Myth #1: Fad Diets Work
Everyday we get bombarded with weight loss commercials showing normal looking people losing tens of pounds in a matter of weeks. You’re promised that in a few short days you can lose 10 lbs by eating only cabbage soup (yuck) or if you cut out all of your carbs you can get that supermodel body you desire.
Well I hate to break it to you but fad diets rarely help you to permanently lose weight. In fact most people cannot sustain the diet for very long due to the enormous restrictions put on which foods they can eat and end up yo-yoing up to an even heavier weight.
Quick Weight Loss Tip: If you want long term weight loss set your goal to losing about 2 lbs per week. Anything more will likely be too difficult to maintain.
Myth #2: Carbs Are Bad
Just like the low-fat explosion of the 80’s and 90’s comes the no/low-carb diets of the 00’s made popular by the Atkins’ Diet. Their have been many “Weight Loss Guru’s” out there pedaling misleading and wrong information about the evils of carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are not all bad the problem that people have is they consume too many of the wrong types of carbs. Carbohydrates serve as an essential source of fuel for the body. The important thing to remember is to stay away from products high in refined sugars. For more information on which carbs to eat take a look at this article Glycemic Index: Which foods are best?
Quick Weight Loss Tip: Avoid high glycemic carbs like the ones listed in the article link above.
Myth #3: Low-Fat Diets
Before the popular low carb diets was the revolutionary low fat diets. How marketers dream of catchy fads. Some of you may remember how almost over night half the food products sold had low fat stickers on them. Like everything science caught up with reality and debunked the low fat craze.
The unfortunate consequence of the low fat fad is that people have been led to believe that all fat is bad. The fats that are bad are the trans-fats (look for partially hydrogenated oils) and saturated fats. There are essential fats that your body does need and those are the omega fatty acids. Fatty fish like sardines, mackerel, and salmon are excellent sources of omega 3 fatty acids. To read more take a look at The Healthy Fat: Omega 3 Fatty Acids
Quick Weight Loss Tip: Next time you’re at the store take a look at the amount of sugar in the low-fat and non-fat foods. They are loaded with sugar.
Myth #4: Lose Weight Eating What You Want
The majority of the time it’s not what you’re eating it’s how much you’re eating. There is a place and a time in your diet for your favorite foods and desserts just not 3 times a day. Losing weight is fairly simple as long as you remember 2 things: portion size & which foods you are eating.
Quick Weight Loss Tip: Eat 5-6 balanced meals (mix of low glycemic carbs, protein, & fat) a day and don’t binge eat.
Myth #5: Starving Yourself Will Help You Lose Weight
People who skip breakfast tend to eat fewer times during the day and typically have more weight problems. Skipping meals is a big no-no when it comes to losing weight.
Another big no-no is skipping breakfast. Your body goes into a conservation mode while you sleep to conserve energy. In order to kick start your metabolism and get out of the fat storing conservation mode you have to eat. Otherwise your body will continue to think that it needs to conserve energy causing your metabolism to slow down so it can store more calories as fat.
Quick Weight Loss Tip: Increasing the frequency of meals raises your metabolism and causes the body to burn more calories.
Myth #6: Cardio Is The Only Fat Burning Exercise
You may not be aware of this but cardio is one of the poorer choices for burning fat. Don’t get me wrong doing cardio is better than nothing but wouldn’t you rather push that fat burning to a higher level?
Quick Weight Loss Tip: The two best methods for burning that fat are weight training and interval training.
Women tend to be paranoid about weight training for fear that they will bulk up. The truth is you don’t have enough testosterone to truly bulk up. What you are seeing is your muscles swelling up with water for a short time after training. The great benefit of weight training is that the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn. The nice thing about weight training is that as you build the muscle your body will burn more calories after you leave the gym then you would if you just did cardio.
Interval training is another great weight loss tip you can use for burning fat. Unlike slow boring cardio, interval training is a high paced method used by many trainers. Typically you start off at a slower pace either gradually increasing the intensity or jumping from low intensity to high intensity to low again. That’s where the term interval comes from.