The internet is full of fad diets, and quick tips that are meant to help you lose weight, gain muscle, and get fit with the least amount of effort and complication possible. These one-size-fits-all approaches promise to make it easy for you, without any need to tailor them to your own needs. Unfortunately, most of these tips are rubbish, and the diets don’t work. The truth behind most of these myths is that you need to find a balanced approach that works for you instead of following fads.
10. Myth: Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a controversial issue among both doctors and the public. Some doctors are now diagnosing people with it in certain situations, but many medical researchers are still openly skeptical and think that we are going in the wrong direction. Now, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything going on, but medical researchers have long felt that the gluten itself being the cause may be nothing more than a gigantic red herring.
See, in the medical world, doctors are told that when you hear hooves, you should think of horses, not zebras. This means you go for the most obvious answer first, instead of the more arcane one. There’s no biological reason to think that non-celiac gluten sensitivity would exist, so the likely answer is that it’s some additive in gluten products causing the problem. Researchers have studied something called FODMAPS, a group of four fermentable sugars often found in gluten products, and only 8% of people who kept using gluten but stopped using FODMAPs still had a problem. As for the other 8%? Many gluten products contain something called Amalyse Tripsin Inhibitors, which are also known to cause gut and bowel issues for some people.
9. Myth: Carbohydrates And Fats Are Bad For You, But Protein Is Good
We’ve all heard the claims many times: You should avoid carbohydrates as much as possible because they make you fat. Fat makes you fat, and protein is good because it makes you strong and gives you energy. Many of these beliefs are so widespread that people base entire fad diets around them, and millions then follow those diets. These diets have become so extreme that they often restrict or almost entirely remove one or more of these categories, which is not advisable.
The truth is that all three are essential macronutrients, and all are an important part of a well-balanced diet. While it’s true some processed carbs aren’t very good for you, that doesn’t mean they are all bad or that you should toss out a macronutrient. As for fat, there is no proven link between the consumption of fat in and of itself and more health problems. Fat is also an essential macronutrient, you should just focus on eating healthy fats such as fish, natural peanut butter, coconut oil, and so on. And finally, there’s protein, which almost every diet will tell you is fine to just go to town on every day. The truth is protein’s main purpose is for muscle growth and repair, so if you aren’t being particularly active, you probably don’t need as much. Too much protein can cause kidney damage, and it should be treated with respect.
8. Myth: People Who Are Extremely Overweight Can Lose Weight As Easily As The Next Guy
It is quite common for people to look at those who are extremely overweight, and wonder why they don’t just lose some weight. Some people think that they don’t really try to lose weight at all, or only half-heartedly try on rare occasions. However, the truth is that many obese people are struggling hard to lose weight and have it harder than normal-sized people. Once you start to reach a certain level of overweight, hormonal changes can take place in your body which make it hard to get the weight back off.
First, those who are extremely overweight can develop a resistance to an important hormone called Leptin. This hormone is very important for regulating how much fat your body creates and stores. When this hormone is not working properly your body will resist shedding fat, even when you are taking the right steps to lose weight. Secondly, the more weight you gain, the more likely you are to gain insulin resistance, making it harder to convince your body that it is okay to shed that extra fat. This doesn’t mean someone who has a lot of extra weight can’t achieve their goals, but it may be harder for them.
7. Myth: Sodas With Sugar Substitutes Will Help You Lose Weight
Sugar-free sodas are insanely popular and have become such a diet trend over the years that the versions of sodas like Coca-Cola that don’t have sugar have become more popular than their regular versions. People think of them as a great way to control their sugar cravings and lose weight, keeping that sweet tooth in check with none of the guilt. For a lot of people, it is an easy step and the first transition they take when trying to be a little bit healthier.
However, the unfortunate reality is that the evidence doesn’t bear out that sugar-free sodas with sugar substitutes have any benefit when it comes to weight loss or controlling our sugar cravings. Now, this doesn’t mean that diabetics should go drinking sugared sodas, as they have a very good medical reason for using sugar substitutes. For everyone else, a review of 283 studies found no evidence at all that sugar-free sodas help with weight loss. You might think that getting rid of sugared sodas would help, but the problem is that the substitutes do not satisfy our cravings, and we just end up getting as much or more sugar from somewhere else.
6. Myth: It’s Okay To Burn Lots Of Fat In A Short Time
Crash diets will offer you a chance to lose all that extra weight that you’ve been wanting to get rid of in just a few months, or even weeks. What they claim seems like magic, and burns all that fat right off. Now, while the efficacy of these diets is also in question, the bigger problem is that even if the diets did work, they wouldn’t be safe for you to do. It is simply not medically advisable to lose lots of weight in a short amount of time.
According to experts, you should not be losing more than one to two pounds of weight per week. This is a normal and healthy amount of weight loss if you have a good fitness plan. If you try to go faster than this, you can put yourself at risk of health complications. The issue is that to lose more than a couple of pounds a week, you are going to have to go extremely hard on the calorie deficit. This can lead to various problems including gallstones, a slowed metabolic rate, malnutrition, fatigue, and more.
5. Myth: Preworkout Powder Is Important For Getting Massive Gains
Pre-workout powder has been a big thing in the world of bodybuilding for a while, and top bodybuilders are often sponsored by particular brands. It’s become a heavily promoted product, and many now cannot imagine going without it. These powders are a mix of various things that vary from brand to brand including amino acids, vitamins, and the random stimulants you find in energy drinks. However, the one thing that they all contain in very large amounts, which is the most important part of all formulations, is caffeine.
These powdered workout blends have so much caffeine that they have more than the average cup of coffee. And to make matters worse, like everything in the supplement category, there is no standardization and you do not know what you are getting when it comes to the rest of the blend from brand to brand. This doesn’t mean that pre-workout powder is not safe if you use it according to package instructions, and don’t mix it with too many other stimulant products, but it is not necessary and is not a replacement for a balanced diet.
4. Myth: Need Potassium? Reach For A Banana
Now, we want to be clear that we aren’t saying that bananas are low in potassium. They have a pretty large amount. However, most people think of bananas as the thing to reach for if you need a potassium boost but would be hard-pressed to tell you about other items that contain this essential electrolyte. This myth is so pervasive it has appeared in movies like Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, where a kid with a potassium problem who couldn’t find his medication saves his life with a banana.
It is true that if you cannot find anything else with potassium on hand and you really need some a banana will help, but there are tons of options with higher amounts of it. Legumes, especially white beans, leafy greens, yams, many melons, and a plethora of other fruits and vegetables have significantly more potassium than a banana. While you may not have a lot of these on hand or know how to cook with them if you are not a big vegetable lover, you probably like at least a food item or two that is heavily tomato-based, These are another produce item with significantly more potassium than a banana and less sugar.
3. Myth: Brown Rice Is Better For You Than White Rice
Many people prefer white rice but wish they could tolerate brown rice more, as they know it is better for them. It has more vitamins, without the need to be enriched, and it has more fiber as well. On top of this, it is lower on the glycemic index. This makes it sound, on paper, like the far healthier option to consume regularly. However, there are some issues with brown rice that make it far more than a cut-and-dried decision.
Now, since white rice is still a processed, enriched grain, it is not necessarily a good idea to eat it as your only or main source of carbohydrates, but brown rice may not necessarily be a great replacement either. Because it is processed less, brown rice has 80% more inorganic arsenic than white rice, which has caused concern among some public health experts. Even if we could get a handle on the arsenic problem, brown rice contains phytic acid, which many people have trouble digesting, and can stop your body from properly absorbing iron and zinc.
2. Myth: Fad Dieting Will Help You Achieve Your Long-Term Weight Loss Goals
This might sound like common sense, but statistics show that at any given time one in five Americans report being on some fad diet. These diets often involve severe caloric restriction, severe restrictions of various food groups, and other one-size-fits-all features that promise to make you shed those extra pounds and have the body you always dreamed of. Unfortunately, while one in five Americans are regularly on a diet of some type, these diets have been proven by scientific studies not to be effective for long-term weight loss — in fact, many people gain back more than they lose.
That’s because most of these diets are either crash diets or too restrictive for the average person to stick with them long-term. They lose some weight temporarily, but rebound once they quit the diet, which they barely manage to keep up. These diets are designed in a way that, scientifically, they are very hard to sustain. The answer to long-term weight loss is finding a balanced, nutritious diet that works for your body, and also has tastes and textures that you can look forward to and not feel restricted by.
1. Myth: Trying To Lose Weight Or Gain Muscle? Keep Your Eyes On The Scale
When you’re trying to either lose weight, gain muscle, or both, it can be easy to slip into the (pretty unhealthy) habit of obsessing over what your scale says. Understandably, people want to see benchmarks of their success to keep them motivated, and the scale seems like an easy way to do so. Reality shows like The Biggest Loser have made losing just a handful of pounds a really big deal and left contestants feeling bad when they didn’t reach the artificial goal.
However, the problem is that going by scale alone, especially looking at it regularly, can make things more frustrating than motivating. The issue is that your weight can vary from five to eight pounds every week, and sometimes every day based on a host of factors. This weight is mainly due to how much food and water is in your body (and yes, that includes your pee and poop). This weight can also be higher at certain times of the week. Studies have shown that Sunday is our highest weight point and that it goes down from there throughout the week, slowly creeping its way back up again nearer to Sunday.