Top Four Dieting Myths

Do you need to control your eating habits and lose weight? Good for you. But… before you start with any diet program, get yourself informed to avoid following dieting myths.

Myth 1: You should only eat low-fat and non-fat food.

That is definitely not true. Yes, a low-fat diet is important in losing weight, but don’t cut everything out!

Why? Because your body still needs fat to supply energy, repair tissues, and carry vitamins A, D, E, and K throughout your body. Men need at least 40 grams of fat per day while women need 30 grams of fat per day.

What is good fat then? Unsaturated fats, such as the fat in olive oil and avocados, are health fats.

Myth 2: Fasting helps you lose weight easily.

Fasting will definitely help you lose weight easily – in the short term at least. At the end of the day, fasting will prevent you from reaching your goals. Crash diets make you lose fat, lean muscles, and tissues. Losing muscles drops your metabolism significantly, which in the long run will require your body lesser calories, and you will just gain weight as soon as you stop fasting.

That’s also the reason why it is important to exercise when you are in a diet program, as it helps balance your metabolic rate.

Myth 3: Eating at night makes you fat.

There are diets that require you to refrain from eating at night because you are no longer active hence you do not burn calories. In the contrary, studies show that this is not true – eating a large meal at night does not store more fat. What matters is the whole amount of calories you eat during the whole day.

However, it is also best if you eat regular meals and small snacks in between. Eating less during the day makes you binge at night.

Myth 4: You can never lose weight if you have slow metabolism.

Again, this is a myth. If you are larger, you need more calories as you do activities, and your metabolism is higher. The reason why you gain weight is when you eat more calories than what is needed based on your physical activity. If you are inactive, that is most likely the reason why you gain more weight.