Thread: 10 myths about dieting

atleast myths are becoming to get exposed mainstream

Most of that stuff is just common sense.

common among us, not the avg person.

Originally Posted by vortrit

Most of that stuff is just common sense.

something that many people lack today....I used to post a lot on yahoo answers years ago. a 14 year old girl posted a question once on how to make herself shorter she was like 5'7 and wanted to be 5'2 , that was my last day on yahoo answers...

Originally Posted by MyK 3.0

common among us, not the avg person.

yup.

Actually, I used to believe 3 things from there. Been a while, but in my early 20's I believed you should work out on an empty stomach, small meals was the ONLY way to keep your metabolism going and that eat only protein no carbs was the best and only way to lose weight. Tv tells you alot of things that are very wrong, but yet people still believe it. Just gotta learn.

Reproduced from the above-posted link, for discussion.

#1 is actually a good idea. Read up on intermittent fasting. I've given up breakfast.

#5 (exercising while hungry) may also be helpful. Read more on intermittent fasting for this.

#7 there is no evidence that high protein diets induce kidney damage in healthy individuals. Protein also promotes satiety.

#8 RFL is a fad diet that works.

1. Skipping Meals
   Ask most people and they will tell you that the key to losing weight for good--and the reason why they fail at dieting again and again--is to skip as many meals as possible. Eating fewer meals is good, right? Wrong. The National Institutes of Health's Weight-Control Information Network reports that skipping meals--particularly breakfast--and eating fewer meals in the day is linked to heavier weight than people who eat small meals four or five times a day, including breakfast.
2. Water Will Help You Lose Weight
   While drinking plenty of water daily keeps you adequately hydrated, it doesn't take the place of the nutrients in food, boost your metabolism or flush out fat. If you try to lose weight simply by drinking lots of water, your body is still going to need the energy it receives from food and you won't be able to hold that need off for long.
3. Never Eat After 8 p.m.
   Many people firmly believe that calories consumed late in the evening turn to fat during the night while you are sleeping. According to dietitians, however, this is incorrect: your body's digestion of food and calorie usage remains the same at any time of the day or night, and energy that is stored in the evening is simply used the next day. It isn't when you eat, but what, how much and how many of the stored calories are burned off with physical activity during the day that determines weight gain or loss.
4. Some Foods Burn Fat
   There is no food that, just by you eating it, can burn fat and magically melt away pounds. Throughout the years, dieting gurus have exalted everything from grapefruit to celery to eggs to cabbage soup as the one thing you need to eat to lose all the weight you want. While all these foods are full of essential vitamins and minerals and should have a place in every healthy diet, none of them can speed up your metabolism to the point that you will lose weight.
5. Exercising While Hungry
   According to the That's Fit website, exercising when you're hungry not only doesn't cause your body to burn fat exclusively, if it lacks enough available carbohydrates to burn for fuel, your body will begin to use muscle tissue instead. Burning muscle decreases your metabolism and makes weight loss less, not more, likely.
6. Small Meals Boost Metabolism
   While the idea that simply eating a series of small meals throughout the day instead of two or three large meals can make your body burn calories faster is appealing, Real Simple reports that how you consume your daily calories has practically no effect on your metabolism. The key to upping your metabolism isn't eating a bunch of times a day, but increasing your muscle mass: a pound of muscle tissue burns seven times as many calories in a day as a pound of fat tissue.
7. Eat High-Protein, Low-Carb
   According to the National Institutes of Health, a diet that focuses on high-protein foods and strictly reduces the number of grains, fruits and vegetables consumed provides unbalanced nutrition that may yield results in the short-term only because of restricted food choices, but may end up contributing to a number of health conditions, including high cholesterol, increased heart disease risk, kidney stones and gout. Additionally, That's Fit reports that, when compared to low-fat dieters, low-carb dieters lose weight quicker, but gain it back in six months and end up no thinner than their low-fat counterparts. It is also untrue that eating starchy carbohydrates like pasta, potatoes or bread is instantly turned into sugar, then stored as fat. It's extra calories that cause weight gain, not carbohydrates, which should be an essential part of every healthy diet.
8. Fad Diets Work
   Going on any short-term diet that requires you to make extreme changes in your regular eating patterns or cuts your calories below recommended daily levels is not only going to be difficult to keep up over the long run, but can possibly affect your health and make you upset when the weight you lost at the beginning of the diet creeps inevitably back. There aren't any quick fixes when it comes to permanent, sustainable weight loss. The best way to get the weight off and keep it off is to make healthy changes that you can maintain for a lifetime.
9. Eating Certain Foods Makes You Fat
   Just as consuming certain wonder foods won't magically melt fat off your thighs, eating other "bad" foods like nuts, red meat or dairy products aren't a guarantee that you will instantly gain weight. Nuts, lean red meat and dairy products all provide vitamins and minerals needed by your body and, in moderation, can certainly be a part of a healthy lifestyle.
10. Go Vegetarian to Lose Weight
    While vegetarians overall do tend to consume fewer calories and less fat than non-vegetarians, it is not true that simply switching to a vegetarian diet will cause you to lose weight. There are as many ways to eat high-calorie, high-fat foods and exceed the number of calories your body needs while eating vegetarian as there are eating a more traditional diet. As with every aspect of weight loss, focus on what you eat, how much you eat of it and how much physical activity you engage in regularly.

Originally Posted by Built

Reproduced from the above-posted link, for discussion.

#1 is actually a good idea. Read up on intermittent fasting. I've given up breakfast.

#5 (exercising while hungry) may also be helpful. Read more on intermittent fasting for this.

Ditto. IF has done a lot for helping me control eating habits, with out going mental.

I have Modified IF a bit to suit my needs/Schedule. But what a world of difference for me.

Originally Posted by Built

Reproduced from the above-posted link, for discussion.

#1 is actually a good idea. Read up on intermittent fasting. I've given up breakfast.

#5 (exercising while hungry) may also be helpful. Read more on intermittent fasting for this.

#7 there is no evidence that high protein diets induce kidney damage in healthy individuals. Protein also promotes satiety.

#8 RFL is a fad diet that works.

#1 is talking about skipping as many meals as possible, not IF. significant difference IMO.

#5 exercising while hungry sucks. maybe a little cardio, but for real work you need energy!

#8. what is RFL? what are the extreme changes?

Originally Posted by MyK 3.0

#1 is talking about skipping as many meals as possible, not IF. significant difference IMO.

#5 exercising while hungry sucks. maybe a little cardio, but for real work you need energy!

#8. what is RFL? what are the extreme changes?

Skipping meals means eating less frequently. That's what I do, and it works a charm. I ate my first meal yesterday at four PM.
I've managed to do short, heavy workouts hungry without issue. Actually, it seems to make appetite go away for a bit.

Rapid Fat Loss. Google "Lyle McDonald" and go read bodyrecomposition.

I don't think there is a cure all for everyone....

I have done every diet under the sun, literally. And what has worked for me, surprisingly, goes against a lot of popular belief.


I can lose weight on a low carb diet, but I get majorly constipated and bloated from all the meat and I lose muscle quickly.

I do better with 3 larger meals versus 5-6 smaller meals per day

I gain muscle better by allocating the majority of my protein to come from plant source. (Again it works for my body)

The ratio of calories that works best with MY BODY is (P-F-C) 20%-40%-40%

I believe it's my genetics, but my digestive tract does not digest animal or dairy protein very well. And switching to plant source protein, and lowering the amount of protein I get has shown no decrease in my muscle mass or strength gains.

Eating close to bed time, does not seem to make me gain weight as long as it's not a HEAVY high carb meal.

Ice cream is completely off limits for me. I can't even look at the stuff without gaining weight.

Sodium shoots my weight up 2-5 pounds depending on the amount that I consume.
I can go from a shredded 6 pack to a belly in a matter of a few hours because of water retention. Again, must be in my genetics.

I really love the trial and error of learning one's body. Because I used to think that what worked for my body should work for my friend, and he would never listen to me and still got great results, then I tried to copy him and would gain fat.

For me, moderate carbs are not a major issue as long as they are combined with either fat or protein to slow down the digestion.
Major amounts of carbs will make me blow up like a balloon. I can gain 5-7 pounds of fat in a week if I wanted to.
True endomorph here

Originally Posted by Built

Skipping meals means eating less frequently. That's what I do, and it works a charm. I ate my first meal yesterday at four PM.
I've managed to do short, heavy workouts hungry without issue. Actually, it seems to make appetite go away for a bit.

Rapid Fat Loss. Google "Lyle McDonald" and go read bodyrecomposition.

Ah that's even further than I thought you took it. So do you generally eat like 2-3 meals at like 700-900 calories per meal late in the day when cutting? Or do you still do your big brown bag thing?

The ratio of calories that works best with MY BODY is (P-F-C)
I can't seem to figure that very easily. I just try to eat based on calories, so not great. Any better tricks of the trade?

Originally Posted by Brandibeth

The ratio of calories that works best with MY BODY is (P-F-C)
I can't seem to figure that very easily. I just try to eat based on calories, so not great. Any better tricks of the trade?

lol. um yuuuup! first you need to calculate your lean body mass

Originally Posted by Brandibeth

The ratio of calories that works best with MY BODY is (P-F-C)
I can't seem to figure that very easily. I just try to eat based on calories, so not great. Any better tricks of the trade?

Experiment. It took me 2 years to dial it in perfectly :P

First determine what body type you are.

Ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph (me)

Ecto's tend to be able to take in more carbs and don't have to worry about combining them with fats or proteins to slow their absorption.

Meso's are the lucky ones that can gain muscle easily and lose fat easily almost regardless of what they eat.

Endo's (me) tend to have to eat slower digesting foods, or combine the faster digesting foods with slower digesting foods to slow down the absorption speeds.

However, with that being said... most people instead of increasing fats, like to increase protein... and while that works with some people's bodies... some people's bodies can't tolerate large amounts of meat, like me. I can tolerate 6oz or less of wild salmon at a meal as long as I combine it with vegetables, otherwise it moves through too slowly.

My body however has no problem digesting healthy fats like nuts, coconut oil and olive oil. It lubricates your digestive tract and allows things to move through easily.

Again, I have a friend who can eat meat all day every day and have no issues. So it's really a matter of experimentation.

Originally Posted by danzik17

Ah that's even further than I thought you took it. So do you generally eat like 2-3 meals at like 700-900 calories per meal late in the day when cutting? Or do you still do your big brown bag thing?

I actually still do the big brown bag thing, but this last week it seems it's just for comfort. I end up carrying it home and eating most of my food late.

So odd.

I never thought I'd get used to it, but I seem to be. I feel kinda hungry in the AM, then it seems to settle down. Today I had cottage cheese and tuna with avocado, some walnuts, and some high fat yogurt with raspberries at around 1, then nothing again until now (7:34 PM). I'll eat something soon and go train, but it might be just a shake.

Originally Posted by Brandibeth

The ratio of calories that works best with MY BODY is (P-F-C)
I can't seem to figure that very easily. I just try to eat based on calories, so not great. Any better tricks of the trade?

Don't sweat the ratio. Read the link in my sig on getting started, and set your protein and fat grams at their minimums to start. Fiddle around with higher fat and or higher protein until you're comfortable - and keep in mind it'll likely change over time (I need more protein now, for satiety).

Keep in mind, that beyond feeding minimum protein and fat, the rest all really does come down to comfort, especially while hypocaloric.

When I eat, I eat mostly fat and protein and allow a big ass cheat meal once a week. I feel better this way.
I've tried IF and it works nicely. I've held out for 18 hours. The first meal is extremely satisfying, and it's no larger than my regular meals. I'll also eat about 4 times a day, maybe 5.
Training without food in me sucks big. I have given up on the eat protein and no fat before a workout, because it fills me.

Thank you for the post but I think frequent small meals really help in both boosting your metabolism & building your muscle by supplying steady protein to your muscles

Originally Posted by MyK 3.0

common among us, not the avg person.

Good point. The average person gets sucked in by all the false training and nutrition theories. The novice has to understand that its a lifestyle change with no quick fix.