Weightloss myths!!!!

Zuznana

Nothing to say, but it's interesting, so want to keep a track of what everyone has to say. Thank you.

FearAnLoathing

How about the one always starting arguments here: muscle weighs more than fat.

It's like the old axiom: Which weighs more; a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?

Now, for identical volumes, muscle weighs more (has greater density).


Myth: doing cardio while wearing garbage bags makes you lose more weight.
Truth: it's a false loss - you're simply dehydrating. When you rehydrate, the weight comes back.

LOL, I had a trainer (a long time ago and obviously not a great trainer to begin with) who suggested a wear saran wrap around my waist and thighs while I was working out. I never bothered to try. I didn't understand how it would actually help and the thought of it all wrinkled up against my skin gave me the creeps.

Someone once told me to do that,Lol but I didnt want to feel like left over dinner.

Cristy_AZ

I love this thread!! Thanks.

How about this one: A calorie is a calorie??

Really? so I can drink 700 calories of beer and eat 700 calories of potato chips?? And I'd lose weight the same way as I am now... uh, I thonk not!!!! Took a lot of tweaking WHAT I eat to get the pounds coming off, for sure!!! Maybe true for the twenty-something male that posted it (in rebuttal to me suggesting someone make healthy food choices) , but not for this 40-something female (or most other people I would guess)

doriday

Bump

steph5565

I know I'm going to stir up some debate with this one, but the whole "Starvation Mode" concept just seems so ludicrous to me. YES, weight loss will slow down, but if you're eating too few calories you are not going to start gaining weight! Let's use our rational brains here, if that were true, no one would ever starve to death and anorexics would balloon up.

steph5565

I love this thread!! Thanks.

How about this one: A calorie is a calorie??

Really? so I can drink 700 calories of beer and eat 700 calories of potato chips?? And I'd lose weight the same way as I am now... uh, I thonk not!!!! Took a lot of tweaking WHAT I eat to get the pounds coming off, for sure!!! Maybe true for the twenty-something male that posted it (in rebuttal to me suggesting someone make healthy food choices) , but not for this 40-something female (or most other people I would guess)

Actually, a nutrition professor did an interesting study on this and lost 27 pounds eating Twinkies and Doritos but just watching his calories. Obviously that's not a great thing to do to your body, but his health actually improved, as measured by blood tests. See the CNN article here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

thomalr6180

I have nothing to add, but very interesting.

JenniferH81

I know I'm going to stir up some debate with this one, but the whole "Starvation Mode" concept just seems so ludicrous to me. YES, weight loss will slow down, but if you're eating too few calories you are not going to start gaining weight! Let's use our rational brains here, if that were true, no one would ever starve to death and anorexics would balloon up.

I'm not sure where I sit with that debate. However there have been a few people that have said "OMG if you don't eat every 3 hours you'll get thrown into starvation mode!!"
yeah...no I don't think so.

Texter_mum

I know I'm going to stir up some debate with this one, but the whole "Starvation Mode" concept just seems so ludicrous to me. YES, weight loss will slow down, but if you're eating too few calories you are not going to start gaining weight! Let's use our rational brains here, if that were true, no one would ever starve to death and anorexics would balloon up.

No you're not going to gain weight when you eat so little, it's when you start to eat again where you have the problem, you're body will retain everything, you will have a rapid weight gain and your metabolism will be messed up, making losing weight in the future much harder to do. A normal person will lose weight eating 1200 cals per day. If you've been living off 700 cals for a period of time, then start eating 1200, you will actually gain

Lanfear

Bumping so I can find again!

chazspk

For later:yawn:

missjay001

Myth: If women life any weights, they'll bulk up like the Hulk

Truth: Women simply don't have the ability to naturally hulk out

It's quite remarkable the number of women that believe that. It's hard enough for guys to add muscle mass unless they're on roids or its their first few weeks. Women don't have the testosterone levels either to acquire much muscle mass unless drugs are used.

How many women do you know have "bulk" or serious muscles? Maybe 1 in 10,000, if that.
How many women are of a Costco "bulk" size? Probably 1 in 10.
Nail on coffin to that argument
But you all like to use it as an excuse not to do some serious weight lifting, and NOT the 2-5lb dumbbell crap.

Besides, which one's more physically appealing in general to guys? A fit "hulky" woman or an obese "bulky" woman?
Answer depends if you're a scrawny dude or not
Nail HAMMERED into coffin!!!

I respectfully disagree. I did some weight training back in the days and I started putting on a little bit too much muscle. And no I wasn’t looking like the Hulk (not even close) but I don’t have to look like him, to know that I have put on too much muscle as a woman. I still do some weight training but not as much and not as often. But to each their own, I personally don’t want to look like a man and also know most men (that I know) prefer their women to look normal, not hulky, not bulky, just normal and healthy.

CanuckLove

Great thread!

jrbanta

bump

tsgaddy

I know I'm going to stir up some debate with this one, but the whole "Starvation Mode" concept just seems so ludicrous to me. YES, weight loss will slow down, but if you're eating too few calories you are not going to start gaining weight! Let's use our rational brains here, if that were true, no one would ever starve to death and anorexics would balloon up.

No you're not going to gain weight when you eat so little, it's when you start to eat again where you have the problem, you're body will retain everything, you will have a rapid weight gain and your metabolism will be messed up, making losing weight in the future much harder to do. A normal person will lose weight eating 1200 cals per day. If you've been living off 700 cals for a period of time, then start eating 1200, you will actually gain

I'd love to get a nutritionist's or doctor's opinion on this. Everyone who supports this supposed "starvation mode" claims that 1200 is the magic number. How can 1200 be the magic number for me who currently weighs 264 lbs AND the magic number for another woman weighing 164 lbs? At the risk of offending people I'll go ahead and call bull----

Angela4Health

I finally got the chance to read through this, and now I'm going to give it another bump because it's super interesting and I'd like to read more, especially about the starvation mode opinions.

ohohraptor

"You're building muscle."

Not likely. It's VERY difficult to build muscle mass while in a calorie deficit. This is one of the reasons bodybuilders have a "bulking" phase where they eat tons of calories, lift like crazy, and get all puffy. Then they do a "cutting" phase where they cut the fat while trying to minimize muscle loss.

Even serious lifters have trouble gaining more than a few pounds of muscle mass a year.

However, it is true that your muscles can retain water right after you lift hard, a by-prodouct of the muscle fiber tear-down process, I believe. This can lead to temporary (small) weight gain.

So does this mean my strength training is pointless since I'm cutting calories as well?

emchamberlain

I know I'm going to stir up some debate with this one, but the whole "Starvation Mode" concept just seems so ludicrous to me. YES, weight loss will slow down, but if you're eating too few calories you are not going to start gaining weight! Let's use our rational brains here, if that were true, no one would ever starve to death and anorexics would balloon up.

No you're not going to gain weight when you eat so little, it's when you start to eat again where you have the problem, you're body will retain everything, you will have a rapid weight gain and your metabolism will be messed up, making losing weight in the future much harder to do. A normal person will lose weight eating 1200 cals per day. If you've been living off 700 cals for a period of time, then start eating 1200, you will actually gain

I'd love to get a nutritionist's or doctor's opinion on this. Everyone who supports this supposed "starvation mode" claims that 1200 is the magic number. How can 1200 be the magic number for me who currently weighs 264 lbs AND the magic number for another woman weighing 164 lbs? At the risk of offending people I'll go ahead and call bull----

Actually, the "magic number" is based on your BMR. So no, 1200 is not the magic number for everyone! 1200 is the minimum for small-to-average-sized women.

koosdel

I hear this one way too much "You will get hemaroids from lifting weights." This usually comes from scrawny guys trying to sound cool for their girlfriends.

Newfiedan

The less you eat, the more you lose.

yes finally a woman who gets that!!!!

sandram82

bump

greentiffanie

MYTH: The fat burning zone is where you should work out.

TRUTH: http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/The-Myth-of-the-Fat-burning-Zone.htm

*This was an awesome link!! thank you!!

eating4balance

bump

Someone already posted this, but I figured that I would further explain:

Myth: You will lose the same amount of weight eating 1200 calories of french fries as eating 1200 calories of apples.
Truth: Eating whole, natural foods can actually increase your metabolic burn up to 10% compared to eating processed foods.

Source: Cooking Light (2011 Article)

Imthatg1rl

I know I'm going to stir up some debate with this one, but the whole "Starvation Mode" concept just seems so ludicrous to me. YES, weight loss will slow down, but if you're eating too few calories you are not going to start gaining weight! Let's use our rational brains here, if that were true, no one would ever starve to death and anorexics would balloon up.

Starvation mode happens after days of caloric deficiency, and not all anorexics or people with eating disorders are under weight. You terribly screw up your metabolism, I am know this from experience.

123456654321

How about the one always starting arguments here: muscle weighs more than fat.

Most the time this one doesn't bother me too much because it's usually said in response to people who are confused as to why they have lost inches but not pounds. As most of us know, muscle is more dense than fat, so a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. So technically, muscle does weigh more then fat....per volume. People just tend to leave off that last part to simplify things I think.

However this does really annoy me when people say it to someone who complains of any random weight fluctuation.

baisleac

Myth: If women life any weights, they'll bulk up like the Hulk

Truth: Women simply don't have the ability to naturally hulk out

Truth: MOST women simply don't have the ability to naturally hulk out.

123456654321

I'd love to get a nutritionist's or doctor's opinion on this. Everyone who supports this supposed "starvation mode" claims that 1200 is the magic number. How can 1200 be the magic number for me who currently weighs 264 lbs AND the magic number for another woman weighing 164 lbs? At the risk of offending people I'll go ahead and call bull----

It's not a magic number, it's just a guideline taken from averages. Everyone is different and should use the numbers on this site as a basic outline that should be tweaked/personalized over time to what works best for your body. 1200 is actually REALLY low for most people.

GoldenGirl1979

bump!

sheilabennett

Eating late at night causes weight gain. Nope its not what time of day you eat but what you eat that causes you to gain weight. However it could cause heatburn and indigestion.

I always figured that the reason everyone says this is because most people weigh themselves in the morning. If you don't eat anything after dinner (5 or 6), then go to bed and get up at 7 or 8, you will probably notice a larger weight loss than if you eat around 9 or 10, and weigh yourself at 7 or 8 in the morning. At least that's always the way that it has worked for me.

B140

bump!