12 Biggest Myths on Losing Weight: Losing weight is never easy it never was and now with all these myths about weight loss and false notions it has become all the more difficult.
now whom to trust? and how to distinguish facts from myths related to weight loss?
Inspiring your journey, one story at a time. #LifeFalcon.
with thorough research and after investing a great deal of time in finding the facts and spotting the myths, here are the top 12 myths on losing weight that you need to avoid.
but before we get there, just think, how long did you take to gain all that weight?
It took you a while, didn’t it?
How can you expect to lose it all within a month? Even though there is a way to lose 1 pound in a day without exercise.
Before we dig into top myths people believe about losing fats, I want to clear out one thing. If you eat more than you burn, you’ll gain fats. And if you burn more, you’ll lose weight. 1 kg of fat is 3500 calories. Calculate your daily calorie intake and do the math.
inorder to make your weight loss journey a lot more clearer to you we have compiled here a list of the 12 biggest myths on losing weight.
A thorough reading through this article will help you avoid all those false notions about weight loss and save your time in finding the exact cure to fight your obesity.
Enlisted below are the 12 biggest myths on losing weight that you need to stop trusting when starting with your weight loss journey.
These are those 12 myths that never help anyone reduce weight but are still believed by many.
Now it’s time we debunk them and get logical explanations for why are they falsies.
Table of Content
Fat makes you fat:
Fat never makes you fat.
And again getting more calories in than you consume does. And it’s just common sense.
If calorie intake = calories burnt, you won’t get fat or lose weight. So you see how this is one of the myths for losing fat?
If calorie intake is less than calories burnt, your body will take calories from the fat stored in your body and so you lose fats, and if the case is opposite then you will gain weight because those extra calories get converted into fats.
about this myth, it may have crafted from the fact that the per gram calorie content of fat is higher than protein and carbs.
but that is exactly why fats keep you fuller for a relatively long period of time. and if you maintain a balanced intake of fat in your diet that can help boost up your weight loss.
how strange that sounds, Right?
eating the right amount of healthy good fat can help you lose weight quickly without even getting hunger pangs.
Dairy makes you fat
Wait a minute, so is this myth hinting at skipping dairy from your diet?
so, where to get all that essential Calcium from then?
I suppose who so ever introduced this myth wasn’t aware of the term “Low-fat dairy’.
dairy products are essentials to a healthy diet. But choosing your dairy products wisely is all that makes a difference.
Dairy is good but only if you take it the right way.
Eating a huge piece of cheesecake and later having a bowl of Ice-cream or perhaps some savory snacks topped with sour cream will obviously not be considered a healthy choice.
So when you pick dairy make sure you pick wisely.
in fact, making a wise choice with the dairy you consume will increase the speed of your weight loss.
Always prefer unsaturated dairy-fat, it is the healthiest fat and will really help boost your body’s metabolism.
Dairy products are very healthy. They are a good source of proteins and fats.
Like I explained before that fats don’t make you fat, it applies here too. Keeping protein intake high will help you lose fats, and at the same time, keep your muscles.
Never forget to include dairy products in your diet, even when you are trying to lose.
Green tea helps lose weight
Now don’t get me wrong when I say “No, it doesn’t.” Green tea is one of the healthiest beverages that can really help you lose fats, but, only when your body is already deficient in calories. So this is one of the fat loss myths that green tea helps you in the program.
It will never help you lose your fats if your calorie intake is more so you can not rely on green tea alone.
The main thing is to find out how many calories do you require in a day.
A rough estimate of finding your daily calorie intake can be found by multiplying your weight (in pounds) by 12 (for men) or by 11 (for women).
Subtracting 500 calories from your daily calorie intake would make you lose fats and, green tea is going to work as a catalyst.
but if you keep eating junk food, unhealthy desserts, and loads of calories throughout the day then don’t expect green tea to do some miracles, because it certainly won’t.
Breakfast can make you lose weight
This is a really big misconception that people have. Breakfast is healthy and should definitely be a part of your diet, but it’s all about the calories.
When you skip breakfast, you skip several hundred calories, which is definitely better if you are trying to lose weight.
People who blame skipping breakfast for their fats, actually wound up eating too much on their lunch because they are very hungry by that time. So breakfast makes you fat only when you eat later on that day. But breakfast is good.
In fact, eating small meals every 3 hours can help you lose fats because you won’t be feeling super hungry and your metabolism will stay good and you won’t feel weakness even though you will be eating way fewer calories throughout the day.
Crunches can get you six-packs
No amount of crunches would help you lose that pile of fats on your belly.
In fact, they are going to make you look a little fatter if you only rely on them because they are going to build your abdomen muscles underneath that fat, and will push your belly out.
It’s actually called spot reduction, people think that if they focus on a specific spot in terms of exercising, to lose fats, they will. It’s not the case.
Spot reduction is a myth.
We need to remove that belly fat to get to those six-pack abs, which are already present.
Everybody has six packs but they all just love it so much that they protect it with a huge layer of fats.
Your belly is the first place your fats get stored in and It is the last place from where it goes. In other words, your fat’s most favorite place of all is your belly. So you need to stay patient.
Starving yourself is the best way to go.
Sure starving can help you lose weight, but what is the weight?
It’s the sum of your bones, muscles, and fat’s weight. When you starve yourself your body goes into starvation mode.
Your brain thinks that you don’t have anything to eat so it stores everything you eat into fats and takes energy from your muscles instead and you end up with the worst possible body ever, i.e. a skinny person with a fat belly.
Our brain doesn’t care how we look, it always prefers burning your muscles before your fats when you have less energy.
The best way to go is to eat healthy, keeping intake calories low.
for that understanding, the importance of a healthy balanced diet and a regulated physical activity is the prime thing to start with.
You can lose fats with just water
Drinking water is very important for our body, but it doesn’t help you lose weight.
Water has zero calories.
But still cold water can burn your calories and that’s only because our body needs the energy to keep us warm all the time (37 degree Celsius to be exact), but even that is too low, I mean drinking a glass of ice-cold water burns only about 8 calories and so you can not rely on cold water only.
Water at room temperature burns no calories at all so water can’t lose fats but it can still help you with overeating by making you feel full.
You can lose all your weight in a week
When you see people telling you that they lost all their fats within one week naturally, they are either lying or either trying to sell something.
It can never happen, not until you use some sorts of heavy-duty steroids or other drugs that professional bodybuilders use mostly.
To lose fats you have to set some realistic goals like losing not more than 2 pounds per week, which is also the safest and do-able.
don’t fell prey to all those weird diet plans out there, telling you that you can starve yourself and get a size 0 within days.
because even if you do, you can never keep up your routine with such plans, and once you come back to your normal routine that extra weight will also come back in a larger digit than before.
not to mention the deficiencies and health issues your body will experience.
Snacking near midnight makes you fat.
No, It doesn’t make you necessarily fat, when I was trying to lose fats I used to snack at midnight all the time because that way I had energy in the morning for the gym.
So the point is you are not going to gain fats if your overall daily calorie intake is lower, doesn’t matter if you snack at midnight.
A word of advice though, midnight snacking is not good for digestion so make sure you don’t end up eating too much.
nutritionists suggest one should eat dinner at least 2 hours before he goes to bed because that way your body get’s enough time to deal with all the food within it.
however saying that midnight snacking can make you fat is still a myth.
Some people can eat whatever they want without getting fat.
There are three types of bodies Ectomorph, Mesomorph, and Endomorph.
Ectomorphs have the highest metabolic rates compared to the other two so they burn more calories.
Endomorph, on the other hand, has the lowest metabolic rates and burn way fewer calories.
Mesomorphs come in between.
You can check out which type of body you have exactly with a little research.
Anyways, some Ectomorphs (generally skinny and tall) can eat too much and still can’t get fat is only because they are burning more calories than they intake, they are eating very little, so no calories are stored in their body in the form of fats.
Lifting weights is not a good way to lose weight because it will make you “bulk up.”
No, lifting weights alone would never make you bulk up if you are on a low calories diet.
Building muscles are not that easy as most people think it is.
The best way to lose weight is to mix up cardio with weight training.
Cardio alone will burn your muscles too with fats. How? Your body thinks that you don’t need those muscles so it uses them for energy but when you are consistently lifting and going for heavier weights you force your brain to keep those muscles stronger. You take energy from elsewhere and that energy comes from your fats.
incase if you wish to get a muscular body and gain more muscle bulk you may check our article about How to get bigger arms and muscles?
Only eat when you’re hungry to lose weight.
Only eating when you are hungry would make you over-eat and so it’s not the way to go.
the best healthy meal plan will keep you full for a longer period of time. anything that makes you deal with hunger pangs or a gurgling stomach is never good.
In order to lose fats, you have to split all your three meals, your breakfast, lunch, and dinner into two, making a total of 6 meals throughout the day. This will help you eat less.
That way you will feel full all the time and you will be burning more fats.
So how do we lose weight then?
Let me make one thing very clear.
Losing weight requires work, you can never lose weight if you are just lying there on your couch.
Stop relying on weight loss drugs and supplements, if you are really serious about your weight loss.
There are no shortcuts in life and losing all of your fats is very hard, I am sorry if I’m not telling you that
“yes, you can lose all your weight in a week”
or
“wow this insane pill lost all my weight”
No!
Stop falling for them.
You can never lose all of your fats within a week safely and those pills are just going to ruin your kidneys and liver.
before taking any supplements you need to know their side-effects and we prefer not to take supplements except when your dietician has prescribed them.
Look you mostly have to earn everything you want to have in your life, make this your rule.
Your biggest enemy is you and you have to fight with yourself and trust me when I say this: “It’s going to be worth it when you do.”
So the question is:
Are you ready to lose your fats? if so the good news here is that now you know the 12 biggest myths on losing weight so it is easy to avoid them and save your precious time while getting the best results also.
To start with a healthy weight loss regime follow these steps below:
A step-by-step guide to weight loss:
Step 1:
Set realistic fats losing goals:
Before setting up your goals, know a few things.
First thing is that you are looking to lose fats and not your weight because weight also has bones and muscle mass in it, and you don’t want to lose them.
Second thing is that you must have to calculate your body fat percentage in order to know what is the goal that you want to make.
OK now that you know your body fat percentage,
If you are a guy, and a body fat percentage of 20% or less, you should aim for losing up to 1 – 1.5 lbs of fat in a week, with 20-25% of bf you should aim for 2 lbs/week and with greater than 25% body fat you should aim for up to 3.5 lbs/week.
but on the contrary,
If you are a girl, and a body fat percentage of 25% or less, you should aim for losing up to 1 – 1.5 lbs of fat in a week, with 25-34% of bf, you should aim for 2 lbs/week and with greater than 35% body fat, you should aim for up to 3.5 lbs/week.
Step 2:
Control your Diet:
Before setting up your diet, the most important thing to consider is how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. Now when I say calories I mean Kilocalories.
To calculate your daily calorie intake, multiply your weight (in lbs.) by 11 (for girls) and 12 (for guys).
For example, if you are a guy and you weigh 200 pounds then your daily calorie intake would be 200 * 12 = 2400 calories.
Okay for your diet, you want to aim for 60% of calories from proteins, 40% from carbohydrates and 20% from fats.
If you don’t want to get involved in so many calculations, just aim for 1g of protein/ lb of your weight in pounds and keep your overall calories less.
How much less, well keep 500 calories less than your daily intake calories e.g again for a 200 pounds guy, his daily calories required to lose fats would be 2400-500 = 1900 calories
FAQs:
What are some easily available foods you want to consider for your diet?
Foods rich in proteins: Chicken, eggs, fish, lentils, cheese, milk, tofu, beans, and nuts.
Foods rich in carbs: Oatmeal, potato, brown rice, wheat, and brown bread.
Foods rich in fats: olive oil, cheese, peanut butter.
You can use these foods to make up your daily diet.
What should my diet plan look like?
Breakfast: Half cup oats with 1 cup cow’s milk, 3 egg whites, and 1 whole egg.
Brunch: A half sandwich of peanut butter.
Lunch: Steamed Chicken/fish/beef/lamb, brown rice.
Pre-gym: 1 peanut butter sandwich with a glass of low-fat milk.
Post-gym: 1 TB spoon of Sugar of High Glycemic Index (which dissolves in the body ready to give you energy) and 5 egg whites.
Dinner: Meat only.
So you can copy my diet if you want which included a high protein and low carbs and fats diet.
The main point here is that you have to make sure you eat after every 3 hours.
Use carbs for your workouts, use fats to sustain your energy for longer periods of time, and use proteins for building new muscles.
In order to lose fats, you have to split all your three meals, your breakfast, lunch, and dinner into two, making a total of 6 meals throughout the day, eating after every three hours.
That way you will feel full all the time and you will be burning more fats.
Also, the number of foods should be according to your daily calorie intake required.
Check out the exact number of grams of proteins and calories for all foods, write them all down and then eat according to it.
A word of caution: For diabetic patients, High Glycemic Index sugar should be avoided.
Step 3:
Set up your exercise plan:
Setting up your exercise plan is easy.
The hard part is actually doing it, so start slowly and then make your way up to more aggressive exercises.
Your exercise plan should include both weight training as well as cardio.
FAQs:
Why do you need to train with weights?
Well, let me explain to you how our body works.
We have three sources of energy in our bodies.
One comes from the food we eat, one comes from the burning of fats and one comes from the burning of our muscles.
Our brain always prefers to burn muscles instead of fats because it’s more readily available for energy than fats, so when you train with weights you tell your brain that your muscles are important for you because you use them daily and so it turns towards your fats.
When astronauts spend too much time in space without gravity, their bones and muscle mass start diminishing because their brains feel that they don’t need them, as they are not using them.
So these astronauts have to exercise daily in order to save their muscles and bones.
For cardio, If you are looking for some serious results like getting six-pack abs or less than 14% body fat. I’d prefer you do HIIT.
(HIIT is High Interval Intensity Training, The simplest form of it is just running as fast as you can in a short period of time, then take rest for some time and do it again.
Note: If you are new to HIIT or have more than 25% of body fat, you should start with simply brisk walking.
Now your workout plan should look like this:
Monday: Chest exercises with a half-hour of HIIT.
Tuesday: Bicep workout.
Wednesday: Triceps workout with a half-hour of HIIT.
Thursday: Shoulders workout.
Friday: Back workout with a half-hour of HIIT.
Saturday: Rest.
Sunday: Rest.
If you are an absolute beginner, you should start with understanding the exercises first and go with very low weights. There are tons of videos explaining all workouts in detail.
It’s time for you to do a little homework. Make your plan.
Also, make one day in a week “The cheat day”, Sunday would be the most suitable day for that according to the plan mentioned.
Cheat day is basically a day on which you can eat all you want without worrying.
Cheat days are actually healthy for you because it removes your body’s cravings but still, make sure you earn your cheat day.
Step 4:
Give it time:
This is the most important step of all. Your belly is the first place where your fats get stored in and it’s the last place from where the fats go.
The majority of people just want to lose fats from their belly and they go for spot reduction, by doing tons of crunches and other abdomen exercises.
Spot reduction is a myth that means you can not simply lose fats from your belly only. Your fats are distributed all over your body so you have to give it some time before you can start losing your fats from your belly.
When I started losing my weight I saw that my arms were the first place from where fat started to disappear then came my face then my legs then my chest and at the very last came to my abs.
So don’t be disappointed if you don’t see any results on your belly in the first month.
Just keep on working and keep up with your diet and exercise plans, those fats on your belly are going to get away.
Conclusion:
In order to lose fats, you must set up a realistic goal and plan your diet and exercise schedule accordingly.
Don’t fall for any pills and herbs or anything.
The only way to lose your fats is by hard work period. It’s about changing your lifestyle.
Just follow my instructions and make your diet and exercise plan according to it.
