I try to dispel as many weight loss myths as I can to help clients in Pleasanton, CA, but there are always new ones arising or old ones reworded to sound like new information. Some are easy to dispel, such as those that promote a fad, like magical weight loss elixirs such as the lemonade diet. One myth that can be particularly defeating is the belief that you’ll lose the same amount each week. I’ve seen people despair because they did everything right, yet didn’t lose a single pound and others that cheated who managed to shed four pounds instead of two. You need to judge your weight loss program over several months, since weight fluctuates daily, even if you burned and ate the same number of calories. It’s often caused by water weight fluctuations.
It’s a myth that all you need to do is exercise to lose weight.
Too often I’ve watched people in the gym workout for an hour and smugly congratulate themselves on the pounds they’ll shed. Then they go their favorite watering hole and have a couple of beers and a double burger and large fries to celebrate. No matter how much you workout, you still have to eat healthy to shed those pounds. It’s all about calories in, calories burned. Exercise will raise your metabolism, because the more muscle tissue you have the more calories you burn, but it won’t offset huge meals that are high in calories. In fact, what you eat is the most important part of weight loss, since you can’t out exercise a bad diet. Combine a healthy diet with regular exercise and you have a formula for success.
Only a certain type of exercise will help you lose weight is another myth.
Whether you’re discussing aerobic exercise such as running or strength training, there’s no one right weight loss exercise. Doing tons of aerobic training does burn calories, but the calories come from both fat and muscle tissue. The less muscle tissue you have, the harder it is to lose weight. On the other hand, doing only strength training isn’t the answer either. You need all types of training to be healthy, which includes flexibility training.
One of the worst myths is that it doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as you cut calories/carbs.
I’ve seen devotees to both carb and calorie counting who either live on rice cakes and celery sticks—if they count calories—or eat nothing but plates and plates of sirloin steak because it has no carbs. Both extremes can’t be maintained for long and aren’t healthy. The best way to shed pounds is to eat healthy foods, cut out food with added sugar and white flour, processed meat and other highly processed foods. Focus on whole food with lots of healthy vegetables, fresh fruit, lean meat or poultry and you’ll lose weight.
- It’s a huge myth that you have to go hungry if you want to lose weight. Nothing could be further from the truth. You simply have to switch to healthier eating.
- Diet food or drink isn’t necessarily healthy for you and won’t necessarily help you shed pounds. The same is true of low fat items, which often has sugar added to make it palatable.
- One huge myth is about the health of both thin and obese people. While being obese is linked to several diseases, being obese doesn’t mean you necessarily have health issues, just as being thin doesn’t mean you’re healthy.
- It’s a myth that supplements can help you lose weight. There was one supplement that actually worked for weight loss but not in a good way. It was called Wow and came from Frito-Lay a little over 20 years ago. It contained olestra, which is a potent laxative and the weight loss was flushed down the toilet.
For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness