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So. What's the worst weight loss myth?

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Replies

  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    The Master Cleanse, where apparently all you drink for 10+ days is acetic acid, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, then take a laxative to blow it all out your kitten. I've heard a lot of stupid ideas, but this takes the cake for pure, sheer idiocy. I have to admit to a certain amount of schadenfreude over the sufferings of certain Master Cleansers as they scour their bowels. Does that make me a bad person?

    I reported a case like this to the FDA this week - multiple deaths related to over-ingestion of vinegar. The extent of damage done to the GI was disturbing.

    Seriously!!? I know from sorting through some of the lit that it can affect your teeth and wreak some other havoc, but I didn't realize people were dying from it. There used to have some crazy ACV threads going about a year ago, back before 'Nam, but I don't think there's been a good one recently. There were worms coming out of people's noses and EVERYTHING. Good times.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27421692

    Here is the article referenced. Part of my function is searching literature databases for specific search terms and as acetic acid is one of our ANDAs this came up. Note that the cases identified within the article are not specific to the volume ingested other than "large quantities".

    This is white distilled vinegar, which contains ~5% acetic acid.
  • roamingtiger
    roamingtiger Posts: 747 Member
    Cleansing and juicing. I actually don't know if juicing is a weight loss myth. I haven't looked it up, but it just sounds like a bad idea.
  • InCHarmsWay
    InCHarmsWay Posts: 103 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    My personal all time favorite

    "Well I'm happy CICO works for you, but it doesn't for me" - signed Every Special Snowflake.

    Ha! I got this one tonight!

    I had that same fight with a coworker yesterday!!! It's everywhere!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    "Weight loss happens in the kitchen not wherever you exercise." :trollface:
  • CipherZero
    CipherZero Posts: 1,418 Member
    edited January 2017
    Losing weight is complex.
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
    Weight lifting makes you bulky or manly (and the idea that as soon as you start lifting you're gonna get a veiny, striated muscle body)

    I wish it were that easy, right???

    YES! Do you know how many times I've said this?! Girls at my office will be like, "Well I would lift but I don't want to look like a bodybuilder." And then I have to proceed to explain that bodybuilders eat a TON of food in order to achieve that look and if it were simple, everyone would be a bodybuilder. Here I am struggling to gain muscle and eating a ton and I still can't achieve that look LOL
  • lkpducky
    lkpducky Posts: 17,548 Member
    edited January 2017
    zamphir66 wrote: »
    Muscle weighs more than fat. Yes- a pound of feathers takes up more space than a pound of lead, but a pound is a pound is a pound.

    I don't think that's a myth so much as people not communicating well; I can't imagine anyone really thinks a pound somehow does not equal a pound.

    Do people get angry at that "Muscle weighs more than fat" statement because:
    1) The person who gained weight and thought it was muscle couldn't have gained muscle under his or her conditions?
    or
    2) They think that the scale is all that matters? Some folks are afraid to lift weights for fear the scale will go up.
    I don't know why someone would get so angry at an error in phrasing alone.
  • duchessnic
    duchessnic Posts: 3 Member
    Garcinia cambogia is bull. Don't buy it. Diet and exercise, People. Diet and exercise.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    It's also (as you note) correct and (IMO) helpful to say scale weight doesn't matter, look at how you look -- you could be smaller at a heavier weight if you change the composition of fat to muscle.

    Ack, that should say "change body composition, or the ratio of fat to muscle." I don't want to suggest that I buy into the dieting myth that one can turn fat into muscle!
  • tides57
    tides57 Posts: 27 Member
    FeraFilia wrote: »

    And "turning fat into muscle."

    Oh yeah!!! I'd forgotten that one!

  • tides57
    tides57 Posts: 27 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Muscle weighs more than fat. Yes- a pound of feathers takes up more space than a pound of lead, but a pound is a pound is a pound.
    Muscle does weigh more than fat. When comparing materials for density, you weigh the same amount of volume. So a liter of muscle would weigh more than a liter of fat. It makes NO sense to weigh a pound of some versus a pound of something to check it's weight.


    Okay, physics was never a strong point for me but does the communication/ comprehension problem stem from the word "weigh"? Volume is important, and I understand "density," but I haven't seen the word "mass" used in this debate. Does muscle have more mass than fat? (This is a genuine don't-know-the-answer question. I'm not debating. Can't. Don't know physics well enough.)

  • lkpducky
    lkpducky Posts: 17,548 Member
    tides57 wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Muscle weighs more than fat. Yes- a pound of feathers takes up more space than a pound of lead, but a pound is a pound is a pound.
    Muscle does weigh more than fat. When comparing materials for density, you weigh the same amount of volume. So a liter of muscle would weigh more than a liter of fat. It makes NO sense to weigh a pound of some versus a pound of something to check it's weight.


    Okay, physics was never a strong point for me but does the communication/ comprehension problem stem from the word "weigh"? Volume is important, and I understand "density," but I haven't seen the word "mass" used in this debate. Does muscle have more mass than fat? (This is a genuine don't-know-the-answer question. I'm not debating. Can't. Don't know physics well enough.)

    It's that the question becomes How much muscle (in what units) weighs more than how much fat (in units)? People see the word "weigh" and assume that means the "how much" is in pounds.
    The missing piece is volume.
    For example, a cubic foot of muscle and a cubic foot of fat look the same in size, but that piece of muscle will weigh more. Some folks might not necessarily automatically think of it that way when they hear only "muscle weighs more than fat."
  • tides57
    tides57 Posts: 27 Member
    lkpducky wrote: »
    tides57 wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Muscle weighs more than fat. Yes- a pound of feathers takes up more space than a pound of lead, but a pound is a pound is a pound.
    Muscle does weigh more than fat. When comparing materials for density, you weigh the same amount of volume. So a liter of muscle would weigh more than a liter of fat. It makes NO sense to weigh a pound of some versus a pound of something to check it's weight.


    Okay, physics was never a strong point for me but does the communication/ comprehension problem stem from the word "weigh"? Volume is important, and I understand "density," but I haven't seen the word "mass" used in this debate. Does muscle have more mass than fat? (This is a genuine don't-know-the-answer question. I'm not debating. Can't. Don't know physics well enough.)

    It's that the question becomes How much muscle (in what units) weighs more than how much fat (in units)? People see the word "weigh" and assume that means the "how much" is in pounds.
    The missing piece is volume.
    For example, a cubic foot of muscle and a cubic foot of fat look the same in size, but that piece of muscle will weigh more. Some folks might not necessarily automatically think of it that way when they hear only "muscle weighs more than fat."

    So when I tell someone that, pound for pound, muscle is going to take up less space in their jeans (ie they will be slimmer), I'm not leading them astray?
  • lkpducky
    lkpducky Posts: 17,548 Member
    tides57 wrote: »
    So when I tell someone that, pound for pound, muscle is going to take up less space in their jeans (ie they will be slimmer), I'm not leading them astray?

    You'd be correct :)
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,147 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    Another gem: You can't eat after <x hour at night> because then your body won't go into it's intermittent fasting mode overnight and that's not good for you. :rolleyes:

    Lol, I just read that thread.
  • amandapleighse2
    amandapleighse2 Posts: 30 Member
    the idea that fruit and all carbs are bad.
  • MrsT1610
    MrsT1610 Posts: 24 Member
    Actually got asked today about "starvation mode".

    If starvation mode caused you to gain weight then anorexia would have the opposite effect and we wouldn't need so many charity workers risking their own lives and health to deliver food aid to war torn countries.

    Just be glad you have the luxury of being able to decide for yourself how much you eat today!
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