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8 Myths About Weight Loss: How Many Do You Know?

Fact-Checked

In this era of digitalization, when almost everyone has access to the Internet, sharing recommendations and advice on nearly any topic is quite feasible.

However, with this convenience, comes another challenge related to the authenticity of the information. One such challenge is the information available on the web regarding weight loss.

There is a lot of information regarding weight loss, both on the web as well as in the offline world. However, if you are constantly trying to lose weight but cannot find success, then it could be because you may be following one of the myths regarding weight loss.

On the other hand, if you have just decided to embark on your weight loss journey, then you might prefer to see results sooner instead of later.

Due to this, you should be careful from the beginning and have cognizance of all the myths about weight loss that might steer you away from your goal.

So get ready to have a glance at some of the myths about weight loss that are not true. Buying these common misconceptions may not only waste your efforts and time but could even truncate your motivation to lose weight.

Due to this, we have made a list of the common myths about weight loss that you might be following.

Myths About Weight Loss

  1. Skipping Breakfast To Lose Weight

    One of the most common myths that people follow is to skip breakfast to support their weight loss journey. The major reason behind this could be to miss a meal of your day and hence truncate the overall consumption of your calories.

    However, this is not the truth. The people who tend to skip their breakfast might instead end up eating more[1] during the rest of the day to counteract the deficit.

    Skipping breakfast daily could lead you to miss some of the important nutrients that may energize you for the entire day. No wonder how skipping breakfast may make you feel more tired and hungry during the day.

  2. Using Weight Loss Supplements

    According to the Food and Drug Adminismyriad products maycts that may be marketed as dietary supplements, but they consist of some active ingredients which are contained in prescription drugs.

    These ingredients haven’t been yet adequately studied in humans, and due to this, prescription drugs have been removed from the market.

    No wonder how you can consider the dangerous nature of these ingredients. Besides this, some of the weight loss supplements might prove to be ineffective and could be a waste of your efforts, time, and money.

  3. Staying Hungry Promotes Weight Loss

    Remaining hungry to lose weight could be one of the biggest weight loss myths that people follow. You may think that evading your meals and snacks could help to lose weight by truncating the number of calories you consume.

    However, on the other side of the coin, being hungry to do so may just lead to frustration and irritability. Moreover, at the end of the day, you may instead focus on overeating and thus, gain weight more quickly.

    Hence instead of being hungry to lose weight, you could eat a mini-meal every three to four hours, or choose a healthy snack for your between-meal hunger pangs.

    You might add certain lean proteins to your healthy snacks or mini-meals like carrots, beans, and Greek yogurt. On the other hand, you could even focus on protein-rich foods that might help you feel full[3] quickly and thus lose weight.

    Some of the high protein ingredients that you may add to your snacks or meals could include whole eggs, potatoes, lean beef, almonds, peanut butter, chicken breast, Quinoa., semolina, pasta, lentils, etc.

  4. Avoiding Snacks While Losing Weight

    Another biggest myth that people spread is that if you are trying to lose weight, then you may not snack at all. Snacking could be considered a cardinal sin of dieting. However, this is just a myth.

    Snacking properly with high-protein snacks could help manage your calmore productivelyoductive way. The primary essence of snacking for losing weight is that you may not focus much on the process of snacking but on what you snack upon.

    You could also try some of the best snacks for healthy weight loss.

    Snacking differs from person to person. It might appear complex initially, but if you focus on this process effeciently, it might help you lose weight.

    Some people might snack on celery, while others may snack on cookies. However, if you are snacking to lose weight, you may focus on adding a piece of fruit or low-fat yogurt to your snacks.

    The advantage is that snacks like these could help to truncate your food cravings and prevent you from overeating at meal times.

    Generally, snacking is a multifaceted concept. It might either support your weight loss process or may even hinder it. But the way you snack matters.

    Also, one could easily understand that the people who are obese might snack more as compared to the people who are not obese.

    In this case, you should always aim at changing your snacks from unhealthy ingredients to healthy ones.

    Low-carb snacks could also be great options if you have a habit of munching while doing your office or college work.

  5. Cutting High-Fat Foods Helps Lose Weight

    Though consuming fat in high amounts could be dangerous, cutting fat altogether from your diet will not help you to lose weight.

    On the other hand, it could even lead to weight gain in certain circumstances. Ingredients that contain healthy fats are essential for your body and, they could bolster your metabolism process, thus helping you to lose weight.

    In case you cut fats from your diet, then you may replace them with calories like refined grains or added sugar. Such calories will not just truncate your metabolism, but might even hype up the insulin levels in your body.

    Furthermore, it could lead to a vicious cycle of more sugar cravings and hence, contribute to weight gain. Due to this, you may focus on eating healthy fats while you want to lose weight.

    These healthy fats may include hemp seeds, wild salmon, avocados, ground flax seeds, walnuts, extra virgin olive oil, etc. These fats may help you to lose weight by truncating your inflammation levels and helping you to feel satisfied after eating.

  6. Artificial Sweeteners Are Unhealthy

    Most people striving to lose weight may opt for different artificial sweeteners to truncate their sugar intakes. There are myriad low or no-calorie artificial sweeteners in the market like aspartame.

    These sweeteners may help to curtail the number of calories you consume and different studies show how they may be related to weight loss.

    However, some studies have not reached this conclusion. But this does not mean you should evade the consumption of artificial sweeteners.

  7. Targeting Trouble Spots

    Some people might be concerned about their weight in certain trouble spots, like on the tummy, thighs, arms, or other body regions.

    Due to this, they start doing exercises for abs and consider targeting the trouble spots and think this could help them remove the fat from specific areas.

    However, this is just a myth. You can only aim at losing weight by incorporating the right ingredients into your diet and working out regularly.

    However, there is no sure way to know where the fat from your body would shed off. Since each individual has a different body, it may be pretty impossible to target fat loss in some specific body regions through your diet.

    Moreover, your exercises can also help you tone your muscles and some specific body parts to look slimmer.

  8. Do Not Eat Sugar At All

    Though sugar is high in calories, you may not eliminate all sugar from your diet while striving to lose weight.

    As mentioned above, moderation is the key, and instead of cutting out all sugar from your diet, you could avoid consuming products with added refined sugar.

Wrapping It Up!

Thus, these are some of the myths that you might be following since time immemorial, and hence your weight loss journey couldn’t be successful.

Though losing weight may be a daunting task, all you need is the right advice and consistency for the process. Generally, what is more important could be to truncate your calorie consumption and focus on exercise.

Moreover, another thing to keep in mind is that there is no weight loss miracle. In case you think any weight loss supplement is too good to be true, then it may not function well.

Also, if you suffer from any chronic disease like obesity or diabetes, then you may always have a word with your doctor before beginning your weight loss journey.

The right advice could go a long way and the wrong advice may simply slip you off the track. So good luck with embarking on a beautiful weight loss program!

References/Sources

Working4Health prefers using primary and verified references. We have strict sourcing guidelines and our primary references include peer-reviewed research, academic, and medical institution studies.

  1. Hitomi Ogata, Momoko Kayaba, Yoshiaki Tanaka, et al. Effect of skipping breakfast for 6 days on energy metabolism and diurnal rhythm of blood glucose in young healthy Japanese males Am J Clin Nutr. 2019 Jul 1;110(1):41-52. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqy346. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31095288/
  2. Dietary Supplements Content current as of: 12/21/2021 Available from: https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/dietary-supplements
  3. Valentine Yanchou Njike, Teresa M Smith, Omree Shuval, et al. Snack Food, Satiety, and Weight Adv Nutr. 2016 Sep 15;7(5):866-78. doi: 10.3945/an.115.009340. Print 2016 Sep. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27633103/
  4. Meghan B., Ahmed M. Abou-Setta, Bhupendrasinh F. Chauhan, et al. Nonnutritive sweeteners and cardiometabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies CMAJ. 2017 Jul 17; 189(28): E929–E939. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.161390

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