burn it off.

Eating in the evening will not make you gain weight. In fact many people get hungry around supper time and it is natural for your body to ask for food. What will pile on the pounds is the type of food you have for supper – avoid sweet treats such as cakes and biscuits or those steeped in fat.

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